How to Plan for New Business Success with an Effective Digital Strategy

Despina Karatzias 0:21
Top of the Friday morning to you Happy Friday. Happy Easter for last weekend to everybody that’s enjoying a second short week hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break. And welcome again to the digital discovery show the show that is all about showcasing digital transformations in our Australian small business communities around the country. This is a show that is brought to you by two of my favourites Navii Digital and Tourism Tribe. Thank you for being here and it’s all about inspiring each other with successes and stories to be shared by our other small business friends. My name is dispenser Kratos, I am the very proud chief navigator slash GM here at Navii and Tourism Tribe. And it is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you today our special guest Jody Killian. She is the owner of savvy youth and student anything with the world word savvy in it has got my attention. She had me at savvy. So Jodi and the focus that we’re going to speak about today is about her journey and about how to plan for business success with an effective digital strategy. So as a new business, how she was beaten been really able to launch with a good effective digital strategy in her back pocket. So a little bit about Jodi before we beam her in. Jodi began her career as a freshly returned traveller having lived and work it worked in the US and the UK for three years. She started her career with work and travel placements abroad for graduates and interns. So she’s had quite a long journey in Korea working within the Student Services space, she loves a challenge and the need for change and growth inspires her. I love that that inspires me to end all of us here at the tribe. So she’s had a lot of experience in leisure in different types of building, sales, team building, business development, and general manager and strategy for many roles across the sta travel brand. To be able to connect so many industries and deliver a product that is consistently and constantly evolving to an audience that’s keeping us well and truly on our toes is why after all the hiccups and the hoopla of 2020 that was thrown at us, Jody’s decided to build and steer her own ship. So we’ve got she got the entrepreneur bug in her. And now she’s followed through on all of the hard work and effort that she’s putting over the few years into her digital strategy and take things to the next level. So without further ado, drumroll Welcome to the show. Jody Killian?

Jodie Kilian 3:41
Hello, I just been a hi ru. I’m loving me.

Despina Karatzias 3:46
Um, my absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us, all of us on the show. And thank you to those of you that are joined live, please don’t be shy. And come on board. And you can come on board and give us a shout out a comment or any questions that you would like to ask. And let us know in the comments. So and Jodi I mean, do I say n I’m in Jody, any refunds that I’ve got? I do have an our wonderful new team member in the green room as well. So who’s just alerted me to just change my little so that better and thank you that the benefits of working line? That is great. I love it. She’s given me the thumbs up. So I’ll just say, Jody, welcome. Tell us about where you are. And that this inspiration that came What was your aha moment that you said, I am going to take this leap of faith and start my seven youth and student business.

Jodie Kilian 4:50
Yeah, cool.

Well, um, oh really was an aha moment. I could say that for sure. And so I’ve been with SDA and other businesses. For well over 1213 years and within the travel sector for a good 16 plus years, and unfortunately, as most of you may be aware, sta travel unfortunately didn’t make it through and exited the industry and middle of last year, which the isik businesses have been owned and managed by SDI for so many years. And that’s really where I set was looking off today, students and new cod business, and it really was a kind of a situation of what do I do now? Do I? Do I see what else there is available? Or what are the options to use? And you know, what we’ve changed and developed and worked so hard to deliver on over the last few years, which, which, you know, we converted the plastic card into a virtual card when everybody said, we were ridiculous. And, you know, we’ve built in an app that serves our audience. And do we just chuck it and throw it away and give it over to somebody else? Or what do we do. And so I really was put in a bit of a corner. And it was the the saying goodbye to all of that hard work, and which, which I wasn’t quite comfortable with leaving. So I decided to go against the grain of probably what most people suggested and decided to set up a brand new entity apply for the licenses here in Australia and New Zealand. I was previously managing five different markets across Asia Pacific, but decided to stay with Australia, New Zealand. And yeah, we were appointed the license in December. And we began work before that, because we knew we had a lot to plan and to kind of get set up and well here, here I am now. And we’re all set up. We’re live, we’re moving. And we’ve changed a lot. We’ve had to change a lot. And but we’re moving forward, which is great. And so definitely an aha moments, but have a corner. And I decided to take I think we’ll probably is the harder road but in my opinion, is probably the right and more exciting option.

