Speaking and Communicating Podcast

I feel confident that I can help the company to retain 10 clients for six months longer than they usually would, which is a $300,000 savings.

All I'm asking for is $150,000 salary, and therefore you coming out ahead with $150,000.

Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating Podcast.

I am your host, Roberta Angela.

If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into.

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Now let's get communicating.

Now let's get communicating with Beate Chelete, who is a growth architect, and is here to help us learn the tips and the strategies to be able to design our unapologetic value proposition so we know how to communicate what we are good at.

And before I go any further, please help me welcome her to the show.

Hi, Beate.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm excited to be here, Roberta.

My absolute pleasure.

Welcome.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yeah, so as you said, I'm known as a growth architect, and I'm also the founder of The Women's Code, wrote a book, Happy Woman, Happy World, run a podcast, The Business Growth Architect Show, where I talk a lot about strategy.

My claim to fame is that I built and sold a business to Bill Gates.

I was a single mom.

I was $135,000 in debt, broke, had no idea how I was going to survive, and had to figure out how to crack the code.

And then when I did, I did sell my business for millions, and now I'm here to tell the story.

Okay, first of all, how do you know that it's time to let that go?

Do they make you an offer that's so hard to refuse?

And did they give you the real value of what you thought your business was worth at the time?

Well, I mean, selling a business is a strategy.

It's called an exit strategy.

And I have built that particular business to be sold.

When I got the number, and I had a very distinct number in mind, when I did get that number, and the day came where somebody gave me that number, the day just came to sell the business.

So it's not that you run a business, and then somehow out of the blue, somebody comes and just throws money at you.

It's a deliberate action that you take in building a business, setting it up for acquisition, telling people that it's available for acquisition, and then making sure that your systems, processes, and strategies are clearly in place.

You communicate the value of the business, and you position it in such a way that somebody then comes and says, I would like to buy that.

And then you negotiate, and hopefully you get to close the deal.

Because I've had guests in the show before who've talked about how the minute you start the business, you think about exiting, so you set up those systems, as you said.

And now, do you help clients with a similar service?

Yes.

So as the growth architect, my specialty or my superpower is to help people figure out their unapologetic value position, their differentiation factor, their way to stand out from anybody else.

So I can listen to somebody talk to me about what they do, and then instantly, I just kind of know how to position it, so it doesn't sound like anybody else.

And what's interesting, Roberta, about this is that most people that are concerned about what differentiates them take the thing that makes them different and completely discount that, because they are just not used to recognizing that something that's easy for them has any value.

And I'm gonna give you an example to make this come to life for your audience.

I was doing a talk at Merck Pharmaceuticals, and we did a breakout session for the Unapologetic Value Proposition.

And there was a gentleman, and I was watching him, and everywhere he went, everybody was like, hey, Joe, how are you doing, Joe?

Great to see you, Joe.

He had a joke for everybody.

Everybody loved him.

And when we were sitting in this meeting or in this breakout session talking about the Unapologetic Value Proposition, he says to me, you know, I don't really see how I have anything that stands out.

And I said to him, just judging by the little bit, I've seen you interact.

I said, would it be a fair statement to say that there is not one room you go into where people not immediately happy to see you?

That's true.

I said, is it true that everywhere you go, people just want to talk to you, tell you stuff, and that if there was a crisis, it's really super easy for you to get people on the same page.

And he goes like, yeah, well, doesn't everybody know how to do that?

I said, that's your superpower.

Either he thinks that, or sometimes we think the stuff that you cannot articulate on a resume is not of value, so to speak, to a potential play.

Like, imagine if you wrote on your resume, okay, my name is Jo, and whenever I walk into a room, people smile and want to talk to me.

You know, you think, does anybody put that on a resume?

That's a very good point.

I like that, yes.

