Get Ready for the Roaring 20's

"Foreign."

Stuart: Welcome to another episode of the Bookmore Show. It's Stuart Bell here. And today had a great call with Betsy Vaughan talking about the potential of the roaring 20s. We're recording here kind of December 18th, heading towards the new year. And 2021 has a lot of promise for things getting back to some kind of normal. The economy picking up again, people being in a better position from a health perspective. So now is a fantastic time to start thinking about engaging with customers who are going to kind of convert and jump on board maybe six weeks down the track, maybe six months down the track, maybe later in the year. But all of these opportunities, whether it's B2C customers or B2B customers, all of these opportunities to engage with them. Now start the conversation knowing that at some point the economy is really going to pick up and turn into something that has a lot of potential for some great business in the months and years ahead. Really interesting episode. Really enjoyed this one. There's three or four great examples that you can take on board and use in your own industry. So with that, let's get to it. Betsy Vaughan, Hello.

Guest: Stuart Bell. How are you?

Stuart: Very good, thank you. It's a chilly day up in Philadelphia.

Guest: It's a chilly day here in Florida, too.

Stuart: Right. It's all.

Guest: I'm all excited about it.

Stuart: Sweater time.

Guest: That's why it is sweater weather. Roots and sweater the five days out of the year that we do that here.

Stuart: Right. Lucy's a kindergarten teacher and because of the whole Covid thing, they're teaching, they're trying to stay outdoor as much as possible. So the class size is pretty, but trying to stay outside. So I think when she left the house this morning, it was like 21 feels like. So I was just texting. They're trying to stay as warm as possible.

Guest: Wow. I hope she has layers on.

Stuart: Lots and lots and lots.

Guest: Lots of layers. I'm not going to complain about the cold. Then I'll just be quiet with my 59 degrees.

Stuart: Well, like I say, it's.

Guest: And it's all relative. So. Yeah.

Stuart: But it's.

Guest: It's great.

Stuart: We're just. Can't take it down here in the south, right?

Guest: Exactly. So glad to be back here on the podcast. It's been a while.

Stuart: There was a little unexpected hiatus, which I feel bad about. So apologies for people listening because I do have two great shows that we're gonna now release over Christmas with authors that we've worked with. And they're really interesting, really exciting. I loved recording them. So we'll get Those out in the next two weeks or over the next two weeks. So that's definitely something to listen out for. And then back on a cadence in the new year.

Guest: Super.

Stuart: The new year, I guess now that it's rapidly approaching. That's really why I wanted to talk about today, this idea of a. It's a new year, which obviously happens every year, but this new year is different in a way because it brings with it certain kind of feelings of potential and 2021 being hopefully a very different year from 2020. So I thought it was definitely worthwhile talking about that and thinking about ways that we can leverage it, using a book to kind of position ourselves going into that new year and all of the things that just give people ideas, really, of thinking about things that may now be different as a way of using that as kind of like a jumping off point and leverage to. To get in front of new customers.

Guest: That's great. I think like you said, we're. I think we're going to see some new things in 2021 for sure. Just coming from how people have been doing business in 2020. So it's kind of going to be interesting, you know, just to see and to show people some different ways they can do some things and. And people, I think their heads already started spinning. The wheels are turning already, you know, so. Should be interesting to talk about.

Stuart: Yeah, I've been surprised over the last couple of months we had a. So obviously December now as we were recording, as the whole lockdown things were starting around March, April, we were actually pretty busy then. And then kind of summer was a little quieter. But the last couple of months have picked up as well. And I think that is traditionally we see a little bit of a peak towards the end of the year is about planning for next year. But this year particularly has been even busier than the past couple of years. And I think it's exactly for that reason you say there's kind of this anticipation and people are starting to think about the potential. So hopefully this is going to be a great show, give some ideas and thoughts for no matter what industry you're in, things to think about, which are, as I say, are going to be reasons to get in front of people and start or restart those conversations.

Guest: Very good.

Stuart: One thing that hasn't changed since we were recording last is my voice is still quite croaky. So I'm hoping that it's going to last. It seems to be every time I speak slightly loud, it just gets that little bit croakier. Again, apologies do you have your water sitting there? Do you know? I was on the phone to Dean before we recorded and then we were talking for a little bit before we hit record. So I've got coffee next to me, but that coffee is cold, which is disgusting. Cold coffee should be banned, as I shared earlier.

Guest: I have three big drinks beside me. I have my big obnoxious water jug that Stuart knows all about. And then I have a hot drink and a cold drink sitting here.