Despina Karatzias 7:04
Ride on Jodi. And this is the classic case where crisis and change bring opportunity. And for you to be able and I just say what I what I’m hearing is your passion and commitment to the work that you’ve done. I don’t want this thrown away. I don’t want this just put on the shelf and left to kind of weather because you know, the work that you did is important. So I see the international students.

Jodie Kilian 7:32
Yep. So it’s the international students identity card. Yep. And it has the youth and teacher product as well, I suppose what’s key and where we’ve changed a bit is it’s not only for international students, which the perception is that it is, and that’s something that we’ve really had to work hard. It’s, um, it’s actually for everyone. It’s just internationally recognized. And a lot of people don’t understand that. And, and having been managed by a travel business, it’s always been focused around international travellers. So, you know, we’ve never had to really look at delivering a different message. And so yeah, international students identity card, the iseq. That is a core business our core product and but it’s it’s for all students, not just international students. And that’s where we’ve had to put a lot of hard work in and get our digital strategy on a better road.

Despina Karatzias 8:32
And the bees have just popped up you’re I love that making sure Thank you use a reason misconception that it is, I mean, it’s an international student identity card, but all students have access to these types, this identity card that gives them access you can see here to a lot of discounts Now, a lot of these around the travel tourism and hospitality space, but there are other businesses that can take advantage of being featured in a network to students because your cohort of students is significant as well. Would I be writing saying Jody, how many students with cards do you have across the Australian New Zealand regions that you look after?

Jodie Kilian 9:19
Yeah, so currently, we’ve we’re sitting at just over 100,000 which obviously we have been impacted with climate and the changes so it will take some time to build up to we were one setting up globally, we issue about 5 million cards. And obviously with Australia being a major tourist destination for a lot of other countries. You know, when the time comes, and we have those visitors, we want to make sure that we we’ve got something really strong to offer the card holders coming into the country. And like I said, our student card is our primary card but our youth card is really popular with backpack, a market coming into Australia. And so I foresee that that particular product will be growing in the future just really relies on how we how we position it.

Despina Karatzias 10:11
Or you’ve got also the teacher card I’ve just grown here as well, I think that’s great, too. I just see, I’m putting my tour operator head on now is great opportunities for, for a lot of hope, you know, a lot of business businesses that are tuning into the show, that could get in touch with you to collaborate and partner and be featured as well. Because I see this is great that even for teachers to have those type of benefits to get out and explore, or encourage the students is great.

Jodie Kilian 10:49
Yeah, exactly. Right. And, you know, so the student card for all full time students, whether it’s online learning, and classroom learning doesn’t really matter, doesn’t matter where they studying, they can acquire the card, it’s all online based, it’s now a virtual product completely. And we’ve done away with the plastic, and then you’ve got your youth card, which is under 30 ones, which is some pretty old youth, in my opinion. Um, but you know, that’s quite a large sector of potential customers that we can really push out products and, you know, services to. And we do that as a value add for the card holders. So our partners don’t pay. So yeah, if there’s anyone listening that you think this could be a value to you please do, I’m giving me a shot. And I can explain a bit more.

Despina Karatzias 11:38
Fantastic. Now, if I go back, so you’ve got you’ve had to you were managing this project, the as part of this ta sta goes into, effectively liquidation, this product is left there for someone to do something, you’ve come on board said, I’m going to go for it, and you’ve applied for the license, you get the license in December for both Australia and New Zealand. With that you’ve also acquired quite a significant Facebook and social media following, particularly for the Australia you’ve got over 20,000 you know, over 20 a community of over 20,000 following that page. Tell me your planning efforts for this, Jody. So now you’ve really gone into like fifth year, you’re in the fast lane. Yeah. movement. Tell me how you how you approach that, okay, we can’t do the card thing. Because of the changes in the pandemic, we’re going to make this tell us about that process and how you went about your strategy to prepare for the launch once you’ve got the license?

