How To Create A Referable Brand - With Michael Roderick

Tom Bailey, Founder of Succeed Through Speaking, Interviews Michael Roderick

Michael Roderick is the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises which helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders by making their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable. He is also the host of the podcast Access to Anyone which shows how you can get to know anyone you want in business and in life using time-tested relationship-building principles. Michael's unique methodology comes from his own experience of going from being a Highschool English teacher to a Broadway Producer in under two years.

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

- Find out how Michael works with coaches who struggle to communicate the value of what they offer to people.

- Discover the importance of a short snappy elevator pitch or value statement to ensure that your network is able to promote you or your business by being able to clearly articulate what you do.

- Learn the power of referrals and how you can be more referable.

- Hear what Michael's best piece of advice is for his clients to help them discover what value they actually add to people they work with by reaching out to them and asking them.

- Understand the importance of balancing your giving with your asking when it comes to referrals and being referable.

- Craft your 'IF' which is your Innovative Framework and how you can share your unique way of doing what you do for your clients.

Resources / Links

http://myreferabilityrater.com/

http://www.smallpondenterprises.com/

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 Michael Roderick, who is the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises and the host of Access To Anyone podcast. So Michael, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Michael Roderick:  Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Tom Bailey: Excellent and whereabouts are you in the world?

Right now?

Michael Roderick: I am in New York city.

Tom Bailey: Beautiful. And let's, let's get straight into the subject of Michael. So Michael helps thoughtful givers, become thought leaders by making their brands, referrable their messaging, memorable and their ideas unforgettable. The podcast access to anyone shows you how you can get to know anyone you want in business and in life using time tested relationship, building principles.

And finally, before we jump into the interview, the title for today's episode is How To Create a Referrable Brand. And Michael is going to show us how to do that in just under seven minutes. So, Michael, your first question is who are your ideal clients?

Michael Roderick: Yes. I work with coaches and consultants who struggle with communicating the value of what they offer to people.

Tom Bailey: And what is the, other than communicating their value. What is the biggest challenge that they typically face?

Michael Roderick: Most of the time? The biggest challenge is that the people within their network would love to help them, but they actually can't because they're not sure how to explain what it is that they do.

Tom Bailey: I see. And do you find that they tend to spend too long explaining what they do using too many words.

Michael Roderick: Yes. Far, far, too many words.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. So we almost need that short snappy elevator pitch. Don't we in, in a very short sentence. Exactly. And by not having this, what impact does it have on their business? 

Michael Roderick: Well if people can't explain to others, what it is that this consultant or this coach does, they usually, aren't going to actually try to refer them.

They're not going to try to help them.

Tom Bailey: Okay. Understood. And is it, is it normally. The value they add, or the niche that they're in, what is it normally that's missing when it comes to clarity around their message?

Michael Roderick: Most of the time, it's the value that they add? Most of the time it's, it's figuring out what it is that they're actually doing for their clients.

Tom Bailey: And I'm putting you on the spot here, but can you think of any examples   whereby, you know, someone's got it wrong and you've had to tweak the message or, you know, a client that's possibly had the wrong message to market match?

Michael Roderick:  Sure. So. Photographer that I was working with. And the way that the photographer was explaining the service was saying, I'm going to give you lots of photos, which is a commodity kind of thing.

But his real talent was helping these people show up for a photo shoot without feeling fake. So I said, that's what you do for them.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. And, and I guess what that does then is puts the person at ease that this isn't going to be a scary photo, shoot, a search going there, and I can enjoy the experience and get it quickly.

Great. So I was at the end of it. Yeah. Perfect. So let's say we do have somebody that stuck with this challenge of not being able to explain themselves what, what is one valuable piece of advice that you might give to somebody to really help them solve that problem?

Michael Roderick: What I often like to say is that your best copy is in your client's mouths.

So go to your clients, go to the people that you have worked with before and ask them very specifically, what did I do for you? And that, that aspect of, for you is really, really important. So you can understand what is the transformation. You create it for them.

Tom Bailey: Understood. And what's typically the best way to reach out to past clients.

Is it mass email? Is it a phone call? What would you normally recommend?

Michael Roderick: I recommend reaching out individually. Think about the medium that they, like. Some people are more email people. Some people are more texts and phone people. But definitely do it individually because you'll get more responses.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. It's much more personal, isn't it?

Michael Roderick: Yes, exactly.

Tom Bailey: Okay, thank you. And what is also one valuable free resource that you might be able to share with people listening to this episode to really help them solve this problem?

Michael Roderick: Sure. So I have the Raider called my referrability raider.com. You go there and basically what it will do is it'll help you see the gaps in your referrability I'll help you figure out where you're being referrable and where you're not.

Tom Bailey: Okay. And we've talked about referrability a little bit. How would you define referrability

Michael Roderick: For ability is when people are able to talk about you and your ideas when you're not in the room in a good way. Of course.

Tom Bailey: Thank you very much for that. Nice and succinct definition. And this question slightly off topic, I guess.

But it is, what would you say is your greatest failure that you've ever made either in life or in business and what did you learn from it?

Michael Roderick: Sure, there was a period in my life where I was spending a lot of time connecting people and helping people and never actually letting them know what it was that I needed.

And it reached a point where I was completely broke where I hadn't let folks know. You know, what I could use help with. So the lesson that I learned is that you really have to balance your giving with your asking.

Tom Bailey: Yeah, understood. I really appreciate that advice. And I think it's gonna be really valuable, very succinct again, but very valuable for lots of people listening to this episode.

And finally from me is. The next question, which is what is one question that I should have asked you that will also give some great value to this audience?

Michael Roderick: Sure. So I would say the biggest aspect is this idea of storytelling. Most of us think that we need to spend all of our time trying to tell the story really well.

And what we often ignore is helping people be able to retell the story. So figuring out how is it going to be easier for people to actually retell your story to others and really taking the time to think about that? Because a lot of the time we never look at that side of things.

Tom Bailey: Understood and just one follow on question from that, when we're talking about storytelling, is it me as a business owner telling my personal story, or is it the story of. what I can do for people.

Michael Roderick: I think if you're looking to build more client relationships, it's the story of what you can do for people. I like to refer to it as, you're. If a lot of people have their why but not enough people have their if, which is your innovative framework, your way of presenting your ideas and your concepts that is yours.

So when people share it, they say, well, where did you learn that? And then they go back and they talk to you about it.  .

Tom Bailey: Understood. And, and like you said, that will then lead to referrals and more, more business, more, more profile for your business. Exactly. Amazing. Well, Michael, thank you so much for your time today.

It's been really incredible meeting you and I'm really looking forward to sharing this one. Yeah. With the world.

Michael Roderick:  Thanks so much for having me.