How to stand out and get more clients – Samantha Riley – ep 81

Mostafa Hosseini  00:00

Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Welcome to Data conference for entrepreneurs. My name is Mostafa Hosseini and today we are going to talk about why frameworks are so important for coaches who want to grow their business.

And why cookie cutter systems won’t help you as much as you’re think they would. How to be an authority of one so you can charge premium fees and prices, and the million dollar question to ask yourself if you want to grow your business. My guest today is Samantha Riley. Welcome, Samantha.

Samantha Riley  00:38

Hey, thanks for having me Mostafa.

Mostafa Hosseini  00:40

And we’re talking about how to stand out and get more clients. So as usual, please make sure that you’d like and subscribe to the show on whichever channel you’re watching. If you have any questions, put them as a comment on the live show on social media. On the podcast, you can submit a review and ask your questions there and or reach out to our social media channels. And we’ll get back to you either me or Samantha.

 If you know, other business owners, coaches, consultants, authors, healers and the rest of them who could benefit from the conversation that we’re having, please tag them as a comment so you can help them and share a message with them and share the love. Now let me do the proper introduction here with Samantha. And we’re going to dive into a very interesting, interesting conversation about how to stand out and get more clients.

Samantha Riley is an authority position strategist, best selling author, speaker, host of the influence by design podcast, and has been on the judging panel for the Stevie awards, women, and business category for the past two years. She has built multiple businesses over the past 28 years and grew her first seven figure business from the ground up before she was 30. That is really nice. Samantha now works with coaches and practitioners to sell and deliver their expertise online so they can live their life by design, which is very important. Welcome, Samantha.

Samantha Riley  02:10

Thank you for having me. again. Great to see you. So really good to hang out.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:17

Samantha worry about are you from? I mean, where do you live me?

Samantha Riley  02:21

I’m in Sydney in Australia. So the complete opposite to you. Because I can see you’re in your winter Woolies, and it’s warm here. Beautiful day at the beach here today. And

Mostafa Hosseini  02:29

then you guys are I’m guessing getting to your summer season. Yeah, it’s about to get like about to get like minus 40 out here.

Samantha Riley  02:39

I know crazy. I can’t even imagine what that weather’s like. We don’t get anything even close to that. And

Mostafa Hosseini  02:44

we get a lot of Aussies come out here and do this ski stuff. They work during the ski season and they love it and then they party and have fun and then go back. That’s

Samantha Riley  02:54

what I suppose these Do we just party and have fun all the time.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:58

I love you guys have fun hanging out with ya. All right. So Samantha, what is your story? How did you get into the what you’re doing now? Like, what’s the back end story?

Samantha Riley  03:12

So I had a very different start to adulthood to most people. So I actually left school when I was 17, got married and had a child before I was 18. At that time, I was working corporate, I worked for our local government in the finance department, which is now when I think back the most hilarious thing, because if there’s anything that I really like to outsource very first before anything else, it’s to my accountants to my bookkeepers, it’s all of that stuff gets gets outsourced.

So right from the beginning, I knew I wasn’t in the right place. And I was I’d been there, maybe 18 months, and I was definitely the youngest person that was working there. We had a huge open plan office, there was hundreds of people working there. And I looked up I remember looking at one day, and I can remember this so vividly. I looked up and I looked around and I was like, Wow, all of these people are sort of my parents age and older. And not one of them is smiling.

And I kind of had this fast forward moment where I thought, Wow, this could be me in like 30 years time, and I could be this person that’s not happy. And that clearly doesn’t want to be here just doing the same old thing day after day after day. And it was that day that I went home went alright, I’ve always wanted to open a business. I think that this might be a thing. So by 20 years old, I opened my first business which was actually a dance studio, my background. I’d been a dancer since I was six or done dance classes since I was six.

Opened up within I think of it the same within six months, I was able to move out of our you know, studio that we were hiring from some, you know community center. We’d had our own studio And we built that up very quickly, within six months of that, we had opened our first dance where retail store. And then, you know, that’s kind of where I started, and was in the dance industry for 20 years. And that’s where I really cut my chops in business.

Back in 2010, I separated from my husband of 20 years, and sold my dance studio and he he acquired the businesses. Why this part of the story is really important is number one, I was never destined for corporate. And I think that anyone that looks up and looks around and sees people not smiling, get out, because it sucks your soul. I’m glad that I learned that story very early. And the second reason I talk about this, because I found myself out just about 40 walking out of something where I’d created seven figure businesses, I was multi award winning, we’d won multiple awards in both of those businesses.

And I walked out and thought, oh, wow, I actually don’t know anything. I didn’t have a degree because I’d started in business so young. And I think that this is really important, because what I then went and created was a business where I knew that I didn’t want to be back in a traditional business anymore, because I didn’t want to put the key in the door every day, even though we had 35 staff, there’s still, you still have to open, it’s still very, very different. And we still had to be there it was location dependent.

