#awinewith Linda Johannesson
MEET Linda, Founder of The Growth Garden.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Oh good. Linda, welcome to Spark tv.
Linda Johannesson (00:10):
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Danielle Lewis (00:13):
I am so excited to do this podcast because we have been chatting as a part of the Spark community for a little while and I'm getting to know more and more about your story. So I can't wait to actually dive deep today. I know we've been holding back a little bit waiting for today, so I'm very excited. So let's just kick things off by telling people who you are and what you do.
Linda Johannesson (00:38):
Okay. Well, my name is Linda Johannen and I am a reformed corporate marketing executive transplanted Canadian. And most recently I have founded the company called the Growth Guard and the Growth Garden is a strategic branding, marketing, messaging and growth agency that helps mainly ambitious service businesses to become the biggest versions of themselves. So we often start our work with these clients by helping them to create a really compelling vision for their future. I ask lots of questions, I've been told that's my superpower, and it's asking really powerful questions. So we ask them lots of questions, get them really excited about their business, about their future, about their opportunities, and they can clearly answer the question, what exactly are we building here? So once we've got that vision to borrow a master chef term, we actually deconstruct it and then create the clear branding, the goals, the growth strategies, plans, priorities, and that are required to actually make it happen. And recently we've been offering a few niche services I'm sure that we'll get into talking about a little bit later, but that is the growth garden. And I'm sure we'll hit on a bit more about we the person behind the growth garden as we chat.
Danielle Lewis (02:02):
Definitely, definitely. I love that. And I love, there's so many things that you've just touched on to unpack that is are going to be so helpful for everybody listening. But let's start with, you mentioned Reformed corporate marketer. So talk to me about the backstory. How did we get here?
Linda Johannesson (02:22):
Well, how did we get to this point in distance and how did I physically get to Australia? Two very different stories, but no, I started my career in Canada where I am originally from in Toronto and found a love for marketing and communications from the Get-go. I worked in various industries, went retail to recruitment, to architecture and engineering to HR consulting. And I think in my consulting days is where I really honed my craft and I was brought on, I applied for an analyst position and got a group leader position to lead a practice, a communication practice, which I did. And I found that I had really good skills for getting clear on a vision and then building it. I took a consulting fledgling communications consulting practice in one of the big HR consulting firms in Toronto from 600 and thousand dollars in revenue to 2.5 million in a year and a half.
(03:23):
So once I had a taste of that, it was good to see. And yeah, I learned a lot and that was what I did going forward. But corporate always had a bit of a choke hold on me. I found it very constraining and one of the things that I've been known for is challenging the status quo, and you can only go so far with that in the corporate world. So I was at a great point in my career. I was doing my own thing. I had a new consulting gig set up on my own and was working with an architectural and engineering firm. They were probably 80% of my business. And then I met my ex and fell in love and decided to make the move to Australia.
Danielle Lewis (04:16):
We're so glad you did. Yeah,
Linda Johannesson (04:19):
I kind of am too. And even though we use my ex, we're still on great terms and wouldn't change the past at all. So it was a big move and very different. But coming to Australia in the middle of the GFC with no connections here, experience with no companies that anybody's had ever heard of here except bar one at a director or C-level kind of rule, my career took a hit. So was up to me to use my skills to grow things here. And yeah, I've had various iterations of my consulting practice and worked for a few agencies and companies in the finance industry here, and I have settled into what I feel is just the best fit yet in my career.
Danielle Lewis (05:12):
I just love it because I feel like, and I love you just said the words don't regret a thing. And I just love that because I feel like sometimes people think that the journey to business ownership is linear. It's I've got this brilliant idea and it's like I feel like it is all of the, it's the culmination of trying things of different career paths, different industries wins, losses that you would do. I love how you say, and we've settled into this beautiful song. Yes, it's like the peak.
Linda Johannesson (05:47):
It's amazing. And I firmly believe that especially early in your career in getting as much experience and diverse experience as possible and trying the things and making decisions quickly and not laboring over things like if it's not working okay, it's not working next. But no, it's not a linear line. Yes, life is squiggly and my life has been very squiggly with a few built in, but that's the fun of it.
Danielle Lewis (06:18):
And we can read about the life story in a fiction novel, I believe.
