#052 Customer Experience in Midlife with Deirdre Martin

On this week’s episode, Sarah speaks with her client Deirdre Martin. Deirdre is an expert in Customer Experience and shares so much value.

Many small service-based businesses struggle to attract and retain their ideal clients. With marketing and customer experience coaching, they clarify their message and effectively craft their customer’s journey to scale and grow a successful business full of their ideal clients.

Deirdre knows that most small business owners want to build a successful business whose reputation precedes them and where the sales and growth look after themselves. To do that, they need to clarify their message, illuminate their marketing and find a way to convert their existing clients into their raving fans.
The problem is getting their ideal clients to stop scrolling and take action when they come across their business and then figuring out how to retain those who do become their clients, which can leave them feeling overwhelmed. They should have messaging like a beacon to their ideal clients and a journey that their clients will want to use megaphones to tell everyone about.

Deirdre Martin, founder of CX Creators and Deirdre Martin Consulting gets it, which is why she studied customer experience back in 2015. She is a practiced performance coach with qualifications in coaching culture and emotional intelligence. She has co-authored a #1 bestselling book about Customer Experience, where she talks about how Human Experience is Fundamental to Customer Experience.

You can find out more about Deirdre at:
https://deirdremartinconsulting.ie/

If you’re ready to grow your business and want to get your marketing working better in a way that supports you and the people you work with, the doors to the women’s mentoring program Wholehearted Marketing are now open. The price is rising soon so please join us if you’re ready to be supported (lifetime access is still available too):
https://thesarahleather.com/wm/

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Transcript:

Sarah:
You are very welcome to the show today and I’m thrilled to have a fabulous guest, Deirdre Martin. You are so welcome.

Deirdre:
Thank you so much, Sarah. Absolutely delighted to be here with you today.

Sarah:
Deirdre is a customer experience expert, CX expert, and I’m going to ask all about that in a minute. First of all, the most important thing to share with our listeners, Deirdre, where in the world are you, and what’s the weather like?

Deirdre:
I am based in Kilkenny, Ireland, and weather is overcast today, but no rain, kind of cold. All good. All good.

Sarah:
Good old January weather. Well, it’s very different down here in West Cork. I am being blinded by the sunshine coming in through my office window so it’s the most stunning morning. So I’ll push it up your way. You’re a few hours north of me, so I’ll push some of that sunshine there.

Deirdre:
Yes please.

Sarah:
So Deirdre you are currently celebrating your second-year business?

Deirdre:
Yes, that’s right Sarah. I’ve literally just had my one-year anniversary and I am moving into year two and I’m gung-ho, ready to go! I’ve done all of my learning, there’s still more to do I suppose, but loads of learning in year one and I’m really excited for what year two is going to bring. I feel now I have the foundations laid to be able to really scale and grow my business even more in year two. It’s exciting.

Sarah:
It is exciting. I’ve been very privileged to witness it even from before it began. So you are a yes, an expert in custody experience and is customer experience, because I know people get it confused with customer support. Tell us about it.

Deirdre:
Great question, Sarah! Where do you start? Customer experience is very much related to emotion and customer service. If you think of customer service or customer support, typically they’re transactional. If you purchase something in a shop or online and there’s an issue with it, if it doesn’t arrive in your inbox, or if there’s a hole in a garment that you purchase, where do you go? You go to the customer service department, and they’ll fix it for you. Or if you need to open an account in a bank, you go to the customer service department. Those things are customer service related customer experience starts when somebody becomes aware of your brand. Usually that awareness starts when they originally think, oh, I have a problem. This is something I’d like to get solved.
For example, Sarah, in your case, somebody might say, I want to set up a signature program or I want to start a group program. I want to go from coaching one 1:1 to coaching one to manage, or coaching groups. When they search on Google, when they have that realization that they want to make that change or they want to solve a problem or look for solutions, generally, that’s where customer experience starts. It doesn’t start when they engage with you, by having a conversation or landing on your website, it starts when they have that awareness, when that need, or desire arises. Often in business, that’s not something we can control, but it’s something we can influence later on. We can instil needs or desires in people later on once they get to know us because they might come to us for one thing that we offer.
For example, they might come to you for your group program and to help them set up a group program, but perhaps down the line they might need some coaching around mindset, so they might join your mastermind for example. What happens with customer experience then is once somebody becomes aware of your business and your brand and the type of solution that you can offer, they’ll engage with you. Ideally, they’ll take you up on your offer, so that when you offer them your products or services, they’ll will take you up on that. Then they’ll transform because they’ll get the solution to the problem that they sought you out for in the first instance. And if things go really well and the journey has been exceptionally smooth with no bumps or hurdles to jump through. And then if they’ve been delighted all the way through and the service has been good as well (because that part is important), what happens at the end is they go on to become your cheerleaders, your diehard raving fans, who will whip out a megaphone and tell anybody who will listen, how amazing you are. It’s the whole journey. It’s not just one interaction, those touch points. If it’s online, if they discover your website, how easy was it to get in touch with you? How easy was it to buy from you? Whether you’ve got a group program, whether you’ve got a coaching business, think of Amazon with the one click buy, how easy they make it to download your eBook or to purchase something with just one click.

