Isabelle Mercier | On Mentorship and Persuasion

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And now your host Joel Mark Harris.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host Joel Mark Harris. Today we are interviewing Isabelle Mercier. This is actually her second time on the show. So if you haven’t checked out her previous interview I highly encourage you to do so. As always, she brings such amazing value and information and knowledge to the show.

Isabel is the co-founder and CEO of Leap Zone Strategies as one of the most inspirational branding, marketing, and customer experience. Isabel is born to catapult, passionate entrepreneurs and thought leaders to build businesses brands and designed to make life better as one of North America’s top business influencers.

Best-selling authors two-time, Tedx Speaker with over 2.5 million views and TV show hosts. Isabelle brings 25 years of branding, marketing and customer experience expertise. She has worked with more than 500 companies, including some very influential, iconic brands that including Earl’s Restaurants, IMAX Corporation, and HSBC, just to name a few.

This time we talk about mindset and we talk about persuasion, which are two very important topics. Persuasion especially is very close to my heart because it’s just something that everybody needs to learn. Everybody needs to get better at especially entrepreneurs. Isabelle also was kind enough.

To give me, one of the courses build to rock, which I’m super excited to talk about and to learn more so follow me on all the social media channels. I’ll talk a little bit more about it on the podcast as well as I go through the course. But I am super excited to start because I know she brings so much value and I’ll learn so much from her every time I talked to her. I just learned something new and I just filled up those skill sets, which is super important as, you know, as an entrepreneur. so, having said that, this is Isabelle’s. Amazing conversation. We go through so much. She just spews so much great information.

So without further ado here is Isabelle.

Isabel, thank you so much for returning to the show. You must be glutton for punishment. If you want to do this again.

Isabelle: You’re awesome. Your show is awesome. I’m happy to be here.

Joel: Well, I am very happy to have you, obviously I know you’re super busy, so I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.

You’re welcome. I was looking back at our previous conversation and we’ve been emailing back and forth and seeing what areas we can touch on and go deeper in. And one of them, I think there’s the mentorship. I want to ask you some of your mentors over the years and who stands out for you in terms of running a very successful business. You impact so many people.

Isabelle: I’ll start with the obvious close to me. My mom has been a great mentor for me. My dad as well in different ways, my dad was a radio talk show host and my mom was a hairdresser.

My dad has passed away. My mom is still alive, but she’s retired. I spent a lot of time going to the radio station and TV station with my dad and learning about his mentors and me being mentored by him and learning persuasion, which we’ll talk about today.

Learning about persuasion and influence and impact and delighting other people and just wowing and delighting people. It’s those are things that people tend to forget. You can learn that, but if you get that from family and the day-to-day at home, it helps a lot.

Right. So my mom and my dad were great mentors for me and then I’ve had been in business for almost 30 years. So I’ve had a series of coaches that have truly helped me. Move the needle forward and grow and scale. And some of them Jayden Sterling is the person that I’m that he’s mentoring and coaching me right now.

Kevin Lawrence has been an amazing coach for me. He only works with larger organizations. My wife, Margarita has been a great influence and mentor for me. Just her communication skills have taught me a lot. So there’s friends and family that are mentors, but then there’s mentors that I have paid.

And are still being a good chunk of change, for them to help me help keep my head out of my ass, as I would say.

Joel: I love that. You had a very entrepreneurial family but for somebody who may not have that, who may not have those close connections, where can somebody find a good mentor?

Because I think that’s it’s really tough to find that person that connects with you and you connect with them.

Isabelle: There’s definitely associations. There’s, associations mentor for women in business for men and business there are associations that you can look at and then they match you a little bit like Match.com, but it’s a mentor-mentee situation.

I like to get clear on what I what my expectations are from a mentor or a coach. Because mentor and coach are different. A mentor is usually someone who is already extremely successful in business has been there, done that are either retired or they don’t work actively, then they don’t wear all the hats in their business.

