Q&A with Katrina Sawa:

Q: 2020 has been a truly once-in-a-life-time experience to us in terms of challenges and uncertainty. How have you been affected by the pandemic?

• The biggest challenge was lack of travel. I do travel a lot to speak in the country and Canada. It’s how I get a lot of clients.
• How do you showcase a product on a digital platform? You’ve to get creative with home parties, video parties, happy hours, Facebook events and things like that.
• I’ve also got clients who are professional organizers who go on an everyday basis organizing people’s homes. You can’t do that during the pandemic.
• So, we’re all doing virtual stuff, trying to do things differently.

Q: Take us back to when you sold Cutco. What were your experiences?

• It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It was my first year in college.
• It was so uncomfortable for me to go and do a presentation. It was hard because I was so nervous about talking.
• Looking back, I’m a system girl today. That’s what I do to make people more efficient, more productive. Sticking to the process I was taught.
• One thing I did find out was I was able to ask a lot of questions of other people and I’d adjust my presentation accordingly. It was the process that really made it easier.

Q: You mentioned you had this feeling having to sell people when you first got started. But now you’re an expert sales person, you train and teach sales people. How did you overcome that feeling? How did you develop a greater sense of what sales really is?

• The thing that made it comfortable was a realization I’m not just selling. I’m sharing the benefits and features of things that I do with people.
• You always have to be assertive in the sales process.

Q: You referenced you learned a lot by asking questions during your early Cutco presentations. Can you unpack a little bit of that?

• Questions are vital to the sales process. That’s all I do these days.
• When someone comes to an appointment, and asks how much do you charge? I’m like I don’t know, what do you need? Tell me what your problem is?
• With Cutco, it would be what do you like to do in the kitchen? How much do you cook? What kinds of things do you cook? It’s not about the knives. There are so many other aspects.
• You have to make the sales process authentic to you so you can be passionate about the things you’re talking about.

Q: How has your career evolved since those days selling Cutco?

• I’ve done a lot of training since then.
• That’s how I found the love of working with small businessowners in general.
• I went through a lot of networking events. The more people you can talk to on a regular basis, the more people you can get in front of, the more potential of selling.
• By building new sales relationships. I started building a business and I took it online. It’s crazy how much you can do these days on the internet.

Q: What have been some of your most transformational experiences along the way?

• The biggest one was when I got divorced from my first husband. That’s when I started my business.
• I was just like Oh my God! I can do this, I can do that! My brain was just moving with so many possibilities.
• When I moved on from that marriage, it was one of the hardest parts. I was now on my own and had to make this work. I totally believe I didn’t have a plan B. I believed it would work no matter what.
• I did this business coaching. I had years when I couldn’t pay the bills, but I kept going and made it.
• I wasn’t happy with my love life. It was hard getting motivated about my business. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to find happiness and love and people who supported me. So that I can fill my tank and go be the powerful, outgoing marketing-oriented person I needed to be.

Q: Tell us more about your business now.

• I’m helping people start their own businesses.
• I’m all about finding what’s going to work for each business. I love working with so many different types of business owners.
• As long as they are motivated to make more money, build a better life for themselves and their families. But also impact a lot of people in the process.
• I’m a very practical type of business coach.

Q: Can you tell us a story of a small business or business owner that you got in touch with to revamp how they were operating?

• One of my clients is in geriatric care. She’s the one you go to when you’re in a crisis with your parents and need to go to a retirement community.
• Initially, she would do 30 to 40 speeches a year. When I got to her, we noticed that speaking was the #1 path for her. She’d speak to a group, drive them to a workshop that she held for free. She’d use her services to place her clients’ parents in retirement communities.
• When we started working together, she went to as much as 120 speaking gigs per year. Previously, she didn’t go to any vacations, now she goes on 2 vacations yearly. She hired employees. Now she has other people that can do it for her.
• We’ve found ways for her to leverage her time as well by doing pre-care plans instead of the clients waiting until they are in a crisis.

Q: You referenced that she provided more free services on the front-end in order to be able to build relationships and get business. Is that a philosophy a lot of small business can consider?

• Most businesses can do this and I highly recommend it.
• In fact, during COVID-19, I’m suggesting to my clients to give more than just one free thing.
• Most people talk about building websites. What are you giving away for free that people can come to your website and get them on your email list and continue marketing to them and hopefully sell to them later?
• You don’t have to give away the whole store, you don’t have to tell all you know on one freebie.
• But you do have to give something valuable. You do have to give real good stuff.

Q: You said you’re trying to get a client to be using video marketing. What are some of the ways people can be using the medium of video more effectively?

• Depending on your business, you could do product reviews, a book review and so on.
• Another idea is to share a tactic or tip or even do a Q&A video.
• There are so many things you could do with video.

Q: Where are you putting this out?

• Sometimes I put them on Zoom, Youtube, Facebook Live, email newsletters or even on a webpage.
• You can put them everywhere. Though, videos have to be entertaining and not simply info-tainment.

Q: You’ve worked with so many successful entrepreneurs and small businessowners. What do you feel are some of the key skills that are common among successful entrepreneurs?

• Marketing and sales.
• If you don’t master those 2, you might as well get a job and hope your job isn’t marketing and sales.
• You have to do what’s proven to work. To get the sales coming in, to get the clients.

Q: How can people reach you?

• I’m all over the internet. @Katrina Sawa
• I have a website, I do live events, I offer virtual courses, many of which are free.

Q: As you look into the future, how do you aspire to change people’s lives through your work or influence?

• One thing I’ve realized is I’m not reaching people as much as I want.
• I’ve been doing this business for 18 years now. I started this international entrepreneur network and people can get answers to virtually any question they have in business.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• I loved what Katrina talked about sharing the benefits and selling the transformation you offer.
• Nobody cares about the features of specific pieces you are offering.
• Also, the importance of networking events to connect with more like-minded people.
• There was also the idea of freebies to reach out to more potential clients and even using videos in your marketing efforts to cast a wider net.

 RESOURCES

You can find Katrina on all social media platforms, or by visiting:

https://jumpstartyourbiznow.com

Show Notes provided by Brian Njenga.