EPISODE 31 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: Finding the Time to Create Content When You Own 5 Businesses (And Why She Bothers) With Rebecca Miller
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Hello. Today I am joined by a very, very special person. Rebecca Miller, AKA the skin whisperer, AKA the founder of the La Bella Medispa. Hi Rebecca. Thanks so much for joining me.
Rebecca Miller:
Hello Sonya, thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be having a chat with you this morning.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah. So I've given a little bit of an overview of who you are, but why don't you give everyone a run down? Who are you? What's your background in business and what are you up to at the moment?
Rebecca Miller:
Okay. So first and foremost, I have to say my number one role in life is being a mum, being a mum to three beautiful children, Lokie and Toby and Izzy, my teenagers and wife to Nathan. I have to always mention them because they're fundamentally the reason why I do what I do. Apart from that, in business, I'm very lucky that I've had a 27 year of being in the beauty skin and laser industry. I've got three La Bella Medispas in three different locations. So one in Parkes, which is our flagship salon, the salon that I started around about 12 years ago. One in Orange, which is a beautiful town that I know that you visited before Sonya and one in Kingston, Canberra.
I've also got my skin whisperer brand. We've got around about 20 girls that work for us or 23 girls. It's pretty exciting. I've had to really hit the ground running. I went into business. I was a great technician, but didn't realize all the things that come along with actually running a business. I've had many challenging moments, many failures, but we call those lessons at the end of the day. And then I've also got my skin whisper brand, had some really exciting things. I've started speaking, which is amazing. I'm starting my business mentoring program and also my Living Your Best Life podcasts. There's lots going on. There's never a dull moment, which is great.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah. Basically, I don't know how Rebecca gets everything done. She always has a million balls in the air. I've never met someone who moves as quickly and moves things forward as fast as what Rebecca does. It's amazing.
Rebecca Miller:
Oh, that's really nice. We have got our hands in a lot of areas, but I think for me, the biggest thing is making sure that we're able to impact in the areas that are really important to us. And that is making sure that we are living our purpose, which is to empower women to feel confident and that's what we do in our clinics, but also to be able to impact a wider level with other clinic owners and business owners and being able to just share what we've learned. I think that's the thing that really does fill my cup.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah. So just let's have a focus on your marketing for a second, because as we've just touched on, you are go, go, go all the time. You've got all of these different brands and all these different offers and different things happening constantly, but you put out a ton of content, Rebecca, you've got a podcast, I don't even know how many social media channels you've got. It's a lot. You've got so many different email lists, all of these different things happening, how do you fit it all in? And how do you bring that energy to your marketing to go and jump on a Facebook live, for example?
Rebecca Miller:
Yeah. I'll have to say that, and I think for most people to actually jump on and do a live, to actually speak to other people can be a little bit confronting, but I knew I ran about four years ago when I really realized I wanted to serve at the highest level and create really massive impact to really be able to get people to recognize our brands where we can create change. I had to just get over myself and just getting there and do it.
A lot of our lives are not perfect. I say the wrong things. I don't look great. My hair is not great. That voice in our head that tries to pull us back. I just made a commitment that I was just going to get on there, let people actually see the real me, be authentic. And it didn't matter if I said the wrong thing or whatever it was that I said. I always just really committed to showing our brands and creating a bit of creative space to be able to think about, okay, what do we want to achieve here? And what's the outcome?
Obviously our main focus is skincare. So we've dedicated years and years and years of actually learning so much about the skin that if we didn't share it, then we're being selfish. That's how I see it. That we need to make sure that we give people the right information. And I guess that shows through, we've got very interactive social media pages, which is fantastic. They're not big numbers. These people that have got a hundred thousand followers, but what we've got is people that are really generally interested in what we offer. And they are customers at the end of the day and they really love what we do. Yeah, I just had to get over myself and I think that's a big thing for most business owners is just that people really want to see you. They want to see what your stories, where you've come from, your family, and just to share that little piece of you that resonates with the people that are following you and that they can actually communicate and have a conversation with you.