Jodie Kilian 12:48
Yes, so um, we really were thrown in a bit of the thick of it and our first steps in all honesty, we’re all focused around customer and partner recovery and support. And so the entire focus and digital plan was around communication, we needed to make sure that people knew what was happening, because of the way icic is structured globally. And the fact that it was under sta travel back kind of sets as a separate entity, we needed to make sure that our digital communication strategy was on point, and specifically with our cardholders, so customers that have paid for the product that now didn’t know what was happening, partners that were partnered and offering services and products, they didn’t know what was happening. So communication was at the very front of planning and taking over a brand and partners and customers from another entity. Whilst it definitely does have its benefits. It also has its challenges, especially when the company in question has gone into administration. And there’s a lot of red tape around what you can and can’t do within that entity. And so ensuring that our communication was clear, and that there was a level of true and pure authenticity, I think has really served us well over the last few months. And the next step in our planning was really around what the vision for the products and services were. So we had introduced the virtual card a couple years prior, but we’d always offered the plastic for those that wanted there was no real need in to ditch the plastic completely. So it was planning around how we were going to, you know, position our product in a virtual space only. And whether that was going to be a short term plan or the long term plan. We’ve decided that it’s our long term plan. We feel that the audience that we target is a is a virtual focused audience. They prefer digital products. They’re moving very quickly away from the physical products and they engage better with us as a As a merchant, or supplier or partner of theirs, and in the virtual world, so we had to plan what and how we were going to position that under the savvy youth and student brand, and create the product in its own right from scratch. And so there’s a lot of planning around the websites what the website goals were wasn’t just the website to sell cards, was it a website for information resources, what functionality the websites needed in order to, you know, provide the customer journey that we wanted our users to have? One of the complex issues that we faced was making sure the website delivered on suitable customer journeys for each of our audiences. So we have our cardholders, but we also have our partners that issue cards. And we also have partners that offer deals and discounts and benefits to our card holders, and one website needed to service all those different audiences. So how did we tailor the website to make sure their cardholders knew where and what they needed to do, and so forth as we go through the different audiences. So we’ve spent a fair bit of time in trying to develop the website to meet those goals, I’d say there’s probably still some work, which I think there’s probably always work to be done on websites, unfortunately. But um, we definitely have a plan and a vision as to what we want to achieve. Social media was quite a quite a big one. So we’ve inherited a fantastic audience size, which is great. Um, it does come with some challenges. As you know, the spinner. It’s when it’s been managed and run all over the world by a major global company. And Facebook can be quite challenging to navigate in terms of trying to manage your own

account and things like that when it’s fallen under so many other different umbrellas. But like with the websites and social media, we kind of stripped-back, we took a step back, and we had a look at we have these assets, our social media, our Facebook and Instagram pages and handles, what do we want to do with them now? And where do we want them to be in the next year, two years? What do we want our users to be doing on these platforms with our business. And so we’ve really tried to work on how we use them. And the information and the messages are tailored based on what our long term goals are for those platforms. And it’s still definitely a work in progress. We’re still in the early stages. And but we’ve had some fabulous partners come on board and really support us, which is all key to supporting them in return and driving business their way. But at the same time making sure that we’re giving our customers and cardholders the value that they are expecting. And yeah, so tons of planning. And it’s constant planning. In all honesty, every week, there’s some more planning and how we are going to develop change, you know, we have a look at the analytics and realize that’s not working, we need to change. So then we make those changes, reassess, and keep going.