Well, I think that to your point, we then want to be creative around it, and I would love to hear what you do in a case like that, but my recommendation would be is to put in a line about, my super skill is to put people at ease, to get the most complicated people, to come to an agreement, and to have everybody leave any room smiling.

Which is a very important skill.

I mean, you talk about soft skills, how when you're a leader, that's how your team should feel, so that they feel free to share their innovative ideas and create that kind of culture.

But we've become so accustomed to saying, worked at General Motors, did this and this and that.

And I remember sometimes you'll have a career specialist who says, people don't even quantify and say, when I came, they were making $500,000 a month, and after I did this, it became a million dollars a month.

We don't even do that.

We just know how to list and say, worked here, did this.

And that's why we all sound the same.

You're absolutely correct.

So we want to go into this a little bit deeper and say, well, what makes you different?

What makes you special?

Anybody could have worked at General Motors.

Anybody could have worked at Merck Farmers' Protocols.

Anybody could have gotten a job.

But it is the results or how we make people feel.

That's what people are hiring you for, because they can train you to do the job.

But the stuff that makes you outstanding, nobody can train you for.

That's a skill that you come with, and it is your job to tell everybody that.

I did a series of interviews during the pandemic, about the future of leadership, and I interviewed a bunch of C-level executives, and I asked them what matters now, and they all said the same thing.

They said, I need somebody to walk into my office, and without any of the fluff, just sit down and say, here's what I'm good at.

Here's where I can help you.

Here's where I can shine, and this is what I can sell for you.

And I want this to be done in minutes, so that they can look at you and you say, great, I know exactly why you put it.

But what happens is that people walk into their room, and then they go like, well, I really want to manage a position.

Now it's like a fishing expedition.

Well, why would I promote you to a manager?

Well, promote me and then I'll show you.

Well, wrong answer.

Then you come back six months later.

I want to be a manager position.

Why do you want to be a manager?

Well, because I've taken three Udemy courses now on communication and relationship building.

Well, that's wonderful.

Well, where do you see your role in the company?

Well, that's your job to tell me where you see me.

Okay, six months later.

And so it just keeps repeating itself over and over again for the one reason only that this person is completely failing and saying, hey, whenever I go in a room and there's a problem, a conflict, handouts between departments, that's where I shine.

I can make anybody get along with each other and no matter how big of an adversary they were or how charged the situation is, everybody walks out of a room that I've been in with a smile.

So you put me in the most difficult rooms and I'll take care of that.

Now, that is what I want.

And wouldn't that just not work in a team setting or interdepartmental conflict?

But sometimes as customers, if I'm not happy and I was paying the company for a service and something just triggered me, I'm done.

So I walk out with my money and no longer hire them as my service providers.

And people with that skill, don't they sometimes bring the customer back in that situation because they know how to mediate, how to resolve that dissatisfaction.

That could be absolutely another part of this where somebody like this could say, I'm currently in this department, but I am wanting to have you help me create a career path toward customer service, especially with the high ticket clients to make sure that our retention rate goes up because I feel that I can sniff out a conflict before it even can happen.

Huge value.

What would that be worth it to you if our retention would go from six months to one year or our retention would go from three years to five years?

What's the value of that?

It's hugely valuable, but you have to make a value proposition to tell them.

Right.

And then coming back to the example you gave of, I want to be a manager, I took some courses, I think I deserve it.

It's your job to find me a managerial position.

Wouldn't it partly be true?

But also, yes, I know I take responsibility for my career, but wouldn't your leader be the one to give you some form of direction if you've also taken some initiative as well in that regard?

Well, that would mean that you assume that your leader is a leader and got that kind of mentorship.

But if your leader has had never any mentorship, they simply don't know.

So can you rely on that?

I wouldn't.

And look at what happens in layoffs.

In layoffs, companies take this as an excuse to take the most experienced and most expensive people and lay them off and replace them with people that are inexpensive and inexperienced and hope for the best.

