Tania Usher, founder and publisher of DARE talks about how to create a memorable brand, female entrepreneurship and her success secrets.
Get DARE for free at www.dareoutloud.com
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Franziska: Hi and welcome to another Basic Bananas Small Business Marketing episode. Today we have a very special guest that I‘m very excited about, Tania Usher, who is the founder and publisher of dare, an interactive, online publication that connects authentic thought leaders from around the world who are making a difference. Dare was launched in November 2011 and has enjoyed rapid growth with subscribers in over 50 countries within months of publication. Tania is internationally renowned for her daring philosophies of uncovering an authentic success mindset. She‘s also featured regularly in the media including a recent appearance on the Today Show. Tania believes that nurturing relationships and making soulful connections is the key to success in all areas of life. Hi Tania. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Tania: Oh, it‘s a fantastic pleasure. Hi, how are you today?
Franziska: Yeah, very good. Thank you. I‘m very excited about today‘s show because I know that you are absolutely fantastic and I know you love a chat. I love a chat. The listeners love… so, just straight off, tell us a little bit more obviously about yourself and also your journey.
Tania: Okay my journey to dare or my journey of entrepreneurship… There are so many, oh my gosh, my journey started at fifteen when I left high school, to go overseas, to sort of then becoming an entrepreneur. So, I‘ve got so many components to what brought me here today. I guess one thing I wanted to point out maybe is that I always had had this passion for travel and so from a young age I knew that that‘s what I wanted to do and at 17… Sorry, at 15 I left school and at 17 I got my job in a bank and at 19 I was living overseas. I came back to Australia for a little while and went back again and spent 10 years living in Europe. I really believe that throwing myself into the world was my university degree, essentially. I did go back in my twenties to study at university, to do social sciences which was great. But I really felt that that was useful having lived in foreign countries and I loved my world. Living in Amsterdam. I lived in Amsterdam and London and Hong Kong. I was in the corporate world for a long time. When I moved back to Australia, I became a mother. My little boy was conceived when I was living in Hong Kong. I met my children‘s father in Hong Kong and I came back to Australia. Left the corporate world and tragically, my little boy, Tate died when he was born so I went from this really high-flying executive lifestyle to transforming to be a mother and I was a mother without a baby. So, that was a very, very difficult time as you could imagine. Then I was blessed 13 months later with my beautiful daughter, Leah, and then two years later Ronnie and when I had my beautiful babies in my arms, I just knew I could never go back to the corporate world. I delved into the world of entrepreneurship and I thought that I knew a lot about the world and marketing communications and business because I had spent all these years in the corporate world. But, business as you know is very different to actually being in a job where you‘ve actually got somebody you can ring up and say, “Okay, can you fix my computer?” Or “Can you click the post?” Or you‘ve got an assistant. So, it was really quite a shift but I just knew that I wanted to be there with my girls and I‘m proud to say that I‘ve never missed a dance concert and a sports athletic carnival or all the things that were very important to me. The journey though, of entrepreneurship is very, very difficult. At some stages, when my daughters were two and four, I found myself money sort of had been siphoned out of our account and the house repossessed and the children‘s father left and it was a very violent environment and I was the sole provider of a two and a four year old with absolutely no money. I guess, once again, my hand was forced to go… Do I put my children into long daycare and get what people told me to do is get a real job or do I continue down my path and I just really stuck with my heart in that respect. Just kept on persevering with I know this is the right thing to do. I know that I‘m here and my “why” was always the children. Always being there to be there for them and… Yeah, I‘ve made lots of blunders. I went into different sorts of businesses and I did training and lots of different things. Some of them very successful. Other things I tweaked and had products that worked really well. Had products that worked less successfully. I loved coaching small business owners. That was really my passion and it was always inside of me. So now I‘ve expanded that through the dare brand and we really take people on a journey of dare to live your life. Dare to step out of the comfort zone. Don‘t get locked into… I chose my life… I could have been a victim or a victor and I really chose the victor and I really like to encourage people to do the same. So, I hope that‘s probably a long-winded way to say my journey but I couldn‘t work out where it starts. It sort of starts from quite young and there‘s been lots of ups and downs. I feel like I‘ve been bobbing around in oceans not knowing where to go. I‘ve been climbing mountains and sometimes it‘s just been glorious. A bit of everything combined in what brought me here today. But, I wouldn‘t change it… One second of it. Even the good, bad and the ugly because it took me on a journey that taught me a lot about myself. I really believe that entrepreneurship is the biggest self-development journey anybody could ever undertake. It tells you a lot about yourself. About the people that you have around yourself. What you‘re prepared to tolerate, your set boundaries. It‘s a very powerful way to live your life, I believe.