Linda Johannesson (06:24):
Well researched fiction. Yeah, researched fiction. One of the things I did when I was where I met my ex was actually in a writing class and this fiction novel in me, I used to ride the train back and forth commuting into the city and I would have conversations with the people I regularly rode with on the train and they were all married and living vicariously through me in my single life at the time. And I said, you got to write a book about this. And I went, you know what? It would make a really good book. So I embraced the book writing process and wrote my breakout novel called He Loves Me, he Loves Me Not, that was about 12 years ago now. But yeah, it's a fun romantic comedy about one woman's quest to find Mr. Wright and she does what everybody does in the contemporary world and turn into online dating. And it was all about who she met, the train wrecks in fairytales that she experienced along the way and what she brought to life, what she was willing to do and not willing to do in the pursuit of finding true love. It was a great story with some really colorful characters and I had so much fun in the process.
Danielle Lewis (07:42):
I love it so much. And I think it's just so interesting because again, to the point of how all of these experiences help shape the business owners we become. And when I heard that you'd written a fiction novel, I was able and away because I have a book inside me just desperately trying to come out that I keep squashing. And so I'm always,
Linda Johannesson (08:04):
I think I know some people who can help with that.
Danielle Lewis (08:06):
I've heard about this and that's why so whenever I meet somebody that's written, done it because it does feel so insurmountable sometimes. I think as women in business, there are a lot of women in business I know actually that are a holding onto a book or an idea that they would love to have a book in their lives at some point. So whenever I meet someone that's actually done it, I'm like, okay, tell me everything. I'm so interested in the process, why you did it, how it all came about, whether there's more on the cards. Talk to me about book
Linda Johannesson (08:44):
Writing. Book writing is, especially for a fiction book, I think it's very different for a work of fiction and a work nonfiction. Fiction was just letting yourself and your imagination, and I'm a creative type, this is why I don't watch horror movies because I live alone in my creative imagination. No, not good
Danielle Lewis (09:06):
Things,
Linda Johannesson (09:07):
But for fiction, letting that creativity go forward and creating worlds that don't exist and people that don't exist that are pastiches of others and looking for opportunities to create character arcs and seeing the change in your characters, looking for opportunities to have plot lines and intersecting plot lines and subplot lines and all of those things. It really is. It is almost like puppetry. When I took this writing course, one of the things we did is we brought our chapters in every week for a very small group to review them and we would hand them out. This is back in the paper days,
Danielle Lewis (09:51):
It scared the crap out of me.
Linda Johannesson (09:54):
It's a little confronting, but it's also incredibly rewarding because where I get the puppeting thing, I could tell exactly where the people were in reading things by the reactions where they were laughing, where they were shocked where they were just because I was taking them on a journey. And I got to say, out of all of the powerful positions I've had in my career, that's where I felt I had the most influence and it was pretty heady. So, but that's fiction writing. Nonfiction writing is a little bit more by the book, pardon the pun. It really is. People embrace nonfiction versus fiction for very different reasons. Fiction is this freedom of expression and this journey that they can take themselves on Nonfiction, often authors are wanting to either expand their business or their profile. They're wanting to affect change, they're wanting to leave a legacy of all of the cumulative insight that they've created in their careers and some influence or to inspire others to think bigger or see a journey that you might see as impossible. And following them through theirs, seeing the possibilities, and again, a very heady kind of process. And it comes with some responsibility but also some incredible freedom to speak on your own terms and tap into your life and your experiences and share that with the world. And it's a thing once it's done, it's done.
Danielle Lewis (11:39):
And there's something about a book isn't there, it's just like we live in this world of Instagram where everything's up one minute, gone the next, and there is just something so incredible about being a published author. And I just think about all of the traditional media. So if you make it into the press or you're on TV or you've got a book, the old school stuff is the stuff that we actually hold in higher regard, I think.
Linda Johannesson (12:06):
Yeah, I think there's a permanence to that that just doesn't exist in our fleeting, very noisy, very crowded digital world and not that books can't be crowded, hello, look behind you, but they're solid things and I think the ability to interact with books, highlighting things or writing notes to yourself, and it is just a very different experience. And I'm glad that there's authors. I'm glad I've had the chance to go on the fiction journey and I just can't decide what I want to write from a nonfiction perspective. So I'm helping other people do that.
Danielle Lewis (12:46):
I love that. I love that. And now what do you offer in terms of support? So if somebody did have a book inside them, and actually I want to talk about the process as well because we talked about this in our spark session yesterday and I think it's really important. I think a lot of people think the barrier to book writing is just the writing of the book. It's just like, I am not going to think about it until I have written all of the words and then I can't worry about things, but you said
Linda Johannesson (13:15):
Something, I'll market it. And honestly, that's the biggest challenge, certainly with self-published authors, that marketing is something that starts right at the very beginning phase of getting your idea for the book and it will getting a clear vision of what the book's goals are, which is part of marketing and creating an integrated marketing plan from the get-go, and ensuring that it is reflected in your content within the book, ensuring that you are including in the book any tools that might be taking you from the book to your interactive marketing environment to cover design, to title to subtitling. And that all starts from the very beginning. So there's marketing that can be done for a book in its initial stages. So before writing the book, while you're writing the book, when you're getting close to publishing and thinking about launch and then post-launch. So those are the kind of four key phases of it.
