Pat  0:00

Hi, Pat the podcast editor here. Wow 100 episodes of the business anchors podcast, arguably a more important milestone in the Platinum Jubilee. England winning the world cup in 66 and Knowlton hiring their newest video editor, Kallum? Well, in today’s episode, we reflect on some of the best segments from our beloved podcast.

Lloyd  0:21 

I don’t even really remember because I feel like every time this story is told, or we go over it again, I just delete it from my mind because it’s the cringiest thing ever.

Dan  0:30 

We’re like, let’s refresh your memory. Oh, brilliant.

Pat  0:32 

We hear about the most unethical thing Lloyd has ever done. Oh, great.

Lloyd  0:37 

So been cringing about how cringy I am here. And now we’re here about what a terrible person I am. Okay, let’s roll the clip.

Pat  0:46 

Dan imparts his favourite Knowledge Nugget he’s ever dropped on the podcast.

Dan  0:51 

There was some really useful stuff in that and because it’s not a funny story actually useful. I want to share this useful clip with the listeners because it’s useful.

Lloyd  1:00 

Not taking the piss out of me, nice

Pat  1:02 

So there you have it. Make your tea. Find a comfy spot and get ready to enjoy episode 100 of the business anchors podcast.

Lloyd  1:25 

Wheyyyy, 100!

We made it to our 100th episode! I know, we made it this far. Here’s to another 100. Do you think we will?

Dan  1:34 

I think we will. Yeah.

Lloyd  1:36 

Another 200. Commitment, isn’t it? 100 episodes.

Dan  1:43 

That is actually mental.

Lloyd  1:46 

We’ve sat talking absolute rubbish. 100 times? To be honest, probably a few more. Because I think sometimes we issue with recordings. Yeah. In the early days, then we had to do it all over again.

Dan  1:58 

Since February 2020.

Lloyd  2:00 

Yes, and today, we have a huge announcement for the business anchors, and podcasts. Yeah, times are changing. Things are improving and getting exciting, big announcement, I’m trying to do that thing on TV where they keep saying it, they keep you you watching and listening but you never actually, well you do, you will find that you will find out or will, maybe you find that now or maybe it will be soon.

Dan  2:22 

Shall we say the big announcement?

Lloyd  2:24 

Yeah. Or shall we not?

Dan  2:27 

So the big announcement for business anchors you ready? Drumroll, please. Lloyd.

Lloyd  2:34 

dooba, dooba dooba? dooba dooba dooba dooba dooba. Lloyd’s pregnant. Oh, that one? Okay, sorry. Sorry, continue yours.

Dan  2:41 

Business anchors are now sponsored by Adobe Express.

Lloyd  2:46 

Whoop Whoop.

Dan  2:47 

Yes, this is pretty crazy. We’ve been using Adobe products for years as a creative agency and which is why it makes it such a good kind of partnership. And we’re now Adobe Express ambassadors. And it’s just really exciting. So massive shout out to Andy from a content cow who kind of made this happen.

We’re going to be using Adobe Express and sharing our journey with you. One thing I do want to say though is that just because we’re now sponsored, we’re not suddenly going to turn it into a massive advert or anything like that we’re going to kind of carry on as normal.

Lloyd  3:20 

Although Adobe Express is the easiest way to create and share just to point out I mean, you can create stunning designs, and you’ve got all the support you need. And on the easiest way to create and share, you can get started by choosing from tonnes of unique and professionally designed templates to inspire and get you started.

Quickly remove backgrounds convert JPEGs to PNG, videos to gifts, merger, video change video speed and more. And when it comes to creating stunning designs, you can access the entire diverse royalty-free Adobe stock photo collection created by the world’s best professionals from within the Adobe Express app.

Dan  3:56 

And all that from the top of your head, yeah, I did say we’re not gonna turn it into a.

Lloyd  4:00 

I mean, when it comes to all the support you need on that, you can discover easy bite-sized tips to get you started on the Learn tab. Feeling stuck? you can shout out to Adobe express on social and they’ll connect you with their support team. So pretty good off the top of my head.

Dan  4:19 

Yeah, all of that, I mean, that’s amazing. Yeah. But on a serious note, we are really excited by this and we are going to be creating lots of content talking about our journey with Adobe Express. And if you want to give Adobe Express a go, then click the link in the description where you can try it for free.

Lloyd  4:38 

Yeah, you could do things like bring your content to life with animations, and apply standout photo effects in seconds. Just stuff like that.

Dan  4:45 

Please you’re not gonna be doing this throughout, are you? This is gonna get really annoying.

Lloyd  4:48 

No that’s the end. Thanks, Adobe Express. We look forward to working with you in the future.

Dan  4:53 

Also Lloyd as part of our 100 Episode celebrations we’re doing something special for you anchors, another special for them. Another special thing. We are giving away 100 Business anchors mugs and Adobe Express merch.

100 and merch? If I was listening, I would continue to listen until I found out how I was going to get those things.

Well, do you want to know how you can win one of those Lloyd now?

Lloyd  5:24 

Yeah. Okay.

Dan  5:25 

All you have to do is post somewhere on social media about business anchors. And then let us know that you’ve posted and we will send you a mug and some Adobe Express merch.

