Tell me about your vision. My vision quite simply is to have people live the lives that they want
to live ultimately and I believe you can do that through having your own businesses. So as an
entrepreneur I want to give people the ability to be able to run businesses in the way that they
want to run them, not the way that they think they should run them or other people run them.
I want to show them that business is not just one size fits all, everything is unique and different
and how you run your business is up to you and as an entrepreneur I love being an entrepreneur,
it's something I absolutely love and so many people go into business thinking it'd be easy
and in all honesty it isn't but actually it's about enjoying the journey not the end results
and that's where my vision is for what I'm doing. I want to be able to help people enjoy the process
of owning and running a business and be able to have the ability to fit it into the lives in the
way they want, not just the way that they think they should be doing it because everyone else
does it that way. Wow there's a lot of words you said in there. Tell me more about that because
you mentioned in the notes you call it the API strategy. Yeah. So tell me more about that.
Yeah so my API strategy, so in the UK I call myself the digital GP because that stands for doctor.
So a bit like you would go to a doctor when there's something not quite right with your health
and I believe business is a bit like the human body. When something's not quite right everything
feels a bit out of sync. So people come to me when they get stuck with their business,
something's not working, they're not sure how to fix it and we're staring at this kind of blank
wall of I don't know where to go from here, I'm not sure what to do next. It could be overwhelmed,
it could be stop bringing in the income or they started the business thinking it'll be amazing
and realize that actually they're working too many hours and not getting the results they want.
So that's when people come to me and I can actually look at everything that's going on,
a bit like your doctor would and find solutions and how I do that is by using what I call my API
method which is a bit of a play on words with the word digital you see. So it stands quite simply
and I've used this time and time again throughout my career because it always works. Every time I've
used it, it always works. It stands for audit plan implement and it's that simple. Every time
and we do this in life, every time we get to a point where we kind of go we're too busy or
there's something going on or we need to make a change, we start with well where are we now?
What is it that we're doing now? What do we need to make changes? What is working and what isn't?
Then the next stage we as humans we do is put a plan in place. It doesn't have to be like
a really long in-depth plan but it's what is it you want to get to? Where do you want to be?
So you start with that goal and that is what the plan will help you do. So it puts step by step
actions in place to get you to where you want to be and then that final phase which is often the
phase that we don't like to think about because that's a scary bit is the implementation. We're
then going to do the plan. We're going to do it but we're not going to worry if it goes wrong
because it's about learning. No plan is ever going to go to plan. That is rule number one.
It's how you react to those changes, how you monitor what's going on and how you refine it
and take it on to the next step. That's what's going to get you the success you need.
Wow there's a lot of thoughts I have. Some of them I agree, some of them I disagree.
But we'll chat about that. We'll chat about that. Yeah. Where did this vision Naomi of you
coming into business strategy after the podcast you had with hospitality come from?
And yeah I'm very curious because there's very few people I know who use business strategy instead
of business coaching and marketing at the same time. There's very few people in Hanoi.
And it's a very unique term and it's also a very powerful combination. I'm sure you realized that
being a strategist. You realize how powerful that combination can be.
So where did this come from? It comes from before my entrepreneurial journey really started. So my
first company was a cafe bar which I opened after quitting my nine to five office job
with no professional baking experience. I had never run a business before and that's what I went to
do was open a cafe and bar because I wanted to do something I loved. And it wasn't necessarily
that I was a brilliant baker. I was a good baker but I wasn't the best. I wasn't the worst but I
wasn't the best either. But what I knew was how to manage a project, how to deliver something,
how to set a plan, how to get everything in place. But what was actually the most important part of
doing all of that journey was that I had spent years working in careers that involved customer
experience, customer journey. And ultimately my roles were very much looking at how I can engage
audiences, how I can bring people on a journey that will know, like and trust whatever it is,
whatever company I'm working for do. The only way you can really get that to work properly
is by knowing what the business goals are. It's got to start at the top because otherwise you're
just putting messages out that will confuse the audience because they're not going to be able to
confuse the audience because they're not really going to understand and know what the brand,
the business is about. And it has to absolutely go all the way through. So that is why strategy
and marketing for me go absolutely hand in hand because nothing I'm going to promote about what
I do for my clients or my own business is going to go out there unless it's going to help me achieve
one of the business goals, values or the mission of the business. So that's why it's essential. So
for me, they are just so hand in hand. Without a business strategy, you're not going to know where
you're going to go, but you need the marketing to get the customers. So they have to work together.
They have to be really integrated and marketing is such a huge part of your business. It's what's
going to get you the income in at the end of the day. And it's one that takes up so much time.
There are so many things you could be doing and it's focusing down on the right things
for you and your clients. That's what's really key. Yeah. What would you say is your buy
or what you do, Naomi? Like, why do you get out of bed and keep doing the same thing that you're
doing? Helping businesses. Because I mean, I love business. I've always loved business. I've
actually, my background is I'm a cellist. I'm a classically trained cellist. My background is in
music. And I grew up with the myth that you could choose passion or you could choose profit, but you
couldn't have both. So you can make money or you can be a musician, but you can't have both. They're
just two separate things, which I've come to learn particularly over the last few years that that is,
that is your choice to make. You can decide how much you make and how you make it from the careers
you choose is all to do with how you kind of want to do it. So my why is because I love seeing how
businesses work. I love looking at behind the scenes, but it brings me real joy to see people
really achieving and succeeding. My success is my client's success. That's what makes me get up in
the morning. I would much rather see them succeed at doing something than see my in the wrong way
possible. I see that over to succeed because I've that power of being able to help someone and see
them benefit from that. A really good example of this, which when I opened the cafe and bar,
it was our first year anniversary. So we'd only been going a year and we had a customer that had
come in and I hadn't really the kind of values and ethics of the cafe was to make it warm and
friendly. Anyone could come in, they could be on their own, they could be with their dog, they could
be with their friends and family, but it was about that's how they felt when they were in there. That
was what I wanted them to feel. I wanted them to feel like they were getting a hug, that they were
coming to somewhere that they loved. Yes, I sold coffee. Yes, I sold cake and they tasted great,
but actually it was more than that. It was the feeling that it gave them. And on our year
anniversary, one of my regular customers who'd come in every single day, pretty much for the
entire year, said on that day, he said, I just want to thank you and the team because his wife sadly
passed away just before we opened the cafe. And what that did was give him a purpose. It got him
a reason to get out of bed every morning. It gave him a community of people that he could connect
with. And he would sit there, have his coffee, have a chat sometimes, he'd maybe make a couple of
ankles, but that was his purpose for getting up in the morning. And that was really the power of
people. So that's my why, is actually being able to help people and provide them with something that
can make them feel better or make their businesses better. And because I've learned so much from my
own journeys and know how hard sometimes businesses can be and the tough decisions you have to make
and all of those bits, I wouldn't want to lose that knowledge and just let it go to waste.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to
participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time
building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.