Episode 87: Powerfully and Persuasively Communicating your Value with Michelle Mazur – Transcript
Rennie Gabriel 00:09
Hi folks, welcome to Episode 87 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. This is where we talk about money tips, techniques, attitudes, information and provide inspiration around your business and money. I'm your host, Rennie Gabriel. In past episodes, we spoke about how to understand the numbers from your business, how to measure the level of pleasure based on where you spend your money, how to track your money in 5 - 10 seconds, what determines how close you are to Complete Financial Choice®, and how to run your business without being in your business. And last week, we had Les Watson, who spoke about a unique A - Z approach to time management. Today, we have as our guest, Michelle Mazur. Michelle is a messaging expert who works with brilliant business owners who are shaking things up, but have trouble talking about it. She combines the tools of successful social movements with the qualitative research skills she earned in her Communications PhD to help them craft their powerful, captivating messages. Get started finding your 3 Word Rebellion, for free, at 3wordrebellion.com. Dr. Michelle, welcome to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast.
Michelle Mazur 01:34
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I love talking about money.
Rennie Gabriel 01:40
Yeah, well, let's get right to some questions. You know, it sounds like in the introduction, people should understand what you do. But tell me why you do it.
Michelle Mazur 01:51
I do what I do because I really believe that communication changes the world. And after being in business for 10 years, I have seen so many amazing business owners who are fantastic at what they do. They get tremendous results for their clients. And yet, they're not well known. They're often passed over for opportunities, and they feel like Oh, it should have been me, when they see a competitor getting that big stage or that TEDx talk. And I'm on a mission to help those people create a memorable sticky message that they can be known for. But more importantly, gets their work out into the world and in front of the right people who actually need it, or who need them. So that's why I'm so passionate. I just want people to be able to powerfully and persuasively communicate the value their business creates. Whether they're talking to one person, or they have an opportunity to talk to a million people.
Rennie Gabriel 02:56
Fabulous, thank you. And I try and lead by example, in terms of philanthropy. I donate 100% of the profits from the work I do to a charity - to multiple charities, primarily Shelter to Soldier - but tell me what cause or charity is most important to you.
Michelle Mazur 03:13
So I am a cat lover, and I often will donate. So I donate a lot to the Seattle Area Feline Rescue. Also, kitten fostering is such an important part of what needs to happen. Because every year we have kitten season, and there's all these kittens that are being born on the streets. So I love helping organizations and individuals who foster kittens. So there's a woman on Instagram - she's the Kitten Lady. And she does all of this advocacy work around how to foster kittens and take care of them. And she shares her own journey. And she's created the Orphan Kitten Club. And it's one of the things that I like to donate to as well, because it's like, I just look at the kittens, and they're like so helpless and they're so wonderful. And just little furballs that I just want them to have a fair start. And even like two of my cats came from foster homes. So they were born in a foster home. They're brother and sister. And because they had such good fosters, they never had to experience what it was like to be in a shelter, be on the streets. And I just think that's a beautiful thing.
Rennie Gabriel 03:17
And it's funny because one of my coaching clients is also very into cat rescue. And I had a couple cats that didn't do well. But my last one I had for 18 years. And he was raised by my two dogs and acted like a dog. And so people would come into the office, which is where he stayed and he would jump off up on the table and say, 'Hi, I'm here pet me'.
Michelle Mazur 05:04
Yes, yeah, well, it's interesting. So we have a 14-year-old, and our two like Maine Coon mixes and ever since we've got the Maine Coon mixes. He now thinks he's a Maine Coon. So he like, he's got way more vocal than he was before. And he's like, 'Oh, I like water, too'. And I'm like, 'Your fur is not meant for that. No, no, you don't.'
Rennie Gabriel 05:26
Yeah. And oh, by the way, he was a feral cat that was left in the backyard by the mom. So I first saw him when he had no fur, talking about little fur babies. He was a part of five little furless... a little ball, of five little furless things. Anyway, so I had him from that point for the next 18 years. So, he was fabulous. Well, let's get to another question. Instead of my talking all about my cat, I'm guessing your your target market are coaches, consultants, service-based business owners, right?
Michelle Mazur 06:03
Yeah, it is. Absolutely.