Despina Karatzias 18:16
Brilliant having our inner eye here, you being very goal orientated first setting the objective and knowing very clearly what win looks like. But I love also what you ended there, that social media has been important. And pardon me, I said over 20,000 over 60,000 I just due to screen share looking your Facebook wants to be in one of the other IC brands when we were working together that smaller audience, your Australian community, it is significant that you’ve taken over but I do. I was very impressed in how you manage your community engagement with your content. And you can see that that is only achieved through a well thought out and planned approach. So you do you take your partnerships and your collaboration, not only with your partner businesses, but I can see even with your regions and your destinations, you know, that you’re working very closely with. So really, really good stuff being in the international mean with the disruption and many that were working more in the in the export trade and internationally having that, you know, which is still ongoing or when that’s happened for you with international students reduced significantly, but there are still some students that are still international students that continued to study here or maybe not but that they have to they kind of may be stuck here with that we in terms of what have been some of the strategic changes that you were able to do quickly knowing that okay, the money customer is gone, like so many businesses have had to face. How did you get into your thinking and your strategic approach using these tools that you have available and taking advantage of the, you know, the large audience that you already have?

Jodie Kilian 20:16
Yeah, well, we’ve had to pivot, for lack of a better word. We’ve got a great product, we know that we’ve got a product that’s evolved with what our audience wants and needs. But the reality is, is that where in the past, we’ve relied very heavily on a travel or international focused audience, and we simply can’t do that there is still that audience to some degree, but it’s shrunk massively. You know, so we’ve, we’ve always offered the isec, or the youth card, we even teach a card as a membership product to whether it’s clubs or schools or student unions, as well as an ID solution for colleges and, and schools. And but it’s never really been a main focus. And so we’ve definitely had to allocate some more time and energy to developing that side of the business. And because if we want to achieve those numbers, and goals over the next couple of years, that’s probably our quickest path to that. And so we’ve had to develop what we, you know, tailor our messaging, not necessarily for our b2c customer, as we typically I’ve always done, we’ve had to focus on the b2b side a lot more. And we’ve also had to change the way we talk about the card, we’ve always, you know, even though the card is not only for international students, we’ve never really paid too much attention. Because the size of that audience, the international students are international travellers coming in, as well as the travellers going overseas needing the card has always been so big, that, you know, decent market share of that audience, and you know, is fine, we’ve never really had to change that stuff too much. Now, with that having changed over the last year, we really need to think about the way we talk about the products. That’s why as you would have picked up in my intro, in the start of our conversation, I’ve very specifically highlighted that even though it’s an international student card, it’s recognized internationally, it’s not only for international students. Um, so most of our communication, and the way we talk about the products and services on our digital channels, is around benefits and access for students in general, or youth or teachers, not necessarily talking about the international students, or travelers going overseas and things like that. So focusing on our domestic market. So looking at partners that offer products and services for specific domestic markets, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a nationally based service or product, it can be some ways, you know, and a supplier in some way really, you know, small, and then pushing out communications specific to that domestic audience in that area. And whereas typically in the past, we’ve always focused on national product, so we’ve just fine tuned a little bit and here and there and had to adjust our messaging and how we use our digital tools and, and communication strategies around that. Um, but yeah, just focusing on what can be done in Australia, not necessarily always talking about the international global perspective of the product. It’s all about what’s happening locally.

Despina Karatzias 23:43
Our look and I see this, I think this for everybody that was working in the international space, what you’re doing is you’re continuously creating desire for future as well, because this will come back and as a desirable destination and a safe destination moving forward. But right, rightly so. I think you’ve started to do really well in the short time. I mean, this is kind of essentially the beginning of the year was this real key focus for you of taking this on board in your now what fourth month in I think you’re doing a plastic job in in doing just that in really educating these benefits and the access that students have to get that out and enjoy their own backyard. Exactly, yeah. And also human this is this is the great thing that we’re working in the space in the digital arena and the footprint that you’re creating, and the community that you’re building, you’re only planting seeds in others to you know, an edge you know, using this as an educational tool in itself that you know your to entice and motivate and inspire them to choose Australia, and then choose a state within Australia for their studies, which is just it’s really, it’s really excited me to meet you and learn more about this space. And now you mentioned and I do I’m in numbers tell a story. And your business thrives on collaborations like if you’ve seen, I’ve seen you’ve done a little campaign around the ride with us in Victoria, where I’m based there, which is fantastic. And a lot of partnership work has to work on those types of collaborations. What’s your go-to tool when you’re measuring the success of these campaigns and promotions that you’re working on?