A business or business system is anymore and they want to give back. So they would not tell you what to do. They would just like, they would just kind of say, Hey, this is what has worked for me. And you might want to apply something like that in your business. And you might have a couple, a session a month or a session for per quarter.

A coach is someone that you’re paying. To really look under the hood of your business and to look at what’s working, what’s not working. What is missing to look at what are the strategies to help you grow, and then you meet on a more regular basis. So that’s a little bit of difference between a mentor and a coach.

Sometimes the mentors are paid mentors, sometimes they’re free, right? But with a coach, at least you are paying for someone that has your business. Your business is success at heart and they’re, their success is only as good as your success. Right? So now I look for someone that as has been referred to me, for example, because I look for what do I want, what are my goals?

And if I don’t know what my goals are, because a coach can help you figure that out, but you know, it’s a it’s around, what do I need most. To elevate in myself. And then I look for someone that I connect with, but that is not because I’m a very strong personality. If someone is strong I need someone strong enough to be able to go.

Or what is wrong with you, Isabelle? Right? Because I do have a strong personality. So for me, it’s about connecting with the culture, the mentor, I level that I know that I look up to them. They’ve been, they are where I want to be, and they’re not afraid to tell it like it is in working with me. Does that make sense?

Joel: Yeah, totally. I loved how you described the difference between a mentor and a coach. Do you suggest that can you have too much of both or would you choose one or the other, or how do you look at those two relationships?

Isabelle: You can have too much because most people would say you can’t have too much, but it’s, if the right hand, doesn’t talk to the left hand and suddenly you have a bunch of siloed conversations that contradict themselves, then that you’re kind of stuck in the middle.

So if you want it to have a coach and a mentor, for example, right. I would keep mindset and, I would keep specific personal how to Uplevel my mastery, my skills learning from their personal experience. I would keep that maybe for the mentor and then the coach. It depends on what kind of coach, because if you had me as a coach, for example, we look at mindset where you look at under the hood.

We look at the branding, the marketing, and the efficiency system side of your business. So we’re kind of a mentor and a coach and a cheerleader and a winner we’re at we’re, we’re all of that within our coaching methodology. But I have a couple of coaches. I have one that is more on the personal growth side and one that is more on the money and business growth side.

Now. Both touch on personal because a business is nothing, a business doesn’t exist without people. So first the people, when people say I’m a business coach, what they mean is they are an entrepreneur coach, right? Because they are a coach of people that own businesses, because businesses, without people there they’re nothing.

Joel: You talked about mindset and I’d like to dive a little bit deeper into that. And so what, how should it. Entrepreneur approach mindset.

Isabelle: Well, I don’t know if you can approach mindset. I think you can uplevel your mindset, right? So first of all, mindset is how you think and how you think. Dictates how you act and how you, how you act dictates your results.

So if you think it’s so hard to find parking, I can never find good parking. Well, you’re never going to find good parking because of the universe. Complies the universe, his job is to give you what you say and think the most. So if you’re afraid of cancer and all you think about is not getting cancer, I have news for you, you’re you.

It’s very dangerous. So stop thinking about cancer. Because that’s exactly what you’re going to bring upon. So if you look at the mindset of the top 2% entrepreneurs on this planet. Their mindset is they understand the power of intention, right? So they know exactly who they are and who they want to be experienced as.

So for example, they’re very intentional, the top 2%, their mindset is very intentional. How do I want to interact with people? I want to interact. I want them to experience me as caring, engaged, and inspiring. And I have that on my posts. Like I have that on my monitor because as I’m annoyed, as I am tired and as I am triggered, I need to be reminded.

Do I want to be the greatest leader that I can be and have the right mindset or do I want to fall short and be triggered, get mad and start screaming.. So as part of the top 2%, I want to make sure that I come from a caring. Perspective them intentionally about being engaged. It doesn’t matter what happens here.

If a bomb goes off, I’m with you and I’m engaging with you. And I, I hope that you feel that I’m fully present and I hope that your community feels that as well. And then the third thing is I want to be inspiring. So I’m very intentional with how I communicate. I also want to be present. Right. This is what I want for myself.