Lloyd  5:36 

So if you’ve been drinking your coffee this morning out from the palm of your hands, or you know from a bowl or a vase, this could be your chance by a few days’ time you can have a mug to drink out.

Dan  5:46 

I reckon these will be worth millions in like a few years. And all you have to do is contact us and let us know. And you can contact Jae@knowltonmarketing.growmodo.dev that’s spelt jae@knowltonmarketing.growmodo.dev and just send us a link to your post about business anchors and your address and your name and we’ll post you a business anchors mug.

Lloyd  6:08 

Ooo, I don’t know why I made that noise. But let’s get into the good stuff. Yes, Dan, what are some of the best bits from the 100 business anchors episode so far?

Dan  6:16 

One of my favourite memories was from episode one. When the radio voice first came in the radio voice well, Lloyd we’re gonna listen to the clip now. Take it away.

Lloyd  6:28 

Okay. Let’s hear the clip. “So that was great somewhere. And today I woke up. It is a Tuesday today. Thursday. Great. Have a great Thursday. They said it’s Tuesday. I said I thought it was Thursday. So give us a call. If you’ve ever had some funny stories where you think it’s Wednesday, but actually, it’s a Friday. You know, we’d love to hear from you on 0843621129 and yes we’ll hear your stories after a few Baja men who let the dogs out”.  I do want to clarify this is current Lloyd speaking now. I don’t hate radio DJs as people it’s just I hate listening to them.

Dan  7:14 

That’s been throughout though the radio voice has continued. I think you did it in a recent episode.

Lloyd  7:19 

I think there was a while when it didn’t come out. And now we’ve done a few where it’s like top five and then you know, you got to do that new in at number two.

Dan  7:29 

I find it funny looking back at like the production quality and the sound quality and seeing how far it’s come.

Lloyd  7:35 

Yeah, I mean, throughout this episode, when you hear clips back you hopefully might notice that the quality gradually improves. Do you want to hear one of my favourite bits? Yeah, go on. This is my one of my favourite bits was reminiscing about the story. I don’t know if I can say this without this episode getting flagged. But the story of the guy that taught me how to fly a drone commercially. And yeah, dodgy stuff that came up on his laptop.

This is one of my favourite stories.

I was trying to learn about flying a drone. Let’s hear about it. “When I was trying to be a pilot,  a drone pilot. That’s just what I tell girls when I go. Yeah, I’m a pilot. Yeah, yeah, I’ve got a Mavic air drone. When I was training we were in this hotel. And so the trainers stay in this hotel because they’re not local. So we’re all there

Dan  8:33 

Was like a middle-aged guy.

Lloyd  8:35 

He’s probably in his 50s, early 60s and oh god if he’s listening to this. I mean, I really enjoyed the training and I really liked you but this was funny. I don’t know if you know this yet. You might be listening, thinking what’s he going to say? dragging it out and he’s sweating. A shaking. What’s he gonna say about me? What did I do? But yeah, we so probably like the third day as a four-day course. He gets his laptop out and is ready to learn some drone stuff in theory. Cool. Great. Cool. It can be 30 metres away from takeoff and have to shout aircraft taking off.

That’s actually a real thing. Yeah, so it gets his laptop out. And he’s kind of talking just warming up. So and again, it’s porn. He was obviously viewing in his hotel room the night before he was just talking to us. So did everyone have a good night? sleep well. Yeah, it was just behind him on the screen. We’re gonna be low but we’ll get out there with the drones. We’ll have a great time. It’s kind of weird. Anyway, yeah. And yeah, obviously he went down on his laptop kind you saw that brief panic but I think he definitely didn’t realise it was on the screen.

So the brief panic I think was kind of like I think that was a close one. I could have connected that to the screen behind me. Oh, yeah, so that was a similar story. And I remember that night, a few of us on the course had a few drinks, all drone friends, talking drone stuff. You know, my fellow pilots. It was kind of like we had a couple of glasses. And everyone was kind of nice. Did you notice? Yes, we noticed. We all wanted to say it.

Dan  10:27 

So you had a good time when you joined the course, Lloyd?

Lloyd  10:29 

I didn’t have as much fun as the instructor. But I did have a good time. Yes. I mean, I love thinking back to that just the people looking around the room and us all-knowing.

Dan  10:45 

I love fact that you said he had a brief panic because he thought that it was just on his laptop.

Lloyd  10:50 

The brief panic and relief of him thinking thank god no one saw that. When actually it was on the massive screen behind him. He probably loves those four nights away in hotels when he delivers that.”

Dan  11:02 

One of my favourite stories was from the episode six about the worst business advice. Do you remember about the cows?

Lloyd  11:15 

The cows? Yeah, actually, since then actually, I don’t drink much cow’s milk. But I do drink a bit, which the person that told us this story will like because he thought very bad things are happening to the cows. Due to vegans. Shall we hear what he thought? Let’s listen to him.

A few years back when I first became vegetarian, oh, no, not this but some of the funniest advice that I’ve ever had. Hopefully, you’ll find it funny because I can’t stop laughing even thinking about it. I said to a guy I think I was recently gone vegetarian. Nice. Oh, yeah, I get that. I get being vegetarian. Like, that’s alright. Because you can still eat like cheese and eggs and milk and stuff. And, and yeah, I understand that. But, and I’ve always wanted to be vegan, and I kind of go in and out of being vegan, because I’m rubbish. And I can’t stick to it.

