0:01

Hello, and welcome to this episode of speak PR. Now. I am today going to go back through the archives tongue to Charlie Sampson. Who's an old friend and a property guru out of Beijing, longtime, head of Saatchi and Saatchi. And I'm doing that because the interview with Charles was actually my first season one episode one all the way back, September, 2019, but it's been one of the podcasts that's been most listened to. And I wanted to share that because Charlie makes a very, very good point. And I think that as we all get stuck in lockdown mode, certainly for me, I went back and listened to this and I just want to share the essential truth that Charlie talks about to check this out.

Charles Sampson 0:47

So I spent just maybe start with a little bit of background on me and although I'm based in China I'm actually focused on UK prope tryr and I'm helping people who live in Beijing and Shanghai primarily to invest in UK property. I think we sort of. Got a little bit down the rabbit hole, thinking about, you know, what's our social media strategy going to be, what are the You know, how can we get, how can we build our brand and we spend a lot of time looking at the design and the VI and the slogan and all that stuff is it is important. I mean, definitely, you know, from my background, I would say it's very important, but I think in hindsight, we probably spent a bit too much time. Debating that and, you know, finessing it.

Jim James 1:40

.Well, did it distract you from,

Charles Sampson 1:41

You know, the most important thing you've got to do is get in front of people, right. Physically in front of people, because that's the way you build relationships and, you know, I think it wasn't until the second year that I fully realized this. And then what I did my strategy now is I set up as many presentations as I can to people, or I'm getting myself in front of groups in front of individuals and, you know, Introducing myself, introducing my story, introducing how I can help them. And that I've found, it sounds an obvious thing now to be talking about it as well. Of course you need to get in front of people. You've done me, but you know what I, what I, what I, I think. I didn't fully appreciate the power of that and the effectiveness of that physically getting up, standing up presenting. So that would probably be the biggest piece of advice I could give to anybody trying to start a business is get out of your office, get out of your home, get out of your, we work space wherever you're basing yourself. And get in front of people either, either through networking events or just through once you've identified your customer, just, you know, trying to try and meet with them.

Jim James 2:57

Yeah. That's a great point that in this sort of day and age of online and social media, that actually people still buy people.

Charles Sampson 3:04

It's fundamental. And when you're starting a business, that is all they're buying. Right? Cause I mean, you know, my case, the property, I see, no one really knows who the proxy I see is that's the name of our company, but it's not like it's not, it's not a brand. It's not, it's not such as such here. Right? So they are buying you. They're buying, you know what? You, they're buying your credibility, your personality, your story, the service you can offer. That's what they're buying. And the only the, what I find is yes, but you can do, you know, posting on LinkedIn and we do all that stuff and we have our own, you know, social media, can we put content into it and that's all fine and good, but what really shifts the needle is. Facing people getting in front of people, presenting to people

Jim James 3:58

Now, now we're getting in front of people, presenting to people is not easy right now, but it can be done through webinars, through websites like swap card through zoom. And if I'm under the Indigo by after a while of sitting away from everybody, I think we all lose a little bit of self-confidence. So I was listening to Charlie Sampson and just reminded myself that going forward next week, I've got to push myself and it's, uh, Somebody a group, a mastermind like totally do mass talks about this week that you can join because as the lockdown goes on, we're going to start to lose contact other people. Eventually we can lose our self-confidence and our motivation gets in a bit of a downward spiral. So. Taking those words from Charlie to heart, we've got to get out, got to get in front of people no matter how long or in what state, because we still need people to communicate with one another because it's the ideas and the stimulation we get from one other that brings out the brilliance and the energy and will carry us through. So, thanks so much for listening to this short and episode of speak PR going back to episode one of over 250 episodes, now that I have recorded in the last year, hope you found this one value, and if you have, please do subscribe. If you like the content there, you can come to east-west pr.com. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. We're up to version 38 of that. So. Until we come together again. I wish you the best of health, a sustainable business, and that next week, if you're not doing it already, make sure you meet one person every day. Face-to-face online. Have a great weekend.