How to Become Distinguishable, Uncopyable & Irresistible - With Annemarie Cross

Tom Bailey, founder of Succeed Through Speaking, interviews Annemarie Cross.

Annemarie Cross is the CEO and Founder of Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast Network and Industry Thought Leader Academy, Annemarie Cross is a Personal Branding & Podcast Strategist and Business Coach.

Recently cited as one of the Top 20 Business Coaches in Melbourne - Australia, Annemarie works with consultants and coaches around the world helping them create distinguishable, uncopyable and irresistible brands so they're seen as not just A choice – but THE choice with their ideal clients.

Dubbed ‘The Podcasting Queen,’ Annemarie is also an award-winning podcast host and is recognized as a pioneer in the podcasting space having started her first co-hosted podcast in 2008.

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

- Discover how Annemarie helps coaches and consultants in service based businesses who want to make a much bigger impact in the world with their message and their sphere of influence.

- How her clients typically feel like the world’s best kept secret and how this means they struggle to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

- Understand why business owners continue to get more frustrated and overwhelmed as they keep trying new marketing techniques or how poor results sometimes lead to them giving up.

- Why you should be mindful of the bright shiny object marketing tactics, and how important it is to build the correct foundations, nail your niche and master your market and then choose the lane that works for you.

- How to get access to Annemarie's FREE resource to help you become distinguishable, uncopyable & irresistible (even if you're in a crowded marketplace)

Resources / Links

https://industrythoughtleaderacademy.com/distinguishablemessage

Transcript

Tom Bailey: 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 Annemarie Cross. She's the CEO and founder of the ambitious entrepreneur podcast network and the industry thought leader academy. So, Annemarie, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Annemarie Cross: Thank you so much, Tom. Great to be here.

Tom Bailey: I really appreciate you coming along and just out of interest for our listeners. Whereabouts are you in the world right now?

Annemarie Cross: Melbourne, Australia.

Tom Bailey: Incredible. Thank you so much. And let me just share a little bit more about you before we do get started. So Annemarie is a personal branding and podcasts, strategist and business coach, and was recently cited as the top 20 business coach in Melbourne. And it's also an award-winning podcast. The title for today's episode is How to Become Distinguishable And Copyable And Irresistible. Even if you're in a crowded marketplace. And Annemarie is going to show us how to do that in just seven minutes. So, question number one for you today is who are your ideal clients?

Annemarie Cross: My ideal clients, Tom, are coaches and consultants as serviced based businesses. And many of them, they want to make a much bigger impact in the world, their sphere of influence with their message and they're my ideal clients.

Tom Bailey: Awesome. And when you think of your ideal clients, what would you say is typically the biggest challenge that they face?

Annemarie Cross: The biggest challenge? And often what I hear him or her say is I feel like the world's best kept secret. I have an incredible body of knowledge expertise. I've done many certifications yet, despite all of what I'm doing in the marketing that I'm doing. I still feel like the world's best kept secret. They struggled to stand out in a crowded marketplace. And as we know, so many more coaches and consultants now are, are marketing online, which has made the marketplace far more competitive and far more noisy. So, typically that's a challenge.

Tom Bailey: Excellent. I know the feeling and a lot of people I work with have fears of public speaking. So, it's very much the same as, you know, being hidden in the industry. If you are the best kept secret in the industry and the marketplace is getting even more crowded, what impacts will that typically have on your clients? If they took action?

Annemarie Cross: Well, typically you find, or I have found that with, because many of my clients are business owners that are selling their expertise. It can typically go two ways. One, they can continue to kind of adopt a bright, shiny objects. You know, that syndrome, they get even more and more frustrated and overwhelmed because they're trying to do all of the things. Or they end up just not doing anything because to them it's more, well, no, one's listening to me, therefore I'm no good. And therefore it must be what I'm sharing. So, it can either go those two ways, but it leads to frustration. It leads to overwhelm. And we know that as a service-based business overwhelm and frustration are not two words that we want to use when we describe our business and how we are feeling.

Tom Bailey: No, absolutely not. Yeah. So, it's definitely a critical problem to solve. So, if there is somebody listening to this and they do feel like the world's best kept secret, what's that one piece of advice that you'd give to them to really help them get stuck.