Sarah:
I know I fell for that the other day. I actually bought my own book. I’ve got a book from years ago and I was just checking it out to see from my previous niche and everything, and I was just checking on it to see was it still live? I got really excited at one point because I’d seen a few sales had gone through over the years and I saw this big, big number. And I thought, oh! Then I realized it was in Indian Rupees, which turned out to be very little. It was thousands. And I thought, oh, I’ve made loads of sales, when had I made one sale. And it was a few Euro. So that was very funny, but I just clicked on something without even really noticing it. And I bought my own book. So yes, they do make it very, very easy.

Deirdre:
Well, let me tell you something about that, Sarah, I’ve actually co-authored book as well in my first year of business and it’s called CX four. It’s the fourth in a series of books by customer experience professionals internationally around the world. Our book is about to be launched on Amazon. It’s available for download probably in about a week or two weeks’ time. At the end of January, mid-February, 2022, the book is going to be available.

Sarah:
That’s fantastic. That’s another one of your amazing accomplishments and such a relatively short time in business. Could you share with us what would be your five top tips around customer experience?

Deirdre:
Oh God, just five Sarah!

Sarah:
Just five for today. I can bring you back another time, and you can do another five.

Deirdre:
Haha okay. I suppose first and foremost, it has to start with your customer. It has to start with absolutely understanding who your customer is, what they want from you, as it relates to business, what their problems are, as it relates to your business. And those problems can be external. So, for example, I want to set up a group program. I don’t know where to go about it. When I Google it, there’s so many options for who do I choose. That’s a problem as it relates to your business, but the problem for the customer as well is internal. Is the group program the right thing for me? Is the group program the right direction for me to move in? Is it a trend right now? Should I stick to one to one? And it’s all those internal issues that they face, but then it could be things like the tech, is that something I’m capable doing?
Sometimes those internal problems are very much mindset related. Whereas the external problems, it could be the economy, it could be all of those things that are going on, you know? And so sometimes when it comes to the customer it’s to do as well with where you can to try to understand, and I suppose their business, (if they’re a business), to try to understand their industry and the challenges that they’re facing on a daily basis, if your customers are private clients, as opposed to business owners, if your B to C, as opposed to B to B, well then maybe considering things like psychographics and those types, their behaviours, as opposed to their demographics, which is their name and their age. Sometimes when it comes to customers, it’s things like buying behaviour. It’s things like if your customer needs to take action in business, to go on their transformation from where they are now to where they envisage themselves or want to get to if there’s action required and they’re not the type of people who will take action, well then, they’re never going to become cheerleader of your business. So maybe whether they’re not the right customer for you, so really understanding your customer and the problems they’re facing, what success looks like, the types of solutions they’ve envisaged. And even if they’ve tried something in the past, what types of things have they tried? It could be something simple as well. Are they technophobes? If your business is online, if it’s on zoom, if they need to log into some sort of a platform or if they need to do something to go on that transformation from A to B, that’s going to be a problem for them if they’re technophobes.

