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Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom: 0:37

Hold on to your headphones, folks. Here's Aidan Sowa, an astounding ace in the entrepreneurship arena, fizzing with fervor. He's making more than moolah with his marvelous marketing venture, and we'll be going under the hood of his heart led hustle on today's edition of The Heart Led Business Show. Hope you're excited. I bet you are. Cause so stay tuned as we get into the nitty gritty of running your passion project with Pizzazz. Aidan, welcome to the show. Awesome. Really excited to dive into your heart led business and get really into what makes it a heart led business and how you balance people over profits and all that good stuff. But of course, the first question I always like to ask is what's your definition of a heart led business?

Aidan: 1:24

For me, a heart led business is one which places emphasis on empathy, compassion, and purpose driven leadership. Just prioritizing people over profit. And within my company, I often try to really prioritize, not just the customers, but also my. company. Employees, making sure they're well taken care of because it's super common where you see people's glass doors and stuff like that. They're a successful business from the point of view of revenue, but their employees are not so happy. And I'm always trying to make sure that's not the case for like my

Tom: 1:54

company. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. I actually worked for one of those companies who it was revenue was marginal, but yeah, the glass door profile was definitely not great. And it definitely churned the employees and that's never a good thing. Cause that, do you find that, If you look at those businesses that churn employees are they really providing a great service? Are they really making a profit? How much more do you think they could make if they kept employees around?

Aidan: 2:22

Exactly. And I think it's just like small thinking. Like a lot of people, once they get to the top it almost becomes like a thinking that they're superior in some way. Like I know several people who run companies and they're almost like a Dictatorship like style, like they just think these are just like the little minions and they're disposable. Not even thinking about them as people, and I think that thinking can be dangerous.

Tom: 2:42

Yeah really dangerous too. I think I read stat. It's something like a third of an employee's salary, yearly salary is spent on training. And if you churn that employee that you're just or that position you're spending so much more money and time training somebody up and just all that money could go to the bottom line and serving clients a lot better as well. Cool. So tell us a little bit about your business and what inspired you to start a heart led business.

Aidan: 3:10

Yeah, so essentially I run a public relations firm. What we do is essentially get people featured at different news outlets. And for me, like what initially inspired me to even start the business was just helping out like local businesses to be able to help them basically reach more customers. But over time, I started to focus more so on the branding aspect, which is like being able to basically be seen as like a, an authority within like their

Tom: 3:39

Oh, cool. So What type of clients do you typically work with?

Aidan: 3:44

walk with a lot of like B2B companies primarily, a lot of like software companies primarily walk with and also a lot of doctors too, so being able to help them basically be seen as for who they are, because a lot of these companies, there's little misconceptions about them online and stuff, and having articles and stuff like that about them can help Better represent who they really are, because people of all types of misconceptions are looking into it

Tom: 4:12

Yeah, absolutely. I, yeah, I work with a lot of functional medicine doctors and a lot of them, one have a book written. They're featured at Harvard business schools giving talks. They're, top, they're noticed as the top doc in their area, in their field. And I think that's really important for creating some credibility for them so that they can obviously help more people. What type of outlets do you get them typically on?

Aidan: 4:39

Getting them into Forbes is like one which I commonly get a lot of people on to, USA Today got a couple into, like specifically into different industry specific types of publications. Like we get, we pitch like different industry specific ones. It really depends on the type of doctor. For example, like plastic surgeons and stuff, we typically get them into more tabloid like news, like Daily Mail, The Sun, stuff like that, because that's just the type of audience who particularly listens to to their types of content. That's just

Tom: 5:11

Yeah,

Aidan: 5:11

with

Tom: 5:12

absolutely. Got it. Got to go fish where the the fish are or prospects. That's definitely cool. What were you doing before public relations?

Aidan: 5:20

Yeah. Initially speaking, I ran like a lead generation company, which we still do to like a smaller extent, but it was mostly just focused on Facebook ads and primarily working with like real estate agents. And like financial advisors and stuff like that. And it worked to an extent for a while, but the issue became over time basically I had a series of unfortunate luck, basically, where there's coronavirus, like where basically a lot of people are dropping like lead generation companies like flies. They weren't even willing to give them a chance beyond one month. So that became incredibly difficult to actually achieve measurable results as marketing could take time. And basically that forced me pivot the company. Because before that it was doing pretty well. So I had no reason to pivot. We were at like 10 K a month, but after that had to pivot.