So I knew that I didn’t want to be stuck in a location. And I wasn’t quite sure what I knew. So and I see so many people coming out of corporate wanting to do the same thing. You know, we’ve seen it a lot more over COVID with the great resignation, people deciding that they want to, to leave their jobs and thinking, Oh, what do I do?

And like me, a lot of people are saying I don’t, I don’t know what I can do. I don’t, I don’t know how to use this knowledge, I don’t know how to create a business on my own. So that’s kind of how I got to where I am now. And it’s been a really awesome journey. And essentially, I just created the business that I wanted, which is the story of a lot of us, right? We, we we find gaps, and we fill them.

Mostafa Hosseini  07:11

Love it. So you got married like super early and you had a baby like right before you were 18. And so your kids might must be must be grown and gone now I guess.

Samantha Riley  07:22

Yeah, all three of them are grown and gone. Absolutely. buying houses doing their own things. Now, you

Mostafa Hosseini  07:28

had for them. And then you didn’t like the corporate world, you start your own dance studio, got a divorce. Your ex bought it. And now you’re teaching your expertise. And what you’ve learned over the years love it. Absolutely. What did you learn, while scaling your businesses to seven figures, your multiple.

Samantha Riley  07:51

So I was really lucky in that while I was still at high school, my very first job was in McDonald’s. Now most people would be like, Oh, wow, you think that’s really cool that you were flipping burgers? Well, I wasn’t because that was the people at the back, I was serving the burgers. But what is really cool about this story is because it was my very first job.

 And as we all know, McDonald’s is a system, it is a replicatable system. And from the very first day that I started there before I even walked out onto the store floor or into the kitchen. When you work at McDonald’s, you know, you put your uniform on, and they just sit you down. And in those times, it was a video probably now you do it all online. But the first thing you do is learn the steps of service. And you are not allowed out of that crew area until you know the steps of service off by heart.

And every single thing that you do. There is a system or a process. It is so regimented. And I thought that was just the way all businesses were. So it meant that when we did open our, our businesses, we did it in the in the studio, and we did it in the stores. Everything that we created right from day one had a system to it, because it’s the only thing I knew. So I feel very blessed and very lucky that that was my you know that that was my foundation and my basis.

But if there’s nothing else that anyone gets from today, and I hope they do get more than this, it’s create systems for everything. Because when you’ve got a system, that’s the only way that you can scale because the only way you can scale is to be able to have this business growing without you without your input. So the faster you can get systems in place for absolutely everything, the better that you know that you’ll be able to grow, the faster you’ll be able to grow.

Mostafa Hosseini  09:38

Absolutely. So, you know, one thing that I wish I would have done when I was starting out like 20 or 30 years ago, was to be able to put work in a place like McDonald’s. Back then I was an idiot. I didn’t know what I would get out of it. Like

Samantha Riley  09:56

Well, that’s no immediate right because you don’t know like,

Mostafa Hosseini  09:58

right So what I’m trying to say is I was thinking like an idiot saying, Oh, I don’t want to flip burgers, but I didn’t know that there’s some to learn. So my friend’s son is working was working at McDonald’s, and now he’s working at Starbucks. And every time I see him, I’m like, dude, learn as much systems as you can learn the business before you come on.

You probably know, I was telling him like, Dude, you probably don’t think of this job at luck. You don’t think much of it right now. But believe me, 1020 30 years later, you are going to be thankful that you actually worked in McDonald’s and learn the system and the processes 100% 100%.

Samantha Riley  10:35

And I was, when I was there, I think the way that I think is, I always need to know how things work. So even when I was there, I used to say to the managers all the time, well, why do we do it that way? They used to think I was crazy. I didn’t even know why I was asking, I just wanted to know, and our the owner that owned our store, the franchise owner, he actually owned four stores in our area, he was the most successful McDonald’s owner in our state.

And he used to come in and I used to, like, I used to I remember, I was just I was quite um, little. Okay, so I was quite sure. And I still like jump on his desk and dangle my feet, like a little kid and go, Hey, Chris, can you tell me why I’m doing that? And he loved that there was a teenager asking, you know, they have showing interest in what he was doing.

So he taught me so much. He taught me why he did things. And when we started our first business, I actually went to him and asked him to mentor me, which he did. So yeah, definitely, it’s a great thing to be able to teach our kids just like you have to go and, and get jobs in these places and start to understand why they do what they do. You

Mostafa Hosseini  11:41

know, sometimes even now, I think that it might not be a bad idea to go like serve coffee at a Starbucks or something, just to just to learn. And sometimes, the thought like, just runs through my mind. You know, because they did they do such a great job. And they’ve created a worldwide company, 10s and 10s, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re just doing really well.