Now, somebody who's just get promoted into a position without the experience or without the leadership training or without having been mentored or without having been fostered by someone they just simply don't know.

You can wait until your life is over for somebody like that to give you an opportunity because they're struggling just to hear like their leader or manager themselves.

I do not believe that you should leave any of this up to chance.

I think you should be in charge of where you take this career and be able to pitch at any time to anyone because that is the art of persuasion.

That's the art of advancement is by knowing who you are, positioning this as an advantage to solve other people's problems.

That's the fastest way to get to advancement anywhere.

They say the best leaders are the ones who grow their team so well that they become replaceable.

That's the whole idea.

I think men are much better with succession planning than women are, because men typically walk into someone's office when they get the job and they say I want your job.

And a good leader should say, as you should.

Instead of feeling threatened, women say, you B word, how dare you want my job?

And then they'll do everything to not have this person advance until the other woman either has to go over them or around them.

And they'll never advance, which is why so many women get stuck in middle management and never advance, because they are protecting their jobs instead of looking for advancements.

Huge difference between men and women.

Generalizing, yes, but true for the most part.

But if you think about it, I fully agree with you.

There's this scarcity mentality with women, because even in middle management, we don't make the percentages of middle managers.

So they think the percentages are even smaller if you go up to the C-suite.

So there's hardly any chance I will go up.

So I better stay here for the security of it until retirement.

Wouldn't that sometimes be the thinking behind that?

Yes, I think that the thinking is a lot of scarcity.

It's better to have this than have nothing at all.

If I prove my value in this, I can stay here forever.

Part of it is a lot of women are mothers, so they cannot aim for the big corner office positions because it requires them to put in a certain amount of time that they cannot do because they have to be at 5 o'clock at school to pick up their kids.

That's a detriment.

Part of it is the pay inequality partner that makes the most money, which is almost always the man, will have priority over his schedule.

So that means that his stuff always takes priority over the woman, and that makes the woman fall back into her traditional role and typically fall back in her career as well.

These are things that are systematically wrong because in my book, Happy Woman, Happy World, I write about this, and I'm always shocked when I hear that women are telling their bosses that they're pregnant.

Like you think this is the first time it's ever happened.

Like you think that the notion that women are the gender that is responsible for the survival of our race.

You think that men in corporations have never ever heard of that before, because the look of shock is genuine.

It's like, you know what?

But they can't do that anymore.

But women get punished for having baby.

I think that there is so much wrong in this system, in this old business system, and this whole other generation of Gen Z and Gen Y, they're revolting against this because they see what it's doing to us.

They see what it does to people that are having heart attacks and strokes.

They never get to enjoy their lives.

And they go like, we want to enjoy our life now.

We want to enjoy our relationships now.

We want to have children now.

We don't want to feel like having a baby and enjoying our small child is wrong somehow, or that we get punished for it.

So I think there's a huge push for that in corporate America specifically to say, this is just not right.

Were you born in the US?

No, I was born in Germany.

Because I believe in some European countries, I'm not specifically sure which ones, that it's illegal to call someone about work after hours and on weekends.

Like they sort of restrict that so that your life is balanced.

After hours, go to the beach, go have a pizza, instead of everything is just work, work, work.

I think France specifically, a lot of the countries like Denmark, Sweden, they have huge protections for families because they're also small countries, like Denmark and Sweden are very small countries.

So preserving moms, having babies, and protecting them is in their own best interest because they're so tiny, that they're such a small speck on the planet, that they cannot afford to become any smaller.

So they have figured that out.

And the happiness of people, like living in Norway is off the charts.

People love being in these places because there is a balance and the unhappiness in America is palpable.

In Germany, when you have a baby, you have a one-year protection and you get paid by the government to get home and take care of your child.

My daughter just had a child.

She's not getting a dime, not a cent.

Even South Africa has four months paid maternity leave.

She didn't get anything because there's been the writer's strike and the actor's strike.