Sarah:
I just want to interrupt you there. My niche is working with women in midlife, you know, perimenopause and menopause, very often the technology is something that they are like nearly allergic to. They cannot do the complicated tech, so I know I have to really spell it out that we’ve got you with the tech, we’ll keep it as simple as possible, and we will help you with everywhere that when you do need to use any kind of software or technology or anything. So yeah, that’s a great point. So, the first one is start with the customer.

Deirdre:
Understand your customer. Know your customer. Second one is to plan out your customer’s journey. So, to think of it, as I said, customer experience starts from when the customer has a need or desire, planning it out from where you can be discovered online in social media, whether it’s you’re Google my business page, your website. If you’re advertising events, if you’re on social media, it’s sharing those events and trying to expand and grow you, your reach using things like the keywords that customers would use to search for you on Google, in your messaging, on your social media, on your website and in those places. But then to plan out every single stage of the customer journey so that they, at the very end of the journey won’t to go anywhere else, they’ll want to know what else can you offer that might be something for them to, to stay working with you in some way. And that really is the second one, because that can absolutely help you with identifying then what tech or systems you do need to put in place. If you start with that before you understand your customer, you may have spent money unnecessarily in your business on technology or systems that you don’t need. One of the biggest things that holds people back in business in my opinion, and I’ve seen statistics around this, is that number one, they don’t have enough time. Two, they don’t have, the skills to implement it. And three it’s the technology. So, technology holds them back. But if you understand your customer before you go and look at all of those things, then you can implement automation in places that helps with the journey. I suppose part of that as well is about the third thing, which comes down to removing any bumps or hurdles along the customer journey, because what happens is if somebody comes along and they want to buy from you, if that purchasing process is so difficult, then they’re probably going to fall off at that point in the journey. I was talking about this with somebody recently and I was saying there used to be a cafe very near where I worked when I was in my corporate role as a bank manager. One of the things with the cafe, they had a fabulous coffee, they had fabulous lunches and amazing cakes, you know? So, it was lovely to go there for treats at lunchtime or to buy things for my team, you know, on a Friday or something like that. The biggest challenge with this business was they didn’t accept card payments. So, when I was purchasing for the team, because it was in a corporate role, I might be paying with a business card and I couldn’t purchase with a business card as they didn’t have a card machine, and that was a bumper hurdle. It made me walk straight past. The other thing then is the emotion. Whether you realize it or not, people experience emotion when they engage with you, it can be your energy. It can be your influence and all of those things, whether it’s your website and how it looks and feels, whether it’s your communication style and how they feel from engaging with you, those evoke a sense of emotion. And I like to think of this a little bit like a brand. When you meet somebody in person, be it at a networking event or somewhere, if you remember that person later, it’s because they left some sort of emotion, they evoked some sort of emotion in you when they met you.

Sarah:
They felt something positive, or maybe not, that makes you remember them and makes you want to either pursue a relationship with them or not.

Deirdre:
Exactly. This is the thing with your business as well. People will either remember your business after they’ve engaged with you, or it’ll completely go out of their head. What you want to happen is that people have a thought, that they have an emotion when they experience you. So, the combination of the function, how easy it is to do the things that you say you’re going to do in your business without any bumps or hurdles and the emotion that you bring to it. That’s what creates the entire experience. So, it’s important to really consciously think back through and then to action it with intent.

Sarah:
Yeah. I love that Deirdre because I think so many people, and I do this myself as well, that I’ll come across somebody and I will know if I am going to work with that person at some stage. It might not be straight away (I’m just turning my page here because I’m writing loads of notes because you’re saying so many amazing things), so I’ve got two women in my program, one came to a live event I did six years ago in Manchester. She knew when she was sitting in the room, she knew she wasn’t ready for her business yet or anything, but she knew that when she was, I was the person she was going to work with. Another one had a free clarity call with me six years beforehand. She again knew that I was the person for her to help her to move her business on. And she went, she had quite a few hurdles and things in the meantime. She went off and did a master’s and did other offer stuff, and when she came back to her business and knew she wanted to take it from the one to one to the one to many, she was like, I know who my person is, because they remembered from all those years ago, which is amazing. I mean, most people, it will be several months, won’t it? But for when they first come across you to when they work with you.