But um, he was saying that vegans cor that’s just stupid. Why would you ever be vegan? And I was because I felt quite uncomfortable at the time. I just sort of went, yeah. Why would you? even now, I completely disagreed with everything he was saying. Just trying to not create conflict.

Yeah, can’t believe it. And then his next point. I’m trying to think it was this bad advice. Yes. Yeah, I think it was because it makes absolutely no sense. So he said, he started talking was it serious advice as well. He was deadly serious. There was no element of joking. And he said to me, what I think is really stupid about vegans is, do they not realise that if you don’t drink cow’s milk, they won’t need to milk the cows. And then the cows will just burst.

Dan  13:01 

Wasn’t in a business setting, like a real professional.

Lloyd  13:04 

And again, not what not want to cause conflict. I think my reaction was something like, yeah.  So the bad advice is, if you’re considering being vegan, please don’t because it will cause all of the cows to burst.

Dan  13:21 

The best. The best bit of that is you just go along.

Lloyd  13:26 

Yes, I still avoid conflict teams to this day. So I’d probably react the same.

Dan  13:31 

I would pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall. And then you just go.

Lloyd  13:37 

Just the seriousness on his face. And when he was telling me just like looking at me dead in the eyes, the council passed. Just imagine because obviously plant-based milk has got more popular and I was driving along the motorway back from a shoot we had recently to recover. Yeah, the cows are just bursting so the windscreen wipers were on.” So I mean, I just wish I listened to some other name that isn’t… Julian.

Lloyd  14:12
One of my favourite stories wasn’t at the time when it happened, but probably would have been business anchors podcast number eight, what’s the worst experience you’ve ever had at work? And this story involves a student with nothing but shoes on which is a weird sentence to say on a business podcast. And should we find out why Dan?

Dan  14:37 

Let’s find out.

Lloyd  14:38 

My worst experience was probably running a summer school for foreign students and working from 6 am till midnight for seven weeks.

Dan  14:48 

I remember how stressed you were then.

Lloyd  14:50 

Were just so understaffed and the staff we had weren’t as capable as they could have been but I just had to work two people’s jobs. So that was I think that was not nice but I’m happy I got through that. That was terrible so you must have learned a lot from that. Yeah, definitely learned a lot. You know, when you learn occasionally you can learn rather than from, oh, I’m seeing these people do this really good stuff to this has been done terribly or how would I do it next time? Yeah. But also because Child Welfare was involved you know, they were children of like 10,11,12 years old. So it was kind of like if we get this wrong it’d be horrible to think a child could go missing or something. Yeah, so that’s obviously quite stressful. Work nearly all of your life and don’t sleep. And also there’s the pressure you could lose someone’s child.

Dan  15:46 

Didn’t then your friends prank you. Please tell the story.

Lloyd  15:54 

So at the time that I’m having this terrible time and awake all the hours, I had an emergency phone for just like I was saying, you know, if a child got lost when we were taking them on a trip to London or something, I’d have this emergency phone. And so my friends obviously thought, great idea. Let’s a phone that emergency phone and pretend to be a host family that the students staying with. And they were going home Jose, Jose didn’t come in last night. And I was so obviously I was really sick, very professionally worrying thing. Okay, right. When did you last hear from Jose getting all these details and then and then so I was panicking.

Obviously thinking this is a terrible situation, this 13-year-old Spanish kid gone missing. And then they call back the guy going he’s just he’s just walked back in the house with nothing on except his shoes. I don’t know if he’s drunk or on drugs or something. And I was like, Oh my God, what has happened? They said he just came in naked other than shoes. And I believed this whole thing. I’m just trying to think I was probably 20 at the time as well. So not hugely experienced or mature. Well, What should we do? He’s turned up with no clothes on except shoes. He just sat on the sofa and just shoes and I was and then I hung up and then I call back and said right just to let you know I’m gonna call the police now because I think it’s serious.

And then obviously they said ‘Don’t Lloyd because it’s us’ And so I’ve got enough on my plate and you’re telling me Jose’s come back with no clothes on. He’s a 14-year-old boy. Yeah, so that’s that job. But Cheers, guys. Yeah, it’s a really horrible prank.”

Dan  17:40 

That is one of the best stories. I’ve literally got tears in my eyes.

Lloyd  17:46 

When we were listening to that, just to let the listeners know, Dan was laughing in that high-pitched manner that he was throughout that clip. But yeah, thanks, Jose was safe.

Dan  17:56 

Your friends are horrible That is such a nasty, prank.

Lloyd  17:59 

That was very stressful that situation. But there are the good bits in that episode about how to deal with bad situations at work. By the way. I feel like we’re picking all the strange stories. But there’s also really useful stuff around these if you want to listen back.

Dan  18:12 

There are some examples later on with more kinds of stuff that will teach them before we get into the actual, like useful value-adding stuff. Yeah, I would just want to remind you of you really cringing when you met Gary Vee.

Lloyd  18:24 

Oh, do you know what I saw this in the notes thinking? Oh, yeah, we’ll talk about this. And I thought, I don’t actually even really remember because I feel like every time this story is told, or we go over it again, I just delete it from my mind because it’s the cringiest thing ever.

