[00:01 – 01:30] Social media helps, but real marketing still depends on real-world trust and relationships.
[01:30 – 03:00] Tell people what you do in person, because face-to-face conversations can create stronger recall than posts alone.
[03:00 – 04:16] Be intentional at events and coffee meetings, since useful introductions and thoughtful questions build reputation.
[04:16 – 05:30] Creative branding, like the QR code on Hayley’s yellow suit, can make in-person networking memorable.
[05:30 – 06:45] Make it easy for offline contacts to find you online so conversations can turn into follows, content, and follow-up.
[06:45 – 08:44] Follow-through matters: the people who remember you are the ones you helped, introduced, or stayed useful to.
[08:44 – 10:20] Networking works best when you ask good questions, listen well, and prefer depth over collecting business cards.
[10:20 – 12:54] The right room matters: focus on people who can refer, collaborate, or open doors rather than chasing everyone.
[12:54 – 14:30] Proactive outreach can create media exposure, like contacting a Channel Seven journalist before the market event.
[14:30 – 16:54] Creative marketing and proximity can lead to unexpected opportunities when you show up in the right places.
[16:54 – 18:30] A strong growth strategy blends social media, messaging, websites, partnerships, events, media, speaking, and consistent personal branding.
Hello and a very warm welcome back in your ears. I am Hayley, and I am your host. For those of you that don’t know me and are tuning in for the first time, I am Hayley Osborne, and I am a business strategist. I am a founder. I’ve started a few different businesses and run them along the way. I am a mum of three very small humans, and I’m someone who is very passionate about helping health brands and wellness brands build businesses that they are genuinely, honestly, so goddamn proud of.
And I want to start today’s episode with something that might sound ridiculous coming from someone that has spent a very large part of her career working in marketing and social media, and it might be the fact that you need to get off Instagram and get out of the house. There, I said it. So this episode is your best marketing strategy might be getting out the house. All right, get off Instagram and get out the house. So recently I went to a networking event. Best thing I’ve done in ages.
I like to go to these events. I like to get out the house. So you know I was just kind of I think I needed it was just a few like a month or so coming where I needed to like meet new people and get out the house and you know there it is I said it I think we’ve become really focused on digital marketing and that’s fine but we’ve started to forget that there is an entire world of marketing happening offline it there just is actual humans conversations connection rooms where you can be in to meet new people-it’s so beautiful.
Honestly, there’s nothing I love more, and I said this to someone the other night, than walking into a room where I don’t know anybody, because it gives me a chance to talk to random people and just get to know them, and you know, understand how they tick, and like human connection is so important. So let’s not lose that. Okay, there are actual opportunities in these rooms waiting for us. And I think I’ve been good at building relationships in the real world, and I think that it has genuinely become a competitive advantage. And I want that for you too because everybody can post stuff, everyone can create content, AI can help you spit out lots of generic bullshit as much as you want in 30 seconds.
It’s just the way it is. You can automate your emails, you can do everything. The funnels while you sleep. World is your oyster. Oh my god! And all of those things are so useful. They are, but you know what’s really difficult to automate? Someone meeting you and thinking, I really like her, or my God, she knows what she’s talking about.
Hello, duh, and I know someone she should meet. I want to introduce her to this person, or even better, we need her to work in our business and help us. Okay, because we like her. That’s it. That’s all it is, and that’s usually what it is for me as well. Okay, and like I’ve had enough of this happen in my business over the years that you know sometimes the best thing you can do for your marketing is close a laptop and put some decent clothes on and go somewhere.
Okay, and that’s what we’re talking about today. I think we’ve become obsessed with online visibility, and that’s fine. You know, we spend a lot of time trying to be visible online and doing all the things like overthinking things. What should I post? What should I wear? How should I post it? I don’t like that picture.
I don’t like that video. I don’t like how I look. Blah blah blah. Should I start with TikTok? Should I like experiment with Facebook? I’m only on LinkedIn. Do I do Instagram? Why did this only get 60 eyeballs? Like I’m just stop. Have you actually like told anyone in person what you do lately? Like an actual person in real life, have you been to an industry event? Have you had coffee with somebody really interesting?
I met someone the other night that I am so excited to have a coffee with. She is like has done some incredible things, and I just want to have a coffee with her and learn her story. Okay, have you asked for an introduction? Have you have you done that? Have you followed up with somebody that you met a few met a few months ago? Okay, gone to a conference.
Okay, this next year I’m going to be really intentional about the rooms that I’m in because I want it to be like game changing, and it’s not what I’ve done in the past. So it’s important to put yourself out there, put yourself forward, speak with people in different rooms. Okay, so you know, have you met people that are shaping your industry, or are you a little bit scared? Okay, that’s where like. Collaborations happen. That’s where deals get done, you know.
And like being female, we don’t play like we don’t have a golf game. All right, men don’t do deals in the boardroom. They do them outside of that. Like they do them on the golf course. They they you know do them over. I don’t even know. But for women, it’s different. Okay, there’s marketing happening everywhere. It’s just not in a super formal, super formal way anymore, and connections.