Stuart: I don't think calling it a water jug is quite accurate to kind of paint a picture for the listeners. A water churn or that might be more accurate.

Guest: It's large. Yeah. You know, try to stay hydrated.

Stuart: So I'm definitely Parks and Recreation. It's child size. Not that it's full child. It's just the size of a small child.

Guest: That's so true. Oh, I have to tell you, the other day in my car, the whole thing spilled out in my car and it was in the back seat, thankfully. And I, you know, I have that dog hammock in the back of my car. So it. The dog hammock, and it's waterproof. It caught this hole, had this whole puddle of water in their back seat. So thankfully my seats were protected. But, yeah, I didn't have it.

Stuart: One of those things where they put like a tarp in the back of a pickup and fill it with water, like a juicy type thing and drive around the block. It would be like that.

Guest: That's funny. That's great. Oh, my gosh. That's funny. Okay, let's carry on.

Stuart: So the obvious ones that spring to mind are things where your industry has been impacted by Covid. So if you're in a B2B type environment where your customers are other business owners, it's probably very obvious how that's going to be affecting you. So if you're in industries that now have more safety protocols around, if you've got industries that are affected by capacity constraints, so you want to make suggestions on how people can engage customers, but in a different way. So that second example isn't necessarily that things are changing in 2021, but it's more that business is picking up again. So the same restrictions that are there this year might well be there next year. But it's just starting that conversation as the business owners are starting to put their head above the parapet and thinking about things wide and just being in survival mode. So I think this idea of reaching out to people with something that's meaningful of the moment or in the moment that thing now there's opportunity to make it very COVID vaccine recovery based as opposed to a couple of years ago. You might have been talking about something relatively generic to the industry or things that people might have had conversations about in the past. I think with this idea of going directly B2B and giving more specific tailored advice, the opportunity lies in being pretty specific. So there's. If you put yourself in the shoes of your customers. So we talk about what's one of the examples? Coaches. We deal with quite a number of coaches, people who run coaching organizations for other coaches. So having writing the book that talks about how lifestyle coaches or real estate coaches or particular industry coaches can deliver the best benefits to their client in remote world and write something that talks about how to leverage Zoom and the other online technology. It's a little bit more than just the basics of okay, we have to do this on Zoom now try and think outside of the box. The next level. How can you. This is going to continue. So how can you add value that a little bit more? Writing something that's very specific, giving advice, that's a great opportunity. As I say, people get sticking their head above the parapet thinking about building business now, not just surviving in business. So tips and pointers can be beneficial. People who are dealing with restaurants or. I'm trying to think of industries that are very affected. Movie theaters might be a struggle. I'm not sure that movie theaters are going to be the first to recover even in 2021. So I mean that's relatively niche. But a lot of other organizations where they're dealing with capacity limitations actually even movie theaters. So thinking about it, there was amc I think were doing this thing where they would rent out the whole theater. So for relatively cheap. I think it was maybe like 120.

Guest: It was, yeah. 100 bucks. Yeah, right.

Stuart: I mean that's crazy. I mean you bet. What's a movie ticket like 20 bucks? So I mean.

Guest: Yeah, I mean anyway, 10 to 15. 20 bucks? Yeah. Depending on where you live, right? Yeah.

