186 – Stand out by building a strong brand, with tuck shop owner Miss Chu.

I am so, so excited about today’s episode. I’m excited about every episode of the Small Business Big Marketing show but I’ve just knocked out an interview with Miss Chu, who owns, chain isn’t the right word, but I’ll say chain of Vietnamese Tuck shops in Melbourne, Sydney and London. I don’t know. It’s just one of those interviews that left me singing. I’m feeling good about life, so more about that in a minute. I’m also going to cover, on a less happy note, a contentious discussion about the way I treat listener feedback that is happening inside the Small Business Big Marketing forum at the moment and I’m going to share some listener feedback because there is so much of it wonderfully stacking up that I just have to do that. We have got a very big show, strap in.

This interview that I am about to share with you, it’s not an interview. It’s a fireside chat. They’re all fireside chat. I don’t do interviews. This fireside chat is with Nahji Chu, a.k.a. Miss Chu. She is a highly creative and successful owner of Misschu Vietnamese Tuck Shops and they are a very, very cool little business. Go and check out misschu.com.au, that’s M-I-S-S-C-H-U.com.au just to see how cool this business is. Check this, founded in 2008, 2009. She now has 8 stores – 1 in London, 1 in the Opera House in Sydney; turnover $25 million, 280 staff already and a brilliantly, brilliantly strong brand. In 1975, Miss Chu, or Nahji as I started to call her (that changes, listen to the interview) escaped a brutal dictatorship in Laos and arrived in Australia by boat 3 years later. This is such a beautiful story of struggle, of determination, of passion and creativity. So excited to bring this to you and I started off by asking Nahji what to call her.

Miss Chu:

I think it’s pretty simple and I answer to Miss Chu.

Tim:  

Right, what happens if and when you get married?

Miss Chu:    

It’s Miss Chu because as a Vietnamese lady and as part of my culture, the woman always retains her maiden name, so I’ll forever be Miss Chu.

Tim: 

You will be.

Miss Chu:    

Yeah. If  marry a mister Bacca, I’ll be Chu-Bacca.

Tim:   

Insert boomtish. I love that.

Miss Chu: 

I’m still looking out for Mister Bacca.

Tim: 

Yeah well, I’m going to make it now my life’s mission to find you Mr. Bacca.

Miss Chu:    

James Bacca will do, so I wouldn’t mind doing Chu-Bacca.

Tim:

Or we could find someone called Agum.

Miss Chu:

Chu-Agum, yes.

Tim:

Yeah.

Miss Chu: 

This is a great thing about having a surname like Chu, sky is the limit.

Tim:  

Yeah exactly, you can have a lot of fun. Clearly, and I want to come to this shortly but you have a lot of fun with your native language, your native tongue so to speak. I love the way you’ve integrated that into your brand but let’s come to that in a minute because there’s many people listening from around the world, Miss Chu, and I’m going to clear that. It feels a little bit weird but I’m going to go with it. There’s many people around the world listening in who haven’t been to one of your tuck shops. Can you explain…

Miss Chu:

My real name is Nahji Chu, surname being Miss Chu, C-H-U.

Tim:  

Correct. And how lucky was that?

Miss Chu: 

Pretty lucky.

Tim:

Really lucky, some things are meant to be.

Miss Chu:

It’s very true. It’s like people say they get out when I sell lemonade.

Tim:

Exactly right, always the opportunist. Did you sit there at some point going “well my surname is a verb for eating, so I’m just going to start a café.”

Miss Chu: 

At one point I kind of was toying around with the idea and we were having a joke about it when I was sewing. I was 19 years old working in fashion and a friend of mine said “imagine if you have a catering business” I worked in catering anyway and even when I was 19, I was supplementing my meager income by doing some catering work and a friend of mine was joking around and he said “if you had your own catering business, your tag line could be Chewers Choose Chu”.

Tim:

He was nearly there. He missed it though, it was right in front of him. It was Miss Chu every day of the week. I’m just thinking imagine if I’d gone down the road based on my surname, my surname is Reid, so I’ll be like a librarian or something or maybe a bookshop owner. A Good Reid is what I’d call the business.

Miss Chu:

Yeah you could be a bookshop owner, for sure, although they’re not doing that well these days.

