Cori Josias - Social marketing, personal connection and the need for a growth mindset

Cori Josias

Guest Profile: Cori Josias

After a varied career singing live in front of 250,000 people and working with deaf babies, Cori found Arbonne, which gave her vision and purpose with a sustainable, green company.
Location: London, UK

Podcast Transcription

Tony Radford 0:01

Hello, everybody, and welcome to a another episode of the Small Business heroes podcast. Today my guest is Cori Josias. How are you Cori?

Cori Josias 0:12

I'm great. Thank you. And I love the fact that I'm being called a hero.

How you Tony?

Tony Radford 0:18

I'm good actually enjoying the beautiful English weather. Yeah, I kind of think that people that run small businesses and they are kind of heroes, really because many of them don't have the support structures that people working in corporations would have an HR department for example, or salary, or business owners freelancers, micro business owners. In the UK, at least they absolutely keep a very large part of the economy going. Hey, Cori, can you tell us about your business?

Cori Josias 0:47

It's funny when you mention about big corporations I actually have linked arms with a brand called Arbonne which is a 40 year old health and beauty brand. Which does everything from skincare to makeup to nutrition, all with a very powerful green commitment. So never tested on animals vegan certified, no toxic chemicals. And actually very recently we would be became a certified B Corp, which is super interesting. Now, it might seem like a big number, but there are only about 32,000 corporations in the world that have B Corp certification, and that's a sort of mark of sustainability and keeping putting people on the planet. Above profits. B corporations are classified as corporations that want to be a force for good. So my role in that is I'm an independent consultant with the brand so I have my own business, but it's attached to a brand. So a bit like buying a franchise but without the overheads,

Tony Radford 2:03

how's it going for you?

Cori Josias 2:05

It's great. I mean, it's a really interesting time, isn't it for online businesses, this is we find ourselves in a situation where I think everything's up in the air, and people are reevaluating their options. It's great. And actually, if you want an accurate, I'd love to give facts. So we always say in our presentation, that if you want to know what people in our bond earn, we have earnings dot our bond.com. And I think that's really important because not everybody succeeds in the business, but there are people who are doing really well. And that gives you a very clear idea. So I always make a point of saying that when I'm talking to someone,

Tony Radford 2:49

what is the business model?

Cori Josias 2:51

The business model, it's called social marketing. It goes by various names some people call it MLM some people call it network marketing, but I like to call it social marketing. For this reason. We're all about building community and culture. So if I look at the team in our bond that I'm directly associated with, we're all about lifting each other up. And we're all about creating community and culture. So social marketing really describes it very well because we, we create relationships. It's a relationship. Some people even call it relationship marketing. So you're creating relationships with people, and I acknowledge that this is what all businesses aim to do. But we're brand ambassadors, we use the brand. We recommend the brand, and we build teams of people who do the same thing. Right?

Tony Radford 3:51

Sounds very positive. How did the lockdown or the current lockdown How has that impacted you? Because your business I presume, is quite fixed. faces it.

Cori Josias 4:01

Actually, my business can be face to face, but it can also be online. So just as many other businesses, I mean, I will say I also have a day job two days a week for new counsel as a teacher the death. That's really important because this is a business model that gives you the opportunity to be involved in a range of things. And we've gone online with that our bonds already online, the shopping platform is already set up. And terms of reaching out to people and engaging with people well, I'm super, super active on Facebook, and on LinkedIn, less on Instagram, but you know, have a bit of a following there and you can just as easily create a relationship on Facebook and then say to someone, let's hop on a call. I'd love to hear about you. Because this is not about me. This is how this can help and support someone else's dreams and goals.

Tony Radford 5:00

Okay, that's very good. Okay, well, thanks for that. Can you tell us about one of your biggest business challenges and how you overcame it?

Cori Josias 5:09

Well, I mean, I think challenges in business are ongoing. And I think my biggest challenge has always been and will continue to be my own mindset in the in the face of setbacks. And it's funny because that question sounds familiar, but I don't even remember what I wrote at the time. I'm a very spontaneous person. So I think my biggest setback challenge, it's always finding the right people. So I'm really looking for people who are interested in leadership and cultivating their leadership skills. And our bond is just a vehicle. Do you see so I use the products and I talk about the products but I don't really I don't go to you and say, Hey, Tony, do you want to buy some shaving gel, although, please do because it's fabulous. But You know, it I really about looking for people who have that spark and are willing to, to do more, to be more, to learn more to grow, to grow into their full potential. And I think, for me, that's been a lifelong motivator, which has become more and more of the driving force in what I do. So my biggest challenge is finding those people, the people who really want to be leaders who want to, you know, do the personal development it takes because in my world to be really successful, you have to have a growth mindset. And I definitely do so my biggest challenge is finding and attracting those people. Really want that? Okay, and are willing to challenge themselves. So I sat back isn't really it's just not a word that I use I it's funny when you say setbacks, I just, I can't think of anything because I don't see anything as a setback I see it as something I need to change or you know, learn from.