So she hadn't been working because of the strike.

And because she hadn't been working, she technically was unemployed.

And because she was unemployed, her scenario didn't change.

So she wasn't losing anything by having this fee.

That's the United States fee.

Let's talk about, so now, I want to completely revolutionize my resume and learn to present myself in a way, the unapologetic value proposition.

So what is the first thing?

What's the first inventory exercise, so to speak?

What do I need to do first to establish what I'm good at?

Yeah, so the inventory is that you need to think about what is it that you do where others tell you, Roberta, that's amazing.

You are so good at X.

And I want you to call your colleagues and people who know you or have worked with you and just ask them the questions.

Like if you were to describe what I'm really good at, what would that be?

And then just write that down.

Don't be judgmental.

Don't be weird about it.

Don't think it's awkward.

People like to help.

You just say, listen, I'm getting ready to brush up my resume.

I'm doing an exercise, and I need to ask 10 people to talk about what I'm really good at.

So if you were to describe me to somebody, what would you say?

That typically gets you a pretty good idea of what you're good at.

Or people say, oh, that's so easy.

You always been such a peacemaker, or there is not a room you can't walk in that doesn't light up when you go in.

You write all of this down without any judgment.

The second thing you do is you think about the position that you want to go after.

What is the actual problem that this position solves?

Is it like in your example in customer service, increasing retention from six months to a year?

So you have to be very clear and say, well, the reason I want this position is because I want, not to be in customer service, I want to help this company to get their retention rate from six months to one year.

That's tangible.

Then you need to make a business case.

That's the third piece.

The business case is why you?

And the business case is made by you understanding what the numbers are.

Typically, in a business like this, the retention rate for something like this is six months.

That cost for the company is for them to lose this client, and replace the client is $50,000.

My goal is to increase this retention rate from six months to one year, because we believe that once people are with us for a year, that the renewal is going to be even better, that they'll stay in for two years.

So now we went from six to one to two years.

That means at a replacement rate of $50,000 every six months, we are now looking at the savings for the company of $150,000 per client.

Now you pitch your business case.

The reason I want to do this is because I believe that with my super skill of helping people to feel heard and seen, to sniff out problems before they even occur, to have a process and a system in place, to regularly contact our high-ticket clients to make sure that they're taken care of and they feel that we are on top of everything.

I feel confident that I can, on average, help the company to retain ten clients for six months longer than they usually would, which is a $300,000 savings.

All I'm asking for is $150,000 salary, and therefore you coming out ahead with $150,000.

Oh, that's good math.

That's really good math.

And I'm thinking in that case, in the business case part, you know, sometimes you have project teams where everybody just does things with everyone else and it overlaps.

So you don't specifically have those numbers for you, specifically to say, this is what you've accomplished in terms of the business case part.

Can you still present yourself that way and say, if you look at my track record, if you don't have those specific numbers, is it possible to have a track record so far since I came to the company?

This is what I've saved the company.

This is what I've made more for the company.

Well, then what you do is you just go in and you say, based on my research, I have found that in a typical company, so you take it away from yourself, a typical company loses clients after six months.

My interest in this is, is that I'm going to commit to taking what I already know how to do, is to sniff out problems before they occur, to provide excellent communication skills between different parties.

And I want to build a system, co-create a system with you that you can take full credit for, because I'll be working for you.

You are the boss.

But that we co-create a system that will ensure in the future that we are plugging this leak that costs the company so much money.

My estimate is that if we build a system like this, not just would we in the first year provide a plug of 10 clients, but over the span of five years, we probably could save 500 client relationships to stay longer.

And if the average is $50,000, there is your savings.

It's, you know, whatever, $2.5 million that we can save the company.

So you make a case either by something you know how to do, or by something you intend to do.

You don't have to take credit for something you haven't done, but you can say, I want to innovate this.

Because bosses like innovation and thought leadership.

So position yourself as a thought leader.