Tim:  

They’re not, are they? What a pity.

Miss Chu: 

Because of many online reading platform.

Tim: 

I’d like you to introduce some kind of bookshop to your tuck shop, because it’s part of our society that’s now missing.

Miss Chu:

Yeah, I mean so your name is Read? R-E-A-D?

Tim:

It’s R-E-I-D.

Miss Chu:

R-E-I-D.

Tim:

But I’ll change it. If I did start a bookshop, I’d go to wherever I go to change my name and kind of get that sorted.

Hey listen, more about you. Many of the people are listening going “what are these 2 people talking about?” Explain the experience of going to one of your tuck shops.

Miss Chu:

I branded myself Misschu, M-I-S-S-C-H-U and a lot of people spell that with 2 words but I’ve turned it into a brand by joining the Miss Chu into 1 word, so it’s Misschu. I called it the tuck shops because the first store I opened happens to be right door to a private school and I just thought it was so cute that come 3:15 it’d be like swag of schoolgirls lining up. That’s the basically the impetus to calling myself a tuck shop and it was also because I was getting a lot of foodie coming to line up at Misschu and I thought it’s inevitable that a foodie writer like, what do you call them?

Tim: 

I was going to say a gourmand but like a critic.

Miss Chu: 

A critic would come along and start giving me score, which is something I really didn’t want to do because there’s no indoor sitting. It’s literally on the street, hence the street food, the Vietnamese street food element of my brand.

Tim:

And that’s the same for every one of your venues, is it? It’s just like…

Miss Chu:

It’s called a tuck shop.

Tim:

Every single one, yeah.

Miss Chu: 

Every single one now is called a tuck shop and it’s about me keeping the food honest. I’m not about winning awards. I’m not about fine dining. It literally is Misschu, I started as a caterer and then I turned it into a retail experience because there was such a massive demand for it. On my first sight, people were banging down the doors literally, so much so I have to replace the door because it’s got so loose after catering every caterer for the first year. A lot of these people got really frustrated because I wasn’t opened to the public. After one year of trading on this site in Darlinghurst, I opened up the shops to locals and within the first few weeks, there were people lining up at this window. I literally opened up the window and put a bamboo warning up front to draw attention and it just went skyrocketing from day 1.

Tim: 

There’s no shortage and I’ve heard you speak about this, there’s no shortage of Vietnamese restaurants in this world but what you created, what you did differently, correct me if I’m wrong, it was a real experience.

Miss Chu:

There are a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in Australia. My auntie has a couple of Vietnamese restaurants but what I found was missing was the storytelling and the history behind Vietnamese Diaspora in Australia, the culture element. Australia says we’re so multicultural and what they’re really referring to is we’re multicultural because we have a gamut of multicultural foods. What they’re not referring to is that there are lots of multicultural communities in Australia, which basically means there are lots  of cultural elements to Australia, and that is culture and the politics of Australia is very varied and we need to celebrate that. And what I was finding about Australia was that we weren’t celebrating each cultural element. We were celebrating and we are loving their foods but we left the culture behind. What I was saying and  rebelling against society was “hey if you love my food, I’m afraid you’re going to have to love me as well because I’m a Vietnamese Australian and did you know that I came here as a refugee and did you know that Australia was also built on the back of other refugees and migrants? Why is it that we’re having such a massive media presence and stupid dialogue about the negativity of migrants and refugees in this country?” That’s where the branding of Misschu came from. It’s basically saying “hey it’s time for us to start celebrating Vietnamese food.” Not only was it just a beautiful name and a celebration of my surname and the fact that it was a verb and it meant eating, what I then went to do was I put my refugee visa on the front page of my menu, so you are forced to look at this image, which was quite beautiful and actually it’s a literal scan of my refugee visa which allowed me to enter in 1978 and then if you flip to the back, it says Misschu Visa Menu. I really was trying to push the refugee and the Visa element to the business. I wasn’t a brand back then. Mind you, this is 2009. I only just started the business and then what I then went to do was I went “okay, let’s now turn to the face” which was just me on the visa because the visa is actually my father, my 2 brothers and me. I went “let’s now take my face and put that to the forefront and turn that into a natural logo.” So now it’s very strong and recognizable face.