Deirdre:
And you know what, actually that’s tip number four because it’s about making your presence known. When you make your presence known, it’s like I said, at that discovery phase, if you are not out there, if you are not consistent and persistent, if you are not making the customer the hero of your messaging, if your message is not clear. So clear that it resonates with them, that they’re thinking, “Hey, she’s talking to me. I really see what she’s talking about. I really understand the problem she’s talking about. That sounds like me. This is the solution that she brings people through. Oh my God. I think I would benefit from that. It really sounds like she’s talking directly to me.” That’s what I mean about making your presence known, you know, things like podcasts, Sarah right here, right now, this is making your presence known.
It can be guest podcasting. It can be writing a book. It can be your social media platforms. It can be networking, keynote speaker events, publication in your local paper, whatever it is. It’s putting yourself out there and making your presence known. But not only that it’s about stepping into what it is that you believe and verbalizing it, sharing what you were put on this earth to talk about out or to do, and really putting yourself out there, just go for it, say it like nobody’s listening. Or like they say, write it like nobody’s reading. And I think Sarah, I got that one from you actually. Show up.

Sarah:
Yeah. Just show up. And it is that isn’t, it is just showing up and stopping overthinking it and just get out there and let people know, because at the beginning there is nobody watching, but if you’re not showing up there will never be anybody watching or listening or anything. We can’t help anybody then. Which is if we become the world’s best kept secret, but there’s always so many more people watching than you realize as well. And I don’t know about what you did, but I find that a good chunk of people that sign up to work with me, I’ve never seen them like one post or comment on anything. They’re just there quietly in the background, checking you out. When I come across people, maybe I come across a live stream or something they’re doing. Then I click on their profile and then I go and watch 10 live streams they’ve done. And then I make mental notes of like, if it’s really easy to devour their stuff and then I’m on their email list and I’m getting their emails. And then when they make an offer and make it really easy to work with them, I will make decisions then on if it’s a good fit for the right time or it might be just filed in my brain for later for a time when I know that I’m ready and they’ll come back to mind or I’ll get an email from them one day and I’m like, boom, I’m ready now. And I often work with people at very high prices from that exact process. Sometimes it’s just from someone sending me a friend request and I just click on their profile. And I find it interesting and I’m wanting to do that kind of work this year. So it’s great, yeah.

Deirdre:
It’s so true. To go back to your point a few minutes ago, about somebody who’d engaged with you a long time ago, to a certain extent what really helps with that. And again, ties into making your presence known is when you show up consistently and make your presence known, and you are there to serve the people who follow you. When you are there to add value to them in ways as opposed to, and again, this comes back to making the customer, the hero of your story, as opposed to you being the hero of the story. Where you’re constantly showing up with here’s something that might be useful for you in your business, or here’s a tip that to help you to live a better life, whatever it might be, where you are consistently showing up with information and value that adds benefit to people in their lives or their businesses, they’re going to stay tuned. Where you can give them something for free, like a freebie and lead magnet or a lead generation year where they opt in. And they get something in return from you giving them whatever content, when you create that lead generator or a lead magnet, in that lead generator or magnet, what you’ve got is something of immense value that you give to a prospective client or existing clients as the case may be. And in exchange, you get their email address. But what happens then is ideally they enter through a sales funnel. And when they enter through a sales funnel, eventually you offer them your products or services, and the call to action is get in touch with me, buy now, whatever it might be. But the intent is that you are trying to add additional value to them so that you can serve them even more if they found what they got in that lead magnet or generator, to be a benefit. So where they don’t buy, and this is a bonus tip actually, where they don’t buy. It’s so important that you continue to nurture them and that you send them those emails. Just like in that example you gave Sarah, if you hadn’t stayed relevant, if you hadn’t continued to make your presence known to those people, they may never have bought from you. You know? And it’s interesting, the statistics around this where I think 3% of your audience are ready to buy, 60% will eventually buy potentially and 30% will never buy. I don’t know what the other 7% are doing, but there’s 60% that may eventually buy. So continuing to nurture your audience is of utmost importance, if you want to scale and grow your business.

