Elevating your business with Human to Human marketing
Welcome back to "Process to Profitability." If you're looking to make your mark in the business world while staying true to yourself, you're in for a treat. In today's episode, I'm joined by the incredible Angela Henderson, and we're diving deep into the realm of Human to Human marketing. In an era where AI and automation are on the rise, Angela and I explore the power of connecting authentically with your audience, making them feel seen and heard. We discuss strategies to stand out, build trust, and foster genuine connections that lead to profitability. So, if you're ready to unlock the secrets of creating remarkable human experiences in your business, this episode is a must-listen.
Timestamps:
[00:02:16] Meet Angela
[00:04:42] What is Human to Human marketing?
[00:09:02] The importance of making people feel seen and heard
[00:13:43] Why do you need to incorporate Human to Human marketing in your business
[00:15:21] Practical ways you can use Human to Human marketing in your business
[00:23:43] Connect with Angela
Key Topics:
Human-centric marketing builds real relationships in a digital landscape.
Be memorable; exceptional experiences set you apart.
Authenticity drives emotional motivators that lead to conversions.
Nurturing existing relationships is key for long-term growth.
Thoughtful gestures and engagement strengthen connections.
Meaningful conversations fuel conversions and business growth.
"Go-Giver" philosophy prioritizes value and others' interests.
Stay humble and maintain genuine connections as your business expands.
Resources:
Bonus Tip: Use Interact to create a quiz that showcases your expertise and builds trust with your audience. They even have an AI builder that helps you write your quiz based on your topic and audience.
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: If you wanna make sure that you stand out in your business and find a way to market that feels really good for you, today's episode with Angela Henderson is going to be a great one.
[00:00:12] Angela and I are talking about Human to Human marketing and what that means, especially in the age of AI and all of the automation that we see online.
[00:00:25] We talk a lot about how we can stand out as business owners and as we find a way to make a real connection, to really show up, to get to know our audience and make sure they feel seen and heard. We also talk about why this is so important for your profitability in your business. When we can make people feel seen, feel safe, feel like they belong, they are going to continue to come back to us. They're going to want to work with us, they're going to refer us, and that all leads to a more profitable business.
[00:01:05] Angela shares a couple of ways that you might do this in your business, no matter the size and it's all about innovating and thinking about what your audience wants and the ways that you like to interact with people so that you can create an experience that helps you to stand out, but really helps you to show up as a good human in your business who is working with other humans, and why this is going to be so essential to building a thriving business, especially as we continue to see more and more marketing in the noisy online space.
[00:01:44] Angela is an international award-winning business consultant and coach, speaker and podcaster who helps women around the world make more money by creating a personalized business strategy and mastering their mindset so that they can create a business and life they love and want to show up for every single day.
[00:02:05] Hi Angela. Thanks for joining me.
[00:02:08] Angela Henderson: Oh my goodness. I'm super excited to be here today, Samantha. Always fun being with good humans and good energy. So yes, thrilled to be here today.
Meet Angela
[00:02:16] Samantha Mabe: I read your official bio at the beginning of the show, but do you can you tell us more about your business journey and how to you got to what you're doing today?
[00:02:25] Angela Henderson: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a proud Canadian and I'm like, what's there not to love when we have Pamela Anderson, Beamer Beavers and Tim Hortons. Life is pretty good when you're a Canadian, but I have lived over in beautiful Brisbane, Australia now for almost 17 years.
[00:02:38] So I'm actually a mental health clinician 15 years where used to diagnose people with schizophrenia, bipolar autism, anxiety, et cetera. And so I did that for a very long time, had my first son, and then I was like, I remember he was playing with these electronical toys, but I was like, there's gotta be a better way at such a young age for him to work with his fine motor skills, color recognition, et cetera.
[00:02:57] So I started my first business, which was called Finley and Me, where I start with zero products, just like everyone does. And we finished up with 1400 different educational products that again sparked imagination, bonding with parents, creativeness, et cetera. And then we had 50,000 people on our email list, et cetera.
[00:03:14] I think what I learned through that initial business is never compare your chapter zero to someone's chapter 30 'cause we're all at different levels. But what I also learned through Finley and Me was the importance of diversifying and having multiple streams of income.
[00:03:28] So I also was influencer, one of Australia's leading parenting influencers where I was signed with Netflix, Club Meds, Hiltons, similar to like your Whole Foods, et cetera. And I created content for them to put it on my platform, which was really cool.