Tim:

Yeah it sure is.

Miss Chu:

When you see it on repetition, it becomes a brand. I put color and movement to it. The experience of coming to Miss Chu really is that lining up for your food. It’s very fast paced. There’s always funky music playing, so it gives you a very fun and inviting experience.

Tim:  

As you’re speaking, my family we often go to a Vietnamese restaurant up in Abbotsford, Melbourne and  I look at those places now just in this conversation and thinking they’ve all westernized themselves. The food is Vietnamese. I guess its traditional Vietnamese, maybe it’s been westernized but as a venue, it’s just a western venue. It’s just like tables and chairs and there’s nothing really outside of the people that’s really truly a cultural experience. That’s your point of difference, isn’t it?

Miss Chu: 

Exactly. My point of difference is really that you really get a sense of “I could be anywhere in Asia right now” although the area is that modern design element, which is a nod to the Vietnamese streetscape and the alleyways of Vietnam.

Tim: 

I digress but I was in Ho Chi Minh last year and I did the coolest food tour on the back of a motorbike.

Miss Chu:  

Oh yeah, it’s what I’m doing right now, yeah.

Tim:

It was with XO Tours and it was a marketing, I’ve used it as a marketing study in my keynotes where it was brilliant and we went for 6 hours to all the different precincts and tried all the different foods and some of those back alleys and your ability to bring that back, well done. Just to honor where you’ve come from in such a strong way, there’s not enough experiences in the way businesses deliver their offer. Listeners have heard me say so often there’s no shortage of marketing blokes, there’s no shortage of dentists, of plumbers, of masseurs and its how we take our offer to market…

Miss Chu:

It’s always the one that has a story, an authenticity that stands out.

Tim: 

Yeah, absolutely.

Miss Chu:

You were just saying about the Vietnamese, I’ve just devised a Miss Guided Culinary Tour of Vietnam.

Tim:

Miss Guided?

Miss Chu: 

Yeah

Tim:

Oh I love it.

Miss Chu:  

Yeah exactly. A play on words is important. Branding and marketing have to be one word that stays in someone’s mind and then it always have to have a tag line. The tag line emphasizes and reiterates what your business does.

Tim:

Give us your tag line for your delivery service because I love it.

Miss Chu:

It’s Misschu You Ling We Bling.

Tim: 

Yeah.

Miss Chu:

It’s controversial. It’s a play on words. Some people think its racist when it’s not actually at all. It’s breaking down stereotypes faster than a historian course or a politician or a lobbyist and it’s basically seen on the back of my name, the person and it also leads you to the website. That always puts it into context. It’s a Vietnamese woman. She does Asian food and she brings you the food because she specializes in takeaways and home deliver.

Tim: 

I love how you have the whole use of language of taking, it’s not taking the Mickey because what I’m about to say on what you’ve written on your website says ‘not to take the Mickey.’ Let me explain. On your website you say “we kindly request that you see this use of language by the Misschu brand as a humorous toying with, not a handing over of power to those who wish to mock Asian accents.” I fully get that but I love how you’ve seen this humor in the way us westerners maybe pronounced and imitate Vietnamese language or any other Asian language but you’ve kind of turn it around and just made it fun.

Miss Chu:    

Yeah exactly, that’s right. You have to do that. It’s the only way to get around a negative issue, like refugees for example, it’s a negative issue right now but I’ve really turned it on its head and I’ve made the word refugee fun and sustainable and viable and quirky and I’ve made people look at the word ‘refugee’ with a heartbeat of a personality through the Vietnamese person and the Vietnamese brand. Once upon a time people would look at a Vietnamese store and go “I love their food but I hate their design. I hate the bright light. I hate the music. I hate the dirtiness.” I’ve really corrected all of those issues but still retain the culture, what it is to be a Vietnamese person. In fact what I’ve done I’ve celebrated and highlighted what it truly is to be a Vietnamese person in Australia and I celebrated it. I’m not to ask people to come along the ride and celebrate that with me because my success is actually all on the back of my customers anyway.

Tim:

I’ve got so many questions for you.

Miss Chu:

We’ve only got half an hour so let’s get to the crust of this half an hour, which is what is marketing and branding.