(14:23):
So as I mentioned at the top of the interview that I've started playing with a few very niche offerings because branding is big, growth is big, strategy is big. And finding those clients that I work with on an ongoing basis, that's great and I don't need lots of clients to be successful and taking them through that. But offering something can help to influence more people and their vision. And often the ideal client for this book marketing service that I've recently launched is my ideal client anyway, that their business, mostly business women who have reached a maturity in their career that have something solid to share, that have their own kind of thought leadership and the book and the business are not separate entities combined between them, the book, their business, there are marketing opportunities. So it makes for a great connection and a great place to start a relationship with these people.
(15:36):
So getting back to your question about what's a necessity for those women who I know there's lots of spark women that have a book in them, and I certainly say embrace that because it really is a powerful expression unlike anything else that you ever do. But thinking about that, and I'm a firm believer in getting the right help, working with a book writing coach, and I'm aligned with a woman who's fantastic. She's got a huge career in publishing and is a writer herself and she helps women through the writing and editing and publishing process. And I am now aligned with her to offer marketing services throughout those processes. And we'll probably expand that to working with other book coaches, but smart ladies, if you want to write a book, get a book writing coach and think about marketing from the very beginning, I've got a fantastic checklist for you if you want to look into that and just what's required. Because I think what I'm finding with authors is they're absolutely surprised and somewhat overwhelmed by what could potentially be in their marketing journey for their book.
Danielle Lewis (17:00):
And it's really interesting that you say that as well because I think about my interactions with authors and brands in general, and today I feel like it's the behind the scenes, it's the steps along the way. It's taking people on that journey and the storytelling that is the marketing and gets people there. It's not just, Hey, I've got a product, buy it.
Linda Johannesson (17:21):
Exactly. And from content marketing commitments to providing tools and supports and processes and those things to help create that, it's all necessary.
Danielle Lewis (17:37):
I love it. And two common themes. So both when you talked about the book writing process and when you talked about your work with branding, the biggest standout for me was starting from the start, what are the questions? What is the foundations? What do we stand for? What do we believe in? Why is it so important as maybe we think about it from a business owner point of view, why is it so important to start from the basics? I know as a business owner myself, I just want to do all the shiny things at the end. I want it to be done and I want it to be out there and I find it difficult to slow down. Why is it important to actually do that first?
Linda Johannesson (18:15):
Yeah, I think it's important to a, get the basics right, but equally important if not more so know what the hell you're building. And when you have those two things and your own personal why, I think those create the three pillars that you could answer any business question, is this relevant? Is it the right thing? Should I spend money on it? Should I spend time on it? Does it further? Those three things and getting the foundations in place. That's one of the things I always go back to with my clients. It's foundations and vision. We can work on everything in between, but if you've got this big ass vision where you want to grow phenomenally and you don't have a referral program and you don't have a working CRM and you don't have ongoing communication strategies and you don't have the right people, you don't have the foundations in place to be able to build that on, you don't want to be building a skyscraper on a shaky foundation. So having those discussions can be confronting for business owners because it's one of the most personal things you can do in your life as start a business, run a business and grow a business. But for solid growth and scalable growth, those foundations need to be in place before you can start really challenging them to perform for you. Systems, automation foundations, it sounds like the boring stuff, but it is the stuff that,
Danielle Lewis (19:47):
So what do we do if we find ourselves 10 years along and maybe some of our foundations are shaky? Is there hope for us? Can we go back to this? Of
Linda Johannesson (19:58):
Course. And I would hope that goal setting is ingrained in most businesses because that's the stop and review part of it. One of the things I offer with the growth garden that many marketing and branding agencies don't is a marketing audit. I'm a trained consultant at high end of consultant town. So I think in audit and really putting everything through the filter, is this serving you? Is it the best option? Is it efficient? If not, what can we replace it with? But getting to a, realizing that you might not have some of these, you won't know this if you never stop and look. So I urge business owners to take the time, embed it in your planning process, and when you're doing your goal setting for the year, the quarter, the month, take a look at what's working and what's not. And if you can't see it, engage outside objective insight that is trained in doing that, doing that effectively, being a consultant, you had to get really good at parachuting in taking that look around and then starting to make recommendations, the get couch and not pulling your hair out while you're doing it.