So if you’re watching or listening, if you have a chance to go work at a place like that, that where they got a system, or if your kids could do it, I would probably even somehow nicely push and force my kids to go work in a place like that. So they, they can thank me later, even if they hate it, so that they can apply through life and business and work and whatever they do.

So speaking of system, Samantha, you talked about creating systems, how do you actually create systems?

Samantha Riley  12:42

This is such a cool question, because this is what trips up so many people, right? Because at the time that and I see this a lot in coaching, in this expert printers space, is you know, where the ones that are in the business were the ones that are delivering our expertise. And when we get to a point where we need the systems, we’re like, Oh, my goodness, I’m so busy, and you kind of you don’t have time to stop and breathe, because you can’t drop the ball on your delivery.

So I, I actually don’t create our systems, I know what systems need to be created, but I don’t create them, my team creates the systems. So anything that is repeated more than twice, and I can see that it’s going to continue. At that point, I will take whoever in whichever department of our business, I will take them aside. And we’ll jump on a call. And I’ll be like, right, we need to create a system around this.

And when we’re creating. So that’s if they’re creating the system. And just remind me, I want to go back to how I teach them to do this as well. And they actually record what it is that they’re doing. And I leave it up to them to how they want to record it, whether they want to do it by video by loom or whether they want to do it by screenshots and type it. And then what they do is once they’ve got the system, they give it to someone else in a different department or someone else in their department a different team member.

And that different team member goes through it. And if they can’t do it, then it goes back to the original team member to go through and refine it. And all of our systems are recorded on Google Drive in a training folder that all of our team has access to. But this is really important and even. So we had a team meeting last week. And to take this to the next level. I don’t know I now don’t want to be telling them what systems create.

So I’ve said to everyone, I want you to write down every single thing that you do this week. And then we’re going to go back and if there’s not a system, all systems need to be upgraded, you know, by this date. So we’re constantly going over revising and making sure that we’ve got replicable part processes because that means that any Well there’s a few reasons one if a team member comes on, they’re on our team is on boarded within four hours done because every thing is there that they need. And be it means that we’re giving a consistent deliverable. We’re delivering consistently every time which again, goes back to what makes Monell. McDonald’s so successful, because we don’t go there, because their burgers are amazing, right? We go there, because we know what we’re going to get. So it gives people safety. Absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:19

So you’ve, you gave us a great, great example of how you even you don’t even do it yourself, you get your team to do it, and you get them to actually update, optimize and improve the sim systems on their own. And then if someone else comes in, they could follow it. And you’ve got an all in there. Now I’m gonna ask him one fundamental question. And that is, what do you actually mean, by a system? What does that mean to you? Yeah,

Samantha Riley  15:45

so a system to us is any replicable process? So a system might be how do we upload a blog to WordPress? It might be what is the framework for our show notes for our podcast? It might be? What is the what is the process for onboarding a new client? Because that requires different people in different teams? So it’s everything that we do? What are the little pieces along the way to make sure that we can complete that so it is what so think about the departments in your business, your finances, your sales, your marketing, your delivery, your HR, what are the processes within each of those departments? Absolutely. Love it, love.

Mostafa Hosseini  16:28

I’m a huge fan of systems as well. We have, we have a lady to take care of the transcription of our blocks, which is their transcription of the same show. And when first she started with us, there was a bunch of inconsistencies. Like every time she didn’t get it. And then we ended up creating a 40 item checklist that she goes through for every blog post. And now they’re almost 100% Time done perfectly. And I’m just so happy with it. And now she like she knows what to do. She knows what to expect. And we have a clear understanding of the job description, how it’s done. And now it just like you said, it is producing the recurring outcome that we’re looking for. Absolutely,

Samantha Riley  17:12

yeah. It makes it easier for everyone and it protects your brand. Right? Yes, that

Mostafa Hosseini  17:19

consistency, and then we can just improve it from there. All right, we could just subtracted added modified and it’s just beautiful. Love. Yeah. Actually, that’s

Samantha Riley  17:29

a really good point that you made there, a system doesn’t have to stay. I once you’ve got that system recorded. It doesn’t have to stay that way. It they can be changed. Yeah,

Mostafa Hosseini  17:38

there’s a there from there. There’s just optimization and improvements, how we can make it better, faster, more efficient. And, you know, maybe there’s something we could add to to that lists and make it 42 items and then make it just way more efficient or to deliver more result. Right. So why are frameworks so important for coaches who want to grow their business? Speaking of systems?

Samantha Riley  18:04

Yeah, so. So framework systems to me this slide, I use them in a different way. Okay. So frameworks, so we talk about frameworks around what you’re actually teaching. So when you’re a coach, or a consultant, or an expert, how do you create frameworks around what you teach so that everyone understands exactly what it is you do, and they understand what makes you stand out and what makes you different.