Stuart: So you can imagine a scenario where let's say you were working with movie theaters, small independent movie theaters, taking the lead from AMC and how they can try and replicate that similar kind of modern model based on whatever the state requirements are. So the book that you write talking about how movie theater, independent theaters can survive in 2020, then the work may be to research what requirements or what constraints are state by state. Obviously that's going to change, but write down what state by state, maybe make it slightly generic. And if your state has because they're categorically similar. Every state has unique requirements. It might be different state to state, but broadly they're falling in the same pools of constraints. So distancing capacity limits, opening hours or length of opening hours. I think in Pennsylvania at the moment, bars or New York maybe bars are closing early. So there's maybe hour constraints, the staff element of it, what PPE you need to provide for staff or on versus off hours for staff. So the job of work may be going consolidating all of these requirements into a book that gives general advice for if you're in this category, here are three things you can do to be compliant. And then the reader's job will be to pick and pick and choose the constraints that apply to them. But by positioning it in a way that you've done this work, that you're giving them ideas for how they can do things and then ideally going above and beyond just the what the letter of the law is on on constraints and. And again adding some value and thinking bigger picture on ways that people can add value outside of just the particular experience. So movie theaters, independent movie theaters, it might be. Not that you're trying to play the latest box office release and again that's a whole other kettle of fish. But not that you're trying to play just regular movies that you would have played in normal times. But maybe you've got access to older releases that you can do events around. So when I was still in the uk, I went to a screening of a Michael Caine documentary and he was in a theater in London and I was in a theater in North Wales somewhere and his presentation talking about movie and the backstory to the scenes that were included. All of this type of thing was included. There's a YouTube channel and the guy, ah, this is gonna be a terrible story because I can't remember the details, but the guy on it is a. He's an actor, I recognize his face. So he's an actor, but not maybe a main, like an A list actor, maybe B list. And he was getting together with casts of old movies. So I think they did Ferris Beatless day off. Oh yeah. Dirty Dancing, maybe some of the other ones. So he was getting all of those actors together on Zoom and just doing it as a reunion thing. Independent theater owners are going to have limited ability to do some stuff, but there's definitely some stuff that they can do. So they might have access to local films with local audiences. They might be able to screen local stuff. They might be able to do birthday based Events for people. So rather than passively just saying come and rent the theater if you want to rent it. Buy lists of birthdays for people. Cross reference that who. For people who have got a certain income level. If there's any interest based demographics you can get from list buyers that also give an intent of movies or if you've got access to a movie on a certain subject, a certain interest group, then send it to that people and send out tailored invitations to the people who are more likely to be interested in that thing and say to them, hey, we've got. The theatre obviously is still closed, but we want to reach out to the local community and provide some tailored experiences. So rather than saying generically just for $100, rent out the theater, how about for $1,000? We're doing birthday experiences where you can bring 20 of your family members within your bubble constraints if you're happy with them. We've got distancing options so that we can spread people out so they're at least six foot apart. Our air conditioning in the theater means that we're a rate of 2 changes per hour or whatever some other numbers are that are relevant. Again, that's part of the job of research. And then we can provide catering on site or you can bring catering and we can stage it so we can take that food and handle it in a safe way and deliver it to the guests. We can buy a birthday cake for you and have the sparklers going on the top of it. Really make it an experience that is bigger than just the individual value of moving pictures on a screen. This airflow.

Guest: Great idea. Sorry, those are great ideas there.

Stuart: Yeah, well, and this extra adding of value and a theater space can do the same. Not just a movie theater, a anything where there's a presence and a special area. There's another podcast I listen to which is just, I mean it's loosely tech related, tech productivity related. Cortex, it's called the guy there, one of the guys who does it is a guy called CGP Grey and he's got a big education based YouTube channel with a couple of million subscribers. I can't remember exactly the numbers but he does a lot of. Or in the past it's done a lot of like explainer type videos. So explaining he's American but he's based in the uk so he's done an explained a video to talk about the. The makeup of the uk. So the UK is made up of Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and a number of other territories. But then there's the UK and There's Great Britain and there's all these different names for the thing. So anyways, done explaining video on that and various other things. American Tribes, I think was one, the Constitution was another one. All of these different things he was saying on the show that I listened to last week, that the videos he's done over the last year have in the past it's been very much going to places and doing research. Now there's been less of that because he hasn't had access to it. But what he has had access to is a couple of places that in normal times he would never have had access to because usually they're either open to the public or they're too busy. But now that they're closed, that access is something special. So I'm thinking there are country houses, gardens, buildings in city centers, like sky decks on buildings, historical sites, all of these places that usually are relying on normal tourist traffic coming to the venue and just like churning through numbers of people to be able to put on a very tailored event for a specific group of people and charge a premium for it. Because there's this terrible kind of dynamic of the. And this is going off on a tangent a little bit, but there is a certain terrible dynamic of the pandemic, which means that for a lot of people who are in the upper half of the income spectrum, honestly, the impact of the dynamic of COVID hasn't been that bad because these are jobs that can be done remotely. There haven't been mass layoffs in those industries because everything's still ticking over. Where it's really hit has been at the more service end of the spectrum or the part time end of the spectrum, or the lower income end of the spectrum, or the more all of the industries where the income is very much based on being at a place at a time and there's not a remote option. So that's obviously terrible and should be addressed. But what it does mean is that that higher end of the economic distribution, the people who are able to pay for more bespoke tailored experiences are in a situation where, okay, I've been at home now for six months. I'd usually be going out to a restaurant once a week. But either I can't because it's closed, I don't want to because of all these mask dodgers who are there as well, or I just don't want to do it because I just don't want to even think about it. So that group of people have almost got some disposable income sat burning a hole in their pocket waiting for something to do. So if you could create a tailored event at a place where they would normally not have access to that comes with a premium and making it a premium experience. So tying this back to writing the book, if you're a B2B consultant who advises those areas, or maybe you're even a, a wine vendor who would usually supply all of these across your distribution of customers. You've got restaurants and obviously that business has hit quite dramatically. You've then got special venues that would be doing corporate events in, in individual places that are licensed. All of that business will be dramatically affected. Because even if the restaurant side of things is open, the corporate side of things is definitely not. Because no one's doing away days in the workspace. Because if nothing else, they don't want the headache it and they don't want all of their employees getting sick and then being off work. It's like a double edged sword. So if you're a wine vendor or a food vendor to those locations going out with something to those guys saying hey, you should do this and here's the way that you should do it and here's the way that you can think about it and here's a load of resources of how to put it together, that's got nothing to do with your business. Your business as the wine vendor isn't about running events. But if you can write the book that shows people how to do that, which has the secondary effect of those guys buying from you, not only from the fact that they're able, able to do some business and therefore you'll have an inventory demand, but imagine the, the relationship capital that you're building. My wine vendor has just given me some great ideas on how we can keep the doors open into 2021 because we only barely survive 2020. I mean that as an idea is, is, is fantastic.

