Episode 249: Why you should enter an award for your business
Awards. How do we feel about them? In today's episode, Fiona talks about looking at what awards are out there, and have a look at what might be relevant for you, particularly in 2023. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Australian Business Book Awards
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 249 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Today it is a quick tip episode, and that's where I share a tip, tool, or tactic that you can implement immediately. If you are new around here, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss these tip episodes that come out every single Tuesday. They're usually 10 minutes or less. You can go and binge on a whole lot of them, and I just know that we get so much feedback around these tip episodes. They're usually the most downloaded when we look at our analytics. It's a pleasure to bring them to you because I am full of tips and I'm always thinking of things that could be a podcast episode. Today it is no different and it's something that has been something I avoided doing for a long time, and I wish I had probably started it sooner. Before we get stuck into that tip, tool, or tactic, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the lands in which I live and record this podcast. And that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. I also welcome any other indigenous people who might be tuning in today. Thank you so much and welcome. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
Awards. How do we feel about them? I have worked in digital agencies and I have worked in the media and I have worked as a journalist and I've gone to lots of awards ceremonies for all sorts of things, whether it is fashion Awards, whether it's tech awards, and I've written about the recipients of awards for many years in all sorts of publications. From Monacle to Refinery29, Cool Hunting, to The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and the Sunday magazines both here in Australia as well as in the UK and the United Arab Emirates. I've written about an award person for, now it's escaped me. Shift Japan, which is a cool magazine. Many different things I've written about as people who have won different types of awards. Now, when I started my business that was late 2015, I didn't enter any awards because I thought you have to be in business for some time to enter those things.
Even though I knew, because I had worked with some incredible PR professionals that quite often a PR agency will look at what awards are out there to generate brand awareness and to generate credibility authority in a particular space. I'd seen that and yet I just avoided them for a while as I got more awareness of my brand, I would say I started getting contacted by a lot of these weird agencies that I didn't actually know existed, especially because I'd been a journalist for 20 years. Now there are agencies out there who will ask you if you would like to pay to win or be profiled in the top 10 business coaches. I was contacted by people that worked for Yahoo Finance, CNN, Forbes, and a whole bunch of them.
They were like, “Hey, we're compiling a list of the top 10 business coaches worldwide,” or we are compiling a list of the top 10 business book authors, or we are compiling a list and you can be in the top 10. It wasn't even like an award, but it came across as if it was an award. But when you replied to them saying, “Okay, what's involved?” They're like, “It's 500 US dollars.” I was like, “What? So I'm actually paying to be, basically, it's advertorial, right?” And then they'd be like, “No, no.” And then what I started seeing was a lot of people in my industry that were doing this and that was putting out there and saying, ”I'm so excited. I'm like, profiled today in the top 10 business coaches, or I'm profiled today and X, Y, Z.”
It was really interesting. At one point, I believe Kate Toon, who is an SEO specialist, did it to show what the industry is actually doing and to pull the wool off people's eyes that this is all paid for. I guess that whole process really turned me off the awards areas because I was thinking, it's just this advertorial and it's not real. And because when I first saw them, I was thinking, these people have won these awards and how come I haven't been profiled? Anyway, I turned off awards for quite some time. Then in 2020, my book Passion Purpose Profit came along and I decided that I would enter it into the Australian Business Book Awards.
There is an entry fee for that, but that entire entry fee goes towards indigenous literacy in Australia. I entered it in and I thought, “Let's just see if anything happens.” And then I also found out that the book Passion Purpose Profit had been shortlisted for the Australian Book Design Awards. That was something I had nothing to do with. I watched those awards live and I was disheartened because I really thought that the book would win. I was like, “It's amazing.” Andy Warren, who's an incredible designer and he's won that title many times, I think he had designed my book and I thought, for sure it's going to win. And it didn't win. What's more, I was watching this live award ceremony, but then there were pre-recorded thank-you speeches and I was like, “Oh, okay.”
All these people knew ahead of time that they'd won. Then I thought, I've entered this business book, Australian Business Book Awards, but I'm being contacted so I must not have won, because I thought, it must all be prerecorded anyway, I'm watching the Australian Business Book Awards with my son and my husband, and then I said, “I haven't been contacted, I must not have won.” And my husband said, “Are you only going to watch it if you win?” And I said, “No, of course, I actually want to see who wins.” I watched it and what was really interesting is that my book won and I didn't know because it was actually live. My book was shortlisted in the top three for the best overall business book, but then it won the Best General business book for 2021 in Australia, which was amazing.