Sarah:
Totally. I couldn’t agree more because I’ve had coaches in the past say to me that anybody who hasn’t bought from you after a certain amount of time, wipe them off your email list, keep your email list current and everything. But I don’t, we certainly delete some segments that have just never opened anything for years, but we keep people there because I know myself, sometimes it can be a couple of years later when I decide to work with somebody. And I think it does show that like, I’m still showing up, still talking about getting clients and making money. That’s basically what I’ve been talking about all the way, I’ve called it different things along the way, but that’s basically what it’s been all the way along. So, I love that. Only 3% are ready to buy at the beginning and that’s great. I can make quite quick buying decisions when I come across the right person. So I’ve got a problem, they’ve got the solution if I get on well with them, but I think everything you’re saying is so important Deirdre, because if it isn’t a good, if it isn’t a good customer experience, if you say, yes, I’m ready to move forward and I’m going through that with somebody right now that I was ready to hire, to do a chunk of work for me in my business. And a week and a half later, haven’t heard anything. I said, send me on the invoice, no invoice. So, I’m beginning to look at other people now that do a similar thing. It’s that customer experience journey that’s so important. So, number four was making your presence known. Have we done number 5?

Deirdre:
Number five is trying to build a tribe or a community because when you build a tribe or a community, people want that sense of belonging and that’s more important now than ever before because so many people are at home and they’re not getting to talk to others and they want to feel like they belong and where there’s the great resignation right now. I think that’s internet globally. It’s not just in the US, but where that’s happening right now, where people have stepped away from corporate roles where they maybe belonged before, but don’t anymore. They want that sense of belonging. That’s one of the things that makes us feel safe and secure in life and one of the other things with that in terms of community is that where people sign up or they join whatever you offer, there’s a sense of community. What often is the case is that people will remain because of the community support as opposed to just a product or service that you’ve offered them in the first instance. Where you can really personalize things as well. When somebody comes on board with you where you can personalize their journey and where you can invite them to add their own personal touch, who the community be, it introducing themselves in some way, you know? And one caveat of that is, be mindful of the introverts out there and how they might feel about showing up and introducing themselves in a community. But there are things such as Apple or Nike or some of those big brands where people feel aligned to the brand at times.
So for example, I was working last year with an energy company and very much what they’re doing is trying to make the world more sustainable. That’s one of their missions and purpose. That’s why they’re in business. We looked at how could we bring people into a community? How could we make them feel like a sense of being part of a tribe? One of the things we talked about was a simple sticker for their cars to say, I made the world greener, something like that, where they just feel a sense of being part of something or where they’ve added value as a result of doing business. Another bonus tip is where your business’ values align with your clients’ personal values. They are more likely to buy from you and where those values are aligned to positive environmental impact in terms of sustainability or positive societal impact in terms of community. Those are things that really get people fired up and can help convince them to buy. So, in this case for the energy agency, they were obviously having a positive impact on the environment. So again, letting people share that that’s what they’ve done as a result of working with this business is something that might entice people to buy. And even at that, it doesn’t need to be something that you give at the outset or that you offer as part of your package or your offer, but it can be something that surprises and delights your customer throughout the journey. It can be something that when they’ve accomplished their goal at the end, as it was when they set it out at the first instance, when they accomplish that goal at the end, it’s something like it’s a badge or a certificate or something. And again, it makes them feel like they belong. A sense of community and tribe and personalization is the way to go. That’s tip number five.

