Why understanding your customer’s values can unlock serious business growth

Are you missing the mark with your customers—and don’t even know it? In this episode of The Business Behind Your Business, host Paul Sweeney sits down with marketing strategist and author Chris Peterson to explore a transformative idea: your customers’ personal values—specifically whether they lean conservative or liberal—can dramatically shape how they engage with your brand, products, and messaging.

Drawing from decades of global marketing experience and his book Red and Blue Customers: How to Drive Growth and Manage Risk in Today’s Conservative and Liberal Markets, Chris explains how businesses often impose their own worldview on customers, instead of seeing their business through the customer’s eyes. He outlines how liberal and conservative values influence buying behaviour, innovation adoption, trust, and even geographic marketing strategies. You’ll also learn why most businesses fail when trying to scale beyond early adopters—and how to avoid that trap.

Whether you're launching a new product, trying to improve your messaging, or struggling to connect with a particular market segment, this episode gives you a powerful new lens to understand your audience—and boost your bottom line.

Takeaways include:

• How personal values influence customer behavior more than demographics
• Why liberal vs. conservative thinking impacts innovation adoption
• Easy ways to identify the value makeup of your current customer base
• How to tailor your marketing to align with customer worldviews—without getting political
• What sales and marketing teams can learn from their contrasting value systems

Get Chris's book here - Red and Blue Customers: How to Drive Growth and Manage Risk in Today's Conservative and Liberal Markets

Chris Peterson is the Co-Founder of Lifemind, an AI-agent platform designed for national, local, and regional marketers.

With over 30 years as a marketing pioneer and entrepreneur, Chris has founded two digital marketing agencies, working with both fast-growth startups and Fortune 500 companies. In the 1990s, he launched one of the first digital direct marketing agencies, earning recognition from The Wall Street Journal. Publicis Groupe later acquired the agency. Chris later established an early content marketing agency before the term became mainstream, which was then acquired by Rain, a direct-to-consumer advertising agency.

In 2020, Chris discovered Pew research highlighting the deep divide in how Democrats and Republicans perceive the world. This insight led him to explore how political beliefs shape consumer behavior, and was the genesis for Red & Blue Customers. He and his family live in Milan, Italy.

www.lifemind.ai

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Financial literacy isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a survival skill for business owners. In this episode of The Business Behind Your Business, host Paul Sweeney speaks with tax expert and financial educator Michelle Campbell about the hidden financial pitfalls entrepreneurs often face, and how a lack of financial understanding can quietly sabotage your business. Whether you’re avoiding tax obligations out of fear, struggling to understand cash flow, or unsure how to invest while in debt, this conversation is your wake-up call.

Michelle shares not just her professional insights but her personal story of financial recovery — one that began by confronting unopened bills and grew into a mission to empower others through practical financial education. She offers honest, jargon-free advice on tax, budgeting, business planning, and the importance of building emergency savings. Listeners will walk away with clarity, encouragement, and a deeper understanding of how mastering money can mean the difference between thriving and just surviving.

This episode is for every business owner who has ever felt overwhelmed by the numbers — and wants to turn confusion into confidence.

Get Michelle's book here: Bluebird

Michelle Campbell was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and began her educational journey in South Dakota before relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, to continue her studies. During her academic pursuits, she launched a real estate investment firm, marking the beginning of her entrepreneurial path. Over the years, Michelle expanded her ventures into various industries, including horticulture, where she founded an interiorscape company, and logistics, where she established a commercial trucking business. Drawing on the insights and expertise gained across these diverse fields, she transitioned into a career in the financial services industry. Michelle is also the author of Bluebird, a memoir that candidly explores themes of trauma, heartbreak, and the resilience found in life’s struggles. She is also the founder of a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals through financial literacy and fostering economic stability. She enjoys traveling, cooking, exploring diverse cuisines, organizing, dancing, indulging in spa treatments, and spending quality time with her cherished Pomeranian.

ByMichelleCampbell.com

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Ready to sharpen your e-commerce strategy and stay ahead of the curve?

In this episode, Matthew Stafford joins us to share real-world tips and forward-thinking advice to help business owners thrive in the ever-evolving world of online retail. With years of hands-on experience, Matthew offers a clear perspective on what it really takes to succeed in e-commerce today — and why now is one of the most exciting times to be building online.

You’ll learn:

• Why starting simple can give you a big competitive edge
• The smartest way to use data and customer feedback to shape your store
• Tips for increasing your sales conversion rates
• Why staying focused on the customer experience is crucial

If you’re running an e-commerce business — or thinking about starting one — this conversation will give you the clarity, confidence, and practical tools to move forward with purpose.

Matthew Stafford Over the past three decades, Matthew Stafford has been entrepreneurial and successfully building several businesses across various industries, including Concrete, Brick and Mortar Locations, POD, and Software-based ventures. Matthew Stafford, the Managing Partner of Build Grow Scale and an equity owner of some in-house Ecommerce brands, has knowledge and expertise, enabling him to mentor thousands of store owners through paid Ecommerce groups and live events. His experience has also allowed him to help hundreds of ecommerce brands scale past the million-dollar mark - with many hitting the $10 million mark. To top it off, he's been speaking on stages about ecommerce optimization for the past seven years! In fact, before COVID-19, BGS hosted the largest yearly Ecommerce-focused event in North America - BGS LIVE.