Here's the thing, when we always say to people, quantify what you're capable of on your resume to increase your chances to stand out from everyone else, that's the same thing when you're actually asking for a promotion.

And what about when you're just asking for a raise?

You know, inflation is high, people are finding it a challenge to budget with their current salaries.

Can you use the same strategy to say, even if the promotion actual position is not there, but to fight the case for an increase in salary?

Like the one thing that you cannot do, you cannot go in the office of the boss and say, I deserve a raise.

Nobody cares.

Like nobody cares what you think you deserve.

When you go into the boss's office, you better tell them on how you make their lives easier or better, or what problem you're going to solve for them, how much time and money that will free up for them, how much less they need to think about one particular thing, why you are the right person to do this.

That's it.

It's very simple.

But I see this again and again.

I remember when I was at company, and I had this woman literally walk into my office, she says, I want you to promote me to manager.

And I said, you know, my that's my example.

I've never forgot this.

I said, why would I do that?

She says, well, make me a manager.

And then I show you.

And I said, you know, this is not the way this works.

You have to show me first that you have the capacity, the capabilities of being a manager.

And I need to know from you exactly what you would do as a manager that would make this run better.

You never did.

I never promoted her.

When I left, my successor promoted her.

And she was such a bad manager that she literally was responsible for putting, for terrorizing an employee and giving her a mental breakdown.

We had to go on medical leave for over six months.

And then she quit.

So she was coming with that.

I deserve mindset.

I've been here long enough.

I deserve to be a man.

And it's amazing to me on how the sense of entitlement really has such a foothold in people's heads.

And I think honestly, Roberta, that a lot of it is our parents, especially in America, where parents like you get a medal for just being there.

That would never happen in Germany.

Not in South Africa either.

Well, maybe this generation.

Just because you were on the team, but the team lost every game.

You get nothing.

And here you get the, you know what?

You tried your best, consulant's price.

And that makes people expect that the world is like their parents.

Doesn't matter on whether you're good or bad.

We're going to reward you just for showing up.

And that's, I think, what we see a lot in the workplace, that just because you show up means nothing, nothing.

Absolutely.

It doesn't mean anything at all.

So any last words for someone who wants to now structure their unapologetic value proposition?

What's the last thing you want to say to them?

You've got to be very clear about that.

This good girl, good boy behavior will not get you anywhere in life, that in business, on whether you are an entrepreneur, whether you are a business owner, whether you have an idea, whether you are employed, you have to be at all times be able to make a case for anything you're pitching.

If you master that, you can and will go far.

If you don't master that, I can guarantee you can stay where you are.

Make a case for what you are pitching.

Words of wisdom from Beate Chelete, originally from Germany.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us today.

We've heard so many career coaches, but this was a different perspective.

So thank you for being here today.

Thank you for having me, Roberta.

It was a pleasure to be on your show.

My absolute pleasure as well.

And before you go, where can we find you and more information on Growth Architect?

Yes, so just go and check out either thewomenscode.com or my website at beatechelete.com.

The Women's Code is more for women and career advice.

The Growth Architect is about strategies and systems and processes on how to advance and build businesses.

And reach out to me on social media, check out the podcast, get the book.

If there's anything we can help you with, go to uncoverysession.com and get a 15-minute session booked with our Business Growth Advisor, and then we'll help you to figure out where you're stuck, what maybe your best next step should be.

We're here to help in any whatever way to achieve what you want to achieve and what is success for you in this lifetime.

Please give us the title of your podcast and also where we can find the book Happy Woman, Happy World.

Yes, the title of the podcast is The Business Growth Architect Show, available wherever you pick up a podcast, and then you pick up the book at Happy Woman, Happy World on Amazon as an audiobook, an e-book, and as a printed book.

Excellent stuff.

Thank you, Beate.

This has been awesome.

Thank you for joining us on the Speaking and Communicating Podcast once again.

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