Sarah:
Number five point ten <laughs> I know you could literally talk about this all day and I could listen to you talking about it all day, because it’s so aligned to the work that I do I suppose. You’ve really got this nailed and the values thing really stands out to me. I think that’s incredibly important. I know when I’ve joined groups or worked in certain programs, I can feel that that values mismatch. And if it’s there and I just want to run for the hills. If it’s a very negative place or there’s things that just don’t feel right. Where there are other groups I’ve been in, there’s one group that this year’s the 10th year I’ve been in there. It’s one of those programs that you join, you have lifetime access to it, similar to what I’m doing in a whole hard of marketing. And it is amazing. It’s a six-module course with a community support and monthly calls. And I don’t know if I’ve ever actually watched all the six modules, like so many people there are there do that. Like you joined for the course for the actual program, but you stayed for the community. It’s quite remarkable to have that community, like I’m often saying to my clients, don’t just say that one of the features of your program is a Facebook group, because nobody’s looking for another Facebook group, but an incredibly interactive online community is way more appealing, because that’s what people are. I think people are really searching for that group where they feel like they’re not alone. That’s certainly what I have because so many women in business think that they’re doing it wrong or they’re broken or they’re somewhat flawed because they’re not hitting their income goals or they’re not killing it out there, but they’re actually doing really well because they are still in business. You got to the second year in business and have made a decent amount of money in the last year. Women, I think, give themselves a very hard time and when they’re in a community, they can really see that they are certainly not alone because it can feel, well I don’t know about you Deirdre, but having an online business can feel very lonely, particularly if you’ve come from a place where you were surrounded by people all day long.

Deirdre:
Yeah, absolutely, and that goes back to my point with the great resignation where people did feel like they belonged. Having that online community is, well words just can’t describe how beneficial it is, you know? And since setting up my business, I have joined several as well and you get different things from those different communities. Let’s say for example, there’s one that’s very centred around customer experience that I’m involved in and that’s been a phenomenal support where I’ve had to help clients in ways, but that self-doubt was creeping in and I’m wondering, am I going about this the right way for this client? So, then you have your community here, which is fabulous. And it’s great to see all the women in there helping one another and taking the time out to respond to one another and give feedback and suggestions because they’re also growing group programs and, you know, trying to get new coaching clients and whatnot.

Deirdre:
So it’s fantastic to be involved in those communities and to get feedback on what it is that you plan to do before. Do you go and launch it to customers? And not to underestimate either the community that you have already with your existing clients, because I was on a call earlier this morning as well, and it was very much around understanding your customers. Your customers in your business are part of your community too. We’re better to sometimes get advice about your next strategic move in your business than to your existing customers, you know. So, whilst we need it as business owners, equally our customers need it. Be mindful of that from both aspects. If you’re having a bad day or struggling to get clients or whatever, that’s not the type of thing you talk about in your own community with your clients. It’s important to have that support in the community of other places that you can go to where people will give you that leg up or give you that little motivational talk so that you can keep going and, you know, get where you want to go.

Sarah:
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I absolutely love that. One thing I love to bring up in these conversations is the ups and downs of business, because it’s very easy to look in the online world, particularly on social media and for it to be a bit of a highlight reel and to feel like they’re all killing it and I’m not doing so well. Business has its ups and downs, and it’s never a straight in the line going from your starting point to where you want to go. I particularly see that in with women that are moving towards the perimenopause or menopause ages, because confidence can drop from time to time. What helps you if you are going through those, or maybe you don’t have any down periods?

Deirdre:
Oh I do Sarah. I have to admit, you know, we all do. I suppose sometimes it’s anxiety. The anxiety is something as I’ve gotten older, it’s something that’s new to me. I never suffered with anxiety until I hit perimenopause. I was probably early hitting perimenopause. I was diagnosed with perimenopause when I hit 35. So, it is something that struck me in more recent years. That’s something I have to kind of try to manage as best I can. And one of the things I learned from business my first year in business, one of the biggest mistakes I made was I didn’t take enough time off. And so for my second year in business, I have booked off two weeks at Easter. I’ve told my clients and we’re going to be taking time off at Easter.

Deirdre:
I’ve two months booked off in the summer. So, anybody who’s signed up with me, whether it’s the six-month program or the 12 month program they’ve opted into, I said to them we’re going to be closed for July and August, but we’ll be back. We’ll just have a pause in your six-month period or whatnot and you’ll get the benefit of picking things up afterwards. It’s about taking the time to look after yourself and trying to balance everything that you do because I know almost all of your clients are female, right? So they probably have second jobs at home managing households and, and doing all of the things at home.

Sarah:
And maybe aging parents. Young teenagers, young adult children that need financial or emotional support. Yeah, absolutely.

Deirdre:
Yeah I have those as well.