And the reason I say a framework is an I did get this from someone else. This isn’t what the way that I would have said it, but I love it so much, that a framework rather than a cookie cutter system, the difference is a cookie cutter system as you just sort of get it and plunk it down. It’s exactly the same where a framework is we’re following these sort of ideas. And then we flow between that we change the way that we do it. So frameworks around your messaging around your deliverables are really important visual models, this kind of thing. So that it’s very easy to explain to people what you do. And I’ve got four different frameworks that that we talk about, which I can go through if you would like to go through, we use do.

Alright, so the first framework is your proprietary framework. So what is the system that you use to to teach what you teach? So for example, we teach the freedom business formula, which of the six steps to create a freedom business using your expertise? So that is, design it, create it, sell it, build it, deliver it, scale it? So at that point, that’s what I do. It’s very easy to say, oh, okay, yep. Now I get it. So how can you get your expertise and put it into a framework so you’re able to easily explain this is what I do. And it’s not talking about?

Well, first we, you know, we do an onboarding session, and then we look at your vision, you know, create something that is super snappy, that people say, Wow, I heard Mostafa talking about that framework or I heard Sam talking about that framework, it was really cool. I’ve never heard anyone talk about it like that before. So that’s the first one, you proprietary framework. The second framework is visual models.

And I love visual models so much to explain what it is that any any component of what you’re teaching. So to create visual models, generally use a circle, or square, a triangle Venn diagram, a ladder, something that visually shows the process of what you’re doing. So if you’ve got some sort of process that never ends, then then a circle or a Venn diagram might be great. If you’ve got a succession system, then a ladder might be great or steps.

But this is a really great way to help people understand concepts. The third framework that I love is acronyms. So that’s where the first letter of your words of your framework spell a different word. And usually something you know that it needs to be relevant to what you’re doing.

So I have a keep framework. So how do you keep excited, what keeps you getting out of bed every day. And it’s the framework to explain what it is, or how to find your expertise that keeps you getting out of bed, which is knowledge, experience, expertise, and passion.

So we’re creating an acronym. It really easy in specially in situations like this, where you’re explaining them when you’re talking. And the fourth one is word patterns. And I actually use the word pattern in my original proprietary framework. So what’s a pattern in your words, so I use design it, create it, sell it, so it’s a pattern, or you could have a pattern where all of your words are the same letter.

So I’ve got, you know, you could have all of your words, you could have the five steps that all start with our or, or, you know, whatever letter of the alphabet, but creating some sort of pattern, because we’re wired to remember patterns. That’s why we looked at love Dr. Zeus so much. So those patterns that make it easy to follow along.

Mostafa Hosseini  22:32

Love it. So you got design? Did I get it right? The first one is design, design it design. And then the second one was the visual model. Yeah,

Samantha Riley  22:44

hang on number one proprietary framework. Okay. Yep. Number two is the visual models. Number three is your acronyms. And number four is the word patterns.

Mostafa Hosseini  22:57

Love it. Love it, love it. And so that is your framework.

Samantha Riley  23:03

That is the frameworks that any coach or expert can use to put their IP into frameworks, you can use all of those. And I would suggest that you use all of them in different ways.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:14

Love it. So with then our six step process to create a one page marketing plan be my framework? Am I

Samantha Riley  23:23

100% 100%? That’s one of your frameworks. Yeah. Because because I can easily remember. So here’s a really great application of frameworks. So if someone said to me, I need to create a marketing plan, because you’ve got a framework, which is one page marketing plan. A, it creates safety, because I know, that’s what you do. It creates confidence in the buyer, because they know that you’ve got a framework that you use, but also as someone that was referring if someone came to me and said, Ah, you know, who can help me with marketing.

I’d be like, Oh, Mostafa, he can do it in one page, like it’s top of mind. But how many people do we know that do marketing? It’s not the other people that come into mind? It’s the person that’s got the framework? Yeah. So it’s great for referrals for being top of mind.

Mostafa Hosseini  24:14

Love it. So can you elaborate a little more on the difference between a framework and a system? Yeah,

Samantha Riley  24:20

so this is just the way that I think about it. So I think about frameworks as the frameworks that I create when delivering a product to my clients. Okay, so what is the way that what is the framework we’re going to use to write an email? What is the framework we’re going to use to, to create a webinar? What is the framework we’re going to use to package our IP to me that that’s how I use the word framework. We’re a so that would be let’s talk about that as being the front of the business.

So if you were on the stage, that’s the that’s that piece, and then we’ve got the backstage Part of your business, which is the operations and that’s more the systems. So everything think of, you know, backstage, you’re all of that tech team, that is the systems. So frameworks I use, at the front of house, the systems I use in the back of house,

Mostafa Hosseini  25:16

you gotta love it. So what is your best advice or tip on how coaches can stand out from the rest of the pack out there?