So for me, social media platforms are crucial to your business, to your brands and that you just have to get on there and show people what you're about. I think that's one of the big things that I've learned. I did sit back for a while. I was scared. That imposter syndrome came into my head, like it does every person that I ever speak to. I now support other beauty business owners in trying to build their followings and create ... They're a little bit of magic, they're on their social media, and it is always that imposter syndrome that creeps in that, who would want to be watching me, but let me tell you, people don't buy what we do, they buy why we do it. And generally that's us as the person they believe in us and creating that trust. I think it's a big thing.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Absolutely. And I think we're seeing with a lot of even big brands now, I mean, look at Elon Musk from Tesla or another great example is Jane Lu from Showpo in their social media channels, the CEOs of these massive companies now, getting their faces out there, really developing sort of a personal brand as well. I mean, it's just, I think a way for businesses to cut through all that noise is by being human.
But something you just said before around, you don't have huge numbers on your social media following. I mean, they're not small numbers, but Rebecca's social media pages have such amazing engagement. The content you're putting out isn't this like picture perfect, super amazingly put together content, it's real. And I think that's why you get the cut through and Rebecca can post organically and sales will roll in from their online store. Do you know how rare that is for so many people? So she's getting the cut through. The followers that she has are actual customers and they're engaged, which I think so many people have lost. People have such a focus on numbers and getting big numbers of followers. But the reality is unless you're doing it in an authentic way, you're not going to get sales from it.
Rebecca Miller:
I definitely do not have an Instagram life. I think that's one of the things that we all need to be really aware of. When I look at other people's Instagram pages and I see all these beautiful pictures and everything's perfect and I do look at them and go, wow, but you know what, the most people it's not like that. It isn't like that. Especially when it comes to your children and being a mom that's trying to juggle all of this and be a mom and a wife. And sometimes it's tough and you know what, people resonate, resonate more with that.
And just to show you, I know even a couple of years ago, I guess when I was posting content, I made sure that I always look good. Now, I don't worry about anything like that. My mind is to solve the issues that people that are watching me have. We communicate with them. We find out what it is. I know with the skin whisperer page, I just rolled out three years of content before I had a program, before anything was there for people to buy. Yes, they could buy what I was recommending, but I didn't actually have anything for sale. But what I did was just created contents.
I was the first one to be doing really big lives in our industry where people would just ask questions and I answered them live. So that's a huge thing to do as well. But yeah, that's the thing. I think authenticity is definitely. I know that's a pretty common word that gets thrown around, but people really want to see the real person and that everything's not perfect all the time.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah. So you've been doing some speaking lately. You've been part of Kerwin Rae's Mastermind and doing some strategic planning sessions, as well as with some other beauty businesses. I don't think planning is your number one strength. I actually think that it's action taking, but for a lot of people, they will sit there and they'll plan things out and try and get everything so perfect that they never take that action. How do people overcome that? What's your advice and how do you find that balance between planning and also taking the action?
Rebecca Miller:
Yeah. I think the biggest thing is you really have to be clear on what's the purpose of your business and the mission. What are you trying to achieve over what period of time? If you really clear on those things, it's what gives you the drive to then action exactly what's on your list. For me around about five years ago, I actually learnt a strategic planning method through Kerwin.
And when I came home and executed, I definitely wasn't perfect at it because there was things that he spoke about that I'd never heard of before. And as I said before, I'm from a small country town of 12,000 people and my parents, they're amazing mentors, do not get me wrong. They've taught us kids so very much, but the way they did businesses was long hours. You just worked your butt off. And I think things have changed for people now. You sort of really wanted to be enjoying your family time, but also achieving in your business at the same time and trying to find that happy medium, but to actually get really clear and chunk it down. For us, we do a 12 monthly plan. We then chunk it down to quarterly, to weekly, to daily. So we know exactly what we're working on and this works absolutely amazing.
