What's the best place to work on your business?

How about a 14th century castle in the North East of England.

Because that's where me and my Dog Daycare Success Academy members gathered for our Q2 Immersion event, just a couple of weeks ago.

I hear you say...

It's a bit like a mastermind. In fact, it is a mastermind, but as the name suggests, it's more immersive, more interactive, with more teaching, breakout sessions, special guest training, networking, sharing ideas and, most importantly, goal setting.

Every one of my DDSA members leaves every immersion event with a personalised battle plan of action they use as a blueprint and a compass to help them navigate the next 90 days before we all come together and do the whole thing all over again.

I love the traditional mastermind format where everyone does a hot seat, but when I launched the Dog Daycare Success Academy, I wanted something more dynamic that would enable me to motivate and inspire a larger group of people.

So, I modelled my immersion events on the ones I attend with my coach, Paul Mort.

So, what went down in Lumley?

The theme of this particular immersion event was visibility and how to get your business seen by more potential clients who desperately need your help.

And rather appropriately, I named it...

We had an amazing special guest in Stephen Inala-Reedy, who spent two days showing my members how to create content that attracts attention, builds authority and, ultimately, helps people trust you.

Now before you think this article is going to be about social media, bear with me.

Because the biggest lesson I took away from Lumley Castle wasn't really about content at all.

It was about longevity.

See, as part of the event, we enjoyed a tour of the castle, and on the tour our guide, Phil, told us that Lumley Castle is over 600 years old.

Six hundred years.

Think about that for a second.

Most businesses struggle to make it through their first ten years.

Some don't make it through their first ten months.

Yet this place has been standing since the 1300s.

Now, I know what you are thinking, this is a castle, not a business, and there's no way a business could last as long as Lumley has been standing, right?

Wrong!

The world's oldest continuously operating business is a Japanese construction company called Kongō Gumi. It was founded in 578 AD and spent more than 1,400 years building Buddhist temples before becoming a subsidiary of the Takamatsu Construction Group in 2006.

Fourteen hundred years.

And they aren't the only business to play the long game...

The Royal Mint has been producing coins for over 1,100 years.

Lloyd's of London started life in a coffee house in 1688 and became one of the most famous insurance markets in the world.

The Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1670 and was only liquidated last year.

This got me thinking, what separates organisations that last for centuries from businesses that disappear faster than a gravy bone in a Labrador's dinner bowl?

Well, clues were revealed as we wandered around the castle, when Phil, the guide, kept pointing things out.

In other words, the castle isn't exactly the same castle that stood there 600 years ago.

It's evolved, adapted, bits have been repaired, modernised and restored.
Which reminded me a bit of Trigger's broom.

Now, for my American readers, Trigger was a character in the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses.

In one famous scene, he proudly explains that he's had the same broom for twenty years.

The catch is, it's had seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles.

Yet according to Trigger, it's still the same broom.

Boom boom! Or should that be Broom, broom!

Trigger's broom maintenance aside, that basically describes every successful business.

You can't run a successful business for any meaningful period of time without getting very good at dealing with changes.

The staff change, the services change, your systems change and develop, your prices change (hopefully ONE WAY, "up").
The technology changes, the marketing changes. Hell, sometimes the owner changes.

But the business survives.

And this is where Stephen's prezzo tied everything together.

One of the biggest messages over the two days was that visibility and trust are not the same thing.

Stephen's point wasn't that visibility doesn't matter. It does, obviously. But visibility creates familiarity. Familiarity creates confidence. Confidence creates trust. And trust creates sales.

Most business owners think they need more people to see them, so they chase numbers.

They think they need more reach, more views, more followers, more likes, more hearts, more comments and more shares.

But visibility alone doesn't create sales.
Trust does.

Stephen described your content plan as a "risk reduction mechanism", and I thought that was a pretty brilliant way of putting it.

Because every buying decision involves risk.

A dog owner is taking a risk when they leave their dog with you.

A client is taking a risk when they hand over their credit card.

A pet owner is taking a risk when they trust your advice.

Your job is to make that decision feel safe.

So, every email, every podcast, every review, every video, every client story and every piece of useful content you share helps remove uncertainty.

It helps people understand who you are, how you think, what you believe and what standards you operate by. It helps them get to know the person behind the business and, as we know, people buy people.

So, if you show them how you think, what you believe, what your standards are, how you do things, why you believe so strongly in whatever it is you believe in when it comes to pet care, then you make it easier for them to decide whether they can trust you.

And that's where the castle comes in.

Because when I was walking around Lumley, I wasn't really thinking about kings, battlements, dungeons or the ghosts.

I was thinking about trust.

Because every successful business I've ever admired has eventually built its own fortress of trust.

They've amassed and curated so much social proof that you feel assured you've picked the right vendor, and you'd be silly not to trust anyone else.

In fact, by the time many people buy, they've already convinced themselves it would be foolish to go anywhere else.

So, with hindsight, instead of Content in the Castle, I should have called the event, "How to Build a Fortress of Trust".

Don't worry about looking good, impressing people or (heaven forbid) going "viral"...
Just put content out there that reassures prospects.

How do you do that?

By sharing your philosophy, explaining your standards, showing people how you think, demonstrating how you solve problems.

You need to tell stories, showcase results, document the client journey and turn happy clients into case studies.

All this gives people confidence that they're making a good decision.

With this mindset, every review, every testimonial, every client success story, every behind the scenes video, every podcast, every email, every article and every promise you keep becomes another stone in the fortress.

Most business owners obsess over reach.

But a better question might be:

Because if it does, you're moving in the right direction.

The businesses that survive for decades don't necessarily have the biggest audience.

But they usually have the deepest reserves of trust.

So, that's what I took away from Lumley Castle. In fact, me and my DDSA members also took away a whole new content plan they are actioning right now.

This will help them build trust in their town and connect with more local dog owners, which will, in turn, grow their business faster.

See, the organisations that last are built on a rock solid reputation.

They become known.

They become respected.

And eventually, they become trusted.

That, my friend, is a fortress worth building.

If you feel like you missed out not attending the Content in the Castle event then, trust me, you did!

(You do trust me, right?)

The only way to attend the DDSA Immersion Events is to be a member of the DDSA.

The Dog Daycare Success Academy is closed now, but you can add your name to the waitlist by clicking here.

Every Sunday, I deliver the unfiltered marketing and operational blueprints I've used to help 2,500+ frustrated dog daycare owners, to stop running a low-margin facility and start building the most expensive (and most wanted) pet destination in town.