Jodie Kilian 25:45
Yeah, so we use a couple and definitely Google Analytics and seeing what’s happening on the websites and how things are flowing through. And that’s, that’s key. If we see people landing on a certain page, but they’re not then clicking through we know we need to fix the page, something’s not right with the page, because why wouldn’t they want 50% off right, like, so if they’ve clicked through the interested on a page, and they’ve got to a page where they’ve got to a certain point, and then they have in progress. Google Analytics is fabulous for us to analyze that and work out what we need to tweak and change. Sometimes it’s the initial messaging, sometimes it’s the page that they’re landing on. So a little bit of a trial and error, but Google Analytics is, um, it’s, it’s the go to differently for analyzing what’s happening with your websites and things like that. And we do also have with the way our system is set up, we have an internal tool that can then track a little bit deeper than that. So what Pete what people are doing, once they click in if they’re actually redeeming the, the vouchers and the office, and then we can work with a partner to see once they’ve redemptive redeem the voucher other than actually utilizing the voucher that they’ve redeemed, or they’re then just redeeming it or not doing anything with it. And that’s where we would then work with the partner and say, Okay, well, how do we get them from redemption of the voucher to actually making that booking, you taking payments, and that’s a bit of collaborative work with the partners, which goes, goes quite well, in most cases. And we can then come out of it both learning quite a bit, and how better to improve the process for the students. And the other tool that I use quite a bit and simply because we use social media so much because youth and students to begin, they live on on their social media platforms, is the Facebook analytics on or, you know, business, a Facebook business manager that really does help you deep dive into what’s happening, who your audience is, which helps for retargeting. And, you know, if you’re going to be putting paid campaigns in who you want to be targeting based on who’s typically looking at your, your content and things like that. So I’d say Google Analytics for the show, and, and your social media analytics tools, and there’s a few out there, but business, Facebook, business managers, does the job for us. And then if you have any other, I suppose, added functionality, you might want to make sure that you can view your stats on that. And but yeah, analytics is

Despina Karatzias 28:16
absolutely key to kind of progressing up. And I hope this has inspired many years, you were singing from the same hymn book, I always I mean, certainly now, in our business, and Google Analytics, it’s a free tool, if it’s not something that you have on your website, I just love everything of what they’re that looking at it and having a finger on the pulse on the heartbeat of your business. Looking at the data behind your website, you’re able to preempt and make changes, to get your customers closer to where you want them to go. And I love that that’s being able to also be flexible and agile and quickly make the changes knowing that, okay, our user is hitting roadblocks here, what’s something that we can make that user journey better for them from the front end, and that’s excellent. And Fun fact for anyone that may not have heard the memo on the Facebook Insights, I don’t know if you’ve, if you’ve heard this, I only read about it this week, this sunsetting Facebook Insights on your Facebook page. So from 30 June, if you haven’t, from 30 June, you will not be able to get your Facebook Insights through your Facebook page. But never fear it will all be done under the business suite now. So I think Facebook pages, they’re really trying to get us all onboard onto the biz, the business suite product, but they have a memo that the insights will be seizing on 30 June. So if that data is important to you. I’m like God Might want to start exporting that information and putting it into an S CSV file somewhere. But that is Yeah, that is excellent such a If it isn’t, if it isn’t, if it isn’t measured, it isn’t managed, right? I always go to that quote, where if we’re not measuring, we’re not effectively managing our data properly. I’m also curious with you, dear God, because like we also many of us may wear be wearing different hats. I know with us that this show is brought to you now V and Tourism Tribe, they are two brands, we are managing different content, an audience that we’re building for yourself, though, you’re managing different businesses, but they’re for different audiences in different countries. I’m curious to ask you, how do you know your content when you’re managing different, different platforms? What’s your strategy there within your digital framework? When you’re talking to different countries? like would you would that feature on Victorian land on your New Zealand page? For example? Are you repurposing the same? Or? Oh, do you have to go with this in completely different approaches altogether?