Sarah:
Yeah, you have similar ages and I think that’s such an important thing that you said there about really looking at your year ahead and saying to yourself, holidays here, holidays here. I did the same like August off last year and that’s why I’m not studying my mastermind again until September. We’re going to go for nine months and three months off and then another nine months, the following year. And I love that idea and I work on a three-week month because of it. I have client facing only the first three weeks of the month and then no client facing time for creativity, time to rest and play, all the things. Sometimes it’s catching up on a few things that need to be done. I’m doing good few interviews and things. So, I love that you’re doing that because really we bring ourselves to our business. If we don’t mind ourselves, what are we bringing to? We’re not, we need to bring our best selves to our clients. Our clients deserve the best of us. They don’t deserve the dregs, you know, and we deserve the best of us as well.

Deirdre:
Yeah. I recently surveyed my existing clients customer experience. I have to see how my own clients are getting on and whatnot. But one of the questions I asked was what’s my superpower. I wanted to know how they felt about being in my program and working with me and some of the things that came back were the energy. I know personally, if I don’t take that time to look after myself, I won’t bring that energy, which is one of the things that they value about working with me. So, if I want to show up how my clients want me to show up, I need to take care of myself. Sometimes that means taking that time out and just simply stepping away. So, like you, I’ve learned from being in your program, Sarah, where I do the implementation week, once a month as well.

Deirdre:
I try not to have any meetings with anybody on a Monday or a Friday. So, I try to take those times off. What I’ve started to do this year in 2022 is to try to get out on a Friday very early and go off and visit friends and have some social time with people because that impact is again where my energy recharges from it’s about engaging with those other people and not necessarily talking about the work things. Minding your energy for me is one of the major things that I think listeners should consider as well. If they’re not already doing it.
We’re in this for the long game and we’re in there for our client. I’m always talking about clients for life, not just clients for just one short little time and it’s great to be able to sustain that energy through self-care and through having space. I mean, that’s where the creativity comes. If your schedule is over scheduled or full, you might think, in this hour I have to create this, but if you’re rushing from one thing to another, it cannot just be told now, create, create, create. I did it for a long time, but now it’s just like, no, I need the space. So then I’m in creation mode, it really helps. I even a walk in nature sometimes, and I’m very lucky I live in the countryside. I can go out and take a walk in the middle of the day. Not that I do it terribly often and I should do it more. But even taking your lunch break in the day.

Sarah:
Taking a lunch break, yeah. I didn’t for years.

Deirdre:
In my first year in business, I didn’t. I probably did at the start, and I had intended to do that, but actually now I’ve blocked off that hour in my diary. So, people can’t book calls with me during that time and I’m not going to fill it with a call because now I’ve set the intention and I plan to keep it where I take that break. Whether it’s just stepping away from what I’m doing, nourishing myself and getting something to eat or going for a walk or doing something, just stopping and parking, what you’re doing before you move on to the next thing. It’s a healthy way to be productive.

Sarah:
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. For the longest time, I think it came from running a busy clinic and then running to collect kids off the school bus and doing homework, then going back into the office, I would just throw some food in my mouth at some particular time because I never forget to eat. I always eat, but sometimes it’s a bit rushed. Then I realized that I was always being booked at that time. So I put in Google calendar that for an hour from 1 to 2, but now it’s 1 to 2:30. Now I’m making an hour and a half because very often it will be a few minutes here and there of doing a few bits and pieces before I step away. It’s great, and today I’m definitely going for a walk. The sun is beaming out there and I’ve just been watching two foxes playing in the field in front of me, which is amazing. I don’t know if they’re playing or if they’re trying to kill each other, I’m not sure, but they looked like they were having fun So yeah, we need to get out there no matter what, to recharge ourselves. So, Deirdre I could literally talk to you all day, but I’m really aware that we are coming to time. What’s your number one platform and the best place to find you?

Deirdre:
LinkedIn, you’ll find me on LinkedIn under Deirdre Martin.

Sarah:
Fabulous. We’re going to put all your links and things in the show notes so that people can come and find you and they can have the experience of what is Deirdre Martin. Thank you so much for being with us today. There are tons and tons of tips there that I know will be incredibly useful for our listeners. Thank you again for being here.

Deirdre:
Thank you so much for having me Sarah.