BE A HUMAN FIRST

A friend of mine from years back has just launched a new business. We got chatting and I found myself writing a mammoth message about the single most powerful thing I did 2–3 years ago that has lead me to have the business — and life — I have now.

And I think you might like it too.

First off, in the online entrepreneurial world, being a human comes first.

I spent 6 years working my arse off trying to grow my business, thinking of it as a business. About three years ago I joined the group Coffee With Dan. Through the training in there — and more specifically some 1–2–1 mentorship I won with the guy who runs it, Dan Meredith, I learned where I was failing.

Dan took one look at my personal profile and told me he’d have no clue what I did and how I could help him business-wise by what he saw. It was true. I had kept my personal profile for personal me and was trying to run my business from a business page. I’m sure you know the FB algorithms do not work in your favour that way unless you have a decent advertising budget.

At the same time another brilliant entrepreneur, Helen Pritchard, fell into my life. I happened to wind up sharing an Air BnB with her at an event of Dan’s, and it sparked a lovely friendship that is now also a business relationship. She asked me a really simple question, but it was the most radically business-changing one I have ever been asked. She asked me if I wanted a social media profile where I could share family pics and stories of the kids, or one that enabled me to earn enough to give them the lifestyle I wanted to give them.

It was a no brainer.

There began my own journey into learning to grow a personal brand alongside my business brand. Really, I was learning that they are actually one and the same.

A good brand works hard to make sure all the people that love it REALLY love it. The emotional connection matters in business as much as anywhere else. Human emotion drives all our buying choices. People need to trust a business before they will invest in it. But they don’t trust a business. They trust the people in it.

I have grown the way I have because I became the human in my business. I started to say yes to every friend request. I treated my personal social media as the platform to share the human story behind my business. I get 20 to 30 times the engagement on my personal wall than I do on either business page.

None of this is rocket science and I’m sorry if I’m preaching to the converted. But I’m sharing it as a friend who really wants to see you succeed and who spent years not doing this and getting no traction at all.

I made £5k in sales in the first two days of this month. This is no longer unusual. I can now give my kids the future they deserve. We are less than a year from being able to buy a house — and a nice one at that. I can get the kids private assessments and specialist support when ‘the system’ is fucking slow, and that is a lifesaver. I am now living a life I never dreamed I could.

I honestly never, ever dreamed of this. My aspirations were to be comfortable. £30–40k a year was as far ahead as my brain could see ‘success’ taking me. I’m now well past that and growing all the time. Now it’s become a matter of making sure I sustain this and keep growing, not just for us but for the people on my team that I am also now playing a part in supporting.

Retirement in ten years is now not a crazy idea.

But all of this happened because I started to see the commercial value in turning up as a real human online. One with passions and pains and flaws, that also runs a business they’re passionate about and damn good at. And I have met so many amazing people and formed so many amazing friendships as a result. Business is a joy because I get to work with people who really get me and like me, and I them.

If I offer anyone who is in the early stages business advice these days it is that.

Turn up as a human first, business second.