I want to be present. I want to be joyful and I want to continue being bold. So the top 2% mindset is very intentional and very disciplined. A lot of people think time is the issue, lack of time is an issue.  I compare this to a woman’s purse. Joel, what happens? When a woman has a much bigger purse, what happens?

Joel: They dig through everything they have to take out.

Isabelle: The bigger the purse, the more crap goes in it. Same thing with the time, right? If you’re not purposeful and focused, and if you don’t know how to prioritize your time, you will always be looking for more time. The key is not more time. The key is more discipline.

So the top 2% are very intentional. With everything, with how they think, how they prepare for their day, how they open a day, how they close the day, how they have conversation how they prep for conversations. They’re also very disciplined. They understand the difference between the vital few important things versus the trivial many that are filled in your calendar.

That don’t really matter, right? So that’s, that’s a mind, that’s a role mindset. A role model mindset is just being. Attention operating with act tension, intention, and love. And then the third, item that the top 2% mindset operate by is the demonstration of passion. So they’re very passionate about what they do about who they work with.

And they see the positive side of things. That doesn’t mean that they can’t see the blocks and the roadblocks and the potholes, but they’re always solution-minded versus, Oh crap, this is not going to work. Right. So how do we approach and, and a great example of seeing my poster behind right mindset is everything.

What, what you need to understand his mindset is as strong as the undertow of a notion. If you’re rowing East and you’re rowing East like crazy, but the undertow is going West. It doesn’t matter how hard you row you’re going West. Right. So think of mindset as the undertow of a notion, which is basically underlying.

Energy with which you attract because a lot of people go goes, the law of attraction doesn’t work, or the law of attraction works. It’s always working. It’s what you’re thinking about. That’s attracting what you’re attracted. And so it’s always working. It’s working in your favour or not in your favour. That’s all part of mindset. Does that, is that helpful?

Joel: Very. I always love your analogies by the way. I still remember from our last conversation about the jungle. I think it’s very vivid and it really helps to bring the point to life. So thank you for that.

Isabelle: I am the analogy queen.

Joel:  Is that something because as you were talking about.  I can’t have that positive mindset all the time. I need help with that. So my question is, is that something that you can do all by yourself?

Because I know a lot of people were when they’re thinking about hiring a business coach or finding a mentor, like, well, I can, you know, They, they tell me everything I know, but yet they don’t do it often. Right. So what would you say to somebody who just does who thinks that they can do it all themselves without having help or having some sort of outside influence that same?

Isabelle: I’ll give you another analogy. So let’s say you were an Olympian want-to-be. And you’ve been training all your life for the Olympics. Let’s say you’re a gymnast and you know how to flip, you know, how to do 13 flips, you know, 20 flips in a row. Do you still have a coach to bring you to the Olympics?

Yeah, you do. For sure. Why? Because mindset goes into the gutter because of discipline, you can’t have all the discipline and all, all by yourself, it’s not about knowing. What you need to do. It’s about having someone who is invested in your success. That is not in the muck of it, right? Not in the day to day.

I have different perspectives from my coaches. There are times where I’m like, ah, this can’t work. And then they’re like, why not? Well, because of all these things, and then they’re like, Why not? Well, so a coach allows me, even though I, this is what I do for a living. I’m very good at what I do for a living.

Why do I hire someone to do for me, what I do for others? Because when you’re in the frame, you can’t see the picture when you’re in the pickle jar. You can’t see the calorie label, you know, you can’t see the instruction outside of the jar, so it brings a different perspective. And for those of you out there who want to do it alone, great do it alone.

You are going to suffer more. You’re it’s going to take you a lot longer to get from here to there. And you may have the satisfaction that you’ve done it alone, but I’ll tell you what doing it alone is not a badge of honour. Doing it alone to me is insanity. Why would you not have if you were to go into a crazy forest, would you not rather have a map before you get lost in the forest?