Dan  18:38 

Well, Lloyd, let’s refresh your memory.

Lloyd  18:39 

Oh, brilliant. So we went to an event, a book event for the Gary Vee book it’s basically an event where he was interviewed on stage and stuff, and then you get your cover signed.

Dan  18:51 

Lloyd wore a suit.

Lloyd  18:52 

So at this point, I was still in my pretending to be good at business by dressing extremely formally. Because that makes you good at business. And it got to them so we had a good time that she met. I met with Gavin Bell, who’s the guy in the marketing space. Yeah, met him randomly in the queue in front of us at that event. A pointless thing to mention. But Hi, Gavin, if you’re listening. He’s probably not. Yeah, so really good. Gary Vaynerchuk gave a really good talk. Very interesting, and a q&a part. And for some reason, I put my hand up to ask a question and got picked.

Dan  19:38 

No can we give more context? They asked him if he was gonna get up for questions. Lloyd jumped up like an excited child and put his hand up like me me me.

Lloyd  19:49 

And so basically, once I’d stood up to ask, my brain went into this weird mode and I just started saying stuff that made absolutely no sense. So I’ll try and try and recreate what I said, which god, my heart dropping even thinking about it, I feel so cringey.

Dan  20:10 

Everyone turned around and looks at Lloyd. Gary’s there listening to Lloyd’s question.

Lloyd  20:15 

So he’s expecting a question I just go, ‘I’m wearing a suit’.

That was it. It was basically that I just, I can’t even remember what I was trying to get from that. But I basically just said.

Dan  20:34 

I remember, then you gave context as to why you were wearing a suit didnt you?

Lloyd  20:38 

I tried to explain. I was saying, I was trying to get your attention by wearing a suit. And it worked or something. Because he basically said, he said something like. ‘Right? You are in a suit dick that doesn’t make you better than anyone else’ I think something like that. And I was like, no, no, I meant I’m wearing a suit to try to get noticed and you noticed me? Oh, God, and it was just a cringy thing that eventually got on to my question. And he answered it, but I think was a bit like, don’t really wanna answer this, because you’re. But yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking, There’s video evidence of this because the whole event was filmed. And Dan found the video about a year ago and sent me a link, I think. And I got to the point where it was just about to ask the question, and I physically couldn’t make myself watch it. I couldn’t bring myself to watch that again.

Dan  21:35 

As part of this, we should play it and react to it.

Lloyd  21:39 

No, no, no, you can put it in a video for other people to watch. I’m never gonna watch that again. That was as cringy as every time I’m reminded of that story. Imagine that in a massive room full of people all paid to be at this event.

Dan  21:53 

And honestly, if there’s any of you that really want to see that there is a video for this on YouTube, somewhere from that event as Gary Vee’s book launch in London.

Lloyd  22:04 

Oh, I hate that. Some of these podcast episode names I’d forgotten were even a thing. But episode 11 was called people are weird.

Dan  22:18 

When we were in the early stage of the podcast, we didn’t put a huge amount of thought into what the title was. I don’t know what that is.

Lloyd  22:27 

I would say, Well, we were testing different things. Okay, so people are weird, including me and you and in that episode we spoke about I think it was a bouncer of a club, making me feel small and embarrassed, which quite a lot of them have a reputation for doing I’m very excited to listen to this one. Yeah. Oh, another one to make me sound terrible.

Dan  22:52 

Here we go.

Lloyd  22:53 

“Yes, there was a thing when I was in sick form at school. So like 1617 What was it called in called guestlist? That was the name of the night. And it was basically a night for people that were that 16 or 17? Or 18? Oh, no, it can’t be. It can’t have been.

Dan  23:16 

It can’t have been because you need an ID to get in.

Lloyd  23:17 

But it went well. Okay, it was marketed to 16-17 year-olds, but you had to be 18 to get in so well, work that went out. Surprisingly, this place is closed down. Basically, they kind of hired people within schools. To promote, they’d get like the cool kids, the cool kid in the sixth form.

And they’d sell these it’s like a £10 a ticket and got a quid for each one. Obviously, they’ve got shitloads of people so that kid earnt like 30 quid and made so much profit for these places and I was like, Oh no, I’m I don’t turn 18 till after we finish school I’m one of the young ones in school you don’t worry what they do you just give them when they asked for ID give them any card and they just like flash it to the cameras to look like if the police ever checked the cameras. It looks like they checked ID. So I said okay, yeah, I’ll go then. So I’m curious I’m a bit nervous.

Dan  24:22 

Just picture 17-year-old Lloyd. And probably in his suit trousers and loafers and Dad’s shirt.

Lloyd  24:29 

Yeah, looking back at what I was wearing as well as trying to look older. Sorry. Yeah, basically got my school shoes on because I think that makes me look smart. And we’re in this queue probably two-thirds of my mates were over 18 so they were just fine it’s probably even more than that. And I was one of the only ones I thought to stick with any ID.  So I’ve got at this point, I don’t even know if they still do them yet a swipe card top-up card. Sort of gave him a bit of wink. He just looked up at me and went ‘Are you fucking joking.