Tim: 

Correct, that’s where I want to go. Another thing I’ve heard you say, no market research or business planning around this business. It’s simply an extension of myself. Is that true?

Miss Chu:

It is absolutely true. I get out of there on me. I happened to be very good at marketing and branding.

Tim: 

You happen to be also highly creative.

Miss Chu: 

Yes that’s true, that’s true.

Tim:

What do you say to, when you asked me “what are we going to talk about?” and I said I just admire you’ve built this brand so much and I see many small business owners that haven’t had the courage to own an idea or to even have an idea.

Miss Chu:            This is it, you just nailed it. You have to own it. That’s the one most important crucial element of marketing and branding, is to be a, what people say a disturber.

Tim:

Oh yeah, a disruptor.

Miss Chu: 

A disruptor.

Tim:

Yep.

Miss Chu:

Disruptors make people notice but disruptors also must have conviction and belief and you need to own that belief and practice the message that you’re doing. You can’t do it for the sake of marketing. You’re doing it because you actually believe in it. If you don’t believe in your product, it’s very, very difficult to sell a product unless you have absolute conviction in it.

Tim: 

So when you have an idea Miss Chu about for example, going back to the experience, tuck shop type venues, apparently ordering is like putting a lunch order in at school. So when you have an idea like say “that sounds like a good idea, just like we used to do at school, right on a brown paper bag and hand it, wrap it up and put the money in it.” When you have an idea like that, which in retrospect, in hindsight that just makes sense but when you first hear, you go “well that’s a bit scary. No one does that.”

Miss Chu:

That’s the most amazing thing, “that’s a bit scary, no one does that” I find excitement in that. That’s the challenge. If no one’s done it before, that’s it. You have to do something no one’s done before. That’s where marketing and branding happens. You’ve got to absolutely make sure that no one’s done it before and then you go to work and make it a really strong thing. You start putting an image to it that’s really strong. You own that idea and you say to the market “I am the originator of this idea” like I have done. It took a Vietnamese girl to come in to this country and see the beauty in the name Tuck Shop. I’ve made the word ‘Tuck Shop’ very famous and very trendy now. Do you know how many cafes there are right now opening up and they’re calling themselves Tuck Shop?

Tim: 

That’s a Sydney thing. They copy up there.

Miss Chu:

They do it in Melbourne as well but I don’t claim to have invented the word Tuck Shop but I will lay claim to being the first woman in Australia to have taken the Tuck Shop outside of the school zone and make it a very viable venture and turn the word Tuck Shop into a brand.

Tim:

Again, own that word.

Miss Chu:

And you own it, yeah.

Tim: 

What about brand management, Miss Chu? I’ve come from a corporate marketing background in 20 years and it’s like brand managers are there. They’re like the brand Nazi. “You got to use that color! You got to use that font! You got to use that language!” Do you stand over this and just make sure that…

Miss Chu:

Yeah

Tim:

Yeah? You’re really strict.

Miss Chu:

There are 2 people in my office, today there’s only me unfortunately because my PA works for an animal shelter part time because she loves doing things like that and then the other character who works in the marketing department is my graphic designer. We’re the only 2 people who do brand management, marketing. I do my social media. What we say to our staff is “don’t come to work in those shirts because it’s the wrong color. Remember we have a hue that we all abide to. It’s gray, white, green, black” anything that’s not within those hues will confuse the market and it’s very, very fizzled. There’s no answer that’s really, really important. All of our marketing that goes out has a clip color green. Everything is branded as a passport. Everything is branded as a visa. It’s got stamps on it. I say to my staff “when the look and feel of Misschu is travel, passport, visas, refugees, school, tuck shop. If you put all those elements together, you will have a strong brand.”

Tim:

Do you have some kind of induction or do you obviously employ who get it?

Miss Chu:

It’s gotten to a point where we do have an induction manual, definitely. The business is only 5 years old. I’ve been winging it right up until now and I’m still winging it, pardon the pun but I did say that I was planning of going into the travel industry. Branding in marketing is that know what your product is and then know how you want it to look. You must be absolutely sure of that before you start releasing yourself into the market.

Tim:

I often talk about the idea of building a brand is like, I use the analogy of like as business owners and brand builders we’re like Dr. Frankenstein, albeit a friendly monster hopefully but we can control what it looks like, what it wears, how it speaks, when it speaks.