Rennie Gabriel 06:06
So let's get to something kind of personal. What would you say is your biggest failure, whether it was personal or business?
Michelle Mazur 06:14
Hmm, that is such a good question. And I feel, although sometimes when you look back, you don't actually see them as failures. You see them as like, 'Oh, this is the thing that needed to happen to propel me ahead'. Because I went through this point in my life where I was still in academia, I was still a professor. And I had lost my mother, I had just broken up with my boyfriend. And then I also just decided to quit my job because I didn't like it. And academia was going to be like my career. I went the tenure track route. I had the coveted assistant professorship, and I just wasn't happy. And so it, and considering I was like, the person who was like, I was at the top of my class in my communication degree. I was, you know, most likely to succeed. And so that felt like it was a failure. But it was 100% the right thing to do. Looking back, I would have been miserable for a very long time if I'd kept going down that path. But at the time, it just felt like a huge failure, because I was down, going down this path and realized, I don't think I want to be doing this. And what does that mean?
Rennie Gabriel 07:35
It sounds like, what you're telling me is, you gained a major insight from this, if you're not happy, don't be afraid to pivot.
Michelle Mazur 07:45
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it was, yeah, it was really scary. Because you know, now with the internet, we have so many resources on like, how to transition out of academia. There's coaches for that and everything. But when I was doing it, I could find like, a couple of articles on like, The Journal of Higher Education. So I was really just making it up as I went along. I was like, 'All right, well, I get to pick wherever I want to live, cool. Where should I go?' It was the first time in my life where I've actually got to choose that. And that was, that was neat. But it was, it was scary because there weren't, there weren't the resources that we have today for people to transition careers or transition out of academia. So it was like, I was kind of flying solo and figuring it out.
Rennie Gabriel 08:33
Yeah, there's so many more resources now. And, you know, like for attorneys who want to get out of practicing law, for people who want to leave academia, for people who are in the corporate world, you want to transition out of that. Yeah, the resources are available now that didn't exist 10 and 20 years ago.
Michelle Mazur 08:51
Yeah, absolutely.
Rennie Gabriel 08:53
Let's see, what would you say the common mistakes are that your prospects make?
Michelle Mazur 08:57
Oh, okay. This one is pretty easy. So what I have seen over and over again, is people go through this process. They create an offer for their business. And it does well. It gets great results. Their clients really love it. They get some word of mouth marketing, and they're like, All right, I want to go big with this. So what I need to do is market my business. And then they invest in all the marketing stuff. They try a million different marketing strategies, and they're like, Why isn't any of this working? I'm so good at what I do. Marketing just doesn't work. And what it really is, is that they've missed a step because they don't know what to say in their marketing that actually gets people's attention and leads people to want to work with them. And marketing is really difficult when you don't know what to say in the blog post, when you don't know what to say in an email or a social media post or on a video or even in your sales conversations. Like it's really really hard to build a business when you can't actually communicate. But I see people do that all the time. It's like, 'I've got this great offer, it needs marketing.' And it's like, 'No, you got to figure out what to say.' Because any marketing strategy can work if you apply it, and you have a message that actually resonates.
Rennie Gabriel 10:18
Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, someone could be an expert at producing the results for their clients but it doesn't mean they know how to package it in a way that will attract the people.
Michelle Mazur 10:29
Yeah, and my people tend to be, you know, have years of experience. They're experts and what they care about in what they do is not what their clients care about. So they're leading with a message that tends to be very solution-focused, like how I do the thing I do. And isn't it awesome? And you can work with me. And the person reading it is like, Well, this sounds great. But I don't know what it's supposed to do, like, does it help me? Does it solve a problem? Like, what's going on? And then they don't realize that we don't care about all the nuts and bolts of your expertise. We just really want to see that, Oh, you get me, you understand me. You can help me with this particular thing in this particular way and it gets results. Like that's what we want to know. But we focus on things that don't matter.
Rennie Gabriel 11:18
Yeah, exactly. It's the old radio station. What's in it for me? W W? I don't know. I can't . . .
Michelle Mazur 11:26
W I I with them. W I I F M.