Guest: You know that actually that exact thing happened. One of our favorite restaurants, they never did this before and I think they'll, they will continue to do it. On 2021. They started there was essentially their wine rep said hey, you know, business is not great. They were only at this point, you know, they were closed down for two months. And then when they opened back up, limited capacity, they closed, you know, half their booths. Every other booth was open or every other table. And so they have a private room, a really nice, pretty private room. And so they started doing special events. And the wine vendor, the wine rep was the one who said, hey listen, I'll get all these vineyards to come in. We'll bring them in. You guys do wine pairings, you know, wine pairing, dinner. And I charge like 65. 65 bucks a person, small plates. So, you know, the restaurant benefited from that, the wine vendor, because they also came in and said, hey, we have special deals on these wines that we're showcasing today. You can buy the, you know, case of this for half off or whatever. And it was all. I mean, it was. That's exactly what you're saying. It was, you know, the wine vendor or the. The vendors were saying, hey, let's do this. And so they started. They. They were doing them once a month, and they became so popular. And the room is. It's limited to 30 people. And so you have to have, like, you can't have no more than four people at a table. They have to be in your party. And the tables are all, you know, they're more than like 8 or 10ft apart. And they really did an awesome job. We've been to two of them, but they were being. They were so successful, they started doing them twice a month and the middle of the week, you know, and so they were. They were. People really were interested in them, and it was just a nice way. And, you know, we had not gone out and done anything. And so it was a nice way. You know, the environment was clean and clear, and we knew the people, you know, they were taking extra precautions and stuff, and we felt safe the whole time, you know, that we were there. And so we ended up doing it another time and took, you know, another couple with us once. But it was. It was that exact idea. And it brought business to them, you know, to the restaurant. The wine salesperson, who obviously was probably hurting as well, you know, he got to sell some wine. And so it was. It was a perfect situation, you know, and it established the. Something, you know, new for them that they can continue on into 2021. And, you know, we look forward to talk to the manager, and we. He's loving it, you know, and the

Stuart: goodwill it creates both from the vendor side to the. To the. To the restaurant, and then from the restaurant to the customers. That willingness to go above and beyond the. Of the customers. Like, I mean, you can hear in your voice how enthusiastic you are about going to the store.

Guest: Yeah, I was. I loved them. Yeah, exactly.

Stuart: Having this tailored, bespoke opportunity is so much nicer than the mass market. And it might not always replace it, but to have that kind of personalized approach compared with being able to do nothing, I mean, it's just. It's just so yeah. Dialed in.

Guest: Yeah. And I think that's what 2020 has created for us. So we have to think outside the box and you know, have to think a little bit bigger out of our comfort zone. I think it's a lot of it. You know, local restaurants, you know, some of your bigger restaurants, you see higher end, they do these kind of events all the time. But some of your local locally owned restaurant like this place, they don't, they've not done. They just run their business, their day to day business, they've gotten to that. And so being able to think about it a little bit more, more and it's really probably drawn into. I mean I probably told 20 people about it. You know, people didn't even know where the restaurant was there. You know what it's done. And so it's, it's. I mean I think that's sort of the, we have to. These businesses like this, particularly in those industries, like you said, that are service based, they have to really think outside the box, I think just to even keep the doors open at this point.