To those of you who think you are heroes and you can do it on your own. Don’t I mean just get some assistance. It’s going to go way better, way faster. You’re going to have a better journey about it and it’s all, you can’t even see. Einstein said you can’t fix a problem. The same from the same person or perspective that’s created it. So right there, Einstein wasn’t stupid to follow Einstein’s path.

Joel: I think this, ducktails into my next kind of question. And, you know, during, before our talk, as looking at some of your videos and, you know, obviously you have so many great videos about so many great things, but one that really stuck out for me was, and I think it was one, it was a recent one that you and margarita did, and it was all about investing in yourself and how it used to be the case that investing yourself with something nice that you could do and something that you could progress you before there was a luxury before, but now it’s a necessity. And so I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about why you think that’s the case?

Isabelle: Well, there’s a lot of competition out there, you know? Everybody with a computer or a phone can actually claim themselves to be able to do what, what you, every single one of you listening today claim to do. And so gone are the days where you can have, you know, a couple of good lines on a sales page and then suddenly people buy so investing in yourself is a necessity because again it’s the map before you get to the forest and it’s your growth ceiling is. We all have a growth ceiling. All of us, no matter where we are billionaires poor, it doesn’t matter. We have a growth ceiling and our growth ceiling is only can only grow as you grow. And as you see different perspectives and as you see other people, I always say, the people that say that something cannot be done, there’s always a successful exception.

To that rule. You can always find someone who’s done precisely what you think can not be done. And by investing in yourself, basically, that’s what you’re doing. You’re looking at different perspectives. You’re looking at elevating yourself and your mastery so that you can raise the ceiling. Of growth for yourself and for your team and for your company.

And you’ve heard of this expression, you know, you’re only as good as your client’s results or you’re only as strong as your weakest link. That’s why you need to invest in yourself. Yeah.

Joel: And so the other part of the video you’re talking, I mean, this audience is all entrepreneurs, but you talk a little about people who are employed and working nine to five job.

And for people who have those friends, you know, I think it’s. You know, it’s yeah, like you said, it’s super important that they to invest in themselves because if COVID has taught us anything, that nothing is certain and you know, with so many people out of work, you need to keep upgrading your skills. So for I’m curious too, to know what’s where should people who work in nine to five job who maybe have a friend who works nine to five spouse, whatever, where should they start investing in themselves? If they’ve never done it before?

Isabelle: You know, this is going to sound like a conflict of interest right here, what I’m about to say, but Margaret and I just created a program, an online program that is massively affordable. It’s normally $500. It’s down to 97 due to COVID $97, 12 modules on mindset. It’s called mindset mastery code, and we’ve designed it.

Not solely for entrepreneurs. We’ve designed it for human beings, whether you will have a career, whether you’re wanting to. You know, Uplevel and, and get a raise or ask for what you’re wanting to ask for reduced hours. Ask for doesn’t matter what you want to ask, what you want to achieve in your life, in your business and in your career.

That particular, this is why we created this program. It’s called mindset mastery code, and you can find it on the leap zone, learning labs. So leapzonelearning lab.com and there are books there are books on how to elevate yourself and persuasion is one of the topics that we’re going to tackle at some point here.

And I’ll let you lead on that. But persuasion is definite, whether you’re at a job in a career, whether you want to go up, you want to go side to side where literally persuasion is everyday language, right? Whether I want you to buy a book or go see a book, whether I want you to anything is persuasion nowadays.

And the people who are most influential are people who have persuasion skills and people are afraid of that word because they mix persuasion with manipulation and manipulation. Manipulation is basically persuasion without a conversation. It’s more of manipulation might be used for bad. Whereas personally, vision can be used more for good.

Because if you can’t persuade me to do something, whether it’s a parent persuading their children to clean their rooms or, an entrepreneur persuading, their prospect to actually buy their coaching or their products, persuasion is literally what it is. It’s a conversation that highlights. The value of something that can make someone’s life better.