[00:03:41] And then people wanted to start picking my brain. And so after 14 coffee dates, I soon realized, oh, if I charge people for these coffee dates, I could have a secondary business. And now I've been a business consultant, keynote speaker, and podcaster for the last seven years where I've helped thousands of women around the world to make more money by developing their personalized strategy that they need for their business, which is an alignment for them and mastering their mindset so they can show up to a life and business they love every single day.
[00:04:09] Samantha Mabe: Wow. That's quite the journey and in a lot of different types of businesses with doing therapy and then doing products and shifting to more of an online service-based model.
[00:04:20] Angela Henderson: 100%. But I think that all those different experiences have allowed me to, I, people who have worked with different coaches before. One of my benefits is though I'm not diagnosing anyone, because that's out of the scope of my practice now, I still bring those skills that I've had from those previous roles. I think I'm able to expedite things for people in a different way than a traditional coach could.
What is Human to Human marketing?
[00:04:42] Samantha Mabe: Today we're talking about Human to Human marketing, which is something you've talked a lot about. So can you explain what that is to start us off?
[00:04:51] Angela Henderson: Yeah, absolutely. Human to Human marketing pertains to the experience and interaction one faces with a particular brand. Often we've got B2B marketing, B2C marketing. I've been talking about this topic now for about six years. In a world where people are selling every single day, in a world where things are noisier than ever before, I believe people need to be infusing Human to Human marketing, that experience an interaction one faces with a brand more than ever before because you're gonna get left behind.
[00:05:21] If you think about how fast AI has evolved over just the last six months, for example with ChatGPT and a variety of other programs, the reality of it is, these programs are great and there's a place for these programs, but people don't want everything to be done by robots. People want to feel seen and people want to be heard.
[00:05:39] So when you infuse Human to Human marketing into your brand, what happens is you create an experience and an interaction. You become memorable. And there's a really great book by Seth Godin called The Purple Cow, and they're driving down these beautiful pastures of France or country roads, you could say, depending on what country you're from. And he's wow, look at the cows. There's brown cows, white cows, black cows. Over time, things just become ordinary. But if there was a purple cow as we drove by, that would become remarkable.
[00:06:09] So I want you to think about how Human to Human marketing, being counterintuitive in doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing and creating experience and interaction with your brand, allowing customers to feel seen and heard, allowing you to become remarkable, is inevitable going to allow you to create more money and live the life that you want.
[00:06:28] Samantha Mabe: I love that. And I think so many of us value that in our businesses. We know that when we interact with people, we want to see that person. We want to see that people are real. And so it's just another piece of that.
[00:06:43] We have come into an age where robots can do a whole lot and people know that robots can do a whole lot. And so it's even more valuable and stands out even more if you are working more face-to-face with people or just being real and having those conversations and having that connection.
[00:07:04] Angela Henderson: 100%. And an example that I can use is, there's a beautiful cafe here in Milton, Australia called Tugnenes. And I now have been going to them since I was firstly nine months pregnant with my son. And he's about to be 14 in just a couple of weeks at time of recording. And I remember when I first went into Tugnenes, they were like, just the normal 'hi, how are you?'
[00:07:25] And then they kept seeing me more and more. They're like, 'Hey, what's your name?' and they're like, 'good morning Angela. How are you?' and I was like, 'wow. They took the time to know my name.'
[00:07:32] And then as my pregnancy progressed, they're like, how much longer do you have? Do you know if you're having a boy? Do you know if you're having a girl?' They're like, 'do you want the blueberry muffin or the raspberry muffin?' It was like those pregnancy cravings and we still pretty much get the exact same thing.
[00:07:45] Now I live a 40 minute return trip from this, even though my kids go to their school, but there are weekends that I will drive 20 minutes one way to get that blueberry or raspberry muffin and drive all the way back, even though they sell blueberry and raspberry muffins In my local neighborhood.
[00:07:59] But it's the experience and interaction I've had that allows me to keep going back. And I remembered a few years ago, I jotted down how many, 'cause I normally would go three to four times a week when we lived over on that side of town, and I jotted down roughly they had already got almost $20,000 from me in I think it was 12 years.
[00:08:17] And so I want businesses to be thinking about where are you creating experiences and interactions that will infuse this remarkability notion, right? And allow you to become memorable.