Miss Chu:

Yeah, I like the…

Tim:

The analogy.

Miss Chu:

The analogy is very correct. Like media for example, the media loves to portray me as the Nazi, so whenever they interview me on TV or whatnot, they ask me to stand at the window and yell at customers.

Tim:

Is that weird?

Miss Chu:

It’s weird because I tell them that’s actually really not the brand. That’s the person you remember and I know that it sells and it rates but it’s not me. I’m actually a very kind soul and I yell at people and I used to yell at people because they didn’t get me. They didn’t get me because they thought that a Vietnamese person actually rolls out in Cabramatta. They thought that a Vietnamese person was more submissive than I was and I was kind of outspoken. They thought that a Vietnamese product should cost $3, whereas my rice paper rolls cost $6, which I thought was still quite inexpensive. My baguette cost $8 and they were like “but it’s $4 out in Cabramatta.” I’m like “go to Cabramatta and get a $4 baguette.”

Tim: 

That’s right, and spend $10 in petrol.

Miss Chu:

Yeah exactly, and it will take you 2 hours to get there.

Tim:  

You launched in 2009, 5 years down the track 8 stores, 1 in London, 1 in the Opera House, $25 million turnover, 280 staff, tell me about the longest sleepless night you had in those last 5 years.

Miss Chu:

I probably can’t say.

Tim: 

Which one?

Miss Chu: 

Recently I’m suing somebody for a large sum of money, so I’m having long and sleepless nights right now.

Tim:

Yeah right, and that’s a business thing?

Miss Chu: 

Yeah

Tim:

Yeah right, so we can’t go into that but what about in bringing the business, maybe that is related to bringing the business to life, but early days you started off with $1200, how you started business with what well done to you.

Miss Chu: 

You start small and let it go organically.

Tim: 

Right, reinvest the profit.

Miss Chu: 

Literally I started with $1500 in my pocket. I left the bank and I went on a Vipassana meditation course for 10 days. I came out of those 10 days and decided that I was going to make rice paper rolls and wholesale in to caterers. I looked up on the internet and found the biggest caterer was actually at the Opera House. I rang up the executive chef and said “hi I’m new in town. I make rice paper rolls, canapé size. I’m really good at it and I’d like a meeting” and he said “I love your conviction” so I went the next day with a box of samples and he said “love it, when can I have my first order?” and I said “tomorrow” and he said “where do you operate from?” I just lied. I said I have a commercial kitchen and he said “yup, done.” I was making them from home in Belmont and his first order was 30 rolls and the second order was 120 rolls. By the second week, he was ordering 900 units per day. 3 months down the track, he was ordering 1500 units per day and then by New Years Eve, which was only 3 months after operating, I had 3 caterers call me and overnight on New Year ’s Eve I was making 17,000 rolls within 8 hours and that was only 3 caterers. I’ve grown, within 3 months from an order of 30 units to 17,000 units. The first year income was $90,000. The second year income from the shop that I’ve had in Darlinghurst, that’s 2009 so the first year was 2008 from home. 2009 was when I went proper and hired a shop.

Tim:

You got serious.

Miss Chu:

I got serious.

Tim: 

At what point did you tell the bloke at the Opera House “hey, we haven’t really had a  commercial kitchen.”

Miss Chu:

I never did. I never did. I’m just winded and I knew. I knew what HACCP is, I knew that when we get to that stage you have to have a HACCP license which is health hazard analysis critical control point. I’ve come from hospitality, I’ve been a caterer in Melbourne. I have studied HACCP and I have gone as far you can go with health and hygiene. I knew exactly what I was doing. I just needed to start from somewhere and that’s what I need. I started from a very small place from home and just grew organically since then.

Tim:   

Miss Chu, I have so many listeners that are stuck in a cubicle with a big business idea that they’re dying to bring to market.

Miss Chu: 

I could help them. I’m really good with names and how to brand.

Tim:

I love naming too. Do you want to start a naming business?