They have to see that it can make life better. Right. Basically that’s what persuasion is and upleveling your skills in your industry or in your genius, whether you’re at a job or in your, within your own business. The key is to be more valuable and the moment that you’re more valuable. So if you don’t Uplevel yourself, you won’t become more valuable.

Someone else will up-level themselves. Therefore become more valuable than you and people value people for the value that they bring on the table. So the more you can level yourself on a constant basis and learn. To be more influential, to be more persuasive, then you can lead better. You can lead your family, your friends, your colleagues, your clients, your prospects, and that all that doesn’t happen by just watching Netflix, twiddling your thumbs. It happens by being curious and learning and continually learning on how you can up-level yourself so that you can be more valuable.

Joel: Let’s dive into persuasion then. and I’m glad that you suggested this topic because it is one that is close to my heart. And I agree with you. It’s a lot of people think of it as a dirty word or something that, Oh, I can’t, I can’t do that. Or I shouldn’t do that. but you’re right. It is very valuable. So what are some tools that people can use because a lot of people think, well, you know, I’m either persuasive or not. That’s just in my personality, but it is something you can learn. So how, how do you learn?

Isabelle: Well, there are lots of books, there are books on influence and on persuasion, there are lots of books on that subject for sure. but there’s, Well, first you have to desire, having more persuasion in your life and, and what is persuasion, right?

Persuasion is making a case. It’s making a case for a change. So if you have cases to make for change, which of course. everybody does then learning more about persuasion is absolutely key. So books, I also have a masterclass specifically on persuasion, and about to record that this week. I’ll give you the link once that is recorded, it’s literally around.

What is persuasion? The title of the masterclass is a three-part formula for thinking through any situation. And the masterclass is called persuasion. I teach what is persuasion? What do you need to do to prepare for a conversation, a persuading conversation before, during and after. And then I actually give the three part formula.

For elevating your level of persuasion, which will help you in absolutely everything you do. Whether, again, whether it’s to have your children do something or stop doing something, whether it’s, in your business, selling more, for it to make life better. I mean, that all that helps, tremendously. If you’re not a good persuader. You will have zero influence in your life.

Joel: I think mindset comes into that as well. For sure. I think for me, one of the most important things about, you know, if you’re having, I guess, a sales call or whatever persuasive conversation is, is, being prepared for that conversation and what may come up, can you talk a little bit about what sort of things people should be prepared to prepare for when they have that conversation?

Isabelle: In fact, part of that master class, when I talk about before, during and after the, before is all about preparation, you know, and, and having said that. You know, no great leader. wings, the debate, right? They all prepare to actually, you know, further debate. No great influencers. Writing a Ted Talk. No months of preparation, right? No great parent wings of bullying talk with their children. No, they think they, they prepare for an intelligent conversation with their kid. Right? So the before preparation is first, you have to have clear outcomes. Right. What is the outcome of this conversation? Is this a sales conversation? And the outcome is to persuade someone, to buy the very thing that’s going to truly help them.

is it a conversation with the children so that they’re able to do this or not do that? So clear outcome one not many, one clear outcome from in that preparation, then you have to have a clear offer. And I don’t just mean a money offer for entrepreneurs. It’s got, there’s got to be a clear ask, right?

The ask could be, Hey, this product or program will help you, or, Hey, could you do this for me? Could you not do this anymore? Right. So there has to be a clear offer. Then after that, there has to be a clear understanding of why you. Why you write meaning? So if I’m the one that is having the persuading a conversation, why me.

Why would you listen to me? Why would you trust what I’m saying? Very clear. You got to be very clear about that. And then this is, this is what you’ve said, the, that, that you, like of me as my metaphors are my examples. You have to have great metaphors. And examples to visually explain your concept because when someone is able to visually connect with the example, they’re able to understand, what your perspective is.

Therefore, they’re able to agree with it more so objection, where those are called. Objection, killer metaphors. and then you need to understand triggers. You know, triggers, there are mental triggers that get people to move forward from a persuasion conversation. You know, there’s the, there’s the pride trigger, you know, someone’s pride gets in the way or helps them move forward.