[00:08:30] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, and that interaction reminds me a lot of our doctor's office here. I was referred by somebody else. I've talked to so many people that love them because they take really good notes about who you are. They remember you. And they're building a business where like everything is in-house and it stands out and you feel like you are much more than a number and much more than a patient when you go. And it's such a nice experience, especially in a field where a lot of times it's in and out and they barely remember who you are.
The importance of making people feel seen and heard
[00:09:02] Angela Henderson: One a hundred percent. And you also have to remember in a time like this, certain countries have different trust levels when it comes to social media. Australia is one of them. Behind France, this was a study done back in 2019, behind France, 26% of Australians in the study trust social media compared to the global average of 44. So we were like one of the least trusting countries.
[00:09:25] So if that's the case, if you're able to blend in Human to Human marketing into your business where people feel so seen and heard, you're going to move them from a cold client to a warm client and help with that trust factor.
[00:09:37] So also be mindful of what country do you live in and how important trust is. Australians are like, 'this stuff's a dollar. It must be horrible. It might not be good. I won't buy it.' So be mindful because that trust factor is a big consideration when people are looking at handing their credit card over to you.
[00:09:54] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, and even in America where it's like 44%, there's still a big percentage of people that aren't going to just trust social media.
[00:10:02] Angela Henderson: Conversations equal conversions, right? And so when you think about the typical B2B and 2C marketing, I feel it's like tick boxes. Do you know what I mean? Whatever you're doing to businesses or consumers.
[00:10:13] But if you think about also, where are you infusing conversations into your world? Again, those conversations allow you to create an experience and an interaction, right? And the more conversations you have, the more people feel seen, the more they trust you, right? The more they trust you, the more the conversions you're going to have.
[00:10:33] But yet, so often I see people like, I'm not gonna, I just can't go into my Instagram because I've got so many messages. That's a privilege that you have so many messages, right? That's a privilege that those people have taken time out of their day to message you.
[00:10:50] 'I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna outsource that to a VA because I don't have time for that.' In my opinion, that's the last thing you should be outsourcing. You should be in your inbox, as far as I'm concerned, building those conversations, allowing people to feel seen or heard.
[00:11:04] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I think if we can spend the time to do that piece of the connection, then a lot of the other stuff isn't going to matter as much if we don't have time for that.
[00:11:16] Angela Henderson: 100%. And I also know this really great story. I was in the Philippines at Chris Ducker's Mastermind a few years ago and I remember there's this guy named Lou Mongello. He said this massive podcast and he talked about when he first started out in his business journey, he would rent entire restaurants and he would say, anyone in the local, let's say San Diego area, come on down, I'll buy dinner, you buy your own drinks, et cetera. It's about the power of hugs and a handshake.
[00:11:45] He then started to work with Walt Disney World, and he then brought all of his community from around the world onto these cruise lines, and he would hug and give everyone a handshake. No one could get on the ship until he's given you a hug and a handshake. Now, he might not remember all thousands of your names, but he will look you in the eye and he will make sure that you are seen and that you are felt, and that you belong in his community.
[00:12:09] When I was reviewing, reflecting last year, I thought, what did I used to do that I love doing and that I've stopped doing? And I was like, I stopped doing meetup groups unless they were paid. And I was like, why did you stop doing that? And I was like, oh, because you thought you no longer needed to go back to your roots. All of us will have ego. Do you know what I mean? Whether or not we acknowledge it is something different. But when I acknowledged it, I was like, ah, that's right. So this year I've held the private VIP cocktail parties for business owners. And I rent the venue. I pay for all the food. I bring all the people together. There's no selling. It's just remarkable to be able to give people hugs and handshakes again. I'm creating an experience and an interaction for people to feel seen and heard. So there's so much power when you look at how you can embrace Human to Human marketing.
[00:12:53] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So right now Taylor Swift is touring the US and all of my feeds are about how interactive she is and how much you can see how she loves her audience. And I think that is a good example here for people as well. She can sell you like multiple copies of the same album because she is real and she's building that connection even when she's on stage in front of 22,000 people.
[00:13:20] Angela Henderson: She takes the time to look at people, to listen to people, to engage with the audience. And that's another notion people can say, yeah, but my audience is so big. Taylor Swift is one of the biggest singers around the world. She can't go and hug all, say 50,000 people in a room, but she does a remarkable job at still making people feel like she's speaking to them.
Why do you need to incorporate Human to Human marketing in your business
[00:13:43] Angela Henderson: A lot of people say to me, Ange, but why do you need human marketing? There was a study done, it's one of the most amazing studies, and what they concluded was this: your customers are human. That study really wasn't done, I made that up. But your customers are fricking human beings. At what stage did you forget that they were humans?
