How To Build A Business You Love - With Debbie Clarke

Tom Bailey, founder of Succeed Through Speaking, interviews Debbie Clarke

Debbie Clarke aka debbiedooodah is the Happy Business Coach; an award-winning yellow obsessed empowerment & marketing coach helping entrepreneurs build businesses they love. She's a digital marketing lecturer, podcaster, entrepreneur toolkit author, speaker and this year was named Digital Women of the Year and one of 2020's top 20 Inspirational Marketers she's also been in Forbes and The Guardian!

Why you've got to check out Debbie's episode:

- Learn how Debbie helps professional women who are shifting from a successful career to launching or scaling their business, and need help with visibility, strategy and mindset shifts that come with this transition.

- Discover the challenge of being the brand when it comes to being a service based business owner and why it is such a vulnerable place to be when all eyes are on you as a solopreneur.

- Understand how you as the expert, business owner or leader is normally the bottleneck and how you are able to come to terms with this, as well as the importance of the work starting with you so that you can uncover and move past any limiting beliefs you may have.

- Get access to Debbie's freebies and resources including her three video series which will help you to dive into what your values are and how this can help you build a strong foundation to build your business from.

- Hear Debbie's perspective on her business journey and find out why she always wears yellow.

Resources / Links

https://debbiedooodah.co.uk/freebies

Transcript

Tom Bailey: Hello and welcome to the Flow And Grow Expert Interviews. The place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results.

Hello, I'm Tom Bailey. And in today's episode, I'm joined by Debbie Clarke, who is known as the happy business coach and is an award winning yellow, obsessed, empowerment, and marketing coach, helping entrepreneurs to build businesses that they love. So, Debbie, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Debbie Clarke: I love the intro. I'm just going to listen back and then write that down. I like that. Thank you for inviting me on Tom. It's great to be here with you.

Tom Bailey: Thank you so much. And whereabouts are you in the world right now?

Debbie Clarke:  So, I'm in the Nottingham, in Nottingham, it's in the UK and we are like slap bang in the middle of the country. So almost the furthest point from the sea that you can get from any other place in the UK. So yeah, in the middle.

Tom Bailey: Certainly, so no popping to the beach, in Nottingham, unfortunately.

Debbie Clarke: I have done it once with a friend it's like a two and a bit hour drive. We drove to beach, got out how to swim, got back in the car and drove all the way back again. It was a long journey, but it was a super hot day and well worth it. So, you can just do it in a day if your dedicated.

Tom Bailey: Well, thank you so much. And let me now just quickly dive into the subject of Debbie then in a little bit more detail. So, Debbie is a digital marketing lecturer, podcaster entrepreneur toolkit author, and was also named as digital woman of the year, as well as one of the 2020’s, top 20 inspirational marketers.

The title for today's episode is How To Build A Business You Love. And Debbie is going to show us how to do that in just seven minutes.

Debbie Clarke: Oh my God. It's seven minutes

Tom Bailey: Seven. There you go. Fantastic. And the first question today is who are your ideal clients?

Debbie Clarke: Ah, I love this question because this is the thing that people get stuck on a lot, like as entrepreneurs, who are your ideal client, so for me they tend to be women, although probably a third of my clients actually are men. And here's the up with the ideal clients, even if you're kind of really clear on who your ideal clients are. It doesn't mean that people who aren't your ideal clients can't see you for the lovely or want to buy your services.

So, for me, my other clients tend to be women. They tend to be professionals. They tend to have already had to career that they were very good at. And they have decided to launch their own business. They might have been running their own business for several years. And that kind of got a bit of a crux point where it's like, I want it to grow.

I'm not quite sure on the strategy. I know that I need to be more visible. I'm not quite sure how to do that. Maybe realizing that there's some kind of confidence and mindset stuff, that's holding them back. And maybe just needing some accountability and strategy. They're the people I really like working with, but actually it tends to be a whole range of people and they tend to be service-based businesses. So, there's that as well, but, you know,

Tom Bailey: Well, exactly, but let's think about that typical client, what is usually the biggest challenge that they face?