Jodie Kilian 31:19
Oh, yes, there’s been a lot of Facebook pages and groups, I feel like I’ve, I’ve trimmed down quite a bit, I now just have two, which is great, from a couple of years ago, where there were over seven. And, but yeah, it’s, um, in all honesty, they all need to be managed with different strategies, you can’t create a strategy and replicated across them all. And unless the countries have very, very similar lifestyles, languages, habits, and the same content and way of doing things appeals to them, in the same way, from my experience, I haven’t had any two markets that do this, even between Australia and New Zealand, which you would think should be quite similar. And so it does take some time, in trying things out, especially when you’re not based in a particular market, and what delivers for each of them or what works. The one thing that I found that you can take as a rule of thumb for any of your social channels across different countries is that you need to think locally, you need to understand your audience and what they are engaged with. So for example, Australia, our Facebook engagement is way better than our Instagram engagements in Australia, New Zealand, on the other hand, they don’t like Facebook so much, it seems they’re all on Instagram. And that’s where our engagement is. So whilst we may, from time to time repurpose content across the different platforms, we’ll make sure that we repurpose it in a way that’s going to be, I guess, had the biggest impact. So something that would have maybe been on Facebook, in Australia, we probably wouldn’t put on Facebook in New Zealand, we would probably share it on Instagram, because that’s going to get better traction. And Asia, for example, they don’t really engage at all with static contact, it has to be videos and real people real-life videos, and with experiences, whereas Japan is more informative and inspiring content. So you’ve really got to understand what the audience or their cultural needs are for each of the countries. And in terms of repurposing content, especially across Australia, New Zealand, there’s definitely some opportunity. And I would say if you have an opportunity to repurpose content, do it because I’m content takes time. And time is money. So repurpose what you can but be smart about it. So three weeks ago, when our Australian New Zealand bubble was kind of still under wraps not much happening. I wouldn’t have shared, say, for example, the ride with us campaign on our New Zealand channels. However, with the recent announcement and a bubble opening up, yes, we probably would repurpose that, and we would share it but maybe in time once things are happening, and it’s a little bit more of a comfortable idea.

Jodie Kilian 34:16
I guess that’s the key is you just really got to understand what the audience on each platform and each country is looking for, and what they need and want and then make the decisions on what you’re going to repurpose, and share. And based on that, sometimes it also depends on the time of the year. So when we know typically a lot of New Zealanders come over to Australia, and during the uni breaks or vice versa, we’ll make sure a couple of months prior when they’re doing their planning, we’re pushing out content that meets those interests and needs so that we’re kind of jumping in at times when they’re thinking about Should we go skiing and you know, and should we stay somewhere in Queenstown or should we head up to the sunny coast or you know Gold Coast and make sure We’re pushing out the right content at the right time for the right people. So little bit of planning involved and putting it all out there smartly, but I’m definitely not a no to repurposing just got to be aware of what you what you’re doing. Not all content suits everyone, which we’ve we’ve learned the hard way. So

Despina Karatzias 35:20
you have really nailed, nailed it there. And I’ve taken so much away from what you’ve just shared, Jody, because it’s not, I think what you’ve just shared and your insight in working with cultural differences. It really applies, choose the social networks to have that same level of respect of knowing your audience and understanding what their day kind of interests and how are we meeting those needs and their interests. But I love that quote because it does contact content does take time. And time is money and to ensure that you’re not wasting it, even knowing what’s coming ahead in the calendar with a significant event and working backwards. But you’ve really I love that having the right content at the right time to the right people absolutely on the right network. And looking at your insights and your data you’ve been able to identify through your engagement, all the parties happening on our Facebook for our Australian market. And hello, everything is happening on Instagram for a New Zealand market. So repurposing what I’m hearing is repurposing has a place as long as it’s meant with the same respect to be tailored and tweaked that it’s going to still meet the needs of that particular audience.