Franziska: It is yeah. Thank you so much for sharing your journey because it is obviously very inspiring for our listeners because there are people that are listening that are going through probably some rough patches and then some came out. This is definitely very inspiring. There are a couple of things that I just want to highlight. One of them is when you said that living in different countries and you‘ve lived in some amazing countries. You know, me being a European, I‘m like, yes, yes. I love it. It really is one of the best education’s that you can get is actually going out there and living in different places and you‘ve done it at such a young age.
Tania: For sure. Nineteen when I did sort of my backpacking through Europe, I really loved that. But like I said before, I always knew that‘s what I wanted to do and I think that‘s a really key lesson for… Even for business as well… I‘ve been speaking a lot lately about how have we created such a powerful brand that has gone global and is experiencing such growth. Part of it goes back to when I talked about at 16 I knew I wanted to travel and these brands that we create… When it comes from inside is when we absolutely know when we‘re passionate about something. These are the right journeys for us to take, I believe. So I knew that, without a doubt, travel was my passion then. I‘ve been to almost 40 countries and I‘m now implementing in dare actually a brand new travel segment which I‘ll be writing travel features which has always been a passion and a love of mine. So, to go and live and immerse myself in Holland. I didn‘t speak Dutch. I learned to speak the language. I can speak it fluently now. You learn a lot about yourself and other cultures. What may appear rude for say maybe a Dutch person speaking in English. You might go, well they don‘t say please or thank you. But when you learn their language, they don‘t really speak like that to themselves. So we‘re interpreting… It‘s interesting. You would have experienced this as well speaking different languages that we often put our own language expectations or our cultural expectations onto other people. So if you‘re going to be operating in a global environment, which we all are because of the Internet and social networking, we have to be prepared to… nuances are something to learn about because we don‘t necessarily know what‘s polite or impolite in one culture. Or what‘s so-called normal in one culture is completely abnormal in another. So I love that journey of the world and uncovering all those elements and it teaches you a lot about patience and just being aware of other people, really.
Franziska: It does. And, you know, the other thing that I wanted to highlight which I think is coming through so much just chatting to you is, you had such a huge “why” you didn‘t want to go back into the corporate world that you made it. No matter what happened you stuck to it because you had the huge “why” which was your kids. Leah and Ronnie at home. You didn‘t want to leave them in daycare. You wanted to be there with them and not miss anything. And because you had that huge “why” obviously you had the passion, the huge “why,” the commitment and persevere… I can‘t say that word.
Tania: Perseverance.
Franziska: Exactly that word.
Tania: It‘s a tricky word.
Franziska: It is a tricky word for somebody who doesn‘t… Whose native language is not English. You guys have a funny language so that word. You have all of that and, you know, that‘s what made you create this brand, I guess. It all comes together now, doesn‘t it?