And I was like, immediately started sweating profusely. Don’t know if I said that word right. I kind of said ‘my friend, Craig said’. That’s a top-up card mate. Do you want my date of birth 88, not 89? And he was is like looking at me and I was clearly just panicking. Think sweating so much so red. And then sooner realise actually, he was just a typical bouncer who was just getting a kick out of seeing someone having a negative experience. And he said in you go and so I went in”.

Dan  25:53 

That was another good one Lloyd.

Lloyd  25:56 

Oh, yeah. Have we got any that don’t make me sound like a ridiculously embarrassing person?

Dan  26:03 

To be honest. Because I’ve done this. I looked through all the episodes in the order they did in the early episodes, we told a lot more stories than providing value, but because we were less experienced as well as running a business so slightly less experienced. We start with the funny stories and stuff, but there is some more useful stuff. Actually, one of our most popular episodes was all about ethics in business.

Lloyd  26:25 

I don’t even remember it.

Dan  26:26 

It was episode 13. So it was ages ago. But we called it ethical dilemmas. And one of the stories we told him that was about a ski trip and you being quite an unethical little boy, Lloyd.

Lloyd  26:37 

Oh, great. So I’ve been cringing about how, how cringy I am. Yeah. And now we’re here about what a terrible person. Okay, let’s roll the clip. “So, not my proudest moment. But we were in a bar. Night Out had a few drinks. And one of the people behind the bar was drinking a lot herself. And it was getting to the point where she couldn’t really do her job.

Dan  27:06 

So Lloyd took her home.

Lloyd  27:07 

Oh, god, it’s not. Don’t worry. Don’t worry, guys. You don’t have to stop listening. It’s not one of those. It’s not that.

Dan  27:15 

I mean, she was standing on the bar.

Lloyd  27:17 

I was getting a bit frustrated because like, trying to try and get a drink and stuff. And it’s taking like an hour because she was too busy doing five shots. And then I actually saw so I was getting a bit annoyed, got bought a couple of rounds. And It was taking ages because drunk over there. And then I saw her manager come over and basically tell her to go home because she was too because she was like, she was just barging all the other people around the bar spilling stuff. Forgetting who was ordering forgetting, like who’s paying him. So and then this is my, the most unethical ethical thing I can think of that I’ve ever done. I thought, right, this bar has annoyed me, so I’m gonna make the most of this. So I got the got manager’s attention. I just ordered double rum and cokes and that girl just walked off. I’ve ordered and paid for them. And he just oh I’m so sorry. I’ll get them for you. So, so I hadn’t ordered or paid for those but I thought I’m gonna, a horrible person. I basically stole four drinks didn’t I?”

Dan  28:29 

You sneaky little boy.

Lloyd  28:31 

Just for any new listeners? I am. I have a lot of moral good morals. I’m a good person. That was one little time I dropped the ball there with the old morals. You know, it’s quite annoying when you’re trying to get served and, and the staff are too drunk to do it.

Dan  28:50 

I love how you were actually really clever and you really thought out how are you going to be unethical as well.

Lloyd  28:55 

I really think cleverly about how I make people think I’m a good person. Yeah, I probably even gave those drinks away. So people are thanks so much. Yeah, you’re such a nice person for stealing drinks from drunk bar people.

Dan  29:10 

Terrible lawyer.

Lloyd  29:11 

Yeah, it’s good.

Dan  29:12 

One of the other episodes. We haven’t got a clip of this, but it just reminded me. Do you remember when we did an episode I think was episode 19 of all accountants rubbish? We with our previous accountants? Yes, I do remember that we had quite a bad experience. We’ve got amazing accountants now. And we’re really happy with them. But we had quite a bad experience. And we talked about our bad experiences. And it caused quite an uproar in the accountancy community. Lloyd, do you remember?

Lloyd  29:39 

Yes, I do. So the title of the podcast was are all accountants rubbish question mark. Okay, we’re asking a question. Yeah. But obviously, a lot of accountants saw that and thought we were saying all accountants are rubbish, which actually was our experience up to that point. But yeah, we had some I suppose when you’ve worked hard in a professional to do a good job and someone has a conversation telling you that your rubbish probably doesn’t feel that great. But we had a terrible experience with our previous accountants. It was so bad at what they did. We had a few negative messages from that episode.

Dan  30:20 

There was one that I remember just really went in on you in the comments. Yes, it was a targeted attack against you. It was quite personal as well.

Lloyd  30:30 

Really Lloyd. Talking about accountants like this. You should know that you? Oh, god. Okay.

Dan  30:38 

It’s interesting. Like, we’ve done a few different at some have been quite divided opinion quite a lot. The thing with marketing, though, is when you do divided opinion, it gets lots of attention, because the people who agree with it, want to listen to it and comment on it. And the people that don’t disagree, do the same. So I guess we don’t want to ever become like the Piers Morgan of marketing, where we just say nasty things.

Lloyd  31:01 

I suppose that’s the only real time that we felt like that where we said something slightly controversial. That wasn’t even meant to be controversial. Yeah, that really got people got but yeah, I don’t think I could deal with being one of those people that just say things to be controversial. To get attention, because yeah, just that one lady with a long comment. Please, no.