Samantha Riley  25:29

It’s definitely using these frameworks. It’s because there’s millions, maybe hundreds of 1000s, I’m gonna guess millions of coaches out there, that all generally do similar work. So what is the framework that you can talk about that makes you stand out? The other thing that I think is really important is niching, or niching, depending I guess, where you are.

And especially for there’s a lot of talk about, you know, you have to choose one niche, you know, really focusing, and there’s a lot of people that push back from that they’re like, Oh, but I love all these things. You know, they’re multi passionate. But I think instead of thinking about you doing all of these different things, if you’re a multi passionate, which I know, you are definitely like marketing, that’s what you do. But for people that are that have a lot of different things, they got it, how can you bring all of those things together and create an authority of one?

How can you bring them all together so that instead of there lots of different things, they’re all one thing in one niche, and I think that that is the thing that’s going to make you stand out, because all of a sudden, then you’re different to everyone else. And a lot of people are really scared, or I see a lot of coaches or consultants being scared that when they really niche down that deep that they’re going to lose, you know, lose clients lose audience.

But as you and I know, it’s the opposite. When you’re known for that one little thing. I mean, it can’t be to date, right, you know, underwater knitting is there’s not many people that are going to pay you for underwater knitting. So there is such a thing as niching too tight. But generally, you know, the tighter your niche, the easier it is for people to really understand what you do, and for you to be able to attract those people that that love what you do. And I know that you totally stand for that show.

Mostafa Hosseini  27:23

Oh, yeah. That’s what we talk about. We spend an entire day on that. Yeah, that’s simple marketing. So you’re speaking my language? It looks sounds like we talked for a good three hours on that. Now, what do you say to people who are against niching. And they say, I want to serve everybody and anybody and do everything under the sun for them. And whoever has a pulse, I want to talk to them.

Samantha Riley  27:51

And so what’s interesting about that is generally as entrepreneurs, we can do just about anything where absolute experts at, you know, jumping out the plane and building the parachute on their own building the plane on the way down whatever way you want to say it. But just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should, and I’ve certainly been there, I’ve learned this, like the hard way I did like open up, and then really realize how much it hurt my business.

I mean, all words, close this one up again. So what I would say is, why would anyone come to you if you’re doing what 100,000 other people are doing? Like, it’s just going to make it so hard for you, it’s going to be really difficult for you to stand out, it’s going to be really difficult for you to differentiate yourself. And if you’re not differentiated, you can’t charge higher fees. It’s just that simple. You’re going to be a commodity, you’re going to be compared on price. So that’s a very dangerous place to be.

Mostafa Hosseini  28:50

Yeah, I think you’d be replaceable to very easily, like someone else shows up with a better price better offer bingo, you’re out. And I’ve I have first hand experience with this too. Like we ran a marketing agency. At some point, we were offering a ton of things to a ton of different people. And customers would show up when they’d be like, oh, sorry, my staff, I see you were gone. It was just that easy, because someone else showed up and did the same thing.

And that’s what kind of forced me and pushed me to to work on specializing, say in one page marketing plans, because they’re not too many people that do that save for coaches. Right, exactly as you’re saying. And it was painful. And we had a hard time differentiating ourselves, because we were trying to be everything to everybody. And it was very frustrating and time, time and energy and money consuming and it wasn’t fun. It’s

Samantha Riley  29:48

not fun at all. Can I share a story around the day that I really got this? So I was speaking speaking on stage at a conference and it was a really good friend of mine. I’d been consulting to him for years. I’d heard Tim piva a couple of times in his business, and helped him with the whole rebranding process, the marketing processes, we I used to help him fill these events. And he’s like, You have to come and speak to my group.

You’re absolutely amazing at what you do. So I was all really excited. It was big conference, you know, I’m standing at the back of the room because he’s doing the introduction and, and I’m all excited. And I’m standing up really tall and feeling great. And he says, and you know, and the next speaker is Smith Riley, and he’s like, I have no idea what she does. You just need to know that she’s amazing. And here she is, and I kid you not. I stood at the back of the room, and my stomach just dropped.

Yeah. And it was at that second I went, I do not ever want to be introduced like that again. Yeah, because he was like, yeah, she’s amazing. But she’s he’s just openly said, I have no idea what she just does just know that she’s amazing. And that was the point where I went, you know what, we got to bring this in?

Mostafa Hosseini  30:58

And correct me if I’m wrong. That is probably because you offered so many different services. And they were confused about what you do. Because there

Samantha Riley  31:07

was no, right. Yeah, yeah. But he didn’t know. He said, I don’t know what she does. I don’t know how she does it. I just know that what she does is amazing. She’s great. Just chat with her. No one’s gonna come and chat with you. But they don’t know what you do.