If you know exactly what you're working on and what are the crucial things now that need to be done. A lot of people when they're planning, they're working on things that they actually don't need to do now. It's the crucial things that you need to work on today that are going to propel your business forward and making sure that if you get that strategy ... That plan is pointless if you do not take action. Action is everything. Making sure that you delegate. Make sure you're surrounded by amazing human beings in your team that know exactly what the business mission is and that they're coming on that journey with you. They're part of the dream and to really get them to buy into what it's all about. That they're a part of something bigger than themselves.
And this is what we've been able to achieve. We've been able to articulate what you're trying to achieve in such an inspiring way that your team will do anything for that to happen. And it just creates this amazing high performing culture. Be really aware of what your values are in your business, because these are your guiding principles. This is what you stand for. We got to wear our values every single day in our morning huddle. Even at the moment we shut down, what's our one value we're going to live by for that day. These are really important things when it comes to planning in your business. But once again as I said, a plan is pointless, but if it's something big, you need to chunk it down because otherwise you look at it and it becomes overwhelming. And then you're just like, Oh my God, where do I start?
Chunk it right down. So you've got priorities to weekly goals down to daily tasks. So you're just continuously chunking down, so it doesn't become overwhelming. That's one of the big things too. And do not take on too much. I know that I probably take on a little bit more than the average person, but most people, five big things over a quarter, say developing a website, hiring a new talent, five big things over a quarter is achievable. If you've got 30 things on your list and you just don't know where to start and it becomes overwhelming. So just really what are the five things this quarter that are going to propel your business forward and then chunk it down into weekly goals, daily tasks. And I find that's a really good way of making sure that you're getting things done in your business.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about your morning huddles. What does that look like? What do you discuss? Who's involved?
Rebecca Miller:
Our whole team is in a morning huddle. This is short, sharp. A lot of people think that there's no chit-chat in this. It's just where everybody's in a circle, there's high energy. We've got a leader that runs the daily huddle. We do our win from yesterday. So we go around every individual person, our win from the day before, the three needle moving activities that are going to happen that day for our business to move forward. We say our value that we're going to live for for the day and any potential bottlenecks, that's going to stop us from achieving those three things.
And if there is something we then just come up with a plan for that not to happen. Sometimes distractions or energy can be a problem. We work human to human, so our energy levels can be a little bit compromised. So that's our process. So we all in a circle, it's high energy, it's short, sharp, and everybody knows exactly what they're working on for the day. And then what we do is check in and make sure that the three things that we set out to do at the end of the day have been done. It's a really good way to keep everybody on track. But also this is how you create a high performing team because everybody knows what they're meant to be doing. We're all in it together. Accountability. Accountability is the word that I'm looking for. Keeps you really accountable. The team know what they're striving for. And it just creates that amazing culture. I think daily huddles, if your business isn't doing them, it is a game changer.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
So you have one in the morning and one in the afternoon?
Rebecca Miller:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So at the moment obviously, because things are a little bit different, we would just Zoom in at the moment. And then we do a team catch up at 4:30 at the moment. In real life, not Corona life, we do our daily huddles. And then the next morning, we check the list is there. And then we start the new list. What needs to go over if you didn't get something completed, goes over into the next day.
So it's just all on a board now in our staff room. Everybody knows exactly what they're working towards. The accountability is there. We ask for help. That's one of our values is that if we need help, we ask. So if you're struggling to get one of your things done, somebody else has got a bit of time to help you. It's just an amazing way to operate your business.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
So you're all really working as a team from the sounds of things. Everyone's holding each other accountable and supporting each other to achieve those needle moving each day.
Rebecca Miller:
Exactly. So important.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Can I get you to think back to when you first started your business for a moment? So the first La Bella, what marketing did you do then? So how did you first get clients through the door versus what does it look like now?
Rebecca Miller:
This is an interesting question, isn't it? I created La Bella around about 12 years ago. I actually had a business here before, so I actually had a really lovely reputation. I left and went and traveled overseas. And then I had my babies and I did a little bit of work from home and it's sort of become too busy. I thought, you know what, I'm going to open a salon and let's see how it goes. We did extremely well because I actually had a reputation here previously. We did start Facebook and Instagram and things like that, but we definitely weren't present on there.