(21:20):
I love it.
Danielle Lewis (21:22):
I know. Well, it's really interesting as well because I think we get so tied up in the to-do list. We get so worried about, okay, I have 1700 things to do before 5:00 PM today. And then you're working through those things and you think, oh, I just, yeah, I actually need to stop. I actually need to stop and take a step back. And I love that you said align it to those goal setting sessions because sometimes I think take a day off, take half a day or take yourself out, take yourself to a hotel for a weekend or whatever it is. You've actually got to pull yourself out of the business sometimes and give yourself that space to ask those questions and look and really objectively look at what's working and what's not working.
Linda Johannesson (22:08):
Definitely. And I used to find that when I, back in my corporate days when I was going to conference this flood of ideas that would come to me as I'm on the plane traveling to this conference or at the conference itself from conversations that you have in the hallways to, and I think that brings me to another thing that not only do you stop and take yourself out of your busyness and your every day for that change of perspective, knowingly put yourself into situations where your perspective can be amplified or challenged or diversified or just to get the challenge so that you can step up and say, no, this is my way. But if you're never challenged to defend it, then you're never a hundred percent sure that it is your way. And that's one of the things I feel strongly about is diversity and growth in your business and in your personal life, in your skillset. Life overall is just so important.
Danielle Lewis (23:20):
I love that you said that because I feel triggered. No, one of the things.
Linda Johannesson (23:26):
No,
Danielle Lewis (23:26):
No, no. But it's really interesting because I've actually found now that I work very regionally and very remotely, I feel in the last couple of years I've lost that a little bit. And I said, because when I was living in a city, I'd go to all the networking events, go to the conferences, to all the things. And since being totally remote and totally isolated, everything I do is online now for the most part. But also then I find myself not showing up, not bothering to buy the ticket to the virtual event or buying the masterclass and not watching it. And I've said this to my husband, I said, I feel like I'm not growing anymore. I've just put this, I've just stopped. And of course I'm sure it's not true, but I have really, really felt like that. And I feel like as a business owner, you've got to be super conscious about exactly what you said, challenging yourself, surrounding yourself by people who have done the things that you want to do or even, yeah, we'll challenge you. Perhaps they're from another industry or another business type and can bring another perspective. Exactly. It is in those moments where we interact with other people that the inspiration comes. I mean, I've even been writing notes while we've been talking on a
Linda Johannesson (24:47):
Podcast. I just did too, because our conversation has sparked something that it could be another potential offering for me. And that's it. I believe in the power of serendipity, but I also believe that you have to put yourself serendipity adjacent and that you have to find those opportunities that can help you to grow and think differently and learn and be curious.
Danielle Lewis (25:14):
Yes,
Linda Johannesson (25:15):
We certainly don't know it all and we will never know it all. And because I'm so committed to growth, it's in the name of my company, it's what I do with clients and what I certainly try and do for myself. And it's just so important to see the evolution over a career. I've been working for 40 odd years, so I'm just like, yeah, I have changed. My career has changed and what's important and values have changed, and it's just incredible to see the journey.
Danielle Lewis (25:53):
I love it. And because also it takes the pressure off needing to be right the first time. I feel like there's a lot of hesitation, especially with women who want to start a business, but they're a little unsure, will it work? Will it not work? And it's kind of like it doesn't matter if it works or doesn't work because
Linda Johannesson (26:11):
It's learning.
Danielle Lewis (26:12):
It is. And there are so many things that you can try and fail at and still be a giant success.
Linda Johannesson (26:20):
Yeah, I believe in the fail fast principle and just keep refining, but you can't refine and you don't know if something has failed, if you don't have solid metrics in place. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (26:32):
Oh, I
Linda Johannesson (26:32):
Love that. I'm a firm believer and I will consult with very strong reverence for detailed goals, ongoing metrics. They're the proof that what we're doing is working or not. And when it's not, you make different decisions and you need to see the metrics shift or change as a result. And it's really important to embed those in what you're doing. And thankfully, we live in a world now where it's easy to do. You can follow every path and every link and get that kind of information back. But if you're not using that information to fuel your decisions, then you've lost the opportunity. And I used to work in the financial industry here, and one of my superiors used to say, we're going to agitate with facts and data. And I just went, that's such a financial mindset. But I think it there's a jam in there.