[00:14:08] And another reason why, like I said, you need Human to Human marketing is not only because they're humans, but again, as I said earlier on, you must stand out. You must be the purple cow.
[00:14:19] And also the third reason why you need Human to Human marketing is emotional motivators drive consumer behaviors, which equals sales. So what emotional motivators are you bringing into people?
[00:14:32] In the book The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, they talk about the five laws of stratospheric success. And they talk about the law of value: your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. The second law is a law of compensation: your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. The third law is the law of influence: your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. The fourth law is the law of authenticity: the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. And the fifth law is the law of receptivity: the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
[00:15:08] But in a world where we want immediate gratification and everyone wants to be millionaires right now, and they don't wanna have the patience and they don't wanna do the work, they skip so many of these steps and then they wonder why they plateau at their business.
Practical ways you can use Human to Human marketing in your business
[00:15:21] Samantha Mabe: So if somebody is in their business and they want to start applying this, how can we use Human to Human marketing in our own businesses? Maybe something like renting out a restaurant and paying for everyone's meals doesn't make sense for where listeners are, but what are some ways that you have seen businesses do this, that you recommend that we try?
[00:15:43] Angela Henderson: There's so many. But the first one that I say is, for example, I've got a Facebook community called the Women in Business Collaborative with Angela Henderson. And a lot of my mentors were like, 'don't spend time showing up in your groups. Don't do this, outsource it, blah, blah, blah.' So I outsource the postings of things, but we still go in there and we still interact. We try and answer all the questions that we can. If someone leaves a comment, we'll comment. Sometimes it is me, but sometimes it is my team. The notion though is that you are feeling heard and seen by the Angela Henderson brand, right?
[00:16:15] So if you have a Facebook community, how are you showing up in there? Are you answering comments? Are you not answering comments? Are you encouraging people to engage? Or you have all of these rules about how people can post? How can you show up there in order to increase your visibility and reach and have those conversations? Remember, conversations equal connection. Connection equal conversions.
[00:16:35] I hop on all my discovery calls when people told me I shouldn't. People were telling me, 'you need to hire a sales team. Don't hop on your own calls. You can grow faster.' And I was like, 'yeah, but if I'm gonna work with someone, I wanna make sure that we're in alignment with each other. I wanna make sure that they get a test drive me, and I get to test drive them.'
[00:16:55] I run very successful masterminds and so if I outsource that to someone else, they're driven by sales because they're a sales team and that's how they make their commission. They might just start letting any Tom, Dick, and Harry in, and therefore they compromise the group. So are you doing your own discovery calls? Are you speaking with your own people? Do you even offer discovery calls?
[00:17:15] Discovery calls might feel very exhausting for you and they might not be in alignment. Don't do them then, but still look at other ways that you can infuse Human to Human marketing.
[00:17:24] Another example is I work really hard to try and remember particular things about that are relevant to people. Subconsciously Sam goes, 'oh, Ang noticed. She knows my brand. She had a look at things.' I'm not doing it for Sam to buy anything from me. I'm just doing it because I wanna be a good human. So it's the little things like that again, you can do any day on with any client, with any perspective client, with building in a network.
[00:17:50] I also, for every new coaching call client that comes on board, we send them this personalized gift and the personalized gift it has the name of their business and the year that their business was established. Now, I could send them a mug with angelahenderson.com.au on it. I could send them a notebook and a pen and paper with angelahenderson.com.Au on it. Is that gonna be memorable? Is that gonna make them feel like they're feeling seen? Am I creating experience and interaction or am I doing it 'cause I want my brand everywhere? Those mugs and pens and paper probably cost more to get printed than this plaque, but I tell you there are so many women around the world that now have this.
[00:18:33] I just got a new on one-on-one client and she messaged me the day, just yesterday actually. She said, 'oh my gosh, I'm sitting in my living room crying. Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging me. Thank you for showing me how far I've come in business. This plaque has shown me more than what you know now.' It costs me $25 to send those, but guess what? My clients feel seen, they feel heard.
[00:18:58] If you're still in the infancy stages of business, pick up the phone and call your people. I can't tell you how many people are like, ' oh my God. I just have to pull over. I just have to pull over. I was just listening to your podcast and now you're, what the hell is going on?'