Tania: Well, you know, it‘s interesting you talk about how it‘s all coming together because I knew my “why” and I know my “why” and that was because I was responsible for these two beautiful young girls and they‘re growing up into these beautiful young ladies. So I know that that decision was absolutely the best decision to make. But on the journey, I sometimes did get a little lost about what… My “why” was always very clear. But I didn‘t know what I was actually doing sometimes. So I needed to, on that journey, and this is what I‘d encourage everybody who‘s listening to do, is actually go, okay, what is it that I‘m really wanting to bring to the world. Because sometimes we go and we learn courses or we learn marketing or we learn public relations or customer service and we‘re learning some valuable tools, but, applying those to a business that we absolutely know from your deep core is what you want to do, like going back to I knew for my deep core I wanted to travel, is going to make all those things that you learn valuable. But if you‘re sort of out there just piddling away thinking I‘m just going to sell encyclopedias because it brings in money, but your passion is in clothing, it won‘t really matter how many strategies you learn, in my opinion, eventually you‘ll burn out with that or you‘ll just lose your passion or your desire to do something. So, I did have that journey as well. I knew what my “why” was but I didn‘t always know what I was actually going to do. So, it sort of has evolved and I did love coaching and training. There was one stage in my business over a short period of time I got $5 million worth of media publicity for myself and my clients. That was a great feather in my cap. I thought, wow, that was a great thing. But after a while I sort of thought, no, there was something else. So, dare was born out of this desire to connect thought leaders from all around the world with my audience and while I love having my own, my books and products and things that we‘re creating, what was really important to me was that there was other people out there that we can connect with. That went back to childhood really. People would always say, “Ever since you were a young girl you‘re always meeting new people and connecting them.” So it was always my thing. So, yeah, knowing your “why” is essential, but then getting back tapping inside of ourselves and finding out our true purpose then makes for a just solid, sustainable business.
Franziska: And you know what? You are exactly talking to my heart. My heart is singing right now. I had a lady yesterday and she called and she said, “You know. I want to work with you.” I said, “What do you?” She said… I don‘t want to talk about what she did, but, she said, “I do this.” I said, “Are you passionate about this thing?” She said, “No.” I said, “Why do you do it?” “Well, to make money.” I said, “Okay. If you want to sell this thing just to make money, I‘m not going to work with you. If you want to work with me, we‘re going to have to work out what you‘re real true purpose and passion is and then we can work together.” Because, as you say Tania, you can have any marketing strategy in the world if you don‘t like selling what you‘re selling, you just do it for the money, you‘re never, ever, ever, going to be hugely successful. So, I can‘t agree more with that.
Tania: That‘s right. And you may have some success. You may make some money and have some financial success and maybe own a nice house and drive a nice car. That may transpire selling something that you don‘t really like. Although there‘s going to come a time where you go, “Is this it?” Am I selling, you know, car parts? If cars are your love and you love cars, then you can find other ways to expand your brand. That honesty can be quite confronting. People often, I hear this quite a lot, going, “Oh, well. These aren‘t my ideal clients. But I have them because they pay me.” So I often challenge my own clients to go, “Say no to them.” “Oh, no, I can‘t because it brings in money.” But if that person is taking up your time and energy, then there‘s no space for your ideal client to come through. So it‘s sometimes quite the challenge. But those people who do step up to the challenge. Another thing I often hear is, “I don‘t know what I want to do.” It‘s quite the cop out, really. Well then if you don‘t know, let‘s explore that and delve into it but I don‘t know how to do something or what I‘m doing is really not a reason for not doing it. It‘s really an excuse. It‘s really saying I just can‘t be bothered to work that out.
Franziska: Absolutely. Absolutely. Now you‘ve spoken about dare and the magazine has grown so fast and it‘s a very unique and memorable brand. Do you have any tips for our listeners how you managed to create such an outstanding brand in such a short amount of time?
Tania: Well, actually, the development of the brand took me about four months to create. I really took myself out of the business and really delved really deep into what is it the message that I wanted to do. I created this personality. If dare was a person or a personality, then I really wanted to make sure that I knew where she would live and what she would eat and so the branding development actually took some time. But because of that, when we first launched, within our first month, we had subscribes in over 50 countries and we now have a reach, I think I was looking the other day, due to our joint venture partnerships, of almost 3 million people. Which is just outstanding. I think that the key was to really, really develop a brand that is so, so powerful and has such an identity that… There‘s a plane going over. Can you hear that? I hope that‘s not too loud.
Franziska: I can hear the birdies. Do you have some birdies in your house?
Tania: Not in the house. But they‘re out…
Franziska: They‘re outside.
Tania: We‘ve got the door open. I hope everybody‘s enjoying the birds.
Franziska: I love it. I actually closed the door because you can hear the ocean from where I‘m sitting. But I love the birdies.
