The First Customer - The Formula For Infinite Business Growth with Founder Natalie Doyle Oldfield

[00:00:27] Jay: Hi everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. My name's Jay Aigner today. I'm lucky enough to be joined by Natalie Doyle Oldfield crushed it. I'm glad to have you on Natalie up there in Nova Scotia. how are you doing?

[00:00:39] Natalie: I'm great. I'm great. Thanks for having me, Jay.

[00:00:42] Jay: You got it. founder and president of success through trust, which is, and I read through the website and you know, I always tell people I do the same amount of homework for these shows as I did in high school, like just enough to pass. So I do know enough about what you've done in your background. I'm also a big believer that trust. People buy from people, right? So the trust is huge. So I can't wait to get into that. first of all, where did you come from and did that have any impact on you being an entrepreneur later in life?

[00:01:10] Natalie: I think it did. I was, I grew up in a smallish town, Fredericton, smallish city, Fredericton, New Brunswick. I'm from a family of, Five children and, my parents both, were full time. My mom's a retired nurse now. And my dad, worked for the university, as alumni director, and then he started his own company.

And so I was always very inspired by, you know, him starting his own consulting agency. and my parents really instilled in all of us that, If you work hard and you have passion and you stay motivated, you can do anything. And they also said, you know, if you find your thing, that will be like a calling and it won't even be like work.

And Both my parents really were very fortunate. My mom is a nurse. She loved it. She didn't even really want to retire, but she felt at 69 she should retire because 70 would be kind of old, which, you know. It's not as old as it was 20 years ago. And, my dad, he also, stopped working quite late in life too in his late seventies.

So, I do think it did inspire me to become a business owner. And, the other thing that. That no one's actually really asking this question. Jay, it's a great question is, my father was also, he's also an author of several books. And, as you know, I also wrote a book called the power of trust, how top companies build, manage and protect it.

And, I wrote a couple of workbooks before that. And, I think that also, you know, having, you know, grown up in a house where my father was always writing and my parents were always, you know, very engaged in business really made an impact.

[00:03:13] Jay: Interesting. One thing you said there, you said, you know, they kind of instilled in you that you need to stay motivated.

what do you do now today when motivation dips or you kind of get that like, you know, hamster wheel feeling? I mean, even as a business owner, we still get that kind of feeling where sometimes you got to get breakout.

How do you kind of kick yourself back into gear? How do you stay motivated?

[00:03:39] Natalie: that's a great question. How do I stay motivated? , I wake up excited about what I do. I am actually pretty lucky. sometimes I get tired, and so maybe I might not be as motivated as that day, as other days, but I really feel that.

I really feel that there's so many companies out there, Jay, that really want to be the most trusted in their industry that, you know, I'm kind of on a mission to help as many companies and leaders as possible. Become more trusted because I really believe it's better business. And, so how do I stay motivated?

I mean, I'm very externally focused, so I love helping people. I love helping companies. So what really motivates me is to talk to business owners and to talk to leaders about what they're doing and what their plans are. So I guess that's a very long way of answering is to talk. I stay motivated by talking to.

Business owners and leaders like you to find out what they're doing in their business.

[00:04:48] Jay: Sure, that makes sense. I like that. you know, there's a million business books out there, obviously.and I don't know if you've heard of Blinkist or not. It's like the cliff notes for audio books, kind of. It's like a summary. So, and I binged kind of through a bunch of stuff. I guess last summer, and I kind of came to the realization that all the business books are the same. It's all the same stuff. And it's all, and it's not just the same stuff. It's like literally like every 10 years, like they kind of just recycle it. It's like, you know, the same concepts over and over again. So, and I'm, I promise you, I'm getting to a point here. how did you really differentiate yourself from those, you know, the crowd of books that are out there?

Like how, like trust is A cool thing to go after, but I have to assume there's other business books based on relationships and trust and stuff like that. So how did you do your homework and kind of know what other books are out there? There were competition. And then like, how did you make it different so that people actually get value out of it, that they didn't over the last 50 iterations of a book that's maybe, you know, written in the same vein.

[00:05:53] Natalie: Well, that's a great question. So I spent, here's the backstory in a nutshell. I spent, the majority of my career, about 20 years in the IT industry, working with software companies and companies in the IT industry. Helping them on either in marketing roles. In fact, my last role with chief marketing officer for a software company, I was responsible for marketing and sales.

And in that role, and I love books and I have probably read some of the business books that you're thinking about. And, In that role. I was primarily doing marketing for many years, product marketing, marketing communications, customer research, all these different types of roles in marketing. And after several years of doing that, I was asked to look after sales as well and be accountable for a sales team.

And finally I chose to do that and I didn't really want to, it was kind of kicking and screaming a little bit inside because I didn't want to be in sales. I was like, Oh no, like I just like to help customers and I just want to, you know, provide value and talk to them. But I didn't want the accountability, Jay.