[00:19:12] So those are some of the ways that we infuse Human to Human marketing within our business. There'll always be more ways, but just remember any of those touch points is around sparking conversation. Ultimately, where are you sparking conversations to build connections to then help you with conversions and increase your overall growth in your business? And if you're not doing Human to Human, I believe you'll start to fall between the cracks and become more and more unremarkable and more and more unseen, and in a world where things are noisy enough, stay to the truth. Do what's in alignment for you and infuse human marketing.
[00:19:48] Samantha Mabe: I love those ideas. I actually switched, so originally when I was sending client gifts, I was doing just that. It was stuff with my brand on it, and I thought about it and I was like, if I get a mug from business, like I don't drink coffee, so I have no use for this mug, it's gonna sit in my cabinet or I'm just gonna donate it to the thrift store.
[00:20:11] But now I have I have a gifting person who goes in and she prints out like stuff with their name, their business, their logo. And that's so much more meaningful for people. And I get so many people that are like, this was so cool that like you took the time to notice my brand colors and put my name on this.
[00:20:29] Because that's what people are actually going to keep. They're gonna think about you when they use it and you're just, building that relationship. I took the time, I noticed these things. It feels so much more personal than just sending something with your brand or just something generic because you actually thought about them.
[00:20:49] Angela Henderson: I think it's absolutely key.
[00:20:52] People will use the words, 'I'm too busy, I'm too busy.' Are you too busy chasing the next lead? Or should you be busy nurturing the person? My retention right in my programs is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. And I believe it's because I make them feel seen, make them feel heard, even from point of discovery call. They're on the phone with me. They're then getting welcomed on a call with me. They're then getting their gift from my team and I. It's not coincidence that people stay in my ecosystem and wanna keep working with me.
[00:21:24] Now granted, I obviously still have to have strategy and guidance and emails and funnels and all that to help 'em, but if I didn't have that, they probably wouldn't. But I also believe people stay because of the community.
[00:21:34] Samantha Mabe: I think that is such a missed kind of metric as we look at our businesses is our retention rate or our return rate, depending on what it is that we do with our clients. And it's so much easier to sell to somebody who's already worked with you and had a good experience. So why not put your effort in those places instead of trying to figure out the latest social media algorithm change?
[00:21:58] Angela Henderson: I can tell you the amount of people that like will initially work with me and then they might buy like one of my $37 products, for example, and then they come into like my next level, which is my profit pillar mastermind. Then they might come to Bali with me. Then they might take a break and then they come back and they'll say things like, 'Ang I'm back because I need back in my life because I know you're gonna listen to me.'
[00:22:20] To me this isn't rocket science. To me, this isn't hard, but people make it hard because they put themselves and their needs first. Whereas, like they talked about in the Go-Giver, lead with value first and give to people first and you will become profitable.
[00:22:34] Samantha Mabe: You said earlier you just have to be a good human. And I think we can forget that in all of the noise and all of the advice from all these business owners that are out there, but if we can remember to just stay in our lane, serve the clients that we want to serve.
[00:22:53] A lot of people start off doing those kinds of things because we have to as we're bootstrapping our business together. We lose that as we grow. We still need to make time and put the effort forth into making that connection, getting on the sales call, doing a phone call or a video email or something that works for us.
[00:23:10] Angela Henderson: 100%, but yet, that's where ego comes into play. 'I don't need to do this anymore. I've made it. I'm successful.'
[00:23:17] How cool would it be, for example, if I'm signing up to American Airlines and I booked my ticket and I got a postcard from American Airlines being like, ' really excited to welcome you on board while you go on your next trip.'
[00:23:31] What if they employed two or three people and all their job was is to write handwritten notes and get into the post office? You can't tell me that American Airlines would not boost their revenue.
Connect with Angela
[00:23:43] Samantha Mabe: As people are thinking about that, where is the best place for them to reach out and follow you and learn more about what you do?
[00:23:51] Angela Henderson: Yeah, absolutely. We've got an amazing four day Women in Business retreat happening in Bali in October. We've already got 18 amazing women joining us. So if you're looking for something like that to be able to create space and just kinda review, reflect, and revise on what's going on, but also in the magical paradise of the island of Bali head to my website, angelahenderson.com.au.
[00:24:10] Or if you're just wanting to work with me or one of my masterminds and you find everything there at angelahenderson.com.au.
[00:24:16] I always just gonna say I want you to connect with me in a way that works for you. It could be my podcast, it could be Instagram, it could be by working with me. So the best bet always is to go to my website.