So it’s just so different. And sometimes I think a conversation in person can be so game changing, and more so than what any Instagram or marketing piece of content will ever be. All right, so let me tell you a little story about the QR code. Okay, and I’ve told this story before, but it’s probably one of my favorite, favorite, favorite examples of this. I was going to an event in Brisbane, and I had a QR code printed on my back of what I was wearing, so I pinned it to the back of my suit coat, and the suit that I was wearing just happened to be the beautiful yellow that is my brand colors.
Very bright, very big giant QR code on my back, and that QR code went directly to my Instagram. It was pretty ballsy. It was, and I wasn’t asking for anything because social events are meant to be social to, you know, evoke a bit of curiosity, and that’s what that was for. It was just to my Instagram, so people could figure out who I am. Like, hello, that’s all it was. There was a chance that I could look ridiculous, but I figured like, you know what? I can’t see it on the back, so what do I give a shit?
Okay, and here’s the thing: like, what did I care? And I remember making sure that when photos were being taken, that there was enough time for people to actually scan the QR code. Okay, so this one small, like ballsy creative move brought so many new people into my world, connections, followers, opportunities, conversations, revenue. Yes, but the QR code wasn’t the strategy. The strategy was making it ridiculously easy for people in the real world to continue interacting online with me after the event, okay?
And that’s the bit that I want you to understand: is like offline and online marketing don’t have to compete with each other, okay? Their magic happens when they work together, and it also opened up like conversations that I would never have been privy to. Okay, I was a part of different conversations because people would stop and let’s talk about the QR code and let’s talk about this suit. Okay, someone meets you, then they follow you, then they can see your content, then they listen to your podcast, then they like you, then they join your database and they want more from you, and then six months later, or 12 months later, they need exactly what you do because you’ve had enough time to, for them to get to know you better.
That’s marketing, all right. And I just had to prove it to everybody that it works because it does. Okay, your network is part of your marketing strategy, and I think we need to broaden our definition of marketing because marketing’s marketing is not simply like content that your business is producing and publishing. And you know, think of it more as well as that your reputation is marketing too.
Your personal brand is marketing. When you show up at an event where people don’t know you. What are you doing to market yourself? I’m not saying be the loudest person in the room because don’t be. And I definitely wasn’t like verbally loud and like I’m not kind of someone that is like really loud and laughing and all of those things at an in-person event. No, I’m not. Okay, it’s just I wanted to create a point of difference and prove that by doing different things you get a different result, and it definitely did.
Okay, it’s you know the way that you follow up is marketing, the the rooms that you choose to be in are marketing, and that was the choice. And people who mention your name when you’re nowhere near the conversation, that is marketing, okay. And in fact, that’s some of the best marketing that you can have, okay. I want my name coming up when someone says, “I need someone to help me with my business strategy. In I’m in the health and wellness space. I need a marketing strategist. I need someone who gets me. I need someone who is not afraid to tell it how it is speaks in layman’s terms. I need to sort my brand out.
I need to show. I need to figure out how I show up more as a personal brand. What that looks like. How it differentiates from my actual brand. You know, our socials have become a mess, and you need to speak to Hayley. Like that’s just the short of it. It’s so so simple. That’s being known, okay. And we talked about this. I talked about this a few episodes ago, but you know, visibility is amazing. It’s so great. Reputation is so different, okay. And reputation is built through what you say online and also what people experience of you in person.
Both they work together, okay. So I want to talk about networking because I think the word itself is shit, and it can make you want to crawl underneath the table or just have the ground swallow you whole. Okay, it it conjures up images of walking into a room, holding a warm glass of something, and and and just this whole business card exchange-it’s gross. So what do you do? You know, I think the best networking happens when you stop trying to network and just be interested in people.
Ask questions, have conversations, ask more questions than what you do talking. Okay, and find out what people are working on. What have they done? Connect with people who should know each other. All right, be useful, be memorable. Oh my God, I met the most incredible person the other night at a business event, and I want to catch up with her for a coffee just to to understand her story.
She built something incredible, sold it, worked back in the business for 12 months, and now she’s free to do something else. And I am just like wild. I love that so much. Okay, so like follow up, have the coffee, like get to know people. Okay, you don’t need to leave with 50 billion business cards. That’s I don’t even have business cards at the moment. Okay, but I would rather leave an event having genuinely made a couple of new friends than have like 50 business cards at a surface level that I probably will put in the bin.
Okay, depth over width every single time, and this is something that I’m talking about more and more in my business, you don’t need to everyone in the room. You don’t need to be friends with everyone in the room. Okay, you you don’t need everybody in the room to know you, but you want the right people to know you and remember you. Okay, and that’s where I think that the strategy comes into it because I don’t want to attend every breakfast, every single every like how exhausting.
I still have a life, right? I do want to. I want to be surrounded by people that are genuinely going to lift me up, and people that are doing similar things to me and want the greater good for the business community and the entrepreneurial community and all of that sort of thing and people that are killing the pig. Like yes, please, but be intentional. I still have family. I still have friends. I still have my kids. I still want to like you know do all those things.