Mostafa Hosseini  31:19

I’ve been there. I’ve been there. Yeah, it’s painful. It’s painful. When you have a hard time differentiating. And most people when I ask them, when I asked them, How are you different? They say we do a great job.

Samantha Riley  31:32

Yeah, and it kept Okay. So here’s the thing, it can be really difficult to work through these things. And it is really embarrassing as well. You know, when people go, what do you do? And then they go, I don’t get it, I don’t understand. But don’t hide that in the closet and keep doing what you’re doing.

Keep pushing forward, keep trying to bring it in, keep trying to get clarity around what you’re doing? Because it is so worth it. It is so worth it. Absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  31:57

Do you have any tips on how people could pick their niche or target market

Samantha Riley  32:04

I’ve got a, a framework that I use called the six xx effect. And essentially, just imagine it’s a triangle that’s upside down so that the you know, the foundation that’s normally at the bottom is now at the top. So start at the top with your with your very broad, you know, usually it’s health, wealth, relationships or hobbies, we’re starting off there.

So start off there, and then work down down each of the steps. And if you can get it down to the sixth iteration, that unless you’re in a really, really tight niche, this is where people do really well. So let me give you an example. There might be someone that’s in the wealth niche. So one step down, they help people invest. Next step down, they help women invest.

Next step down, they help women invest in property. Next step down, they help women over 40 invest in property. Next step down women over 40. To renovate to flip property, that six steps down, bang, we got a really tight niche, it’s very easy for people to know who you are, who you work with what you do. So if you can bring it down to that 6x, then that’s, that’s where I’d be aiming to go.

Mostafa Hosseini  33:18

Love it. Six steps. So you keep asking who is my target market? Or who is my niche? And just keep narrowing it down?

Samantha Riley  33:24

Yeah, just questions. Yep. Love it. Love it. Now,

Mostafa Hosseini  33:29

Samantha, what does your business do differently compared to the rest of the coaches out there? Yeah, I

Samantha Riley  33:37

love this. So this goes back to and this is this is quite a new iteration for us. And it happened over COVID. And we obviously were coaches, coaching is the major part of our business and went well, what is it that we can do to help our clients achieve success? What is it that we can add to them, and the very first extra that we added on was implementation.

So we give all of our clients access to our team, because I realized that so many coaches struggle with implementing the tech or having time to really come up with beautiful designs or, you know, repurpose their content. So, we have the coaching x aspect, we have the implementation aspect. And the third part of the triangle is that we use a tool called Human Design.

And Human Design is a tool that we use that helps people to understand their unique energetic blueprint and energetic blueprint in the world, the way that they show up. And how we use this to help people is to really navigate the challenge that they have with understanding what is my niche or who should I be working with?

So we were able to look at people’s charts and see what it is that you know, the kind of people put their best serving the kind of things they should be doing in their business, that’s going to give them the biggest bang for their buck, the different ways that they should respond or make decisions in their business.

So when we put together the coaching are really unpacking their IP and helping them with their systems, when we give them the team to be able to do this. And when we help them to really glue all of this together with understanding the human design, that I believe that we are the only people in the world that have these three steps or these three sides to the business. So that’s, that’s what makes us different.

Mostafa Hosseini  35:33

Love it. Love it. So the way you do it differently as you guys actually do DiTech for your customers, like you help them figure things out. And you take care of the tech aspects of things that which is where a lot of people fall short. And I’ve seen people, you know, I’ve seen people been stuck behind a funnel for a good year or two. I’ll try to figure out the pieces, right?

Samantha Riley  35:58

Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  35:59

And I’m like, in my mind, am I really two years? Like, could you not go on like some someplace and hire an expert to help you with that, you have to figure it out on your own.

Samantha Riley  36:11

But some people don’t even know where to start to hire their expert, they are so overwhelmed with the tech that they just have no idea where to begin. So that was definitely something that we saw I went, how can we help these people, because their expertise is like off the charts, they’re really good at what they do.

So I didn’t want them to miss out with younger people that were coming in, that didn’t quite have the expertise that some of these older people had. Because, you know, they were able to navigate the tech. So that’s definitely, definitely something that that our clients love.

Mostafa Hosseini  36:49

Love it. So Samantha, please tell us about the gift that you’re sharing with our audience that develop and distill your thought leadership.

Samantha Riley  36:59

Yeah, so this is a worksheet that is the frame all of the frameworks that I took talked about before, of how to package your IP into a framework. So it’s a workbook that helps you to discover or work out your proprietary frameworks, how to figure out your visual models, how to come up with some of your word patterns. And you can get that over at Samantha Riley dot global forward slash thought leader.

Mostafa Hosseini  37:27

Yep. So the link is manful Riley, duck global forward slash thought leader. So and the link is going to be in the descriptions of the show, as well if you’re watching or listening. Now, Samantha, can I ask you some personal questions? Sure. All right. So what is a new thing that you have tried recently?