There’s, you know, the aspirational trigger someone wants to be a hero or wants to actually do well or do good for their business or for their company. You know, there’s this scarcity. Trigger like, Ooh, this is a limited amount of time. So there’s eight of these triggers that actually when you understand those triggers, you can have a more persuasive conversation.

My goal isn’t to convince people to work with us. My goal is to help people get out of their own way. So that they could choose to work with us or someone else, but so that they could choose to invest in themselves. My goal is to get them out of their own way. And if I believe that they would be better served by us rather than someone else, then my duty is to be a better persuader.

Because I want them to be well-served. I want them to learn. I want them to succeed. And if my belief is they’re better served with me than without me, then the conversation, the yes. At the end rides on my ability to communicate with influence. Makes sense.

Joel: Yeah. Is there a difference? Because when you when you persuade in person or phone call, Is that a different persuasion than when you use like written copy or video or social media, same persuasion methods.

Isabelle: When I record this masterclass, you will have all the steps and, by the time most of your community listens to this masterclass will be up and running so that you’ll have the link. But, but it’s the same. I mean, of course, if you’re in a conversation, the goal is to have you have the other person agree with you.

All the time verbally. Yes, I agree. Yes, you’re right. Oh my God. Yes, you totally get me in copy. You need to still engage in the masterclasses. When I deliver a masterclass to a brick wall, right. Because I can’t see the people I have to go to. I’m sure that you resonate with me on this.

When I say this, does that remind you of this and that? I know they’re going. Yes. Oh yeah. So it’s the same components. You’re just one of them. When you’re face-to-face with someone you can see them, you can see the reactions, you can see their body language and you can address the body language.

Joel: You mentioned that your dad helped you hone these skills. Can you talk a little bit about how he was persuasive and what you learned from him?

Isabelle: Well, he was a advertising man so he literally created amazing advertising on the radio and on television. For products and services. And, he was the voice also, recording those advertising.

So he understood that one for someone to buy there needs to be a missed opportunity. That is big enough. So there has to be an opportunity cost. And there needs to be an answer to what is the risk because for every, for every yeses or nos, there is an opportunity cost, and there’s a risk. There’s a risk to buy a program online.

There’s also a massive opportunity costs to not buy this program online. And I talk about that with my bill to rock program, because. The people that have waited too long or not too long, but longer to buy Built To Rock or to enroll in Built To Rock, regretted it later. And there’s, there’s some conversations that I can’t win, you know, there’s mindset issues.

There’s a specific thing. There’s con lack of confidence issues that if they only went into the program, it would help them.  I learned with my dad that there’s for every yes. And for every, no, there are, Risks and costs. And there’s a term that I use in it’s. trade-offs so there are trade-offs I treated off huge amount of freedom that when I went from a 700 square foot paid off condo to a 5.5-acre equestrian estate.

Am I more comfortable here? Yes. I’m I very fortunate to have been able to create this for myself. Yes. Then I trade off a hell of a lot of freedom. You bet I did. Right. So every, yes and every, no has an opportunity cost. And a risk and he taught me that when you understand the opportunity costs right, what’s going to happen if you don’t solve this problem.

Well, I’m going to have 10 years more of this crap. Well, 10 years more of this crap costs a hell of a lot more than the tuition for built a rock. Let me tell you that. Right? So once you understand the opportunity costs or the risks or the objections from buying. Right. The little, the little man on the left shoulder or the little woman on the left shoulder that goes, don’t do that.

Don’t buy it. Don’t spend through that blah, blah, blah. Those all have ramifications. And when you know that the ramification is worse than the action of buying or enrolling itself, if you can’t have this intelligent conversation, you’re losing out. Two parts you’re losing out on generating revenue for you worse though. You’re actually cheating someone from being served by you.

Joel: You talked a little bit about getting out of your own way, earlier, is it how do you, because I think there was an indication within you that like, there’s this fear that if I spend this money that I’m going to lose out or I just don’t have the confidence to do that.