How do we communicate with our clients? It was more emails back then and text messages, but it's just amazing. The technology change from 12 years ago to now, where we've got our hands in so many different ways that you can actually be communicating with your clients, it's just phenomenal. It was more word of mouth back 12 years ago, which we still have. Word of mouth is amazing way for your business to grow. And I think it's the best way. But it was basically word of mouth. But whereas now, we're servicing the whole of Australia with our business. We've even got inquiries that come from overseas. And that's because you do have these platforms that are just amazing for your business.
If you're not on social media, you're going to get left behind and the way that it keeps growing, there's a new platform that ... Even the TikToks at the moment, they're the big thing. It just continuously keeps changing. So you have to make sure that you dedicate that time to really ... Or have a company that supports you like Kiss Marketing, if they're seeing something new, they're going to make sure that they let know. You've got to be surrounded ... For me, technology is definitely not my strong point. I continually try and learn something new, but I can definitely use social media. It's much easier than even formatting an email.
I just think it's definitely been a big change. I love it. I love the change. I love the technology. I love learning new things. I love implementing. We're using many checks, is a huge part of our business now. It's a phenomenal platform. There's so many things that even if you just one amazing, you'll see a big increase in your business, but definitely a big change from when we opened the door. We had to really rely on word of mouth and then obviously collecting emails. We actually weren't even really good at that. Yeah, it's big changes, Sonia, over these, even that 12 years, which is not a long time to now, I know that people watch us because we really are on top of social media and the technology boom, and the technology things that are changing all the time.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Absolutely. And you know what I agree with you, I think word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is. But 12 years ago you kind of hit a ceiling with that. You can sort of expand beyond that, whereas social media now allows you to amplify everything that you're getting with word of mouth. It allows you to build a relationship that's stronger with these people. They can do some more research on you before they actually come to you. They're sort of more sold as well. So I think it helps that process too.
Recently, Rebecca, you have had to pivot your business in incredibly short amount of time. I'm hoping by the time this episode actually airs, we're going to be back to normal life, but who knows? Maybe not. But we had a bit of a situation where the government has shut down the beauty industry, essentially in response to corona. I think it was within three days, you had completely pivoted your business. Tell me about that. Because that's not something that you can plan for.
Rebecca Miller:
No. I guess the lucky thing for us is that we have kept up with technology. So we have platforms in place. We had the Kajabis. We did have some platforms in place, but I actually had to ... We were down at Mastermind with Kerwin and the event was shut down and I had to still deliver the planning process, but it all was done virtually. And so we sort of had that little bit of preparation where I went, Oh my goodness, you know what? I've got a funny feeling we're all going to be shut down. Everything escalated so very quickly.
So for us, we did have platforms in place, but we've worked around the clock to transition. These are things that we've really wanted to press go on, but obviously you just sort of get caught up in your busy day-to-day business running that we probably didn't pay as much attention to it, for the things for us to move forward online. The great thing about this is, this is going to be the game changer to our business. This has been the most innovation. This is going to change the way we do things forever that we have been able to sustain our business from an online space, it's been amazing. Because you've obviously been part of the journey with us, you know everything that we've been able to really roll out has been phenomenal.
Let me tell you, we've become photographers. We've become program writers. Everything shifted. We're now working as digital marketers. It's just phenomenal what we've been able to create. And I guess me as the visionary of this business, I have to be surrounded by the best. And I've got you. And I've got my girls that work for me, in particular, Jess, that is just a gun on a computer. I will say, "I want this to happen." She will make anything that I ever want, to happen. There's nothing that she can't do. I come up with these amazing ideas and she just makes it happen, tweaks it for me and also you guys have been phenomenal at this transition to be able to get all our videos out as quickly as you do. And you know what? You have to have a company that's moving as fast as you are as well.