Tony Radford 7:23

Yeah, I understand that sense. Yeah. 100%. When you say growth mindset, could you just unpack that a little bit more? What does it mean? How does it manifest itself in a person.

Cori Josias 7:34

So if you think about yourself, for example, or I think about myself or you think about anyone, we have this programming that we've had since being very, very young, by the way, I'm a coach as well. So I'm very familiar with with all of this stuff. So it creates a pathway in our brain, where we begin to repeat patterns and the key is to break away from those So if you have, for example, a belief that you can't do public speaking. Now, it might surprise you to know that I used to be a professional singer, but I could never speak into a mic on stage. The thought of doing what I'm doing now would have absolutely just terrified me. So growth mindset is, is being willing to expand the boundaries of what you thought was possible for yourself, and the desire to do what it takes. So whether that's getting coaching, reading personal development books, or watching, you know, listening to podcasts, watching TED talks of growth mindset is just someone who wants to be better. Just one To be a better human being, wants to have more integrity, wants to be more focused wants to be able to identify where they need to grow, just willing.

Tony Radford 9:15

Right? So if I came to you and I said, Listen, I need to really get a growth mindset. In a nutshell, obviously, it's a very short time we have what would be, say, for example, the first thing that you would say to them,

Cori Josias 9:30

I'd say, What's your biggest challenge?

Tony Radford 9:32

And you you'd focus on that with you as a way of helping them to grow?

Cori Josias 9:37

Well, yeah. So if I said to you, what's your biggest challenge? You're either going to tell me about your relationships or your business or your health, probably. And then we would say, well, what's going on with that? And then we would start talking in we take it from there, it sort of builds from there and you know, One of the things in personal development is focusing on what you want rather than on what you don't want. And focusing on your vision. I mean, they say that I saw a talk recently by Mel Robbins, who's one of the top. I don't know if you've heard of her. She's one of the top personal development gurus. She's the I think she's the biggest Female Speaker in America, although you would think Oprah would be but anyway, she was talking about how all billionaires have this ability to visualize where they want to be before they get there. So that's the kind of thing we would work on. And that's what I'm working on with myself. It's a it's a skill. It's a skill that needs to be learned. I have a coach myself because I believe so strongly in coaching that even though I am a coach, I have 100 Level coach is coaching me. And I also have all the coaching that happens in our bond which is which is we get that for free. We're the luckiest community in the world I believe I really believe that.

Tony Radford 11:13

That's very useful the idea that if you want to grow face your current biggest challenge, very useful information. Thank you for that. What is one thing you wish someone had told you when you started out in business?

Cori Josias 11:30

Oh, you know, it's funny because now you've just reminded me what my biggest challenge is. And this is this is a real person indicator of personality type. I sense that you're a very structure based person I'm really really rubbish at that. I'm a creative I'm a front of house you can tell I'm comfortable speaking and all that stuff, but I wish someone had told me get a system in place get organized. Know, you know know where your money's going. Know How much money you have? know where you're going to keep your contact lists. And that's still a, you know, obviously, it's something that you help with in with proactive. And the other thing is delegating. So if you're really not good at something, and you hate doing it, find someone else to do it. Yes, it will cost you money, but it will cost you more money in the long run. If you don't find someone to help you with it. It really well. Tell me about that. So I've given you more than one have an eye.

Tony Radford 12:29

Yeah. So very, very useful stuff. And the thing about productivity is that it's actually the core idea was to help people who, who don't actually spend effective time every day building their business, they're very focused on product or service delivery. They don't like sales. Sales is kind of an evil thing that people shifty people do. And so that idea of when other CRMs it's already assumed that when you when you log in, you've got leads to manage or you know, how to market and all those kinds of things. So we started like that and that's why we created a feature called daily rituals which is create a couple of things set aside some time every day and just play through and see how you get on.

Cori Josias 13:09

I'll have a look at that. Thank you for that. I will say that people get just to pick up on your point about sales as a dirty word. If you think that try going out and getting a job because you have to sell yourself and i i think of sales as a service. I am not going to encourage someone who shops at Superdrug and wants to get the cheapest product possible with all due respect I got nothing against Superdrug right market for the right person, but I'm not going to try and sell them our bond. Because if their priority is to save money, then our bond isn't going to be the right fit for them. So it's always about finding the right fit for the right person and I feel sad for people who think that sales is a dirty word. Because I for me, nothing could be further from the truth.