Is there like a trigger or a way that you can, you can see that within yourself and say an overcome that?

Isabelle: Well, I will give you a TEDx example. I said no, I was one of the fortunate ones I’ve been asked to do a TEDx. Most of the time you have to audition, which my second TEDx, I went through the proper channel of auditioning.

Very, very, stressful. but the first I was asked three years in a row to do a TEDx and I said no three years in a row and I blamed it on. I don’t have the time. I know how much preparation this requires. I don’t have the time, but eventually, the time thing I went is this really time?

I got reminded of my big vision at the time, my vision was to impact a million people. And I thought this was going to take me a lifetime. And then I thought if I said yes to a TEDx one, I would have to grow a pair, which is good for me too. I would have to bust through a bunch of fears and limitations that I, that are, that are stopping me in other ways in my life and in my career.

And I would most likely reach that impact goal much sooner. Not only that I reached it within a year and I thought that was a lifelong plan, right? So this is one of those things that my little intuition kind of told me, you’re just being a chicken shit. but then I kept at it, and now the time issue was real.

I didn’t invent that, but there was an underlying fear there that. I wasn’t willing or ready to address until I looked at what, what I want to create. And the impact that I want to create has to be greater than the fear when the fear is greater than the impact that you want to make.

There’s not much you can do about that, but suddenly when the impact that you want to make and the aspiration and inspiration, and you want to create it in the world. You’re more connected to that than the fear of the thing itself you win. That’s what I call you’re playing to win rather than playing, not to lose very different.

Joel: I’m wondering if you could talk about, your genius because this is a concept that you talk about a lot in your videos. You used it today. so what, what is, what do you mean by that?

Isabelle: So every person, every company, every product has a genius in it. Right? Cause every service or every product or everybody on the planet is here to make life better.

This is my humble opinion. and when you don’t know what makes you unique, what makes you the first, the best or the only. When you don’t know that, and you don’t know how to communicate that in a way that other people are going to go, where the hell have you been all my life. I’ve been looking for this solution for a long time and you seem to be the right fit.

I work with small solo micropreneurs, and I also work with large organizations with thousands of employees. Most of them do not know what their brand stands for. What makes them unique?

If they seemed the same or if they were priced the same or better, if a, which is what I sell is 10 times more expensive than B. Why would someone still choose a right? That’s the key here? And that is about figuring out what your money generation generating edge is your X factor, your, your secret sauce.

And when that’s the tipping point, when you know what makes you different. When people hire us, they get, they get to look under the hood of their brand, their business, their marketing, their systems and procedures. We have eight areas that we look at when we work with a company from training their staff to all of that.

So basically instead of hiring five, six companies, they can just hire one way simpler for everybody. And way less siloed conversation. So that process for us is called the trifecta, the leaves zone, trifecta, positioning, personality performance, and within that there are eight key areas for growth. That is our secret sauce.

That is what makes us different from a branding agency, from a marketing agency from last week, someone said, why would I hire you bell as my website and brand elevator? And I said, because as you grow, you’ll be able to leverage all of our services. We’ll be able to coach your team will be able to coach.

You will be able to continue working on your website and on your social media and on your, all of that without having to go somewhere else and having to start all over explaining who you are, what you do, blah, blah, blah, with a new person. That’s a massive, a massive plus. Now. Some X factors are, you know, delivering pizza when pizza started delivering years and years and years ago, you’re probably too young for this, but to remember this, but before Panagopoulos, there was no pizza delivery within 20 minutes.

Where it was free. That became an X-Factor right. It was like, Oh, why would I buy. From another place when I can get this and risk. If they’re late of a minute that pizza is free. Yay. Right. So that’s why the genius is the tipping point that get people to go. That’s what I’m talking about. And that’s what we teach in our built a rock program.

So built a rock is designed specifically to help solopreneurs, micropreneurs, small business owners really get clear on what makes them different, how to communicate that make clear on how to plan for your goals, how to stay focused. We have the built to rock program is literally four it’s four programs into one.