Samantha Riley  37:56

A new thing in business or just for pleasure? Anything? Anything?

Mostafa Hosseini  38:03

Anything something that you know, you were proud of? Or made you happy? Or excited? Or? Or even it could have been? Like, maybe even did it make you feel good, some new, something

Samantha Riley  38:12

new? Oh, my goodness. Oh, so something new that I did recently is I went to the Crystal Palace, which to me years ago would have sounded crazy. But in Australia, this place. I’d heard about it. I was like, This sounds a bit odd to me. It’s like acres and acres and acres of like gardens. And I’d heard about how I had crystals in it.

But it’s beautiful manicured gardens, and there are crystals in it. But it was just a beautiful place to go and hang for a day and just chill out, get creativity back. Because I’m sure I’m not the only one that you know, you. We’re constantly using our brains. We’re constantly in front of our customers. We’re constantly creating. And this place was just so beautiful to go and just like switch off for the day.

And you know, they had Tibetan bowls and all these, like really cool things that we could just chill out and do nothing was called

Mostafa Hosseini  39:11

Crystal Palace. Yeah,

Samantha Riley  39:14

it’s in Australia. Love it. Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  39:16

Love it. All right. What are your top two or three favorite books that have made a massive difference? Maybe your life, business, etc? Yeah,

Samantha Riley  39:26

number one would be Shoe Dog. Cheese. My goodness, I can’t remember the name. The founder of Nike. No.

Mostafa Hosseini  39:37

Phil Knight. That’s it. I have it. I have it right on my shelf here.

Samantha Riley  39:41

Such a good book that I didn’t actually I guess learn anything that I implemented in my business but what it did was made me feel good about myself in that just to hear someone else’s story and what he went through and what he did to kind of get to where he is so That would be number one. The Four Agreements by, I think, Don Miguel Ruiz.

I don’t even know if that’s how you say it. But the Four Agreements helped me a lot in my early years in business, to just really not take things personally to understand. You know, I think the Four Agreements be impeccable to Your Word, you know, don’t take things personally. Can’t remember the other two off the top of my head, but just to really like step back and know that everything’s okay and not to be ashamed or feel bad about myself and just kind of let it be.

And the third book would be a book by Michael Port. And I can’t think of the name of it off the top of my head. I said about it is a coaching book is about filling your funnel. And it is really, really good and give me two seconds and I know we’re live it’s perfect His Book Yourself Solid book, by Michael poor.

Yeah, really good book. Just to help you brings it in, it just makes it so simple, you know, from getting your message clear to getting your clients to filling your funnel. And I really like the way he he brings it all together. Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  41:22

What’s one advice that made a massive change in your life or business?

Samantha Riley  41:28

biggest, best piece of business advice I ever got was to hire the best no matter what they cost. So when I first went into business, it was always like, Oh, I can’t afford to hire that person. And I’ll you know, and then someone said to me hire the best and put you know, invest in your people, it will take your business like don’t think about it the other way around.

And it definitely is how I grew my business or it’s hire the best is

Mostafa Hosseini  41:53

love it. How do you help people? Give us a tip on how we can help people to overcome the challenge of thinking about the money thing? In the in hiring people? Yeah, huh. Cuz people get cheap are usually totally,

Samantha Riley  42:09

and I, you need to know where you are as well in your business. Because if you’re right at the beginning of your business, I probably would just I probably would hire cheap just to get those first few things done. I wouldn’t hire cheap, you know, for my first full timer, but I would hire some freelancers to just get the ball rolling, start to feel okay with delegating tasks that feel okay to start letting go of things.

Because, you know, it’s, we hold on so tight thinking you know where the best. But once we’ve got business going just to really you have to back yourself up there is it’s a mindset thing, you have to back yourself, you need to know what your vision is, and know where you’re going.

So that when you do hire them that you know that it’s going to be okay, because you know we’re going if you were going to hire the best. And that was someone with a high you know, a high price, but you didn’t know where you’re going, you’ll dump your money really fast. Don’t delegate your vision.

Mostafa Hosseini  43:14

Perfect. Love it. So hire the best no matter what the cost. Samantha, if you had a Facebook or a Google ad, where everyone on the planet with internet could see what would your message be for the people of Earth?

Samantha Riley  43:31

Oh, for business or the people of Earth to

Mostafa Hosseini  43:35

have one message, you have one message, one message

Samantha Riley  43:45

for the people of Earth it would be to whatever you want your life to look like whatever you want your life to feel like that is available to you. You don’t need to know how right now. But you do need to know what it is and it is available. Love so passionate about that.