Miss Chu:

Yeah. I find excitement in that. Someone made a joke with me. I was doing a talk at some conference and this guy put up his hand and he said “I’m disabled” and he had one arm, “what would you do if you were someone like me who’s disabled, don’t have much” and I said “well clearly you speak really well. You can ask a question really well. You obviously got brains. You came to this conference to listen to me speak. You’ve put your hand and ask a question. The only thing you don’t have is an arm” and I said “why don’t you sell arms?” and he just stood there and laugh and then “sell arms?” I said “yeah, sell weapons. Sell anything to do with arms.”

Tim:

A yeah, that’s what I thought you mean.

Miss Chu:  

Take the piece out of yourself and make it a marketing plan and turn a bad point into a really positive strong point and really own it.

Tim:  

There’s not enough humor in this world, Miss Chu.

Miss Chu:

Yeah, humor with conviction. A business has to have a heartbeat as well. Don’t forget it. It has to make a difference to the world. Like a cookbook, Jesus I don’t have a cookbook. Does the world really need another cookbook?

Tim:

Doesn’t need another one, do not do one.

Miss Chu: 

We need another cookbook like we need another parking ticket.

Tim:

Yeah, no we’re all out cookbook.

Miss Chu:

Unless you’ve got a purpose behind it.

Tim: 

Yeah I agree.

Miss Chu: 

The purpose behind my next cookbook and I’m still trying to get a publisher to agree with me and I have found one. It took me 12 months for a publisher to agree that 5% of the profit has to go to a philanthropic foundation that I believe it.

Tim: 

That was really a discussion? That’s like a question, I say “yeah fine, next.”

Miss Chu: 

Yeah well so many of them said no way because “as if your book is going to make a profit” and I said “I know it’s not going to make a profit but at least what about 5% turnover” and they said “no that’s worth too much money.” I said “Jesus come on!”

Tim:

Oh wow, you find another publisher. In fact what you do is self publish and then you will make a profit. Hello to all the publishers that I know that…

Miss Chu:  

Self publishing is going to take so much work. What I did in the end was I said that 5% of the proceeds of the book will go towards philanthropy and that will come from my pocket but 5% of the contents of the book must have something that drives people to donate.

Tim:  

I don’t want to finish this interview on a down note. I don’t think it will be but I’m fascinated to understand you had a tough childhood, that’s an understatement. You arrived at Australia, coming out of a Thai refugee camp, leaving your home country that was under a dictatorship. We don’t have to go into great detail about what a dark place you and your family must have been in. How did you recover your sense of humor and maintain it even today when you reflect back on those times and I ask that for the bloke in the wheelchair and for other people who are doing it tough.

Miss Chu: 

I think when you go through trauma, people deal with recovery in different ways and I think a lot of people use comedy to recover from a tragedy and that’s what I’ve done as well. I think comedy is really important. Comedy I think is probably one of the most powerful medicines one could have.

Tim:

How good is a good laugh?

Miss Chu:

It’s like taking in an ecstasy. I used to in my youth but I can remember the sensation. There’s nothing like having a good laugh. It really just cures it.

Tim:

Yeah, I love getting the giggles, particularly when it’s uncontrollable, your shoulders start to shake and it just becomes like…

Miss Chu: 

Everything works, all the muscles in your body works.

Tim:

Hey listen, I can’t wait to do, listeners Miss Chu and I are doing a road show around Australia for Westpac in the coming weeks. We’re going to have a lot of fun and I think we should come up with some names. We’re going to call the business Sticky Names. You’re happy with that?

Miss Chu: 

Fantastic.

Tim:

I don’t know what we’re going to name but we’ll name something, maybe someone could send us in a request to name something.

Miss Chu:  

For moments that are sticky, Sticky Moments.

Tim:  

Yeah that’s right, for when you’re stuck.

Miss Chu: 

Yeah

Tim: 

Love it. Hey Miss Chu, I love your work.

Miss Chu: 

Thanks Tim.

Tim:  

You’ve shared some gold with us and I really appreciate that.

Miss Chu:

Thanks for listening everybody.

Tim:

Yeah good on you. I know listeners are going to have a lot of comments, so if they’ll do I’ll flick them your lane.

Miss Chu: 

By all means, go to the website and I answer all the emails invariably. They’ll come to me anyway.

Tim:  

Thank you, Miss Chu.

Miss Chu:

Great, thanks Tim.