Tania: I thought about closing the door but I thought, oh, it becomes too hot. We‘ve got a few birds. But occasionally there‘s a plane flying over.
Franziska: No. I didn‘t hear the plane but I love the birds so let‘s keep the door open.
Tania: All good. So, yeah, the key to the brand… I was thinking about a lot of these and a couple of key points I‘d like to point out is the… People moving next door I think. I can hear all this noise. So long as it‘s not coming through on the speakers….
Franziska: It‘s all good from this side.
Tania: I suggest people stop modeling. There‘s this big, big trend lately over the last few years to model. The element of that is that people are going oh, what‘s working? Oh, I better copy them. If that‘s working or this particular style is working, I better do that and just put my name or my brand on it. Now that‘s not really working because people are losing the authentic component to their brand. Just because a compilation book works for Mary, doesn‘t mean that it‘s going to work for Susan. So I‘m challenging people to perhaps stop and move away from the idea of modeling. Just stop and work out, okay, what is the message? What is it that I want to bring to the world? What‘s the skill set that I want to share? What difference do I want to make in somebody‘s life? What I do find a lot of people do is they race around and get business cards and websites and get all these sort of fancy trimmings and they‘re busy making things look pretty but they don‘t even really know what it is their brand is doing. So perhaps stop. Don’t go and do briefings with web designers and get business cards. Work with… Go inside yourself to work out, okay, what‘s the brand? One key thing I challenge you all to do is to not ask for opinions. To not go and ask your friends, your neighbors, your family, your mum or your dad, your opinion on… Is this color a nice color? What do you think of this thing? What should I call my brand? What do you think of this book cover? What do you think of this brochure cover? Because peoples‘ opinions is actually just their opinion and they don‘t know where your brand is going. They don‘t know what your heart is telling, bringing to the market. So, I hope that makes sense. I‘m finding lots of people, I see it on Facebook… What do you think of this name as a book idea? If your brand is solid and if you absolutely are cemented in what that looks like, you don‘t need to ask for other people‘s opinion because you know. It‘s nice to get feedback. Now that‘s something different. But make somebody‘s decision, should I do this? Should I make my brand red or should I make it white? Well, look at colors and see what does red mean to the marketplace. Or look at the psychology of color perhaps. That‘s how we‘ve developed this powerful, powerful brand because I actually… It‘s like giving birth to a baby. Rather than nine months gestation, it sort of took four or five months and it grew and it has a personality and it‘s born and then you get to learn a little bit about it and then it changes in little bits and pieces on the way. But, yeah, if it‘s really about giving birth to a baby. You have to let that grow and nurture. And it comes from within. It comes from deep inside your womb or your belly, wherever it comes from.
Franziska: Yeah. I love that. I love those distinctions and you know the one about asking for opinions. I agree. I think it‘s great to get feedback anytime. I remember when we built our brand, Basic Bananas, which is quite out there and it‘s grown really fast because of that. Because it comes from the inside. But I remember my mentor at that time and I had a really good mentor, she basically slammed it. She said, “You can‘t do that. Don‘t go there. You can‘t use Basic Bananas. It‘s too out there.” And I basically said, “I can and I will because I feel it. I know it‘s the right thing to do.” And now she‘s looking back and she said, “I‘m glad you didn‘t listen to me because it‘s what you needed to do.” That‘s why we are successful and one other quick example because I think it‘s totally funny. Our book, our latest book came out a couple of weeks ago. I sent a copy to my brother home in Switzerland. He showed it to my mom. I called my mom just to have a chat and the first thing she says, “I don‘t like your book cover.” Okay. Thank you. It‘s okay. I love it. A lot of people love it. But it‘s about taking on board what people say but it‘s still deciding for yourself and not feeling that you need to take a decision based on what everybody else is saying. So I think that‘s a huge distinction.
Tania: Yeah. That‘s right and it‘s very important because people don‘t know, unless you‘ve communicated very, very clearly, what messages you‘re bringing to the world. What your passion is. What your purpose is. And so they‘re just bringing their own stuff. Their own ideas. Their own… Without that deeper insight, how can they possibly give you an opinion or feedback that‘s even really of any value to you. So, don‘t ask for people‘s opinion. It‘s quite hard to do because that means that we have to rely on our own instinct and our own gut feeling and our own intuition. But that‘s where the power is. That‘s absolutely where we need to be.