Lloyd  31:21
We did a story about we did a story, a podcast episode about my bitcoin as well, didn’t we? Yes. For any new listeners, I think at the time, it was called something about like how Lloyd lost 4 million in Bitcoin. At the peak of the Bitcoin price, I think it got up to about 12 million I could’ve sold it for that it’s dropped again now. But yeah, if you didn’t listen to that episode, I lost it. So I don’t know where it is. It’s on a laptop somewhere.

Dan  31:49 

That was a really interesting one. That was the episode where our first big client that came through the podcast referenced that episode. So it just goes to show like, because I think over the years, we’ve done lots of episodes, episodes about marketing and business episodes about more like weird stuff, like, are we in a simulation? Some of them are weirder episodes you’ve questioned sometimes, but I think it’s good to have variety because different things appeal to different people.

Lloyd  32:16 

Hopefully, I don’t lose the Bitcoin I’ve currently got, which is worth nowhere near 12 million. Yes. Maybe at 12? Yeah, a lot less.

Dan  32:23 

Yeah. One of the episodes early on that did really well, then if you remember this one because you don’t remember any Episodes, Episode 51. About pricing. I know this, this sounds a bit more boring. We did an episode called how the F do you decide your pricing in the business.

And it did really well because we talked through some really practical approaches and basically kind of open the bonnet of our agency, how we decide our pricing and how our pricing has changed, or the model of our pricing has changed over the years. And there was some really useful stuff in that. And because it’s not a funny story is actually useful. I want to share this useful clip with the listeners because it’s useful.

“We’ve got good friends that give a lot of the advice about increased prices. Do you think sometimes that’s the right thing?

Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t do those mathematics and actually don’t charge enough, I’ll cut my prices when really, they’re actually providing more value than that. So they should increase their prices.

Lloyd  33:23 

Can be good sometimes. Sometimes, yeah, there are people out there. I personally believe that just say it to everyone. Everyone should double their prices right now because I’ve seen that out there a lot. If you double your prices right now, next year, you’ll be a millionaire. The problem with that is a lot of people aren’t doing a good enough job to justify doubling the prices. So they will lose all their customers in the next two months. They’ll lose their business, and then that was their house and then they’ll be sad.

I think a much better focus is to improve what you’re focused on time proving what you’re doing, so you can see an opportunity to increase your prices. And I don’t think we’ve ever done this. But I saw, I read something that I thought was quite a good way of doing this over time. It said something like, they had a 50% conversion rate. So if they were pitching for work or whatever, they’d get around 50%. And they used to just increase their prices and so like 5% until their conversion rate went under 50%. And then they’d be like, clearly the markets telling me that I’m not that good yet.

Dan  34:32 

We’ve literally done this. Oh, have we? Yes. Not necessarily that specific. But I remember with our strategy development days that we run, I remember I delivered a couple with people who we really trusted, and they gave feedback afterwards. And this is the honest truth. By the way, I would have literally paid double for this your way and this was the early days and this is the early days and I thought, Oh, really? That’s so so what we started doing was. We didn’t double the prices but increased the prices a bit and then it didn’t conversion rate didn’t drop. And we’ve since kept going up and up and up until it gets to the point when you do you start to realise.

Lloyd  35:19  

What’s quite frustrating is that shows we were really undercharging for quite a while”. Do you know I think that did so well? Why? Because it’s one of those things that like almost every business along the way questions themselves are like, Oh, am I charging too much? Or am I not charging enough? It’s very relatable. I think we I mean, we’ve had that along, over the years of wondering, is our pricing where it needs to be? Should it go up? Should it go down?

Dan  35:43 

It’s another episode from that comment that just made me think that did really well on a similar thing, is the one we did around how to overcome stress at work. That I wasn’t expecting to do that well. I think because lots of people get stressed at work. And when it’s a relatable episode about a problem people have that they want to solve.

Lloyd  36:00 

That was more recently, wasn’t it?

Dan  36:02 

Well, yes, but we actually did another one. Similar to stress and overwhelm, or high-pressure situations at work. Okay, that was ages ago though.

Lloyd  36:13 

The listeners probably think I repeat myself because I don’t know that I’ve spoken that stuff before. And they’re like yeah Lloyd you said this two episodes ago.

Dan  36:15 

Another one, one more value-adding one that I really think we had lots of great stuff in. Was it more of one where I was talking? I know it’s been a lot about you. But the one pitching how to stop being shit at it. It was all about the process because I do all of our pitchings to clients and staff. Yeah, it’s all about the way we go about that. And so let’s just play a clip. Because hopefully, this is useful for people who want to learn more about pitching and sales.

Lloyd  36:46 

“If our listeners are pitching or thinking now, although I usually send quotes, and now I should be having like a half an hour call where I can pitch to my clients to try and convert more. What can they do to convert more of them? Because that’s what everyone’s going to want to know.

Dan  37:00 

Number one tip get way better at the discovery phase? Everything we said prior to this specific point in the podcast has been about the discovery phase, pretty much like the gap selling and asking the right question.

Lloyd  37:15 

Gathering the information you need to actually be able to pitch to someone.