Tom: 6:11

Yeah, absolutely. It was the thought process. Cause I always like to dive into those times where we have to pivot and what goes through an entrepreneur's mind when you start to see clients leaving, revenue dropping. And you can either go right for the profit and, sell your soul out, or you can figure out some ways of re-marketing yourself sounds like you did very well what was going on in your mind as you're going through that phase?

Aidan: 6:39

It was certainly stressful. I had never had multi five, six clients leave in a single month. That was pretty shocking to me. And the people I was speaking to, like I had a lot of conversations and the people I was speaking to were talking about how they almost thought like the world was going to end type of

Tom: 6:54

mentality.

Aidan: 6:55

And that was like, I can't spend anything on marketing, but I realized after talking to a lot of them, the biggest issue, which a lot of these businesses are struggling with myself, included at that time was a trust issue. They didn't have trust with their customers. And they didn't have they didn't trust anyone, really. So that's the reason why I got into the PR business, because I realized, especially at that time, if they could add trust and be seen as a trustworthy source and a time where there's a lot of confusion and chaos, then they would basically emerge victorious. And. that experiment worked

Tom: 7:28

out very well. Yeah, obviously. Yeah that's interesting too. The trust factor, cause I talk about that obviously in, in sales quite a bit in the sales coaching that I do, that you need that No and trust factor for the sale to actually happen. And. Having those assets of a book or the USA Today article or the Forbes article, things like that really goes a long way prior to that first sales conversation that the patient would have with the doctor or with the client.

Aidan: 7:59

Yeah, definitely. Especially considering that some of these decisions are like pretty large decisions. For example, in the case of a plastic surgeon, spending like six, seven thousand dollars is a lot if it could potentially go wrong, right? So people want to make sure they go with a doctor who's actually trustworthy. And, has a good solid track record, and stuff like that. There's a lot of people who, for example, they case plastic surgeons, is these cosmetic surgeons who don't actually have the credentials and stuff like that, and there's not a lot of knowledge around that. So sometimes creating articles and stuff like that, talking about what the difference is between cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon, can be pretty useful for educating the audience because some people don't know that there's even any difference, but when there's actually a massive difference, cosmetic surgeons tend to have a lot more about surgeries than like an actual credentialed plastic.

Tom: 8:43

Don't want to be on the next episode of botched for sure.

Aidan: 8:47

Exactly.

Tom: 8:48

Yeah. That's so critical to plastic surgery, but any type of medical type of procedure or even the medical care, it's so important to go with somebody that is known in the industry is trusted as well and has the right credentials. So that's really important what you're doing to get the word out about one, the aspects of what the difference is and positioning your clients in a better light. That's really cool. And are they are they heartled businesses as well?

Aidan: 9:12

Yeah, definitely. I would say suddenly, I didn't necessarily know that until I really had conversations, like getting some my clients onto like podcasts and things like that. I figured out that they're definitely very heart led business. Like one of them like I bet you, they had like very, like all of their stuff, like basically comes from like the Bible in terms of like how they teach things, they coach the people and stuff like that, and they're completely focused on really providing the maximum value to their customers. So yeah, most of them are we do get a couple of clients here and there who basically just come to us just to fix up the reputation. But most of them I would say how it

Tom: 9:47

led businesses. Yeah. Do you find like the, you being a heartled business kind of attracts the other heartled businesses?

Aidan: 9:54

I would say so. Yeah, I would say so. Yes, definitely. Because people, I think people appreciate when you're actually prioritizing them. In fact, I've had so many people who have signed up with us and they've said, wow, this is like such a different experience. Like you actually communicate with us and you actually seem to care versus they said, we've signed up like 20 plus like marketing companies and not a single one was did this. They'd collected our money and they were out type of scenario. Think as a result people do appreciate that for sure. And I think they, I would hope that they start to implement similar things.

Tom: 10:27

Yeah, absolutely. What I've found too is that, having a heart led business often comes with making difficult decisions down the road, especially when money is tight and you have the potential clients that obviously aren't a good fit, but you take them on anyway, because you need the cashflow. And in my experience, it's always backfired. Make sure that doesn't happen from the start. Or Do you find that you needed to implement maybe a screening process of your clientele?