Franziska: It is. It is. And the one thing that you just said now that I think is totally gold and I‘ve heard a lot of very, very successful businesses or business owners say that is actually, I was surprised about it. They say the most successful people they take a lot of gut decisions. I was surprised because I thought, really? I thought the most successful people they would analyze everything and do this and do that and those people say no, no, no. You actually take a lot of gut decisions and listen to your intuition. That‘s very interesting and a good tip, I think.
Tania: That‘s right. And that‘s why when you know your purpose and you really know, okay, this is why I‘m here on the planet. Then you can… It extends from your brand. It extends… It helps you with all the decisions. Part of that comes back to your values as well. What you‘re valuing. So when you get really clear on who you are as an identity, and that‘s why when I was talking about the personal development that you undertake as an entrepreneur, it teaches you a lot about yourself, what‘s your purpose, what‘s important to you. What you need to let go of and all of these things an extension of your brand and that‘s why… I mean I‘ve done branding for my whole career in marketing and communications living in Europe and in Hong Kong and different places. I‘ve never created anything that is as powerful as dare because it really comes from deep, deep with inside of me and when I speak with people about that or employ people in the team, I can be very clear about what is it we‘re trying to do and what photos would work. I can look at a photo or an image and go, “You know what? It‘s not a good fit.” And you can only do that when you have that sort of absolute clarity. So, I invite people to take that journey within side themselves and really go deep and explore that sort of truth. It can be quite confronting sometimes and I‘m not saying that it was always easy. But delving even into the meaning of the word dare and looking at the Latin and Greek roots and I uncovered, going through that, looked at… It means “to give” in sort of ancient roots. I thought nobody would ever know that. Even though perhaps readers don‘t know that, the fact that I know that, it makes it further cemented and somehow a subliminal way in some unconscious realm, that comes out because it‘s part of the brand. So it‘s been a very exciting journey to do that and very powerful and also very successful.
Franziska: Yeah, it has. And the other thing that I want to just quickly highlight what you said which I think is so fantastic, is how you say you gave that brand a personality when you… In that four months when that brand was baking. It was in the oven baking. You gave the brand a personality and I think that‘s such a cool idea to create a brand with a personality because it‘s so powerful.
Tania: Oh, that‘s right. I think people think a business is maybe just a… I don‘t really know what I‘m trying to say. A business is an identity. It has a personality. So if you spend time and energy and nurturing that personality or getting to know it or befriending it, it‘s a bit like a date, really. You meet somebody and you get to know them. So whether you like it or not, the business has an identity or a personality. So do you want it to be sort of drab and a bit lackluster and have…? Not be very clear about what it stands for. Or do you want to go… Imagine you meet somebody really amazing. Say you‘re single and you meet this amazing guy or this amazing woman, you want to be able to tell your friends, “He‘s like this and he‘s like that. Got this personality. Loves this. We have so many things in common.” That‘s that same enthusiasm and passion we need to have for our brands.
Franziska: Exactly… Just a different topic because I love it. I know you love it and I‘d love to hear your opinion about it. Something that I see happening all around the world more and more and more and the people that I speak with is that women are more and more daring to become entrepreneurs and also making a difference. So I‘d just love to hear your thoughts about female entrepreneurship.