Stuart: Yeah, yeah, it is like. And with the varying lockdowns in different places, the specifics of it are going to change. But to a certain degree we're talking about writing a book to start that conversation with customers and vendors. So the implementation, the execution of it, that to a certain degree is someone else's problem or it's up to them to kind of dial in the nuance of what the actual execution is. The job of work that we're talking about now is writing something that promotes those ideas and gives people as many pointers as possible to really get them thinking in that way. So we don't, as the people writing the book, as the people trying to start the conversation, we don't need to have all of the answers, but if we can have enough of the answers that it seems like a very compelling, genuine, open armed idea that you're sharing with someone else to really try and help them. There's no commercial intent with it. You're not saying, hey, I'm a wine vendor and we're struggling because we're not selling you as much wine, so you should do more events like this. That's not what we're talking about. We're really trying to position it in a way that's, that's all there, it's all giving, it's all starting that conversation with the, with the best intentions. And that makes the job of writing this introduction piece much easier because don't get hung up on the Details. We talk a lot about the profit actuator scorecard and the kind of breakthrough DNA separation of the before, during and after unit. And the before unit, the part of your business that's responsible for generating and engaging customers, shouldn't get caught up with the during unit problems of delivering that business psychologically separate them. Otherwise the before unit is kind of hamstrung and held back because already starting to think about the implementation problems. The same here. The job of work of this book is with the best intentions to give ideas that kind of sow the seed that start people thinking down a route that they wouldn't otherwise think. It's not your job to answer all of those and not do it. To fall into the trap of stopping before you start because of the problems. Don't let yourself do that. Instead, focus on creating something that begins the journey and is valuable and it comes from the right position. And then that means that that's much more likely to. It will be something that you complete, something you get out there. So that's what I do. And whatever the business is, whether it is the examples that we talked about in terms of like coaches or vendors to establishments, or whether you're talking to your paper and card supplier or I'm looking out the window now and you're a supplier with salt de icing products to replace whatever your individual industry are. There's going to be different challenges to the end customers what they can and can't do. And it might be the case that people are completely closed. So you might need to make suggestions about. And again, this is just thinking off the top of my head, so I'm not quite sure how this would work out. But you can imagine a scenario where you. You're a company that supplies an industry that is absolutely shut down, where they just can't do anything no matter what the scale is. So the book that you write might be about how to minimize losses and really try and keep the wolf in the door for another 12 months and write things to support that, knowing that there's going to be no business from that sector for another six to 12 months. But you're trying to keep the relationship conversation going. Or it might be that you write the book that's about restarting or pivoting to a different industry or whatever it is to make the best of the situation. If you can take a moment to think about what that is, put yourself in their position writing something like that. The job of work is to engage and keep the relationship going and be front of mind or Be there once things pick up again and whether that is six weeks or six months, you've got no control over that. That is the industry that you've chosen to be in, unfortunately. Make the most of the situation and just try and keep the conversation going.

Guest: That's great. Yeah.