It's just been phenomenal. I just sat and thought about it this morning and just went, Wow! Look what we've been able to create in this short amount of time. And anybody can do it. It's just really getting in there and just getting your systems in place, working out how things work, how can we connect with people? And it is videos, it's lives, it's tutorials, subscriptions that we've now got rolling out for our internal products. We've got an online store that we're just bringing new products all the time, things that people really want. It's just been phenomenal, but this is going to change our business for the rest of our lives. And I think it's going to make it better.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
And that's the thing. I think a conversation we had earlier this week was you're not thinking to short term with this. This is longterm. Once business goes back to as usual, this now what you've created in your ability to reach people all across Australia, and even beyond that, you're saying this could potentially double your business coming out the other side once things are up and running again. And I think that's an incredible thing to be thinking of. I mean, you're talking about innovation. This has really been the push for you guys to start exploring more options in the retail space.
And guys, Rebecca's team is amazing. She has got them all on board doing videos. The girls are at home doing tutorials. You're building up a bank of content that at the moment, yes, you're pushing out a lot more than normal, but you now have a bank that you can draw upon for years as well. I think that's really powerful and it's quite deliberate, the content that you're putting together as well. It's linking back to a product or it's adding value, it's establishing the skin whisperer as an expert in the space.
Yes, you move really quickly. And you're taking a lot of action, but there is always a reason behind everything that's being done as well. And I love that with you guys, you're happy just to move forward and we adjust and we update as we go along. It's not this sort of mindset that a lot of business owners get stuck in where it's got to be at a hundred percent perfect, or we don't move on anything. I find when businesses owners are in that headspace, nothing moves forward, because there's always something they want to update and improve. But with your marketing, you've got to be updating and innovating and changing it constantly anyway. So you never going to hit a point where it's exactly as it needs to be.
I mean, I was scrolling through TikTok the other day and I came across Rebecca with one of her kids doing a dance. And I was like, Oh my God, you're on TikTok now, when did that happen? Like, it's you just jump and board things, which I think is incredible. I think business owners should go and check out what you're doing with your social media, how much content you're putting out there and how quickly you're moving to be inspired to actually just take some action themselves, without not overthink it.
Rebecca Miller:
And that's the thing too, from shutdown to, we had home facials, we'd already had them ready to go. So from shutdown, I think it was 36 hours, we released our first home facial and we've sent that out to over 150 homes. In a couple of weeks, it's just been absolutely amazing, our home roller series, we just jumped straight in and went into, right, things have changed. We need to pivot, we're ready to go. We had nothing that could hold us back. And as I said, just making sure that you've got a great marketing company that stands beside you. And the thing is you understand exactly what we're about, you know our products, you know me, and I know that you, you're really particular about who you align yourself with. It's just really important. And just knowing that.
My girls are all at home. We've got structure. Everybody's still involved in the dream, but we also want them to have a rest in this moment as well, to take some time out for some self-care, because we're givers, and a lot of the time we don't look after ourselves. So we're really encouraging the girls to make sure everyday they have an hour of self-care. Sleep if they want to. So we've got that as well. We're nurturing them that way as well. It's just been a phenomenal experience.
I have to say, it's been a great experience for us. Has it been challenging and hard? Of course it has been. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. This has been the biggest challenge that we've ever, ever had to overcome. But for me longterm now, how I see things is this is going to revolution in the way that we do business. We've got the next generation of the kids that are coming through and they are digital. And now that we've adapted that into our business, we've got a whole new target market and it's phenomenal. As much as this is a scary thing that's happening in our world at the moment, for me, I've loved the challenge. I've loved the innovation that just continuously keeps popping, its head up and creating all these new ideas. Me as a person, I am creative and this has given me that space to be able to go like, what can we really do here? What is going to make us stand out? What can we do here? And I've loved it. I've loved it.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
And I think what you're saying around, you've got a whole new target market now with young generations and what you're doing digitally, I think on the flip side, this is kind of pushed the older generations into the digital formats as well. You've got a presence. They come across you, they find you, this is just going to expand to everything you're doing now because this whole virus has meant that people have had to change their shopping habits. People that might never have shopped online before, having to do it. People are suddenly finding themselves stuck at home, if they haven't been on social media before, chances are they're jumping on board.