Tania: Well I really believe that female entrepreneurship is changing the way of business because the old corporate way, where we‘re all stuck in offices for long hours and we‘re not there for our families and our children isn‘t helping relationships. It isn‘t helping families. Certainly it isn‘t helping people‘s health. And so this whole influx of women working from home, making decisions like I make. I actually want to be there for my family. I want to be able to walk them to school or pick them up from school or attend some of their important components in their school career, has shifted our values. And we‘ve got the desire to… I‘m actually going to create a business or an organization or a company of my own that enables me to do that because to go and work in a corporate environment where somebody is telling me that I can‘t take time off to see my child or be with a sick parent, is just not working for people anymore. So, with that nurturing and family-oriented or sort of that family values that so many female entrepreneurs are bringing to the world of business, they‘re also bringing that reaching out and supporting others as well. That charitable component to business as well as nurturing and supporting families. Doing businesses around a whole… Away from the 9 to 5. Thank you, the Internet because that‘s enabled us to be able to communicate all around the world irrespective of time zones or geography. So this shift I think is happening from more than determination to be with their families and then also their desire to help and nurture other women and children and men in communities in need. The corporates will always be there. I think that‘s so entrenched in our society that it‘s probably quite difficult. But I think people are finding it‘s a little bit soul-less. I know that people in my community are more likely to go and buy their fruit and vegetables at the local farmer‘s market than at the big supermarkets because there‘s lots of reasons. And when people are voting with their dollars and with their actions and they‘re going for that more nurturing environments and that‘s what I think female entrepreneurship is bringing to the world of business.
Franziska: Yeah. I can see the same thing. The other thing that I also see is female entrepreneurs they start up and they do it because they have the flexibility to nurture the family but also those female entrepreneurs create jobs for other people that are flexible to do the same things. For example, right now, we are looking for another assistant because we get so busy and I was at an event this morning and I said to the group of people I was chatting to. I said, “If you know a young mom who would like to work from home or come in flexible hours, please let me know.” Because it is also us, you know females, and also male. I think men are also changing. Are nurturing that and starting to really value the importance of the family and the importance of seeing your kids.
Tania: Absolutely.
Franziska: So it is female entrepreneurs creating it for themselves but also creating it for other mums and dads that want to be with their families.
Tania: That‘s right. I think there‘s a lot of guys out there who see maybe witness in their… Perhaps their parents or their fathers or even in parts of their lives where they‘ve gone, I missed my children growing up for the last five years and realizing that they want to shift as well and so they’re also creating this sense of when I say balance, I don‘t know that things are always balanced at the same time, but trying to find this even playing ground where they‘re actually able to… Guys work their whole lives and hear these stores and then they stop working and they‘re or they have a heart attack. And they haven‘t had a chance to live their life. They‘ve waiting until they‘re 60 to do that. There are many people, men and women who go, “That‘s just not the way I want to live. I‘m alive today and I want to live today.”
Franziska: Exactly and I can connect with that a lot because that‘s exactly what happened to my dad. He was working his whole life… He had his own business but he was a solo-preneur, working hard, hard, hard every single day. At 58, a heart attack and he left without ever having been able to enjoy his days. And I think that‘s why it is so important for us and people that are aware of this stuff to spread the love and spread the word and enable people to enjoy their lives while they are here. Because you just never know. You might as well enjoy it.
Tania: That‘s right. And enjoy the change and some of the simple things. Like this idea that we‘ve got to… We‘re living in a sense of emergency. We have deadlines, we all have deadlines. I publish a magazine each month and we‘re publishing this week and it‘s quite tight. But some things can wait for five minutes. You can read a story and you can take a walk and you can do these other things. We don‘t need to live in a state of constant emergency which sometimes I think is thrust upon us in more sort of corporate environments. There‘s a sense of constant deadline rather than living life and enjoying our work and our home life.
Franziska: I couldn‘t agree more. Now one of our favorite topics and also for our listeners, a very interesting topic is marketing. Can you just tell us one or two strategies that you use to market dare and how you get your message out there?