From that win, I was given quite a bit of media and also quite a bit of attention from Booktopia, which was one of the biggest online bookshops in Australia. For me, that book award really meant something because it meant that my peers, I think that was like 180 or 200 books entered that year. It meant that from all of those, a lot of my peers and people that I really look up to and respect in that industry and in the business industry and finance industry and self-help industry in Australia had voted that my book was good. I already knew my book was good. I'm not going to sound like a two-out myself, but it is a good book. If you haven't read it, go and read it. But it won that award and it helped me feel that I could promote the book more, which sounds sort of silly, but it really helped me say it's an award-winning book and I'm an award-winning author.
Those things can help. I know this is a really long intro into today's episode, but today's episode is really looking at awards in your industry and asking yourself, one, if you even are aware that they exist, two, why you might not be entering them. I've given you a lot of context of my journey with awards from starting my own business and really thinking, I'm not far enough along to apply for them, which is actually incorrect. You can apply for them anytime. Then seeing a whole bunch of fake awards being out there and then finally deciding, I'm going to enter this one, the money goes a hundred percent to charity for the entry fee and I'm just going to see what happens. I was pleasantly surprised. From that, I started looking at what are the awards that are relevant to what I do.
There are Australian Podcast Awards, which I've never entered, but I will be entering this year. Let's see if anything happens. And just sort of seeing what other awards might be out there. I think it's something that we don't do enough as business owners, particularly if you are like me and you work by yourself or in a very small team. It's something that you sometimes think happens for big companies or big people that have done massive things with their lives. I think I would actually urge people to really look at what awards are out there, what is the media that follows from those awards? Because quite often media are looking for stories and awards can often be good, and as I said, there was quite a bit of media after the Australian Book Business Book awards.
There was an actual Booktopia voucher, which is great. I still haven't used it all. There's a lovely award, an actual physical award. And then there are stickers that get to go on all of your books. That's exciting. I would really urge you that if you haven't looked at awards in your industry to have a bit of a search the old Google or kosher or whatever, search engine you use, and start having a look at what are the awards for my industry. What is the media? What is the result of those? Have a look at some people who've won those awards before and what has come from that. I know one of my amazing clients has won the Telstra businesswoman, Telstra Business Awards. That's massive. And that was something she only told me like many coaching sessions in, and I was like, “Really?”
She said, “Yeah, I probably don't talk about it enough.” I was like, “No, you don't. Because that's a huge award in Australia” and there are so many awards that are out there, and often we don't even realize that they're out there. Then we don't put ourselves forward. We could potentially be missing out on a huge amount of brand awareness for our business by entering these. A lot of them are free to enter. Sometimes there will be entry fees, and sometimes it is given to charity because there's some sort of charity that they support, or it is literally just covering their costs of the admin and the website, that sort of information. Sometimes you'll have to put in money per category that you put into your business. But again, I have watched certain people that I've worked with who have really taken this on board and entered some awards, and I've seen their business brand awareness just go through the roof.
These are legitimate awards. These are not what I was talking about before with people kind of contacting you saying, “Hey, pay for this, and I can put you in the top 10,” but I've seen what can happen from this. I guess that's really a very long-winded way of saying, are you applying for awards? And what might you do differently about your business when it comes to awards? If we are looking forward to the next year, that's coming on very quickly, look at what are the key awards that are happening in my industry. What is the result of winning those awards or being a finalist? Is there a lot of media? Is there a lot of an audience that you can leverage through that award company or a sponsor of that award? And then what might it mean for your own confidence and brand awareness to put yourself out there?
Even when I entered the Australian Business Book Awards, like just putting myself out there was a huge deal, was putting my book out there and saying, I think it's worthy of an award. I was very fortunate that it was, but I watched that award ceremony totally a hundred percent believing that I had not won because I had not been contacted. I was still really interested to watch and I saw many different authors that I had never heard of, and I started buying their books and I really got a greater understanding of the business book community in Australia, which has helped me. I have to say, I'm really excited that they've asked me to be a judge in this year's business book awards. I have been steadily reading the books that they've sent me. And even that, like, what a great opportunity to read these books from all authors on all topics to do with business and self-help and growth, and just be part of that industry and that community and network and find these different connections that I would never have had without going and entering myself into an award.
Just something to think about. Have a look at what awards are out there, and have a look at what might be relevant for you, particularly in 2023. Mark those things in your calendar. Make sure you apply and you never know what can come from it. That is it for today's quick tip episode, go and enter an award. You'll never know what comes from it. And maybe it's something amazing. You can find the show notes, including links to the business book awards, or anything else that I have mentioned over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/249. Thanks so much for listening, I'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