And, most people, you know, most people have a focus and time management issue built a rock helps with that brand positioning and customer experience built a rock helps with that marketing and social media. A lot of people lose sleep over that, and then business planning for profitable growth, all of that.

And then some is delivered in the program. I designed it this way because I didn’t want people to have to buy five, six, seven programs. To actually set their brand and their business up for success.

Joel: Talk a little bit about content because you’ve got so much wonderful content, you know, I could probably spend days, months on your website, just going over all your videos, all your blog posts.

So, you know, obviously you spend a lot of time crafting those, making sure that they have the right message. So I want to ask you, how do you think about content.

Isabelle: How I think about content is, what are my clients and prospects needing the most right now? Right? So times change, you said it earlier, right?

If COVID taught us, something has changed will happen now that we’ve always known, but now it’s more flagrant. But when I think of content, I look at what is, what are online? What am I hearing? What are the. What are the patterns that I’m hearing of, of people? What are they talking about? What do they want to know?

What’s being shared online? What are my clients struggling with? And then from there, and what do I know that small business, all small business owners are struggling with from there? I create content. So every leap TV episode has been created with. My prospects and clients’ questions and problems and issues and worries.

And then I actually turn the subject into something a teachable moment. Right. But that’s how I think of the content. I think of what do people need most to hear most right now. And what’s my unique take and perspective on it. And then how can I share it in a way that’s going to be helpful for my people?

Joel: So I want to wrap up with one last question and this is kind of a fun one and that is what is your favourite leap TV episode or one that stands out or one that you think can benefit the most people?

Isabelle: Oh boy. There’s like 80 LeapZone TV episodes. Yeah, there’s a lot there. I know I will. There’s a few. One of them is about how to be the first, the best or the only, which is a masterclass as well.

But the other one is your business set up? To thrive. I think it’s the title. It’s about the organizational chart and it’s what it does is even if you’re only the only one in your business, it actually demonstrates all the hats, all the roles that one has to play. And in a larger organization, one-person plays.

A role, another person plays another role, but in a small business, all these roles have to be fulfilled. And often they’re peppered, all the roles are peppered with your name, right. But once you see in terms of roles and that your name is peppered out there, then you can start going and looking at the list and go, Hmm, I’m going to delegate this role.

I’m going to delegate this role to so-and-so that way I don’t have to wear that hat anymore, or part of this role. So then you can actually start deep tethering yourself from all the roles that are in your business, because if you continue doing all the roles in your business, you’ll never grow. Your ceiling for growth will be really low.

But with that chart, it visually it’s strikingly, it goes on to actually show you all the, the roles that you play. And then you can actually start by looking at the roles that don’t inspire you, that they could be done by a 15 to $20 an hour, instead of your rate of a hundred or 150 or whatever. But seeing it makes a big difference.

And I know that a lot of people have commented in our social media going, Oh my God, that one was such a, such a pivotal one for me. So that might be one to say.

Joel: Well, Isabelle, thank you so much. You’re so easy to interview because you have so, so much great knowledge. I’m going to post all the links and, into the show notes, but just remind us again about your upcoming masterclass and your course, and anything else you want to mention?

Isabelle:  Yeah, Built To Rock. You can have more information on leapzonestrategies.com. It’s by application only. You’ll have a conversation with one of us to make sure that bill to rock is the right program for you. We only accept people who we know. Will succeed, or that they can learn.

That’s a methodology with which they can learn from because not everybody learns from online effectively. and so builds a rock. And then the other is on leap zone, learning lab.com and the program is called the mindset mastery code, which is all about mindset and upleveling. You and your mastery of yourself so that you can, kick some butt and of course, lots of lead TV episodes@leadtv.com.

which leads to our website, basically leap zone strategies, dot com, lots of tutorials, lots of free content and masterclasses. and then of course we would love, love, love to, see your application for build to rock and see if febrile to rock has the program to help you kick some real awesome. But during and after COVID.

Joel: Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, and enjoy the rest of your day.