Tim:

Wow! That’s all I can say. I hope you enjoyed that fireside chat as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

I don’t know about you but A – I could have spoken to Miss Chu for a lot, lot longer, like I’m talking hours and B – there are a lot more than 3 learnings that I took from that chat with her. However, let me share my top 3. #1 – Disrupt the marketplace. I think that’s brilliant and there should be more of it. #2 – Have conviction of your ideas. Own your ideas and really lean into them. The 3^rd tip by the way is if no one’s done it, then it’s a good idea. Come up with an idea; ask yourself if it’s done before. If it hasn’t been done before, then guess what, it might be a really good idea and there’ll be naysayers, there’ll be people who say “oh don’t do that. It’s never been done like that.” That could be real good reason to do it and you kind of consider some past guests of this show and they’ve all disrupted the category, they’ve all challenged the category and they’ve all gone against convention. I love that. I reckon there should be more of it and I really would love to hear what ideas came out of that fireside chat for you, so head over to the show notes of episode 186 at smallbusinessbigmarketing.com and leave a comment, a feedback, maybe there’s a question you would have loved me to ask. I can always ask Miss Chu to comeback and answer the question in the show notes. Maybe there’s just something you want to feedback to me after that interview. I’d love to hear what you’ve got to say.

Right-o, so let’s get stuck in to this contentious issue that is listener reviews. As I mentioned a couple of episodes ago no funny business, I was talking to Griffo about the fact that I’ve got an email from one of my forum members actually, saying “Timbo, I don’t like the way you get celebrities to read reviews that you get on iTunes” and I kind of thought “I think it’s a bit fun” and Griffo and I agreed it was a bit fun but inside the Small Business Big Marketing forum, people are saying not so fun. Here are some of the comments that I’m getting. Mepiman, who started the conversation, posted it in the forum and he’s got some support from the tribe and Laurie saying “I’m with you, Mark, but I don’t hate them but personally I’d prefer just having Timbo read them.” In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, the back end of episodes, I would get people who can do celebrity voices to read reviews that I get on iTunes. I thought it was a bit of fun but clearly not. Who else have we got? HopinVine within the forums says “that don’t really do much for me. I tend to skip them. I’m much more likely to listen to them when Tim reads them out.” Sarah says “I love hearing the testimonials. I think they should continue, maybe even before the outro but I definitely that it’s nice for Timbo to read them.” HappyChappy says “I would prefer to hear Timbo to read them.” Danny says the same. Shaun says the same. Shaun goes as far as saying “the tribe has spoken, Timbo.” So listen, yeah that’s fair enough. The kind of overall feeling was that I was not giving them the love and attention they deserve and it was cheapening them by getting celebrity voiceovers to do it. So I’m going to read some reviews and I’m not going to read reviews just for the sake of “Timbo, I love the show you raise” but I think there’s learnings and confirmation in them, for you the listener to see what other people think as well and where other small business owners are at in their business. This one is from Sherrie and she says “hey there Timbo. Your ears must be burning on a regular basis. I love your podcast and anxiously wait for Tuesdays to roll around so that I can get inspired and enlightened.” A big learning for me, actually, down that whole Tuesday thing. I do my darnest to get a show out each Tuesday and it’s that regularity, so if you are into the habit of  creating content, then the idea is to push something out on a regular basis and if it’s going to be a Friday afternoon, then put it out on a Friday afternoon; if it’s going to be a Tuesday, put it out on a Tuesday but what happens is you develop an expectation amongst your leadership, your listening audience, your viewers, whatever it may be and they start to look forward to it and it’s a good thing for your brand. Sherrie goes on to say “I must tell at least 2 people a week about what I’ve learned, in fact just emailing a link to one of your podcast right now.” That’s great. Again, if you create useful engaging content, people will share it. So compare that to advertising, no one rings you and says “I love that ad you put in the local paper. Do you mind if I email that to my friends?” That doesn’t happen but if you create engaging content, it does. Sherrie, back to Sherrie, “after my brave jump into the world of the startup, I found you; now I take you with me up Mount Tabor each morning, with my lovely newfie Aboo, (I’m guessing a newfie is a dog and I’m guessing Aboo is the name of Sherrie’s dog.) What a lovely thing to do. I join lots of people on their walks. I hear from emails and things. “You’re awesome, you’re great, you’re generous, you’re passionate about marketing and it shows. Someday I hope to grow up and be just like you. That’s all.” Thank you, Sherrie and Sherrie is from Shoe Fits Marketing.