And as you know, as a business owner, nothing happens until a sale is made and the people in sales on the front line, Are either making sales or they're not. They're getting projects or they're not. And so, I took this role on and the market crashed. It was 2008. And I didn't know what to do. So I talked to all these people to try to figure out, well, what is the best way to do sales because I'd never had any training and the best sales people, the people that actually sold the most, all told me the same thing.

Just focus on the customers now, like just focus on the clients. And if you and your team do that, it'll all be okay. So that's the short answer. So we did, and the sales started going back up. Fast forward a year later, I decided to go back to school and do graduate research. So I did my master's in communications and public relations.

And I went in to answer the question, how is it that people decide to buy? And quickly found out it all starts with TrustJ. I'm not going to ask you to do testing for me. Unless I trust your team, unless I trust you. And so I did all my research around that. So your question around, how do you differentiate?

I created a proprietary framework based on science and evidence as to how we decide to trust. in a business to business environment. did lots of primary research, academic research, built this framework and then tested it out and created a model in eight principles of trust for people to follow, to apply in each and every situation in each and every interaction.

So how mine is a little different, my model is it's evidence based. And it's been peer reviewed and tested out with a pretty large sample size, about 80, 000 people that proves out that when you apply the principles and my model. to interactions and relationships, you build trust. And then I went a little step further because I spent all this time in my career in marketing roles and with teams asking, well, what's the return on the investment?

and they were always asking, you know, we, what we can manage, we should be able to measure. So I created a measurement tool and a diagnostic. I call it the client trust index. And like I said, tested that out. And what we found is when companies have a score, a high trust equity score, that's what I call it, trust equity.

So I coined that term in 2015, when they have a trust equity score that's high, there's a direct correlation to the number of recommendations that you get. To the customer's propensity to continue to buy your product, your service, and, all these other great indicators. So my model is It's not only based on experience, but it's evidence based, Jay.

It's based on the scientific method.

[00:10:46] Jay: All right, well that, so you didn't just slap it together. That's, that sounds like you did your homework.

[00:10:52] Natalie: create a diagnostic, it took about seven years. So no, it took a lot of time and reiteration. And the wonderful thing is now, my company, Successory Trust, It's been around for 10 years and now multiple companies and hundreds of organizations and thousands of people have applied this model to build trust and improve their relationship.

[00:11:19] Jay: very cool. I like that. who was your first customer at Success Through Trust?

[00:11:25] Natalie: my very first customer was, a technical company in the, bio biomedical space. And I'm very grateful to them. They, you know, one of the challenges in the beginning is people would be like, well, why trust? Of course that's important, but you know, like you can't make it. How can you make that practical?

And the owner of this company, He understood the significance and the importance of having relationships of trust. Those companies didn't have, his company, they didn't have contracts with clients. And so they would get an order and then, you know, hope for the best to get another order and as a company that sold diagnostic tools and equipments to laboratories and health facilities.

And, anyhow, we measured the, their client's trust in them using the tool, the client trust index, got their trust equity score, and then. We're able to determine through the data, find some insights and see where the cracks were in their business and really hone in on the behaviors and the way they communicated and the way they served had to change to increase the trust level.

So it was a wonderful client. I'm still, in touch with the company today. That was 10 years ago. And we, once we found that score out, we then trained.I trained 20, so 20 odd people, everyone from, I think it was 22 people actually, from people that are in account management and customer success and onboarding to shipping on how to build relationships of trust.

With not only their end customer, but also their distributors. And, yeah, it was wonderful. And now that's what I do full time. I, train primarily technical leaders and technical people on how to build relationships, trust and maintain them. And, you know, I'm a hundred percent focused on helping companies become the most trusted.

In their industry.

[00:13:44] Jay: Hmm.how has that changed as far as like who you were thinking your customer was going to be? has that changed since you started the company 10 years ago? Or are you kind of going after and helping the same companies?

[00:13:58] Natalie: Um,I am going after and helping the same company. So I work with a lot of, private companies and companies that are, very focused on being the best in their industry. I think that what's changed Jay is that when I started, the company, I was primarily working with companies that. Wanted to become the most trusted in their space and also wanted to grow their businesses.

So a lot of the training that I did was helping, people learn how to not only build trust, but also probe and help people learn the skills to listen for new opportunities and help the company grow by, you know, gaining new business. I really feel that if you're a trusted advisor. People buy from people they trust, like you said in the beginning.

And when you become a trusted advisor, you actually become the top salesperson in a company because people take your advice. They want to do projects with you. They tell you about new projects coming down the pipe. So a lot of the work that I did. In the beginning, the first several years was helping companies grow.

Now, what I'm finding the last couple of years is not only am I helping companies grow, I'm also helping companies that have lots of work and they want to retain not only their clients, but they want to retain their employees. employees.

[00:15:38] Jay: they're offering an upscaling their current employees with communication and relationship and listening and empathy skills.

[00:15:48] Natalie: Some might call soft skills and trust and relationship building skills to retain the current, employees they have and to give those employees professional development opportunities so that they stay with the company. Because as we know, there's a worldwide talent shortage and companies want to keep great employees and they want to keep the people on their team and upscale them if you will to Retain them and so that they can do more in different jobs.

