In the latest session of my ‘MASTERMIND. With Sherrie’ we were lucky enough to have an audience with the Coffee King of Australia, Phillip Di Bella.
Phillips' story and business journey is an impressive one. After spending just $5000 to launch his business Di Bella Coffee in 2022, he then grew it to become Australia’s largest speciality coffee company and sold it in 2014 to the Retail Food Group for $47 million.
With an ethos of helping people to be the best they can be, Phillip was the perfect speaker to talk to the ‘MASTERMIND. with Sherrie’ participants on marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Here are some of the lessons he shared with us:
On marketing and brand:
Brand and marketing are two distinctly different things. Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room, a brand is all about emotional engagement.
Marketing is the art of telling a story so compelling that people choose you and your services.
Sharing how you add value with your brand through your marketing is key. Australians don’t like free things, so trying to reach them that way isn’t compelling to them. Australians like value, so it’s important to distinguish your value over your competitors in your marketplace and figure out ways to add value to your services and communicate it well.
On innovation:
It’s important to keep your figure on the pulse in your marketplace and have a strong awareness of what your competitors are doing. Ask yourself ‘If I close the doors to my business, where would my clients go?’ and follow the trail to your biggest competitors.
But don’t copy your competitors; people want the real deal, and they can spot a fake! Figure out what you do better or different to everyone else. If you determine what this is and then exceed the expectations of your market, you’ll earn the business.
The best way to find out what your customers need is to get to know them individually and get them involved. Find out their wants, needs and expectations and exceed them. People do business with people, not products, so humanize your business.
On entrepreneurship:
Entrepreneurship can be a wild ride and you need to be prepared to stay no matter how much adversity you face and how many no’s you are faced with.
You need to be passionate about what you do as when you are faced with objections or challenges passion will provide you with the resilience that you need to pull you through.
Be prepared to practice the elements of your business over and over again until you perfect it. Practice is the true mark of a champion.
On leadership:
The biggest common denominator of failure within business that Phillip has found all comes down to poor communication. Businesses fail when they don’t communicate. Individuals fail when they don’t communicate.
In his business, he has always shown up as a leader and leads by example. Don’t ask your employees to do things that you are not prepared to do yourself and don’t keep promises you can't keep. They will always remember what you wouldn’t do and the promises that you didn't keep. Not the 10 you did.
Philip is a huge advocate for ongoing growth, development, and improvement - to be the best he can be and to help others achieve this too. He believes in helping build up those around him, allowing them to work in their zones of genius and helping them develop those skills further.
If you are interested in registering your interest to be on the intake list for next season, you can find out more here.
Kommentarer