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www.buildgrowscale.com

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What happens when you stop following the rules—and start following your passion? In this inspiring and insightful episode, Stephen Ridley shares how he built a globally recognized music brand, grew an online academy that now teaches over 1.2 million students, and turned personal passion into a thriving, purpose-driven business. Whether you're an entrepreneur or creative professional, Stephen’s story offers a powerful blueprint for building something truly meaningful from the ground up.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Stephen turned live performance into global visibility—and business momentum
• The key to growing a loyal, international audience with emotional connection
• Lessons on authenticity, branding, and standing out in a saturated market
• How Ridley Academy scaled to 40 countries and over a million students
• What it really means to build a brand based on purpose, not just product

Stephen’s journey is proof that building a business with heart can also be smart—and that you don’t need to fit the mold to make a massive impact.

Stephen Ridley is a world-renowned British pianist, composer, and visionary in modern piano education. His journey from a high-flying investment banker to a global musical sensation is as remarkable as his performances. At the age of two, Stephen discovered his passion for the piano, receiving formal training at eleven, but it wasn’t until he left the corporate world that his true artistry flourished. Beginning as a street performer on the streets of London, his raw talent and electrifying performances quickly garnered international attention, propelling him onto some of the world’s most prestigious stages.

Over the past five years, Stephen has toured across 60 countries, amassing a global fan base of over one million people and generating more than 500 million views on social media. His performances have mesmerized audiences from intimate private gatherings to large-scale concerts, including Monaco Yacht Week, London Fashion Week, and Uzbekistan’s largest concert in history, where he played for 28,000 people.

Stephen’s ability to blend classical brilliance with modern showmanship has led him to perform for royalty, including Queen Elizabeth II and numerous royal dignitaries, as well as alongside A-list celebrities such as Anderson .Paak, Sting, and Keanu Reeves. In Russia alone, he performed over 400 concerts, including at Dom Musica, one of the world’s most prestigious music halls, after securing three No.1 chart hits in the country.

Beyond his career as a performer, Stephen is revolutionizing piano education through the Ridley Academy. With a mission to make learning piano accessible to everyone, he has distilled his years of experience into an intuitive step-by-step system, enabling students of all ages—from 5 to 95—to master the piano. Today, over 1.2 million students across 40 countries are benefiting from his unique approach, redefining the way the world learns music.

Stephen is more than just a pianist—he is a global artist, an innovator, and a passionate educator, bringing the magic of music to audiences everywhere.

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Negotiation is more than winning—it’s about creating value for both sides. Many business owners struggle with negotiations, relying on outdated strategies that often lead to conflict or lost opportunities.

Whether you're dealing with vendors, partners, or internal stakeholders, your ability to negotiate directly affects your bottom line and professional confidence. In this episode, you’ll learn how to negotiate with clarity, calm, and confidence — even if you don’t consider yourself a “natural” negotiator.

Host Paul Sweeney shares a powerful and practical conversation with Wendy Minne, an experienced corporate manager turned business coach. Wendy unpacks why negotiations feel so uncomfortable for many of us, and how mindset shifts and a structured approach can help you get better results without burning bridges.

You’ll discover:

• Why many business leaders avoid negotiation — and how to reframe it
• The “cost of not negotiating” and how it quietly drains your business
• A simple three-part framework Wendy uses to help clients prep for tough conversations
• How women in particular can navigate common negotiation traps

Whether you're renegotiating contracts, managing procurement, or setting client expectations, this episode will equip you with tools to advocate for what you want — and feel good doing it.

Book mentioned in the episode:

The Third Alternative by Dr Stephen Covey

Paul also recommends this book:

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury

Check out the previous episode featuring Wendy: Ep 110 The Journey from Corporate to Small Business

Wendy Minne is accredited in Organisational Coaching and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. Her activities include coaching senior manager initiatives as well as young leader development. Wendy benefitted from coaching during her corporate career, and she is passionate about coaching for success at all levels.

Wendy’s area of specialisation in coaching is supporting leaders and potential leaders, particularly engineers, through change and transitions. It can be confronting when engineers transition from being the expert to leading others. They step back even further from their area of expertise when they are leading leaders.

Wendy has a corporate background that includes extensive experience in leading teams through change and transition. With her understanding of the business environment and her coaching skills, Wendy supports clients through a journey of self-discovery to find strengths-based solutions and develop as leaders.

www.novamentis.com.au

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Email wendy.minne2@gmail.com

Phone 0413 433 808

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If you're a small or medium-sized business owner, this episode could save you from costly legal missteps that threaten your business's growth—or even its survival. Legal expert Matthew Fornaro joins the podcast to highlight the essential contracts and legal strategies that many entrepreneurs overlook in their rush to launch or scale. Whether you're just starting out or already running a business, you’ll learn how to lay the legal foundation to protect your operations, reputation, and revenue.

