How To Communicate Your Value - With Terry Begue
Jan 21, 2022Tom Bailey, founder of Succeed Through Speaking, interviews Terry Begue.
Terry Begue is living proof that every single one of us has the ability to overcome our challenges and create the most extraordinary life we can imagine.
He is an international speaker and author of, “Attract & Keep Customers for Life: Four Abilities to Build Trust, Communicate Your Value and Charge What You’re Worth” Terry lives in Hartville, Oh. with his wife of 40 years, Lisa. Has a son and daughter and is the proud grandfather of three.
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Transcript
Tom Bailey 00:07
Hello and welcome to succeed through speaking 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'll be getting to know Terry Begue who is an international speaker and author of attract and keep customers for life for abilities to build trust, communicate your value and charge what you're worth. So Terry, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode. Hey, Tom,
Terry Begue 00:43
so good to be here. And I'm honored. It's just gonna be a lot of fun I think
Tom Bailey 00:48
I'm sure it will. I'm really appreciate you being here and just out of interest for some of our global listeners. Whereabouts in the world are you right now.
Terry Begue 00:54
I'm in Ohio and United States that sort of the the North northern eastern part of the country.
Tom Bailey 01:00
Incredible. Thanks for sharing. So again,
Terry Begue 01:04
I'm sorry, it's wintertime here right now I have a VA who's in Australia. And they're in the middle of summer.
Tom Bailey 01:10
It's beautiful Australia. So I'm in the UK. And it's also winter time here. I think it was about two degrees this morning.
Terry Begue 01:16
Oh my goodness, I love the I love being in England. I was there three times. And twice I flew my son there just so we could watch a soccer game, his favorite teams, favorite teams, the arsenal,
Tom Bailey 01:26
they are fantastic. We
Terry Begue 01:27
had such a good time. We said let's do it again the next year and slightly less than England.
Tom Bailey 01:32
And hopefully travel will open up a little bit now over the coming months as well. Right? Yeah. So that's my show one last thing about you before we do get started. So Terry is living proof that every single one of us has the ability to overcome our challenges, and create the most extraordinary life that we can imagine. And I personally can't wait to hear more about your story today. The title for today's episode is how to communicate your value. And Terry's gonna show us how to do that in just seven minutes. So no pressure question number one today is who are your ideal clients?
Terry Begue 02:06
ideal clients are people who want to be entrepreneur entrepreneurs, they want to take out they want to quit working for a paycheck every week and break out on their own, or startup business owners or biz small business owners who are struggling to grow their business they want to scale.
Tom Bailey 02:22
Right, but like that, is that early entry level business entrepreneurs, startups or small business owners?
Terry Begue 02:29
Yeah, it's perfect for me because I look at my myself. So a long time ago, 30 years ago, I was my own perfect customer because I was an absolute train wreck. And I figured it out on my own. And I turned my business around to words. It's awesome. And I still do still do that today. 43 years later, and I got a ways to go yet.
Tom Bailey 02:48
And sometimes, sometimes as coaches, you know, our very first client was ourself and those lessons we can learn and apply forwards to our future clients as well. So when you think about all of your clients, is there one challenge that stands out? What's the biggest challenge that they typically face?
Terry Begue 03:06
This might sound crazy to you, but the hardest thing is getting them to do all those little things. Yeah, because even my whole book, I'd say it right away in one part of the book, there's probably nothing in here you've never not heard before. But my question to you is, are you doing these things? Because they're simple little things to increase your your interpersonal skills, and by theirselves not a big deal but when you combine them all i got dozens of them in my book when you combine them all they're very powerful. I mean, I have an advertiser reason I know I'm on track with this is I haven't advertised for my painting business since 2012. And I still turn away more jobs than I take. Yeah, it's crazy.
Tom Bailey 03:44
But so it's all about that reputation relationships interpersonal skills that you
Terry Begue 03:48
have in doing those validations Yep, showing up on time when you said keeping your promises and cleaning up after yourself and and telling the customer you know, they'll stop and listen to what their issues are little things like that. And so few people I found in my industry do that they get all excited and they want to talk about themselves too soon. And the owners right away think this guy's just trying to sell me something he really doesn't care about me. And so those little things
Tom Bailey 04:13
Yeah, completely understand I guess these business owners that don't get the basics right and they they go too quickly into social media or website and don't get the foundation's right what impact might that have on them or their business?
Terry Begue 04:25
The ones that try to go too fast they really don't have that foundation Bill Well websites nice but again, you need to back it up with with a reputation i i haven't advertised but I still have a website I just don't look at the website is advertising. It's really just social proof, you might say or a video brochure. But people get they they get impatient and they need to just put in the time with the customers because I thought well back when I was a train wreck I thought my customers I looked at him almost like they were the enemy. You know, either they hired me and I won or they didn't hire me and they won It wasn't until I realized that that your customers are the actual the pathway to your success. When they're behind you life is good, because they don't need us, we need them.