Rennie Gabriel 11:29
There we go. What's In It For Me? All right. So give me an example though, to like a case study to illustrate, you know, someone who may have come to you and and what happened when they learned this 3 Word Rebellion?
Michelle Mazur 11:44
Yeah, so I had a client who... she is a brilliant marketer, like just a great marketer, has a fresh take on marketing. And she created a podcast called the Marketing Funnel Show. And I don't know about you, I do not want to listen to a podcast about marketing funnels. But I mean, because that's like, what a solution-based message, right? Like, Okay, it's clear, we're going to learn about marketing funnels. But that does not make me curious, does not make me want to tune in. So I took her through the 3 Word Rebellion process, and we came up with a 3 Word Rebellion, 'Profit Without Worry', because that was really what she believed in. She was about creating processes and systems in your business, so that if something happened in your life, your business would still run. You would still be able to generate revenue so that you could profit without worry. And so she changed her podcast to that title, and like her downloads, like quadrupled. Because it was actually a message that people wanted to hear, right? People were like, 'Ooh, tell me about that. Like, how do I do that?' So I think that's really the power of having a message that intrigues people and makes them want to know more, is that they're going to be more likely to tune in to what you have to offer.
Rennie Gabriel 13:04
Beautiful. Yeah, so from marketing funnels, to 'Profit Without Worry.' I mean, yeah, complete transformation.
Michelle Mazur 13:10
Mm hmm. Yeah. And it was just a really . . . Because messaging is this long-term strategy. So you don't really, most of the time you don't see pay off right away. Like you got to keep showing up with the same message in your marketing over time. And for her, it was really cool to see that kind of instant results.
Rennie Gabriel 13:29
Beautiful. Well, are you willing to offer something about this 3 Word Rebellion as a resource for my listeners?
Michelle Mazur 13:37
Oh, yeah. So you can get a taster of the 3 Word Rebellion. So I have a book called The 3 Word Rebellion that takes you through the entire process. That's available anywhere. And you can also just get a taster of it to see if it's right for you. So I take you through the beginning of the process, and you can do that at 3wordrebellion.com.
Rennie Gabriel 13:57
Oh, perfect. I'm going to put that in the show notes so people can just click on it. That's great, 3wordrebellion.com. Michelle, is there a question I should have asked you that would also give some additional value, and I didn't? And well, not only what would the question be, but what's the answer?
Michelle Mazur 14:19
I think this one is one that I always wish people would ask me and it's like, what is messaging? Like, what job does it do for your business? Because - what I'm noticing now, it's like messaging is definitely having a moment and people are talking about it. But people don't really understand what it is. That messaging... the job of your message in your business is to persuade. It is to lead people to your products, to your services. And when it does its job it does like three other mini jobs. Its job is to get new people - get their attention, make them interested - and then create conversation so that you can actually nurture and engage with people and help them diagnose like, what problem are you actually having? And is my thing the right thing for you? And if it's not, how can I like, get you going in the right direction? And then it also helps us cultivate connection, building that know, like, and trust. And it should be this comprehensive strategy, a comprehensive system. And sometimes I just hear people be like, 'Well, it's just one sentence'. And I'm like, That's part of it. And you got to know, like, what to say after that one sentence to really get people to buy in to be persuaded.
Rennie Gabriel 15:42
Beautiful. Michelle, thank you for being on the show.
Michelle Mazur 15:47
Thank you for having me. This was so much fun. And I got to talk about cats. I never get to do that in podcasts.
Rennie Gabriel 15:54
Yeah, this is a little bit, you know, it's not the straight and narrow. And I also want to thank my listeners. Thank you for tuning in. Next week, we'll have Nina Cooke. She's a mindset coach who helped one of my friends break through to a seven figure income, and also fix some of my faulty thinking. You can listen to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast on your favorite platform. And please rate, review and subscribe. And if you'd like to know more about how books, movies and society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is, then log on to wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. You'll hear my TEDx talk and can request the free 27-page Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice®, and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business or money. Again, that's wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. And if you'd like to see how you can increase your wealth and donate to the causes that touch your heart. Please check out our affordable program Wealth with Purpose on the WealthOnAnyIncome.com website. And until next week, be prosperous. Bye bye for now.