What You'll Learn:

• Why your business plan is a legally powerful document—not just a planning tool
• The 10 contracts every small business should have in place
• How missing legal steps early on can hurt your chances of getting a loan or surviving an audit
• What to know about doing business across state or national borders
• The difference between minimum compliance and real protection
• How to set up a business structure the right way from the beginning

Matthew also shares personal stories from his own transition from big law firms to running his own legal practice, plus practical insights from mentoring business owners like you. If you've ever wondered whether your contracts, agreements, and structures are truly protecting your business—you can’t afford to miss this episode.

Matthew Fornaro is a seasoned business law attorney and founder of Matthew Fornaro P.A., serving South Florida since 2003. He specializes in contract disputes, with expertise in intellectual property. Additionally, he mentors entrepreneurs, teaching programs like FastTrac NewVenture and the Jim Moran Institute.

Subscribe to the Fornaro Legal newsletter and get the eBook 10 Contracts Every Business Needs

www.fornarolegal.com

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If you think pay is just about numbers, think again. In today’s talent-short market, the way you compensate your people could be the reason they leave—or why they stay and thrive. In this episode, Trudy MacDonald, award-winning business leader and Managing Director of TalentCode HR, pulls back the curtain on remuneration. She explains why most businesses are getting it wrong and what you can do to build a pay strategy that actually works.

Whether you're struggling with attracting top talent, keeping your best people, or motivating your team to hit new levels of performance, this conversation is your wake-up call. Trudy shares real-world insights and practical steps that will help you stop the guesswork and start building a smarter, fairer, and more effective approach to pay.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why traditional pay models are failing in today’s workforce—and what’s replacing them
• The biggest mistakes leaders make when designing salary and bonus structures
• How to create a pay framework that motivates performance without damaging culture
• What it means to move from “paying for presence” to “paying for value”
• Why market benchmarking might be misleading—and how to use it the right way
• How to talk about money openly with employees and build trust in your remuneration process
• Trudy’s go-to framework for strategic remuneration design in small and medium businesses

Pay isn’t just a cost—it’s one of your most powerful business levers. Done right, it drives retention, performance, and loyalty. Done wrong, it quietly erodes your culture and profitability. Trudy MacDonald offers a fresh, human-centric take on how business owners and leaders can rethink pay to fuel growth and keep their top talent engaged. If you want your team to work like they own the place—start by paying them like it matters.

Check out Trudy's previous episode here: Ep 152 - From Burnout to Brilliance: Transforming Workplace Culture

Trudy MacDonald has worked extensively with Boards, leaders and leadership teams over the past 20 years and is a sought-after coach to leaders across industries.

She is an experienced CEO, an established business leader and thought leader in the areas of strategy, people, and culture. She specialises in empowering organisations to become great by maximising the performance and productivity of their people.

She is a multi-award-winning speaker having been honoured as “Speaker of the Year” by the world’s largest CEO network – The Executive Connection (TEC). Trudy is a regular speaker to Leaders and Boards and regularly presents on the topics of strategy, high performance organisations and leadership at Industry Associations, Conferences and Corporate Events. Her career is founded on an education in Organisational Psychology and spans Australia, New Zealand, the USA and parts of Asia.

www.talentcodehr.com.au
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In today’s fast-changing business landscape, survival isn’t just about cutting costs—it’s about adapting, innovating, and thinking long-term. In this episode, we sit down with Rick Yvanovich, an experienced entrepreneur and business strategist, to explore what it takes to thrive in an era of constant transformation. Whether you're a start-up founder or an established business leader, this conversation will help you rethink traditional business practices and embrace a more resilient approach to leadership and decision-making.

Rick shares valuable insights on why there’s no such thing as "business as usual" anymore, emphasizing the need for agility in response to changing legislation, economic conditions, and technology. He also delves into the importance of resilience, sustainability, and continuous improvement, drawing inspiration from Japanese business longevity models. Additionally, he highlights the critical role of mindset and leadership, explaining why business owners should take action instead of waiting for external solutions.

A major takeaway from this episode is the value of external accountability and support. Rick discusses how independent advisors, non-executive directors, or external mentors can provide objective feedback, reduce stress, and help business owners make better strategic decisions. He also shares his perspective on personal branding and succession planning, encouraging leaders to separate themselves from their business to ensure long-term success.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Why "business as usual" no longer exists—and how to adapt
✅ The secret to business longevity: resilience and sustainability
✅ How to develop a proactive leadership mindset in times of uncertainty
✅ The power of external support and accountability in decision-making
✅ Why curiosity and continuous improvement are critical for business success
✅ How personal branding plays a role in ensuring long-term business survival

Get Rick's book: Business As Unusual - How to Thrive in the New Renaissance

Rick Yvanovich is a true master of the business coaching craft. His proven track record of helping companies and individuals achieve unprecedented levels of success is a testament to his unparalleled ability to combine business experience with coaching interventions. Through systematic processes and unwavering commitment to employee empowerment, Rick translates vision into actionable steps that propel his clients forward towards their goals and milestones.

www.rickyvanovich.com

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