Dan  37:19 

Yes. Because of what that will do, and as part of that process, you’re qualifying as well. You’re figuring out if they’ve got the budget, there’s an acronym man we’ve used means authority need to they have the means the budget, do they have the authority? Are they the decision maker? And if they are, is there anyone else involved? And do they actually have a need for this? By asking the right questions you really understand? Do they actually have a problem that your best the best company to solve that problem?

So that’s the first thing really getting better at that discovery phase. Secondly, and this has been where I feel we’ve really smashed it, in terms of what we’re good at, we’ve done lots of things wrong. But this is where we really are, what we’re good at is putting more effort into pre-sales, and inbound content. So content that is value-adding helps potential customers get to know you before you even have that discovery call.

A huge piece of feedback, multiple customers from big brands that we’ve converted have said to us is, I feel like I knew you before I even spoke to you. And I knew I wanted to work with you before I spoke to you.

Lloyd  38:31 

There’ll be some listening to this now. Yeah, it’s weird, isn’t it? But that is so interesting, like and starting a kind of a pitch with someone already feeling like they know you and being bought into you as a person. Because if they listen to your podcasts and stuff, or see your content and think they are rubbish at what they do, they’re not going to want you to pitch.

Dan  38:51 

They’ve pre-qualified themselves. This is why you’re like our conversion rate has been steadily increasing, since we’ve got better at this because the people who get in touch with you already completely get you because you’ve done such a good job with your content, of showing your personality showing the results you achieve. Because if you’ve got a really comprehensive content strategy you should be showing case studies and examples and that kind of thing. And they’re calling you. They’ve basically done a lot of the upfront work already.

It’s basically the opposite of a cold call. Cold call, you have no idea who this person is, hey, do you want to buy this thing. No way. Don’t trust you don’t know you, even if you’ve got a good solution, got no trust with you. It’s the opposite of that they’ve pre-qualified themselves by listening and watching your content. So that’s been a huge benefit to us with, with not just getting converting more, but getting bigger, better opportunities.

Yeah, so hopefully that’s taught you some useful lessons to help you get better at pitching. Yes, and I’ve remembered what the episode was now that we were speaking about a minute ago. The one about the stress was actually episode 65. How to Overcome impostor syndrome and self-doubt.

That’s impressive that you remember that when we had a break from recording this.

Yes, don’t give our secrets away.

Lloyd  40:05 

your memory. I do we I should have mentioned this earlier, one of my favourite ever episodes is actually Episode One where we talk about the cringy world of networking, especially because at that point in the business, we were doing a lot more before the pandemic and when our business was a bit smaller as well, doing a lot more of those more local networking groups.

And we were just having such a laugh about the clinginess of basically everyone going around the room pretending to have a really big business and pretending to be really busy. Oh, how are you? Yeah, busy. Are you Steve, because you’ve been to five of these meetings this week. You’ve had a fry-up at each one. What about you? Are you busy? Yeah, really busy.

Dan  40:48 

I really like that though because that was the core of what we wanted to do in this podcast at the start, which was talking about the stuff in business that other business people didn’t talk about, like when you look at places like TikTok and Insta. Everyone’s like, got fancy cars.

And yeah, the business lives? Yes, I got like that. Yeah. It’s going to weird breakfast meetings with people that you probably don’t want to hang out with because you’re hoping that you’re gonna get some business from them. And we wanted to shine the light on what business networking is actually like. And yeah, I think that was a good start to the business anchors podcast because it’s set the scene to actually for us to just talk openly about the weird experience. Oh, that just reminded me of the woman that tried to heal you with stones at one of these things?

Lloyd  41:34 

Yeah. Yeah, I think I’ve told that story a few times on the podcast actually remember that one? But yeah, it was all that sort of thing I’ll tell you with for these stones for free if you want because obviously, I’ve said it wasn’t buying service. And then she starts waving around my head do you feel better? And then I just feel the problem by going Yeah, I feel a lot better. So I’ll ask more people if they want me to heal them, so I made that situation worse, but she’ll be fine. She’ll be having fry-ups and healing people with stones.

Dan  42:05 

One of my favourite ever episodes, and the episode I actually say if anyone ever asked me what episode should I listen to from business anchors, was episode 73. How to be happier. It’s called How to be happier backed by science and why happiness is a choice.

Lloyd  42:22 

Were they ever offended by that? What one would it be really appropriate for me? Episode 63 how to be happier and episode 62 how to be better at life.

Dan  42:32 

How do have better hygiene? Episode 19.

Lloyd  42:35 

How to deal with bad breath? Episode 24

Dan  42:37 

Are you gonna listen to that one again, Lloyd you should do it.

Lloyd  42:39 

Oh, I get the hint.

Dan  42:40 

But that episode was where we talked through happiness expert Mo who was on the diary of a CEO podcast. We talked about all the lessons we learned from that podcast. And it’s just some really eye-opening stuff that I feel has genuinely changed my life. And hopefully, that episode will change your life that sounds really cringe.

Lloyd  43:00 

But if you’re going to be cringy, can I cringe?

Dan  43:02 

Go on be cringy.

Lloyd  43:03 

Do you know what I’ve really enjoyed sorry, listeners, if you find this boring, but I’ve really loved doing this podcast because I get to sit with my brother every week or so and have a good chat? And we’re quite busy a lot of time doing lots of things within the business. But it’s nice to sit down with you often and talk. And obviously, it’s weird because Tay and Jay are over there listening to us, which is awkward. Keep hinting for them to leave. No please don’t we need you. And we got the lights on. But yeah, it’s nice to just slow down the pace and talk to you.