Annemarie Cross: Well, I hinted at it at it earlier, and that is be mindful and be all we'd be wary, I should say, of the bright, shiny objects and marketing tactics that may seem really great for other people yet. Maybe not so great for them because it depends on where they're at in their business stage. And their unique circumstances might be very different from say some of their colleagues or even some of them. Mentors that they're looking at hiring. So, in so many speakers, I'm sure you're told you need to share your content on social media, get across many podcasts as you can maybe even start your own podcast.

But if one of the reasons you're looking to do that marketing activity is because you feel like the world's best kept secret, and you're sharing your message in a group of your own. Clients and that message isn't working well, then don't look at amplifying that message, particularly not on a podcast because yes, your podcasts will amplify your message, but it will amplify a message that's not working, which means more people will get to know and hear your confusing message. So, I'm sure you've heard that saying Tom, you know, right. Tactic. Wrong timing. So, my advice would be find out where that is for you. The gap is for you. What is it that is stopping you from becoming known, becoming heard, and becoming that influential and trusted authority in your industry, and then work on that. And then eventually your message will start to build momentum and you'll become known as that trusted authority.

Tom Bailey: Absolutely. It's so important to get the right message in front of the right market. And then things will start to work.

Annemarie Cross: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Tom Bailey: So, to help people with all of this, what is one resource or somebody that you can point people to help them solve this?

Annemarie Cross: Well, I had got a resource which I created and it's called how to become distinguishable and copyable and irresistible, even if you're in a crowded marketplace. And I do know that you've got the link to share with people as well. That's a really great resource. There's a number of elements that you want to make sure are in place. Remember I said, find out where you're stuck so that you can focus on getting that in place first and then start to, to share that message. And so that'll give you a real. Overview of what you need to have in place and then be able to identify, well, look, I need to work on this first so that I can make sure that when I do speak or when I do go on a podcast interview, I know that I'm speaking directly to my ideal clients. So that's a great resource that I would recommend.

Tom Bailey: Fantastic. And I'll just read that link out for people. So it's industry thought leader, academy.com forward slash distinguishable message. And what we'll do is I'll put that into the show notes of this episode, as well as people click on that and they can get it. So next question, it's more yourself, this one. So, what would you say is one of your greatest either mistakes or failures you've made either in life or business and what did you learn from it?

Annemarie Cross: Oh, well, I have my worst business failure ever story as well, but I can say that that was business failure ever. We are. When I say we, I had a partnership and we'd built the partnership up to a seven figure pipeline, and unfortunately I won't go into all the details that came to an end, but that particular event actually catapulted me along the path to where I am today. So, I can say that it is now the best thing that ever happened to me. However, what I learned. Was that, you know, I had two choices and I'm one of those people that will look at a situation and say, well, this can either make me or break me and breaking me is not a choice. So, it had to make me and getting the support, you know, realizing that, look, this was a failure and, and embrace failures. Cause they can be. Things that can happen to you because you kind of can use that as a learning and a growth opportunity. So, hire the right mentors to get you ahead because you don't want to get stuck in that, you know, kind of that rush and, and the learnings that you can take away. Failures often can be the message that you share that gives you your unique message that you will continue to use moving forward that you'll help your clients with. Cause I bet you other people are going through that same challenge and same experience.

Tom Bailey: Absolutely such a fantastic mentality to have when it comes to mistakes and values. So, 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?

Annemarie Cross: All right. So how do you tell this is the question that I would oppose is how can you tell if your story or your message is unique and copyable by other coaches and speakers? And so, an example that I would give, if you think about your current message and story, and one of your competitors were to take that same message, take your name out of it, put their name in and be able to, with some relevance and some, you know, say. But not just relevant, but truth. Be able to share that story because it kind of shares a little bit about their background and how they got to where they were now. Then guess what? You're not on copyable, you're actually copyable. And you want to make sure that you spend a little bit more time really narrowing in and focusing on what is going to make you uncomfortable. And you'll be able to do that by going to the link that you shared earlier and going through that masterclass that I shared, because that's where our cover some of the key aspects that will enable you with your message. And all of that area become copyable in your industry.

Tom Bailey: Fantastic. So important and such great value in just under seven minutes. So, really appreciate you coming along today and Marie, and again, thanks for sharing that knowledge with us.

Annemarie Cross: Thank you so much, Tom. It's been a pleasure.