Debbie Clarke: The biggest challenge they face is that they are the brand and that they've probably worked for big organizations where they can. Present that organization present that, that brand sell those products with ease because there's almost like a disconnect. Well, it's not, it's not me that I'm selling it's the business. And I think it's then when you are the person and you're selling yourself and that's quite a vulnerable place to be, and it can feel a little bit like you're making it up as you go along and making it yeah. Imposter syndrome. I don't know. I get my prices out of thin air. I don't know. I don't know where these clients come from. Does it feel like there's a strategy? Maybe they've built it through word of mouth, but I think it's that vulnerability piece of you are the brand and how that kind of sits with us. I think Americans work really well with it. Yes, British people are a little bit more reserved.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. So, let let's think of those reserved British people that are listening to this podcast episode, then hello, with that imposter syndrome and that being the brand, what, what impact does that typically have on their business or themselves?

Debbie Clarke: Yeah. I mean, it can be as debilitating as not being able to put yourself out there and market yourself. So, it can be like, I just, I, I can't, I very rarely and I feel really uncomfortable, so it can be, you know, can stop you in the tracks is that much, but it can be like, I know that I'm doing good work. I know that I've got really good testimonials. There's just, it just feels like I'm holding myself back in some way. And when you kind of dig into what's the problem, why am I not growing? Or why am I not doing that? The answer generally tends to be, ah, it's me. And that doesn't always sit well. Is it? It's an uncomfortable, it's a bitter pill to swallow that you're responsible for it. What it is.

Tom Bailey:  So, let's take that then as the frame. So, given that, what is one piece of advice that you might give to somebody who's, who's come to you with this challenge that you just mentioned?

Debbie Clarke:  The one piece of advice? I think it's that the work's got to start with you inside. And that might be looking at the truths that you hold, because we all, we have this narrative that we tell ourselves about the world and the people around us and actually kind of stopping, and maybe writing those things down, the things that you're telling yourself about yourself or about your clients, about the world and asking yourself, is that true?

Yeah. Is it really true? What is true about that? Because what happens is our brain tells us a set of things and we just believe it's true. Cause our brains telling us that is how it is, but it's generally not, but sometimes not our best friends.

Tom Bailey: Amazing. Thank you. And I've just checked out your website recently. Actually, I seen, you've got loads of amazing resources on there. Is there one in particular that you'd want to suggest or offer to people that are listening to this episode?

Debbie Clarke: Yeah. So, on my website, there's a tab called freebies and it's a lead capture, where you just get everything thrown at you, and it's just like, here's the things that I've always created. For me, one of the things that I really love on there is like a free video series. How can people delve into what their values are? Because I believe that like, we understanding who you are and where you are in the world. And what you've got to add to the world gives you a strong concrete foundation. And the stronger that foundation is, the better our businesses will be.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. Brilliant. And I've got the URL here, so it's debbiedooodah.co.uk/ freebies. And I'll put a link to that in the show notes below this episode. Thank you. No problem. And the next question from me today then is what would you say is your greatest failure that you've ever made over in life or business? And what did you learn from it?

Debbie Clarke: So, Tom, how long is this podcast? Like, how long have we gotten to talk about these things? I have had a lot of what you might call failures in life, but I don't believe that there's any such thing as failure. So, I had things that maybe decisions that I haven't made that were well thought out in life and business.

But actually, I can't go and undo any of those things cause I wouldn't be where I am now. So, I'm not really a believer in failures. I'm just a believer in you just do the stuff and it makes you who you are. So yeah, none. I haven't found anything. It's all part of the pie of Debbie.

Tom Bailey: Brilliant. I love it. That's a great perspective to have on that one. Thank you so much. And the last question from me today then is what is one question that I should have asked you that will also give some great value to our audience today?

Debbie Clarke: Why do I always wear yellow?

Tom Bailey: Good question. Why do you always wear yellow?

Debbie Clarke: It's a really good branding tool. Like if you can find something that enables people to associate with you, then, you know, people have said to me, like I'm getting dressed this morning and I put on a yellow scarf and I thought, oh God, I need to ring Debbie. And I'm not in that room. And then not looking at social media and they've literally just woken up. So, if you can find something that will help. Set you apart and help make your brand stand out. That's going to help you build a strong business in the future.

Tom Bailey: Amazing final tip for today's episodes. Debbie, thank you so much again for your time today and sharing such great value with our audience.