Dan  43:35 

it’s interesting when you reflect on it. So we’ve done 100 episodes, the just the different things that we’ve gained. So if anyone’s thinking of doing a podcast, this can be useful, something I say you’d like sitting down with me and I’m gonna chat and stuff, something I’ve actually found really valuable from this, I do enjoy sitting down with you and have a chat as well. And I think we’ve both got better at this. Doing this podcast every week has helped us improve the way we communicate our ideas eloquently. Like not all the time.

Sometimes we’re just like, oh well enough is that but because we’re practising sharing our ideas is like a muscle that you’re training and you’re fine-tuning. And it helps like, for example for me when I’m pitching to clients when I’m speaking at events when I’m meeting people for the first time and they’re like, What do you do? It’s helped me get better at communicating like what do you think’s going to happen in the marketing space this year? Because I’ve done 100 episodes talking about that. It helps you communicate ideas, but it’s and I think both of us have got better at communicating but obviously still got stuff to improve.

Lloyd  44:39 

In the first few episodes, we had to train me not to just go yeah after you said sentences that were really useful and you’re probably waiting for me to have a bit of a good response come back with something really value-adding or witty and I just go yeah, and then we’d have a moment of silence.

Dan  44:57 

That was actually a thing we actually I I think I’d eventually brought it up just because every time I’d say something like, oh, yeah, this bounce off of this, you would just go yeah.

Lloyd  45:07 

Whereas now I communicate absolutely perfectly. And everyone loves listening to me.

Dan  45:11 

Yeah, you have got better, though. You definitely got better.

Lloyd  45:15 

Thank you.

Dan  45:16 

Is there anything else from doing this podcast that you think has like? Because I recommend some anchors listening? Maybe they might be considering doing a podcast or creating content and that kind of thing? What? Do you feel like this helps you in any way?

Lloyd  45:30 

Probably the money? No, it’s obviously helped our business bring in money to the business so we can invest in stuff and grow our team. So that’s, that’s the simple positive for us. But it’s also really nice with how efficient we’ve got with creating content when you do something over and over again and improve the processes. I think it’s helped us and our team really get better at doing that. So whatever it is creating whatever type of content. If you’re repeating it, it’s kind of like, okay, this process takes 12 minutes, how can we make that take three minutes?

Dan  46:06 

How did we do it so that if listeners want to make that process better, what have we done?

Lloyd  46:10 

I think it’s looking at every single part of the content creation, looking at how long each part takes. And just working out if there’s a way to reduce that time, or make fewer people involved in that part of the process. So for example, Dan, and I used to sit down or we used to go on walks and talk about a podcast episode to prep it. And we used to both talks for like an hour. And then we used to put a document in and things put ideas down and write it on a document. And that was before the episode. Now, we’ve kind of fine-tuning it.

So Dan will come up with several podcast ideas, he’ll send them to me, and I’ll send back my favourite ones, then Dan will create a prep document and I will add my notes, and it’s kind of gone from there, probably between us, us prepping for three or four hours for an episode to us probably prepping for half an hour. Yeah, and I think so four hours to half an hour, and the quality is improved. So that’s how I would kind of look at your processes for content creation and get the most you possibly can, out of the time and effort that you put in.

And also, I think to manage your own expectations, because we’ve had to go through the motions of doing that massive long prep, to figure out how to get better at making what we’re doing more efficient. So you’re not going to suddenly just start a podcast to do anything and it took half an hour, you need to kind of go through the motions of doing it. And another example is creating thumbnails for our videos for the podcast.

So we used to, after every single podcast, take new pictures, to go into a thumbnail of me and Dan, doing different things and that kind of thing. And actually, fairly recently, we realised how can we take like an extra 15 minutes at the end of each episode? And if you think I know, 15 minutes, maybe not much, but that’s 15 minutes for me 15 minutes for Dan 15 minutes for someone taking the picture. So that’s 45 minutes a week of time taken just to get those photos. And then when they were like Dan, let’s just bring in some a few different T-shirts and take loads of pictures in one go. That’ll take 20 minutes rather than 15 and we’ve got enough for 50 episodes.

Dan  48:18 

So just a reminder for everyone we are giving away 100 Business anchors mugs and Adobe Express merch so if you want to enter that competition, just post on social media at business anchors and tell us what you think about this podcast. And send an email to Jae@knowltonmarketing.growmodo.dev and we will post you a mug and some Adobe Express merch. We’ve actually got a good call to action from Lloyd.

Lloyd  48:47 

Get yourself a mug. I’ve got one, pointing to Dan.

Dan  48:51 

But yeah, looking forward to another 100 episodes Lloyd.

Lloyd  48:54 

Yes, see you in episode 200. Obviously, I’ll be here before then. Next week I will. But in 100 episodes we will we’ll come back to this clip and think Lloyd has really improved from when he used to just ramble and we couldn’t end an episode.

Dan  49:10 

Like Now.

Lloyd  49:11 

Yeah

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed our 100th episode of business Anchors!