Stuart: We have an interesting phenomena. So the breakthrough event that Dean does, the coach, the three day coaching events that were in person and have been on Zoom for the last year or so. There's an interesting phenomena that happens there in that it's very easy to make suggestions for someone else's business. And I think the reason that that happens is because you thinking about the idea and things that people could try, you're not locked in to the constraints or the downside or the problems with implementation or execution. So it does allow your brain to kind of more freely come up with ideas. And this book idea of writing something for your clients, the same thing happens like we said with the event thing because you're not getting caught up in the implementation. It really does allow you to write something that's quite inspired or unique or even just put together in a way that other people might not have thought about because you're not constrained by the delivery. Definitely give yourself a 50 minute focus finder to think through that and think what would be the most valuable to that group of people who you can help. And I think some good things will come from that. So that's the first one. The second one is the slightly more obvious hey, we're in Covid times now and here's the book about surviving Covid in this particular industry. So the ones that spring to mind there are B2C type books in financial services, in employee hiring and retention, in buildings management. All of these things are very the COVID checklist for or xyz. So writing something that's very of the moment, it's pretty on the nose in terms of. These are some tips to survive Covid specifically talking about this particular thing. So healthcare. If you're a healthcare provider, healthcare provider, health insurance provider, there are certain things Covid related that people need to do. If you're an educator, the the kids that you're educating assuming outside of a normal school system, maybe you're a. A what's the word I'm looking for? A tutor or a A Mine's blanking on the word a tutor. Let's go with tutor because I can't think of what. Yeah, yeah. So if you're. That the COVID guide to remote lessons. So Aubrey plays the cello last year he was going to the instructor's house for lessons. This year it's been on zoom. So the cello instructor or the music instructor could write the guide to remote music. The best way to keep your kids engaged whilst doing it remotely and just have all the tips and tricks and hints and suggestions and ways that people can easily get started in a zoom based world. Now that doesn't necessarily. That might still be the same as last year. It might be coming to a time where it changes. The zoom element might be a whole string to the business stream, to the business that you'd never previously thought about because you always just assumed it had to be in person. But now it doesn't. So writing something now and positioning yourself for next year in a more direct B2C type way, that's going on the thought that not necessarily the B2B version that we were talking about, the businesses are starting now to get their head above the parapet and looking for opportunities. This is now consumers are doing the same. So people have got used to how lockdowns are working. They've got used to what they can and can't do. There isn't so much fear around the well, for better or worse, there's not so much fear around the disease itself. People have kind of baselined what they're willing to put up with, what they're willing to do, the extent that they're willing to be around other people, the extent that they're willing to be at home and do things at home that don't need to be around other people. So that where they do have to be around other people, they're kind of minimizing their overall risk footprint. And running a remote, a remote tutoring option organization might well be something that they hadn't previously thought about because they were just in a shutdown mode and they were waiting until they get back to air quotes normality. So writing the guide that is more directly B2C, it's given people some ideas and some suggestions on what to do in how to make the most of the COVID situation. You can tailor it around the 2021 guide to such and such just to give it a bit of a timely, make it more relevant and resonate with certain people for this year. And the title that you pick in the subheading can kind of amplify certain points that are important and timely and, and relevant and why it's different. So the B2C example is way more about okay, business is going to pick up this year. Let's get positioned for it. So that we're ready to go as and when it does, whenever that point is. And the purpose of writing a book to get that engagement going, it's kind of priming the pump bump. It's knowing that people are going to be doing something in the next six months in the business that you're in. So it's just getting stuff out there ready to start that going, which is a little more like normal. Like very often we're talking about this type of thing. So again, I'm trying to think of extreme examples, but a florist. Wedding florists over the last year have been hit pretty hard. People are going to get married in 2021. So if you. If you don't have a way of engaging those people now. So writing the 2021 wedding planning guide, which could be broader than we've talked about this example in the past, but a wedding. A florist could write the venue guide. So actually this idea is writing. I'm jumping all over the place because my mind's kind of popping with as we're talking. So let's stick with the first thought first and then I'll jump onto the second one, which I think is probably even better. The first thought is being close to your business. So the 2021 Guide to Safely selecting wedding flowers, that's very close to what you do. You're a florist, it's talking about wedding flowers. You're not trying to be. You're not bridging in and coming ground through the side door. This is very much what it says on the tin. And it might be the 2021 guide is what you really need to do is minimize your footprint of going out there. Stocks and supplies are going to be limited as distribution networks are still impacted or the floral network is still impacted by people being out of work or lockdowns, that type of thing. So supply is going to be constrained. The availability to speak to your wedding florist, you ideally want to go and see some stuff at some point, but you want to minimize your exposure to that. You don't want to have to go and see people at every point. So the best thing to do is do it over zoom first. Here's a checklist where we're where you should pick the type of flowers. So here's questions. Talking about is it indoor or outdoor? Is it Northern hemisphere or Southern hemisphere? What time of year is it? Thinking about what stock is available. Having international deliveries two years ago might have been much easier than it is this year. So there are certain options that just aren't an option now. So this 2021 guide to picking the best wedding flowers can just combine all of the elements of 2021, both the good things and the bad things, and give people suggestions. Getting that out there now, getting that out at the beginning of the year. People who know that they're going to get married this year sometime, maybe they're waiting for restrictions to be lifted on the venue, but they're not thinking about the downstream restrictions that might be on the supply chain for the flowers or just the availability of the florist or things like, okay, well you're waiting for the restrictions to lift, so is everyone else. And there's a pent up demand of 18 months worth of weddings that people are suddenly waiting for everyone to be allowed outside. And then if you not in there, it's like when Apple releases a new product. If you're not on the page in the first half an hour, your delivery day is going to be six months out. So all of these things the guide can talk specifically about that you're giving very timely, useful advice given the current situations. 2021 is different. The guide talk those differences and how people can make the best of it. The second idea on that, and I'm going to take a breath in a second, the second might be even better or to do as as well. It's definitely not. A worse idea is for the florist to write the 2021 venue guide. So we've talked about this idea before. In normal times that makes sense because very often the before people are thinking about what flowers they should get, people are thinking about what venue they want. And you being able to identify those people and get people to raise their hand and join your list because they're looking for the venue guide means that you know that 90% of those people who want a wedding venue guide are also at some point in the next 18 months going to want wedding flowers. So you kind of prime in the pump with people who are going to be prospects and good customers in the next 18 months. So the 2021 venue guide that's going to be more useful next year than it was two years ago because so much has changed. So the guide might include the best places to go, the ones that have got their safety and cleaning in order, the ones that are naturally more inclined to be suited to an indoor and an outdoor wedding, the ones that are bigger venues so there's just more spacing that you can have. The ones that were unfortunately the best sites are now closed. They're not there anymore because they went out of business. All of these things in the 2021 Wedding Guide. People are going to be desperate for this information because otherwise they're left fending for themselves and having to try and pull together all of this information. So you're not a wedding venue yourself, but that cohort of people. The kind of Venn diagram of the crossover is almost a 100% crossover of the people who are interested in that versus the people who are interested in flowers. And by addressing and starting the conversation with those people further up the chain earlier in the process, you've got the ability to know you're not being one of 10 florists that people find because they're now searching for wedding florists. You're able to jump in and start that conversation earlier because you've given them something super valuable. Before they even get to the stage of thinking about flowers. You've got the chance of building that relationship before they even get to that point of thinking.