Aidan: 10:57

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. I had a couple of clients that I check out early in the business who still to this day, three plus years later, still still trying to Go on tirades against my company, which is ridiculous, but it goes to show you have to choose like the right customer. There was this one lady we brought on It was like an actor or something like that, and she wasn't necessarily like the perfect fit. But I think we just sold her because we just need a quick cashflow and she got the services of course we still deliver the services but she basically started like texting us like every single day this is like the the number one thing in like the universe which like it basically we eventually got to a point where we couldn't respond back to her like 30 times a day. That's just unreasonable. So eventually she just started like posting everywhere online, like making a tirade about all these like falsehoods and stuff like that. And she's still trying to like post like Google reviews multiple times and different accounts and stuff like that. So yeah, there are consequences to choosing the wrong customers.

Tom: 11:59

I always like to do the little vetting process prior to them, even coming on board. And man, and it, and that's coming from the heart as well, because you don't want to take on somebody that you can't help. And you really. Yeah, you want to make sure that you can actually make a difference to them or for them as well. So let's shift gearing, shift gears a little bit here towards the business side of being a heart led business. A lot of heart led business owners struggle with the business side and the profit side and doing the whole, the business thing. They're practitioners, they want to help their clients as best as possible and help their employees. But a lot of times a business falls by the wayside. How do you approach making sure that you're taking care of both sides?

Aidan: 12:42

The first thing is I always approach it from like the point of view of like the customer. So being able to understand like what the customer actually needs, what's their end goal? Because sometimes people come to us and they say to us, Oh, I'm looking to get reach. I'm looking to get all these vague metrics and then figuring out what would really push the needle for their business. Not just taking their money just because we can type of scenario. And then moving into the case. of actual like employees and stuff, making sure that they can make a reasonable living. Like I always do those calculations. I'm almost shocked sometimes when talking to businesses and they haven't done those calculations because I basically explained to them like you could bring on this guy. Yes, but he'll only be able to make like barely get by. Is that something you really want? And I never want to put my my employees in that type of situation. So I do those calculations and then, I have to figure out how to actually net a profit, obviously beyond that, but I always make sure that those are the top two things. that I even say this to my employees you, you are like the priority, the customers and you, and then I come next after that, but I always make sure to prioritize

Tom: 13:46

Yeah. Has that ever gotten in the way of making a profit or cause as a flight attendants.

Aidan: 13:52

I've taken losses on occasionally. Yeah, I have taken a loss on several things. Because of that we've had some unusual situations, for example, where a customer would ask for a refund. We've since implemented policies to have set refund policies and stuff like that, but basically the employees end up getting paid and I didn't actually make anything on that. In fact, I lost money. So there was several situations like that, which have. happened. Yeah. Cost me money. I've since implemented policies where it makes it very clear when someone can ask for a refund. Because if we've already completed the walk, it doesn't really make sense.

Tom: 14:26

Yeah, absolutely. And, for the employees as well, if you're, having to claw back any pay, like especially commission based employees, that's never a happy moment to do.

Aidan: 14:38

It's not, yeah, definitely. And it can cause people to leave and stuff like that. Yeah, I always try to I've created policies to basically minimize those things to the maximum in terms of making it very clear up front, like these are our refund policies and stuff like that. So that way when people go into it, there's not these unrealistic expectations. I'll give you an example. Like for example, sometimes we get articles published and then like maybe a year or two years later, for whatever reason that article gets taken down, that's beyond our control. But sometimes a customer will come back to us and be like, Hey, I want a refund for that. Because that doesn't exist. And that's not something we can really control. The actual publication, whoever decides to do that randomly, maybe they cease to exist or something like that. It's beyond our control. So now we have that like within the actual agreements. Like I, I will still try to reason with the actual customer and try to like, get to them something else, not because we need to, but just because I want them to stay happy. But we avoid situations where we basically have to do a full refund because it's beyond something we can actually control.

Tom: 15:39

Yeah, absolutely. Like weather or, acts of God, you really can't control a lot of that.

Aidan: 15:43

That's what I've explained and people have tried to manipulate parts of the contract saying that like I promised like a refund but we don't ever promise a refund and I even explained to some people I'm like did you I'm like they're like you said you never said this explicitly but yes I was but you knew coming into this that we don't own Forbes I think it's pretty obvious that we're not like a billionaire company so yeah

Tom: 16:04

And part of that discussion, has to come from the heart as well in terms of, reasoning with the clients.