So it's kind of bringing all of society into this one onto one page now where the majority of the population will be actively engaged on social media. I think that's a really positive thing. Though some people say it's negative, I think in that marketing aspect, it's very, very positive though.
Rebecca Miller:
I think it's fantastic. I've even got my 73 year old uncle that's now on Facebook. He's loving it. He's absolutely loving it. He's been able to connect with all the cousins and he loves it. He tries to share all my posts. I think it's a good thing. I really do. I think it's a good thing. I think we have to always try and find the good in these situations.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm with you on that. So something I always like to ask my guests on this podcast is, who do you follow? So what podcasts are you listening to? What speakers, thought leaders, any amazing books that you've read? What content are you consuming?
Rebecca Miller:
So for me, my go to for podcasts, definitely Kerwin's, Unstoppable. I think there's so much value in his podcast. I also listened to the Boss Babes podcast. I also listen to No Bullsh!t Leadership with Martin Moore. I saw him speak at a conference, a little while ago. And I just really liked, as this title is No Bullsh!t, which is really good.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, he's good, isn't he?
Rebecca Miller:
Yeah. Short, sharp, easy to consume.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
I just had his daughter, Emma, who does the marketing on the podcast last week.
Rebecca Miller:
Off you go. There's so much out there now, especially a free content that people can consume. I am a book reader. So I read before I go to bed, I read, I listen to audio books whenever I can. My all time favorite book that I've not only just read, but I've listened to is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I think that he is where he interviewed 500 businessmen back in, I think it was 1800s or something like that, but it just covers everything that you would ever want to know about business, about affirmations, about masterminding. It's such a fundamental book that's my go to whenever I can get there.
I love Brené Brown. Like she brings it all back, and takes you into the feeling of things. I can't get enough of her. There's so many amazing people out there that you can just get amazing content. I love Gabby Bernstein. I am into energy. I am into making sure that I take care of myself as well. So that's a really good one. [Jojo 00:34:09] Spencer, I love his stuff. I really love that. And obviously Robin Sharpe Sharma, the 5:00 AM Club and always Simon Sinek. I love he started with why, these are books that I continuously I've read a couple of times, any podcasts or any YouTube that I can bring them up, I'll always, If I'm probably washing, I just go into the lounge room and put a little YouTube. It might be Simon Sinek on something to do with leadership. And I really just get a really good little high from that and always have pen and paper there. There's always a little nugget of gold that I can take away from anything that I consume.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
And I think that's what it's about. I mean, I think a lot of people listen to things and go, Oh, I know this, but are you actually actioning it again. Are you just consuming content for the sake of consuming content or are you taking something from it? And I think when I was listening to your theory on bringing a team together, I immediately thought of the book Start With Why.
I can see that everything that you're consuming you are sort of bringing it into business or life in some way, which brings me to my final question, Rebecca. If you had one piece of advice for a business owner, what would it be?
Rebecca Miller:
My one piece of advice is to really deeply connect to why you're doing what you do. Because I know for me, once that became my power, everything changed. I didn't even know what a purpose was before, years ago. But once I tapped into that, why am I actually doing this? What is my legacy that I want to leave behind? And once I tapped into that, the game changed. Because everything that I do is connected to why I do it. For us to be able to deliver value. For us to be able to help people, and fundamentally, I just want to help as many people as I can in business, with their skin, whichever platform it is that I'm doing my thing on, I just want to see other people thrive and be the best that they can as be as well. So really connecting to your why for me, it is the game changer. Really tap into why you're doing what you're doing and it'll change the game.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Amazing. All right, Rebecca, thank you so much for coming on the show. I will link to Rebecca's websites and all the social media channels in the show notes.
Rebecca Miller:
Thank you for having me Sonya. Thank you for being so amazing. I'm loving our relationship. And I love that you move just as quick as me.