Tony Radford 14:00

Yeah, I mean up before we started the project productive, I actually I did market research with about three or 400 small businesses and ask them what their biggest issues were. One of the biggest ones was sales, sales don't like sales, you know, the other one was the other major one we did a follow up is a bit later the other one was overwhelmed, in business completely overwhelmed, locked and what to do next, all these kinds of issues. So with practice, we're trying to dig into that and try to help people get focus, get organized, and those kinds of things.

Cori Josias 14:33

As a coach, I can definitely help with overwhelm. And actually, I'm not a sales coach, but I could probably coach someone around their fear of sales or definitely point them in the right direction. In addition to what you're offering. There are some very, very good sales trainers out there. And, you know, here's the interesting thing people begrudge them money that they spend on coaching or sales training. I think That's crazy. Because why would you start a business without investing money in yourself? There is no personal development book you will read from the top leaders, whether it's john c Maxwell or Tony Robbins or whoever, where they wouldn't say you need the biggest investment Stephen r covey The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. If you don't invest in yourself, you are your biggest asset. How could you not invest in yourself? That's madness, as far as I'm concerned. But you see, I wouldn't have known that five and a half years ago when I started our bond because I'd never had my own business.

Tony Radford 15:43

Okay, no, thank you. That's very.

Cori Josias 15:46

Now I'm the one who sounds preachy, but I'm really uh, you know, I feel like I have a little bit of a soapbox here.

Tony Radford 15:51

Absolutely. Yeah, it's definitely and I want to hear from you as well because it's very, very interesting for other people. Because people listen to these podcasts and they are going to be getting some helpful information from them, you know, what's the next step for for you and for your business.

Cori Josias 16:12

Keep looking for those leaders. And for me, in terms of my daily method of operation, it's really to connect with people and for me primarily through video and blogging through various social media outlets, given that, you know, there's still not much activity out there. It's the best way to if someone wanted to know more about me, they only need to go on my Facebook profile and they will see dozens of videos, they'll see blog posts, they'll be able to connect with the person and I'm all about that, you know, the brand of our bond. I absolutely love it. But why would you want to be on my team if you don't like me? So that's my next step is to build the brand that is Cori and you know, Our bond is the vehicle but the brand is who we become as a person. So I'm just it's just an ongoing process and also honing focus all the time, isn't it?

Tony Radford 17:14

Yeah, actually, you said if why would you want to be on my team if you don't know anything about me words to that effect? And isn't that really what marketing is these days, much more so than in the past, which is all about interruption and sending messages now it's about engagement with a brand which is has to become personalized and full of stories. The process and all this kind of thing?

Cori Josias 17:41

No, like interest. And you know, so I've really interesting you may have seen it a really interesting TED talk by Simon Sinek. Yesterday, talking about how people who you know, the three circles, I think he calls it the Golden Circle with you know, your what is on the outside your how, and then your Why and then traditionally marketing has gone what how why, but now marketing is going why how what? So the Why has to be the absolute core and he said that that's why Apple have done so well is because they knew they wanted to create the coolest best packaged, user friendly, whatever I don't I don't know exactly what their mission was, but they had a mission. That's the point. Okay, so we love that word. Can I I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just love that word genius because you see, you've just helped me solidify like I want to help people reveal their genius. That's really what I want to do. Because everybody's got it honestly and truly, I believe that. Okay, thank you for that. Tony.

Tony Radford 18:51

My pleasure. I sort of tactical question if somebody gave you 500 pounds to spend on marketing, how would you spend that money

Cori Josias 19:00

I recently was offered to

have a one to one with someone to create my signature talk. And as you can probably tell from this podcast, I like talking, I might just spend it on that because I think public speaking is definitely going to be part of my future. And so that fascinates me.

Tony Radford 19:20

Right? And then just following off of that, can you give us one actionable sales tip?

Cori Josias 19:28

Wow, one actionable sales tip. What you mean for someone who wants to sell? Yeah, I'm a smoke as before, build rapport, build rapport, be curious, be in love with finding out about the other person. So that was about five rolled into one.

Tony Radford 19:50

No, that's excellent. Thank you very much for that Cori, and also thank you very much for being on our podcast. It was great to talk to you.

Cori Josias 19:59

Thank you for inviting me.

Tony Radford 20:00

My pleasure.