Deanna Haysom Show Notes

Growing up in a rural community in Saskatchewan, Canada, Deanna had an introduction to the entrepreneurial lifestyle at a very young age. With over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing in both the private and public sector, she attributes her upbringing to many of her life successes as it has been hands-on experience and an intuitive drive that guided her into her current role as Owner and Creative Director of tag concepts. Her company, tag, focuses on working with clients that are seeking authentic branding for themselves or their companies.

Most passionate about

• We are extremely excited about helping our clients learn who they are. At the same time, I’m really passionate about bringing people together that are really great at what they do and giving them the opportunity to continue to expand those strengths so they become even better. I guess it’s the collaboration that I appreciate.
• So, mainly bringing in these industry experts, honing in on their amazing skills and strengths and then giving them the opportunity to continue to thrive.

Deanna’s best advice about customer focus, marketing, and sales

• First thing that comes to mind is: be a solution for the customer. Often the customer is out there with some sort of problem or some question in mind, and if you can be that trusted advisor, providing them with solution, you instantly gain trust with them.
• So, thinking about what your clients, or perspective clients, maybe asking themselves then putting that out there; not in a sales way, because I don’t believe in that approach. More from a relationship based point of view, so that you have an opportunity to engage further.

Biggest failure with a customer

• My largest failure came from not trusting my instincts with clients. Sometimes as small business owners, or as human beings, it can be scary to not trust your instincts, especially when you are a new business. Clients are coming to you and you want to make sure you have enough money to pad your account or pay your bills.
• And so, at times, we ignore those instincts that might be trying to tell you this isn’t the right client for you, maybe someone else could serve them better. So, at the beginning of Tag, I took on some clients that my instincts told me I shouldn’t, but I did anyway. I truly do believe that was a failure on my part. I should have said no, but I didn’t.

Biggest success due to the right customer approach

• Answer: This particular client had gone through many struggles, like you have and like I have, where you almost feel you aren’t in the right place anymore and you don’t know if you believe in yourself any more. I provided her with some insight to help her realize she wasn’t alone and that I, myself, have gone through some of the same struggles and self-sabotage.
• We worked together to get past that, and then we presented a new brand, and in that brand concept that day, I saw a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders and she suddenly saw herself the same way I saw her, and the same way so many other individuals see her. She finally knew who she was and where her business could go.

Deanna’s most recommended tool

• Answer: Our favorite tool, which is a free tool, at least, right now it is, is Trello. The reason I appreciate it is because we are bombarded by a lot of different platforms, so no matter who you are or what you do, we have phones where people are texting us, we have Facebook Messenger, plus we have Facebook, plus Instagram, we have email, we have a CRM within our company, and so there are all these notifications coming at us.
• The reason I chose Trello for both our team and for client communications was it’s one platform that I can invite people to put information in, so that we’re not having to go back into our emails.

Deanna’s key success factor

• I think I would say: I look for people who love doing what they do because that means that’s their strength and I bring them together so that we can collaborate and I can focus on the things that perhaps they don’t enjoy as much and they can continue to focus on the things they are really strong at. I believe if we have the ability to do what we love, we will continue to get better at it because we love it so much and we won’t want to leave.
• In today’s business world, turn over is a common discussion; how do we prevent turn over, how can we help retain employees longer. Training new employees takes a lot of time, energy, and it costs a lot as well, so I truly believe, with Tag, my ability to find those people that love what they do and try and create an experience within Tag that offers them the opportunity to get even better at that task and know that they have this team of people that want to help them get better.

Deanna’s Mountain

Since we believe that the best way for entrepreneurs to get a fast, big, and sustainable success is by leading your (new) market category, and the entire entrepreneurial journey reminds me of mountaineering, or conquering the mountain; I want to ask you if there is a mountain you dream of climbing or a mountain you have already climbed.

• I live in Western Canada, so we are blessed with the Rocky Mountains. I have had great experiences in the mountains just from snowboarding there and enjoying hikes and runs, but I’ve never climbed one, nor will I ever because I’m a bit of a chicken. My strategic brain started to analyze all the things that could go wrong.
• One of the biggest mountains we can climb, as human beings, is learning to love who we are so that’s self love; it’s a massive mountain.

 

Recommended tool

• Trello – Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It’s free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

The best way to connect with Deanna:

• E-mail
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Website

More resources for Entrepreneurs

1. Don’t Miss – Customer Focus Strategy & Execution: Market Analysis for Fundraising
2. Hayut Yogev’s Latest post: The most important choices entrepreneurs make that affect their chances for entrepreneurial business success Part 1
3. Former interview: Dorothéa Bozicolona-Volpe – “I focus on understanding customers’ needs and not just coming in with an overarching strategy. I also pull my sleeves up and help them execute and implement on that strategy.”