Tom Bailey 05:10
So important. So for those business owners listening, you know, get those first few customers and just give them everything you know, be wow them and do what you say you're going to do, like you said, really just be a good reputation good, reputable business owner, and then that'll pay itself forward over time. And then
Terry Begue 05:28
then ask for after you've done all that, then ask for a testimonial. We'll probably talk about that a little bit later. But that's the idea. Good, excellent. Word of mouth
Tom Bailey 05:36
makes complete sense to me. So somebody listening that starting to resonate and reflect on this message, what's that one valuable piece of advice that you might give them to really help them get started?
Terry Begue 05:49
I would say, I'm going to come back to that right now the testimonial piece, which is social proof, because what other people say about your business is 100 times more powerful than anything you could say because it just sounds like you're bragging. The idea is a lot of people say to me, I don't have a business yet, I don't have any testimonials, because I tell them to put them on paper and shown to the customer when you give them a price. But if you don't have any, and you're just brand new, you can still get character endorsements, maybe from a minister or a friend or a business owner in town who's respected. And you could somebody that knows you this maybe doesn't have the same last name as you. And they just say, Hey, would you maybe give me an idea? Or how would you talk, talk, tell everybody that if I can write this down about what it's like knowing me and doing being around me, and just support me, if you would, and getting that hand those first couple of testimonials, then it starts to roll a lot easier after that, but but sometimes you got to get those personal endorsements that aren't necessarily reflect what you do for a living. Yeah, it
Tom Bailey 06:50
makes complete sense. So testimonials, social proof really important in the early days and ongoing as well. So for anyone listening that wants to find out more or wants to learn more from you, where would you point them so that they can get some valuable resources that you can offer?
Terry Begue 07:05
I have everything at my name, which is Terry bag.com. And the last name is hard to spell because it doesn't look like it sounds and it'll be in the show notes, I think but Terry, Terry bag.com, there, you can download a free, seven things you can do today to get more business without spending a dime. And with that, there's a link to my book, and also a link to a course that I just came out with just finished.
Tom Bailey 07:28
Incredible, fantastic. And what it is I'll put, I'll put those links in the show notes to all of those different resources. So people can click those and they can get right started on right now. So And next question for me is when you think about your career and your journey, what you've learned, what would you say is one of your greatest either mistakes or failures or learnings in business, and what did you learn from it?
Terry Begue 07:48
I probably my biggest mistake, I was actually just talking about this on a podcast yesterday is that I thought I could do everything on my own. I thought I can figure it out. I was very independent. I couldn't work for anyone. When I started, I had two or three jobs when I was a teenager, and I never got fired. But I didn't stick around either. I was that diehard entrepreneur. But I still I took it too far. I thought I could figure out painting on my own. And instead of looking for a mentor, or even working for a painter for a few months, I had to do everything on my own. And I paid some serious price because it took me I started my business when I was 18. And it wasn't until I was about 28 debt, my business started to become profitable. We, my wife and I we got married young and we live from from job to job, it was really tough. And so that's a big mistake, I should ask for help. I should have looked for mentors. I should have looked for even a book to read. But I didn't do any of those things. And I badly regret that.
Tom Bailey 08:44
Absolutely. And you know, the thing here again, is people it's relationships, it's networks. It's yeah, it's really important. And I know all of that's in the book as well. So lots of great lessons in there. And the last question for me today is what is the one question that I should have asked you that will also bring some great value to our audience
Terry Begue 09:01
today. And that you should have asked me oh my that's a that's a good question. How can I get how can I get started I guess I want to I want to break away I want to quit my job but I'm afraid to that's what some people told me you know, I'm afraid to take that leap. And my advice would be to start getting out there start talking to people you there are some jobs when I first started out have done anything you could go to car dealerships and apartment buildings and just ask them if they need any painting done don't don't ask them to trust you just asked them if they'd help you out because people are more likely to get behind someone who's you know trying to create their own grassroots product you know, they want to do it on their own and and people will get behind you you need to have some work lined up first you know, rather than just putting your job and saying okay, now what do I do? Be ready have worked ready? Even there's it's pretty easy to find painters right now that are looking for help. I know my country. It's crazy. So maybe have work ready. Maybe transition from a job for a painter. If you If it was even painting a plumber, a roofer have worked ready to go first before you make that jump because it's it's easy to panic and go back to your what I call real job.
Tom Bailey 10:09
Yeah, yeah. Great. Couple of great lessons in there. One again was that relationship side, ask for help people will help you when you're in need. And the other thing is, don't just throw them away and leave that paycheck, you know, have something lined up before you make that transition really, really important. Exactly. Great. So Terry, thanks again so much for your time today. I really appreciate you coming along and sharing such great value with our audience today.
Terry Begue 10:34
Thank you so much for having me here. Had a great time, Tom.