Mostafa Hosseini  44:06

So then they need to spend time to figure out what they want. Yeah,

Samantha Riley  44:10

you know where we we go to school and we’re told that we have to be work really hard at the stuff that don’t doesn’t come easily to us. And we you know, we get told they have to get good grades and go to university and it’s not the case like what is it that you want to do?

What is it that truly lights you up? What is it that you love to do? Go do that? Because when you’re doing that you light up and you light up the rest of the world? Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  44:36

So rather than what advice would you give your 20 year old self

Samantha Riley  44:42

I would tell my 20 year old self it’s actually really similar back yourself. There’s so many times in my life that I haven’t backed myself I’ve questioned what I’m doing. And when I question what I’m doing, that’s when always it never ends. Well, you know, if if you want to do something or if you decide you’re going to do it just 100% go all in, be confident in that. And whatever happens will happen. But back yourself.

Mostafa Hosseini  45:11

What do you mean by backing yourself?

Samantha Riley  45:13

Yes. So, I mean, be 100% in this is this is the decision that I’m making. And I’m going to go there. And if someone else tells me no matter what silly, no matter why someone else says to me, that sounds silly, or someone else says that. That sounds crazy. Like, don’t let that don’t let that make me come off track. Don’t question myself go?

No, this is why this is what I’m doing. And just really committing to that. If you look at any successful person in the world, they have this crazy idea or this vision, and they 100% Believe in it. Like who would have thought that? You know, if we would have met Walt Disney before any of these theme parks were around, and he’d said he wanted to buy this massive block of land and have this park and you know, he was gonna go into massive debt for it.

I reckon that a lot of people would have told him he was crazy. No, if he didn’t 100% know that. That’s what he wanted to do. He could have easily questioned himself and be like, yeah, actually, that is a bit crazy. I’ve had at something banks say no, yet. No, I’m gonna step away from this. But he knew what he wanted to do when he went and did it.

Mostafa Hosseini  46:25

Go on until they go who got absolutely, yeah. Love it. Love it. Man. This has been an absolutely amazing conversation. I really enjoyed it, you shared some really good. You know, actionable advice and tips that people and entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, people that are watching, listening, could advise, could use and implement today.

And so is there anything that you would like to add, that maybe we didn’t get a chance to talk about?

Samantha Riley  46:56

I think going back to the systems, I really want people to understand that systems aren’t something that you create, when you get to a magic number. It’s not something that you create, when you get to, you know, 300,000 revenue, or 500 or a million. It’s something that you can create now. So even if you’re starting out, start to get into the habit of creating the systems start to get into the habit of creating your frameworks, and it will just be easier as you move forward. It’s the fastest way to grow.

If you’ve already got systems in place, people can come in and help as you grow. You won’t have those, those scaling issues where you hit a wall. So yeah, definitely that that would be the biggest piece of advice that around that. Love it. So

Mostafa Hosseini  47:39

you create the systems to grow. You don’t grow to reach a point to create systems. Correct, right? It’s not like I have a thing, but with people when I ask them, Do you have a plan? They’re like, we’re not big enough to have a plan. No, it doesn’t work like that. Because it’s like, it’s like, you know what my immediate response is, that’s kind of like saying, I’ll get pregnant when you give me a baby.

Samantha Riley  48:11

I used to work in a gym, and people used to say to me, I’ll get a personal trainer when I lose weight. I’m like, Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  48:20

Love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you very much. My God, this was really amazing. I really loved your energy and information and share it. Gang, thank you for joining us. Thank you for supporting us, as usual, please like and subscribe to whichever channel you’re watching. Share the episode with other people on your network, and share the love shared information with them.

And if you have any questions for me, or Samantha put them in the chat box. If you know someone that could benefit from this conversation systems, technology and processes and frameworks and the rest of it, which is like very near and dear to my heart. Tag them in a comment and have them you know, tap into Samantha’s was them because she’s got 30 years of is it 30 or less than 3028 20 ish? You said 27 years right? Am

Samantha Riley  49:12

I wrong? 2828? Yes, you were pretty close. So

Mostafa Hosseini  49:16

I’m rounding up. I like it. She knows what she’s doing is what I’m trying to say at the end of the day, go to the expert, and she will guide you and she will save you lightyears of headache time, money, energy and resources. Like when she said hire the best no matter what the cost, it will actually cost you less to hire someone that is good and expensive. Because what happens is you get someone cheap and they end up taking 10 times as much time and money.

You think you’re being smart, but you’re not. So go to the expert and you know, don’t get cheap with that. Thank you very much and go to go to Samantha Riley dot global forward slash thought leader to download Samantha’s gift. And if you have any questions, put them in a comment and we will see you later. Happy New Year. And Merry Christmas.

The next episode of our show is actually going to be in the new year later in the January. I’m taking a month off, not doing any more shows until the new year. So this is the last show that we’re doing for 2021. This is our 81st episode and I will see you in the new year. Have a good one. Bye now. Thanks