Guest: Wow, yeah, that's now going to take a breath. No, no, that's good. That's good stuff. I think. Yeah, I think it's kind of like what I said in the beginning. It's. There's so much to. We have to think, we have to think now future wise, like how things are changing and how, you know, what people are going to be looking for now as, as vaccine comes out and people try to start to return to normal over the next 6, 6, 8, 12 months. Hopefully, you know, it's going to be. That's definitely. There's so many things every industry, that service industry can really provide. You know, businesses can really provide a lot of information to clients because I think there's going to be that searching, you know, they're that whole new normal, if you will. I think we're going to go through that again. Yeah.

Stuart: Yes.

Guest: Yeah.

Stuart: The third point I wanted to make just before we wrap up is really this idea and I heard it a of couple, remember where I heard it. But last week when I was still down in the office, I heard someone talking about the roaring twenties and how there is a certain amount of anticipation that 20, 22, 23, 24 is going to be a very buoyant time. And again, not for all industries and not for all people and certainly don't want to kind of diminish the hardships that are absolutely out there and will take a long time to recover from. But for a lot of the economy there is pent up demand and pent up global demand that has had somewhere between 18 to 24 months of an external unusual factor separate to the industry and the demand, an external thing has caused all of this pent up demand. So this kind of return to the roaring twenties, but the 2000s this time there is a certain amount of, of start laying some seeds now, ready to capitalize that on as much of that as possible when things really pick up because you don't want to be left to be the last person getting back up to speed and miss out on all of this, all of this interest or demand or activity that's gonna, that's gonna go on.

Guest: You know, I think we, you, I think you must have told me that yesterday or the day before. I remember having that conversation. But hitting a little close to home. You know, Mike, my husband, he's in an industry doing a lot of cleanings and stuff or H vac and he has seen just in the last couple of days, yesterday alone he had three contacts from hotels who have this anticipation that they're going to start picking up. And so they're, you know, they want to go ahead and start scheduling some, some cleanings, make sure everything is working properly, making, you know, because they said, hey, we've been shut down and we've only, you know, we've have even been, you know, a quarter full, that kind of thing. We were able to make it. And so he's already starting to see people make those preparations, you know, which is an awesome sign for, you know, for so many industries, you know, to see that maybe we're gonna, there's, there's light at the end of this tunnel. You know, people I think are getting excited because regardless of how you feel about a vaccine, vaccine, I think it's gonna, it will allow people to feel like they can, can start to live some normalcy. So yeah, we're definitely, he's seeing that already to pick up in some of those service based restaurants and schools and hotels, that kind of thing.