Alright, here is one from Bryan. I touched on this email in last week’s episode. I think it’s quite funny. This is from Bryan Morris. Now Bryan says “Hey Tim, Bryan Morris here. Firstly I’d like to say thank you for your great show. The content is brilliant and always right on the money” and there’s always a ‘but’ though, isn’t there? Here comes the ‘but’. “I have been wondering lately if your sponsor, Net Registry, is a pommy business as you almost always use a pommy accent when you say ‘get your online marketing sorted’” and that really annoys him. “I have to say it’s only a small grumble but when you use the accent, I feel quite irritated and I wonder if it could turn off some of their potential customers.” I don’t know Bryan. I think you’re looking too far into it, mate. If I get a whole barrow, a whole swag of emails saying “Timbo, if you says ‘sorted’ one more time in a pommy accent, I’ll stop listening to the show” then I’ll stop listening but I’m not one for listening to the feedback of one and taking it to heart. It’s when the majority speaks, like they have in the forum about the way I have previously treated listener feedback. Bryan very kindly goes on to say “I listen to your podcast while I’m on my day job as a haul truck operator on the mines in Western Australia.” I knew a few listeners who are doing that kind of thing. “The great content is helping grow my little hobby business in my downtime and I know in about 24 month’s time, it will be my full time gig. I sincerely hope this email hasn’t offended you as it really is a brilliant podcast and your efforts are appreciated.” Bryan, I used to be easily offended. I used to have a soft skin, not I’ve got a hard skin. Not offended at all, mate. Love the feedback, love the fact that you reached out and made contact because that’s kind of what I like. When you’re talking behind a microphone, dark, dingy room, it’s nice to know that there are people out there who respond.

This one is from Tulita. I like this one from Tulita. She says “Hey Timbo! Love your podcast. I’m about to review it on iTunes.” Love that, thank you Tulita. Please listeners, if you do get the opportunity, if there’s one thing you did for me besides send me to the tropics for a week, it would be to review my podcast on iTunes. Tulita says “thank you for your endless enthusiasm. I too love woo-woo; can’t get enough of it.” Sometimes I apologize when I get a bit woo-woo in my marketing advice but hey, marketing is emotional, it’s a little bit spiritual and sometimes rational, so stick with that. “I’m so energized by your efforts, Timbo. I just bought a…” I love this! “I just bought a waterproof Bluetooth speaker so I can kick off my day with a Timbo boost while I’m getting ready in the bathroom.” Oh Tulita, Tulita. What a great name, Tulita. It’s kind of like American Indian name. Maybe not, I’m probably completely wrong there. Tulita’s from 8 Seconds Marketing for all Business; another marketing consultant there, Tulita. Thank you for those very, very kind words everyone.

There it is, some listener feedback read by me and as I said it is stacking up. If you want to send me some feedback or comment, whatever marketing question, you can go to smallbusinessbigmarketing.com and hit the contact button and you can send me an email. I read them all. If you feel like reviewing my show on iTunes, go and do that right now!

Okay team of motivated small business owners, that is about it. I’m recording this before I go to L.A, although it will run after I’m back from L.A. I hope to share my experiences with you whilst over there. I’m giving a keynote talk on the Monday. I’m doing a couple of other things and then having a look around. I’m expecting to see some pretty amazing little marketing tips and tricks while I wander around California. Stay tune for that. There is a Small Business Big Marketing Facebook. You can head over there and I’ll be posting some stuff over there. Join the forum, I’ll be talking about what I’m seeing inside the forum. Love to see you inside there. You can join by going to smallbusinessbigmarketing.com and clicking on the forum button. It’s a buck for the first 7 days so why wouldn’t you?

I have got some ripper and I mean ripper interviews coming up. A little bit hush-hush on exactly what. I’ll keep you guessing but I can assure you that you have reason to be excited. Enough, I’m Timbo Reid and you have been smart enough to tune in to the world’s #1 small business marketing show. May your marketing be the best marketing. Bye for now.