[00:16:26] Jay: So I, one person that comes to mind, immediately is most recently I had a group program called Trusted Advisors, Advisor Certification, and there are a group of about 10 people in that program, Jay, from a variety of different companies. And there was one fellow in the comp, in the group, his name's William.

[00:16:49] Natalie: And, he's an electrical engineer relatively. Junior person been with the company about five years, very technical. And his manager placed him in my program because they thought, well, you know, he's so technical and he's so great at what he does. Clients love him, but he doesn't really, you know, he's wasn't really that confident to talk to the clients and they really wanted to give him an opportunity.

And fast forward, he went through the program. We, you know, it's a step by step process, like I said, based, you know, evidence based. That you can follow to learn how to build trust. And he's, you know, really became more confident, learned about questions to ask. And now he's being mentored, and he's being promoted to be.

In charge of business development for this engineering firm. And, you know, it's a great example of a company that they've got lots of work.they wanted to keep him and they couldn't find business development people, and he took this program and now he's doing business development and he's, you know, his role has expanded.

[00:18:07] Jay: cool, what, how are you marketing your services today? Is it through the book and podcasts and other things? Like, what are your main, I mean, obviously, I know referrals are probably huge just because of the trust based thing, but, outside of referrals, what are your kind of main channels for marketing these days?

[00:18:25] Natalie: I would say, LinkedIn. So, it's primarily referrals though, Jay. Like most of my clients come from another client or if I have a group program, like someone I'll have a leader in a program and you know, he or she will tell their friend and then they'll come in the program. but outside of referrals, I would say LinkedIn.

So I'm. quite active on LinkedIn. I post different stories and tips and updates on a regular basis. and on LinkedIn, it's pretty, straightforward. It's Natalie Doyle Oldfield. So I do meet people through LinkedIn quite a bit and also podcasts like your show.

[00:19:11] Jay: Beautiful. I love that. All right. I have one more question, non business related though. This is just for Natalie, outside of the office.

[00:19:20] Natalie: I just add one thing? I 

[00:19:21] Jay: yeah, go for it.

[00:19:23] Natalie: Oh, you asked how I market.I speak at a lot of conferences and events, Jay. And actually, when I'm asked to speak about how to build trust with customers or how to build trust with your team at a conference or an event. I, that's, I usually meet a lot of people there and I would say actually, in addition to referrals, that's a very significant source for me to meet new people.

[00:19:53] Jay: No, I like that. I've heard that and I feel like that's something that maybe isn't available to everyone as soon as they start their business, but once they get some success and they kind of hone their expertise and they become a subject matter expert and kind of a trusted, I don't like the phrase thought leader, but I'll use it,

that standing on stage, and presenting those topics leads to a lot of new connections and business.

Right. So I hear that a lot. I think it's a great point.

[00:20:17] Natalie: Yeah.

[00:20:19] Jay: Okay, final question, the mystery question.

I did not include it in the notes, so you don't even know what it's going to be. if you could do anything on earth and you knew you wouldn't fail, what would it be?

[00:20:30] Natalie: Oh my gosh. What a question, Jay.

if I could do anything on earth, I don't know. I love to travel. Okay. So when you asked that question, I was like, well, you know, maybe like fly to all these different places. I don't know. I'm not, I don't know how to fly. I'm not a pilot. yeah, I don't know.

[00:20:54] Jay: You wouldn't fail. Sounds like you're leaning towards traveling around the world.

[00:20:59] Natalie: Yeah.

[00:20:59] Jay: going to, I'm not going to lead the witness here. I've heard travel a lot. Travel is a big one. I think a lot of people want to travel and they just come up with the reasons why they can't. Like me, I have five kids that don't get to travel as much because it costs a million dollars to fly

you know, a family of seven anywhere.

But, so you mentioned LinkedIn but, say it again. If we want to find you they'll reach out about success through trust or if they want to reach out to you directly just about something they heard today or, you know, just connect with you, how they do that.

[00:21:25] Natalie: you could go to, my LinkedIn, like I said, which is Natalie Doyle Oldfield. you could go to my website, which is successthroughtrust. com. And if you go to my website, I actually have a trust assessment there that you can download, it's complimentary, To see, you know, what your team, how your team is doing, how your company is doing.

And, you know, it's complimentary. There's no obligation. And if you want to have a conversation about your results, you can, I don't track people's results. You can download it. but that's kind of a good, you know, I would say good step for someone to take if they want to build trust on their team.

So, And you can find my book, the power of trust, how top companies build, manage, and protect it on Amazon. So that's kind of how you can find me.

[00:22:19] Jay: So there's no shortage of ways to find you. That's good. well, Natalie, you're fantastic. I enjoyed your story very much. I hope people reach out to you. I love what you're doing and keep up the good work and we'll talk again soon. All right.

[00:22:29] Natalie: Thanks so much, Jay. 

[00:22:31] Jay: Thanks Natalie. See ya. 

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