Jodie Kilian 36:46
And even within Australia, the spinner you know, considering different states, they also it’s also different audiences Australia is a big place, you know, what Queenslanders want to hear is not necessarily what Sydneysiders and Victorians want to hear, especially if you want them to take action. So you need to keep that in mind content plays a very key role. It’s not just about putting stuff out.

Despina Karatzias 37:10
And that’s a really good point when you’re scheduling content to be aware of that sometimes when you’re scheduling too far in advance, you might miss any type of real time event that’s happening that might not the mark in, in what you’re trying to deliver. So that’s a good point, too. I think there’s definitely business owners and marketers can save a lot of time, again, by pre scheduling, but always being mindful. And being aware of what you’ve got in the can to be posted with any type of real time events. Oh, God, I could talk to you all day. Right? Because what I mean, I’m still working in terms of anyone else that’s listening, you can clearly see you have a well planned approach, you’re very quick in your you know, you’re very much on the ball in making quick decisions to change the strategy as well, we’re very much were in the fast lane here. Without team to that we can plan for something but we’re very quick and very quickly make changes I think in business and we make we all work in today we have to we have to be at the ready to make those changes. For anyone that hasn’t really got a strategic approach to their digital marketing or where you start you know, when even with their communication, planning and getting the message out, what would you recommend how they can make a step work would be a good starting point for them to overlay a strategic approach or have a considered approach moving forward.

Jodie Kilian 38:53
Yeah, it’s really tough and I totally get it, I could start overwhelming with all the tools and options and all the different areas of business that you need to kind of cover off and it really can be tough to kind of narrow down but I think what’s worked for me at least over the last few years, even when I was with the bigger companies and but more so now I’m you know, having my own entity and a much smaller setup is to keep it simple and simple. And start by deciding exactly what you want. As your CRO purpose and goal and, and base everything around that the extra stuff and the nice to haves and the fluffy stuff will come and you can you know as you grow and develop and the time goes on, you can have many strategies for those but to start with, I would definitely keep it simple and have a look at your main goal and plan around that workout. workout. What are the absolute core tools that you need to achieve that goal? What you’re happy To put budgets, you know, in order to help those efficiencies, so which tools you happy to spend money on, and which you can kind of get away with the free versions, and there’s a lot of free versions out there. But keep it simple, don’t clutter up with too many tools and, and focus on that core goal. And you’ll find that that will keep it simple. And if you work backwards, then you know, from that goal, and keeping it simple with some core tools, it will be a lot more clearer. And you know, so if it’s a case of you want your business to have more of an informed and community, then you need to make sure as part of your you know, goal of having that business community and keeping your customers informed, you’ve got some good communication tools to support that strategy. And or if you want your business’s growth to really depend on referrals, you need to make sure that you’ve got a tool that’s going to support that particular and you know, those actions. And so keeping it simple, and having that core goal and front of mind, I think is absolutely critical. And especially in the early stages, because it can get very busy and very cluttered up very quickly.

Despina Karatzias 41:12
Here here, excellent, excellent recommendation there, keep it really simple and stick with that one main goal, I hope everyone’s thinking what’s going to be my one main goal.

Jodie Kilian 41:23
That’s unfortunate,

Despina Karatzias 41:26
a great way even to kind of have you approaching quote your quarter like that, or you know, a new month like that, what’s going to be that one thing that I’m going to focus on this month. Speaking of tools, and all that to wrap it up with you, Jody, what has been or is a digital tool that you’ve adapted into your business that now is a non-negotiable and something that you can’t live without Have you got to go to a digital tool that you absolutely love or tools that you could share with us.