So you know, where are your people? Ask yourself that question, and I don’t mean your customers. Okay, where are the people that could refer you. Where are the people that could refer customers to you? Where are the people that you could potentially collaborate with to build something exciting? Okay, and the brands that you want to partner with.
Okay, where’s the media? Where’s the stages you want to speak at? Where’s the podcast you want to be interviewed on? Okay, where are the industry leaders that you need to connect with, so that you become an industry leader. Okay, that’s like two steps away from where you are now, probably. You know, if I’m traveling for work, I think about who else can I meet while I’m there every single time.
If I’m going to an event, I’m very intentional how I show up. All right, I’ve put the QR code on my back now at two different events. Was it worth it? 150,000,000% yes. Okay, if there’s someone I want to meet at this event that I know will be there that I don’t know, I will find a way every single time.
So I remember this is a story for you, and this I just wanted to prove again. Prove this to myself. I was a lot younger. I didn’t have kids yet. I had a candle business, and it was called Hayley Kate. Now it’s gone. I got rid of it because I just couldn’t do that with three little kids.
And I had national stockers. I, you know, made a lot of candles. You know, it was profitable. It was amazing, but very labor-intensive type of business, and just didn’t want to borrow it anymore. And it all started with me doing markets. So that’s how I started two of my businesses, and that’s how I grew exponentially through markets initially because it’s a low investment, right?
And I knew I was doing this particular market, and I knew Channel Seven were going to be there to do like the evening cross or something like that, and so I connected on Instagram, I think it was, with the journalist that I knew that it was going to be interviewed, and I sent a couple of messages. I would I tag them in all my posts. In the lead up too, to see if I could get them to come to my market stall and interview me, and guess what happened? They did.
Like it, like there’s just that’s just proof, okay? And I don’t know if I’ve ever told that story before, but they did. And so, am I good marketer? Yes, I bloody am. All right, because of those tests that I continuously like put myself through, this is what I do for my clients. Okay, it’s always about thinking outside the box.
I am someone who is exceptionally creative, and I want that for your business. Okay, that’s why I’m here. Okay, so I always think about how I’m going to do things differently, and I think being in the rooms gives you proximity as opposed to when you are just marketing online. Okay, and proximity creates massive opportunities. Okay, and and it sometimes is an opportunity that you couldn’t have planned for.
I think I’m going to do a podcast episode about all the random things that I’ve done marketing wise because there’s so many. I’ve just thought of another one, but I’m not going to say it. I might like do some really deep thinking and think about all of the crazy things I’ve done for the businesses that I’ve that I own. Not going to tell you what I do for clients because that’s probably their IP.
But for the ones that I own, I’ve done some pretty crazy shit. And honestly, the opportunities. I was telling someone the other night about another opportunity that I had that came around and slapped me in the face just from putting myself out there. Okay, your personal brand has to leave the internet, all right? And I think that’s really important if you’re building a personal brand. It absolutely is. It’s not an Instagram feed. It helps, okay, but you know what I love the most is when people say to me, “Oh my God, I listen to your podcast, and I’ve looked at your website, and you are exactly the same in person as you are online.
Good, deliberate. I’m meant to be. Okay, I don’t want social media, Hayley, to be some polished character who disappears when you meet me? Like, I want you to know what you’re getting. All right, my opinion, my energy, my enthusiasm, all the things, my positivity. Okay, the way I think, the way I talk, like the yellow, the fluoro, like all of it. I think it’s you know, it’s absolutely like has to be consistent through the line, and it builds massive amounts of trust.
Okay, so I’m going to leave it there. Okay, but I want you to continue this conversation with yourself. Think about what rooms you’re getting in. Think about what you can get out of it. Think about who you can meet, and if this is something that you know you love the sound of, we can absolutely do this. I want you to look inside of my VIP days because your marketing strategy should not exist entirely on a screen.
Okay, we will map out how your business is going to grow, and I want to look at the whole ecosystem, social, your online presence, but also like, who do you need to know, and who needs to know you? Okay, your messaging, your website, everything is great, but where should you also be showing up? What partnerships could make sense, and what relationships should you start and also be nurturing.
Okay, what events could put you in front of the right people, and what opportunities could be for you that aren’t in your Instagram analytics? Okay, because I think it’s not about like you just doing more in your content at all, but it’s more get out the house, do something, and shut your laptop down and put yourself in the room and do the things, and let your online like reputation that you’ve built be something that is also being built in the real world.
Okay, get on the stage, be in the room, have a coffee with somebody, put yourself out there. It’s really important, and it will also help you with your confidence. And it starts to change the game for you and how you show up and how you walk into the room and how you, you know, be more confident.
All right. So if you’re ready to zoom out and build a proper strategy around where your business goes next, my VIP strategy days are exactly where we can do that. So send me a message, DM me VIP Day on Instagram or voicemail me on Instagram. I love listening to people’s voices when they message me, and let’s have a chat. And in the meantime, your homework is to get out of the house. All right, go have a conversation, and I’ll see you next week, guys. Have the best rest of your week.
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