Aidan: 16:12

And those are difficult conversations so I've learned, due to certain situations, we've been able to minimize those types of situations to the maximum like lowest, essential.

Tom: 16:21

Yeah. I just had one of those conversations a couple weeks ago and it actually turned out very well. I always go into it like really nervous because I'm a very empathetic person and I just Oh, I really don't wanna disappoint somebody else, but obviously something went wrong. And then, the conversation actually went really well and we expanded service with the clients. It, When you approach things from, I think when you approach things from the heart versus I don't want to lose money. I want to, I can't afford to have a refund against me again. When it comes out of that aspect of business, the client can feel that as well. And then just Is combative at that point, but versus, I really want to help you out. I'm sorry that, whatever happened. Let's figure out a way to move forward.

Aidan: 17:07

Exactly, yeah. And there always are ways to move forward and stuff. There's ways to make certain people happy. I've been able, that's one of the things which I've actually become extremely good at, is being able to take unhappy customers and make them essentially happy. We had one guy, we completely did a really good job on the service, but he was still unhappy and he was quite unreasonable. He was like threatening to do like chargebacks and stuff like that, but we were able to turn him from an unhappy customer to being quite happy. So we have different ways to go about doing that, to be able to ensure that doesn't happen. But I guess that also goes back to the initial vetting process. There's certain types of customers I've noticed in our type of business who let's just say aren't the most. Ethical type of people because they do this to everyone. They basically get the service, they pretend like they're happy and they are happy, but then they come back to you six, 12 months later and they're like, actually, I'm not happy. Give me a full refund. And those are like trap customers in my opinion. There's certain customers like who, who do come across to us, who do come with that mentality where they're basically trying to Basically manipulate a small business because they wouldn't do this to a large business because they know they can't get away with it. and really looking into these types of people because the details are almost always there.

Tom: 18:29

Yeah, absolutely. So tell me, what do you love most about running your business?

Aidan: 18:34

I would say the number one thing, which I like about my business is being able to really just see the difference for both I guess the most satisfying thing is when I see customers get real results due to the work which we did. So like when a customer calls me up and be like, Hey, we are able to secure this like large deal due to the fact that you your features like with the XYZ publications, I find that to be the most satisfying part. Because then, like sometimes You know, you get into your head that sometimes like maybe you aren't doing as much as you could be and stuff like that. So when you see those things, it's always very satisfying for me.

Tom: 19:07

Yeah, absolutely. I love those moments. Definitely. So tell me what advice would you give to somebody that's wanting to start a heartled business, but maybe a little afraid that they don't have the business acumen to be able to make it a success.

Aidan: 19:22

I would just say, go for it. I would say that you already have an advantage just coming from the mindset of wanting to start a heart led business. I think that's where the future is going, actually. I think there's going to be more and more heart led businesses in the future, because I've noticed that long term a lot of these businesses, which are not heart led, don't. actually survive in the long term. So from the long term point of view, I would actually say a heart led business has an advantage over a non heart led one. Not necessarily in the very short term, but in the long term, five, six, seven, eight years out, I think those are the businesses to truly thrive because they have all that goodwill between their employees and their customers.

Tom: 19:59

That's great advice. And what I've found too, is it might be a little bit slower start, but once you set that kind of that heart led position, it can really speed up in years two, three, and four, as long as you're consistent with your delivery and consistent with kind of the ethics that you build into your own business. Cool. Aiden, how can people learn a little bit more about your agency and what you do?

Aidan: 20:23

People can reach out to our website, it's velvetvoicepr.com and also they can reach out to me over Instagram at TheAidanSowa.

Tom: 20:33

Okay. So we'll link all that up into the show notes to make sure that's a little bit easier for people to just click on the link and go and visit the website. Aiden thank you so much for coming onto the show today. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your advice and experiences with the audience. And thank you for listening and watching the show today. We really do appreciate it. Make sure you're checking out everything that Aiden is doing, and that's all going to be linked up into the show notes. So make sure you're checking out those show notes in the description if you're Watching this on YouTube. And if you could do us a really great favor, and that would be to leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast application that really helps other people find the show and help those other heart led businesses get some advice and hear the stories of other heart led businesses as well. And until next time lead with your heart.

Outro: 21:24

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.