Jodie Kilian 41:59
I do I’ve got a few but my two, my two main ones that I honestly don’t think I’d be I’d stay sane if I didn’t use them is Trello. Definitely, my first one using the Trello boards, those are my to-do lists my actions, my project, everything has to be in Trello. And that’s pretty much how the business runs using Trello and Trello boards. And then the second one, which is definitely a huge priority for me. And the business and keeping things organized is we use Zoho CRM. So managing all our beats b2b partners, records, I have a memory like a sieve. So sifting through emails to try and remember what we’ve discussed where we are on stages, what you know, dates are great, all that kind of stuff. It’s all in Zoho, I just can call it up, I can send it off to somebody else to call up and take action on. And yeah, so I guess tools that keep me organized. I’m so done. If that’s his sister, lots maybe I’m not very organized. But yeah, Trello and Zoho keeping things organized. And from a day to day and partner customer management perspective. And both of them I use the free versions because they both can be quite expensive, but for the time being both free versions sickening just fine.

Despina Karatzias 43:21
How good is that even more bonus, and that’s the great thing I love that you mentioned, they give you the free version of the trial and exhaust that because sometimes you don’t need to go to that next level just yet when your system great tools there Trello. We also love Trello here at the Navii and Zoho I haven’t quite not familiar with Zoho. So thank you for sharing that one too. for everyone to check out. We had Julie, join us. And she said analytics Google and Facebook. So in. So important facts don’t mind the facts don’t mind like the hips don’t lie if it was dealing over kilos. So the facts absolutely don’t lie. And we had the team coming and Share with us your knowledge of your market. And what they respond to is really impressive, crucial to their engagement. So the team is inspired by you, as am I. Anyone else got any questions or comments or want to reach out to Jodi, what’s the best way to get to you, Jodi are you to reach out to you I’ve got your details up and I’ve got a website, on the tribe as well. So it’s what’s the best way to get in touch with me?

Jodie Kilian 44:44
If you want to reach me directly my email absolutely fine. And I welcome anyone that wants to have a chat and you know, even if it’s just to share ideas and tips, I’m all for that. We all need that some days and otherwise the website, there’s a inquiry on forms and things if you wanting to make a very specific, you know, business related inquiry, and otherwise, our social channels as well, um, if you’re just wanting to connect and follow and see what we’re up to.

Despina Karatzias 45:11
Excellent. So I’ve popped all of that throughout the show, we’ve got to Jodi’s website, savvy youth, and student.com.au. And you can get all access to Jody socials through the website or directly through the links that I’m sharing on the screen now, what a treat to start the Friday morning with you, Jodi, thank you again, please stay in touch we’ll be looking forward to reaching out and I know I have many of my Victorian friends and clients that have already spoken to after speaking with you encourage them to keep encouraging them to reach out and get onto your isik network. So thank you. And we’ll see you again very soon. And all the very best with your journey and your mega digital discovery keep keep really thriving. You’ve made an amazing start. Thank you. Thank you. And to all of you that joined us live thank you for staying on with us. I hope you found that really valuable as did iron and airing in the greenroom was amazing to hear of Jodi’s journey and how she’s applied all her experience throughout her career into her new business. Speaking of business and strategy, and all the good stuff that we spoke about, if that’s something that you want a little bit you want more of, we do have some excellent programs in the that are available to any small business around the country through our Navii network. If you wanted to check out we have a digital peacekeeper program that is standing. It’s a six week program that is like a weekly live courses and tutorials around covering all things that we covered with Jodi today, including strategy, including things like your social media, we have dedicated weeks on Facebook and Instagram on online reputation management on keeping your business safe. tools like Jodi had tools that can create efficiencies in your business. So if that’s something that you’re interested in, you can head over to navii.com.au. And if you’re a tourism business, please head over to Tourism tribe.com. Also available on never you’ll see we’ve got a bit of a next steps digital challenge, which is going off as well. So we’d love to see you there too. If you want to join us on a next step challenge. There’s some really good stuff. We’d love to have you there. But until next time, here’s to your digital discovery. And we’ll see you again Same time, same place next Friday, some more digital transformations, conversations and discoveries with another special and exciting guest. Have a wonderful day and a blessed weekend and see you then Thank you. Bye