Tania: Well one of the biggest things for us really has been the strategy of joint ventures or connecting with other people. When we launched our very first publication, I had really strong connections with lots of people that I‘ve interviewed over the years for lots of different projects. But there were marketing strategies as to picking people who, especially in the early couple of issues, that had communities that we could share the publication with as well. So, you‘ve got this combination of creating great content, authentic, nurturing stories as well as being strategic about that. Going, okay, how can I expand my reach? So, partnering up with people has been very key. The other thing has been utilizing social media. Because that‘s where we have a dialogue. We have, like I said, we‘ve got people in over 50 countries. So how do you reach all those people is that we engage them on social media. So the joint venture partnerships or the connections that we have coupled with social media has mean that when we… For example, one book review I did once. I was in a book called, Smart Women Life Their Why. I was interviewed in a book and there was about 50 women in this particular book. It‘s produced in the US. Now our social media strategy was to say hello to all of these amazing women in the book, plus then go and post something on their social media sites and I think within one week we had an increased engagement of 205. Just from that one book… Now you don‘t have to be in a book to do that. Somebody could read a book and go, “Wow. This is an amazing book.” Could send out a little connection Email or a little post to the experts that they‘ve read about and connect. So social media is a great way to connect. So you‘ve got this combination of strategy and connection and authenticity and I think you can‘t have one without the other. Because just to go out and go, “Oh, there‘s 50 people in this book. I better go send a post on them all.” But without really caring, that‘s not going to work either. So, yeah, that combination of those three components I think is really important. So don‘t just go out there and live on strategy and think… this is a good strategy. Was it you that was saying, I think in your feature that you‘ve done in dare this month, that marketing they teach people how to cover up their lies actually being taught in university. I‘m going, “That‘s it.” I remember even back in my early days of working in the corporate world, it would be, “How can you fudge the figures to make it look a little bit different?” People just see that BS.
Franziska: And that‘s why I had to write about it and I‘m so glad I did. And I‘m glad I got through it for dare because I wanted people to hear that message because yeah… When our intern told me about that, he said about they learn at university how to cover up for lies. We couldn‘t believe it because the first thing he said is when I asked, “What do you want to learn working for Basic Bananas?” And he said obviously, “Ethical marketing,” because that‘s what they don‘t get taught. And I was quite shocked actually and that‘s why I‘m really glad I got to write about it and because it‘s not about that. Marketing is not about lying. Marketing‘s not about being unethical. It‘s not about blowing out your numbers so that they look better… It‘s about giving the best solution to the right people. And you guys get that so much. And also with your social media, connecting is huge. I don‘t know also this month and I‘m going to share the competition with all our guys. We‘re going to do a fun little competition to engage people from all around the world. It will be very interesting to see what people come up with I think.
Tania: Yes. I know. Very exciting. I think it is… One of the keys is to forget marketing strategies that you‘ve learned in the past and embrace some of this new thinking. That‘s key.
Franziska: I agree. So thank you so much Tania that has been so valuable and I know our listeners are going to love it. So where can people find out more about you and most importantly, where can they go and grab dare?
Tania: Yes, okay. Well, Dare‘s free. So at the moment, all you need to do is go and register at dareoutloud.com. So D-A-R-E-O-U-T-L-O-U-D.com. Dareoutloud.com and register your name and Email address and we‘ll let you know when the next copy is out. And that will be changing soon. That‘ll be a fully-fledged interactive site where you can go and leave comments and different, really engage with the community. That‘ll be launching very soon. Jump on our Facebook page which is Facebook Dare Online Magazine and introduce yourself. Let us know your thoughts and ideas about marketing. Plus, we‘ve got our special competition happening as well so that‘ll be a lot of fun. People chatting there, too. That‘s the best place to come and connect with us.
Franziska: Thank you so much. And also you‘re about to go and get married I think.
Tania: Oh, yeah. Well, September.
Franziska: Oh, yeah. Tania is doing so many different things and as a little by-product, I‘m also getting married.
Tania: I know you‘re funny… You‘re the second person that said that. Somebody said that the other day asking about setting something, in interview I think for a TV slot. And I said, I‘m not sure. I think I‘m getting married in those couple of weeks.” She said, “It‘s like in between. Oh, by the way, I‘m setting up this meeting. I‘m getting married that week.” It was so much like slotted into different things.
Franziska: I love it. And you‘re such a busy woman and organizing a wedding is almost like a full time job.
Tania: Yes, that‘s right. It is.
Franziska: Plus you‘ve got two beautiful daughters as well so you are definitely a living inspiration for everybody listening. So, thank you so much Tania.
Tania: Ah, you‘re welcome. You know, I just want to say that it comes because I‘m living my dream. I‘m living from the heart and living my purpose. So when we all find that, we all live that life. So, I‘m delighted to be speaking with you today about how important that is.
Franziska: Thank you Tania.