Stuart: And when you think about the downstream impact. So we were talking about the vendors before on the flower side saying that the vendors might be stock constrained. So if you're the last person to ask, think you're going to be out of luck. The same with Mike. Mike had to downside slightly, unfortunately not very much, but slightly over the period, which means that he's capacity constrained from where they were 12 months ago and then suddenly ramps up. If small hotel down the block suddenly realize, hey, restrictions have been lifted, we can turn the lights back on now. Let's open the door. Oh, we need to get some better cleaning in here. Let's phone around and everything. Everyone's booked up for six months because people were there faster. This idea of kind of really trying to. Without necessarily committing too much, that is, without creating too much funds too soon and having problems from that point of view, but at least laying the groundwork and starting to think about these things so that you are ready and primed so that it can be the best possible position. That's why I'm talking about starting that conversation with people who might not even be thinking about taking an action for six months. So that the florist example is at that end of the spectrum. That pickup is almost certainly going to lag restaurants or something where it's not such a long, big commitment. You can decide to go out to dinner this evening and if the restaurant's open, it's great. It takes time to plan a wedding. So that lag. But starting these conversations now just really allows you to build this rapport and that, I mean, need to wrap up shortly. But as you're listening to this and this is starting to spark some ideas, have a flick back through some of the previous episodes where we've talked about beyond the book and what to do after you've got the book in someone's hands. Because this we're talking now about doing something that's not going to result in clients immediately. We're not necessarily expecting clients to grab a copy of the book and then immediately do something, although obviously a large number of people will. But we're really talking about building this group of people who are ready to go as soon as the environment's right. And in that scenario, the beyond the book stuff of being able to stay in touch with people over the long haul and keep that relationship going, that then becomes super important. Because what we don't want to do is get the book out there. The person's not quite ready today, but they will be ready in six months. But by the time around, they've forgotten all about you. So definitely check back on some beyond the book type things and ways of ideas of staying in touch with people. And I guess on that note as well, we can wrap by just suggesting again that people head over to bookblueprintscore.com to fill out your own scorecard that looks at the eight mindsets of an ideal book. So with this concept of we want to write a book that engages our customers within the current environment, and we're writing it from the position of giving them as much value as possible, whether it's B2C or B2B. Then going through the framework, the mindsets, and answering each of the questions with that in mind will really help you identify which parts you've got dialed in already, where there's opportunity to improve and really create something that ticks as many of the boxes as possible. And also there'll be some ideas in there that you haven't necessarily thought about previously and that will spark other conversations and other opportunities will come from that. So as you're listening to this, head over to bookblueprintscore.com and fill out your scorecard to step through those eight mindsets. And that will really help you kind of get this idea dialed.

Guest: Very good.

Stuart: So with that, I think we should. Good time to wrap.

Guest: Wrap it up.

Stuart: Yeah. If you've got any questions about what we've said as we've gone through, and I'm always happy to kind of brainstorm some ideas with people. So just reach out to us at podcastyminutebooks or hello @90minute books. Both of those will get to us and ask any questions. And if it's just a podcast question, then can stick a note of it and we'll answer it in a future show. But if you want to jump on a call, just let me know. I'm always happy to. Well, Betsy and I'm always happy to jump on a call and talk through some things, so that's always an option. And then if you're ready to get started, I mean, we're February 18th as we record this headed towards the end of the year. If this is an idea and something that you want to do.

Guest: Did you just say February 18th?

Stuart: Did I say February 18th? It's because I looked at the date on my computer and it's got fry, So my eyes must have just read. So it's December 18th. If you're thinking that you want to get your book done for February 18th, then now's the time to start. Yeah, now's the time. So it's definitely the case that jump on board now you can allocate the cost for the book in 2020 revenue and kind of get some tax benefit of having a valid business expense in 2020. If you've got a budget that's waiting to be used and then get started in the new year. So that's also a great idea as well. Kind of allocate the budget in the time frame that makes sense. And jump on board now and then get started. Get started after Christmas. All the time that we've been recording, I've been looking out and my neighbor has been shoveling snow off their car because they didn't do it. It fell with Friday now it fell Wednesday night. And we were out there shoveling just after it fell. And it was super easy because it was light, fluffy snow. It wasn't frozen. Poor guy from next door has been shoveling what really is just blocks of ice.

Guest: Oh, man.

Stuart: I'm just actually quite pleased I haven't had to pause for a second and call medics because he's working.

Guest: That would be awful. Yeah. Oh, no.

Stuart: Going off her hand.

Guest: Yikes. All right.

Stuart: Well, all right with that. Thank you for your time, Betsy. Thank you to everyone listening. As always, give us a shout at hello@90minutebooks. If you've got any questions, head over to 90minutebooks.com and follow the get started links to jump on board. Or if you want to do your scorecard first to see where your thinking is around those eight mindsets that we talk about. Then head over to bookblueprintschool.com Very good. Alrighty. Thank you, Betsy.

Guest: Thank you.

Stuart: Alrighty. Well, I will catch you later. And everyone listening, stay safe and we'll catch you in the next one.