Danielle Lewis (27:30):
I agree. And it's really interesting. I believe metrics will set you free because so much of the time I hear people and I say it to myself sometimes this isn't working or that launch failed or this isn't what I, and it's like, hang on a second. If you go and look at the numbers, they are what tells you what's working and what is not working. And oftentimes I have said, okay, this doesn't, working. Things aren't happening as fast as I want them to. And you go and look at the numbers and you're like, oh, actually they are working or This bit isn't working. So that's the only thing I need to change to make an impact. It's not that the whole world has failed, it's that one thing's not working. I feel like if you don't look the metrics, it's so easy to just kind of give up a little bit or feel like you've failed or put yourself down or whatever it might be. But once you look at the numbers, you just have a clear set of instructions and you can kind of take the emotion out of it a little bit.
Linda Johannesson (28:29):
Well, that's what I was just going to say, that it removes the emotion. And if you are running your business based on emotion, you're losing an opportunity to really put the business filters on and look at things from facts and data. And what it does is it provides the objectivity that your intuition or your feelings or your gut reaction or your thoughts are your own demons. You can We all
Danielle Lewis (28:58):
Have them.
Linda Johannesson (28:59):
Exactly. And it really helps to see the growth and it provides an objectivity and proof. And in this world of everybody claiming they can do everything, we need proof, whether it's social proof or PDI that we can put out there or proof that it works through a client experience, whatever. I focus on proof because that's an arable, and the rest is just feelings and thinking. And anybody can put up an Instagram page and a website and claim to be anything they want.
Danielle Lewis (29:40):
A billionaire 17 minutes, I believe is the new.
Linda Johannesson (29:44):
Exactly. It was like, yeah, sure.
Danielle Lewis (29:48):
No, and it's so true. And it's really interesting. I have this often people say to me, I'm not making enough money, I'm not making enough sales. And I say, okay, well, how many people did you reach out to this month? How many people converted and how much money did you make? Once we know roughly those three things, we can get an idea of how things are working and converting. And they're like, oh, I don't know. It's like, well, exactly.
Linda Johannesson (30:10):
Yeah, I don't know. And that's usually the starting point. And that's one of the things, and that's why I will start there with clients when I say to borrow master chef term and deconstruct. The deconstructing is also not just to do with the vision, but it's also to do with their perceptions of how their business is performing and what's working and what's not. And it's like, okay, let's really look at that. So deconstruct is just say a nice way of saying audit.
Danielle Lewis (30:41):
Yeah, I like it. Let's go with the deconstruct. All I'm envisioning is just like a lemon tart on a plate.
Linda Johannesson (30:51):
But no, it's a fun exploration. And what I've learned in my dealing with clients is unfortunately it's not a place you can really start with a client because when you're dealing, especially with entrepreneurs, people who have invested their life, blood brains, time, energy into their business, it's a very personal thing. So to start challenging the status quo with that needs an environment of like and trust. And trust especially so well, the audit is an incredibly powerful tool that I offer. It can't be the start. Very rarely is it the start with the CEO kind of mindset because it does uncover the inefficiencies. But again, it's about adding the layers that are required to build on. And if we focus on what the outcomes are, then it's easier to get through that process.
Danielle Lewis (31:56):
I love it so much. Now, you and I could talk all day. Yes,
Linda Johannesson (32:00):
We could.
Danielle Lewis (32:01):
But let's leave our beautiful spark community with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, would there be a piece of advice that you would offer up to another woman in business who is going along her business journey to help her along the way?
Linda Johannesson (32:24):
Well, there's so many, but yeah,
Danielle Lewis (32:25):
It's like, okay, we need another.
Linda Johannesson (32:27):
I could say it would be the change. You want to be the status quo. Don't underestimate the power of well asked questions. But I think we've touched on it through our dialogue here, and it really is keep growing and growth comes from a variety of interactions and exposing yourself to diversity and learning growth can come from a trip or learning a different language or meeting a new person or hiring somebody very different to yourself or looking at the way another industry is handling a problem that you're challenging, but keep growing because it's in the diversity that all the growth happens. And exposing yourself knowingly and being self-aware enough to know that we live in a world that is, we're in digital echo chambers all the time. Everybody's promoting like-minded this. And you don't learn from like-minded, you don't learn from an echo chamber. You learn from taking yourself out of what's familiar for differences. So I just would say that that's probably going to be the best tool you have for your business growth, for your personal growth, and for the growth of your story.
Danielle Lewis (33:47):
You are absolutely incredible. Thank you, Linda, for sharing your journey and your wisdom. So grateful for you. It's been awesome.
Linda Johannesson (33:57):
It has been wonderful and takes one to know one girl. So thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
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