Podcast Summary: Grow Your Local Business
Host: Leslie Presnall
Episode: Creating Certainty To Buy
Date: February 3, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Leslie Presnall dives into a crucial element of local business marketing: creating certainty for potential customers. Leslie argues that clients need to feel confident—they want assurance that they’ll get what they expect from your business. She breaks down why certainty is pivotal, shares practical and mindset-driven strategies to cultivate it, and illustrates her points with relatable client stories (and some cake-ordering disasters). This episode is both instructive and warmly conversational, helping listeners see how to implement these concepts in their own local businesses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Why Certainty Matters in Purchasing Decisions

• Certainty is the foundation for customers to buy: If customers aren’t sure they’ll get what they want, they hesitate, shop around, or delay their purchase.
  • “If people don’t have some level of certainty that they’re going to get what they want in the end, after they purchase, they’re not going to buy or they will hesitate on buying...” — Leslie (00:21)
• Certainty covers results, delivery, experience, and expectations.

Three Ways to Create Certainty

1. Certainty in You as the Business Owner (01:07)

• Customers need to trust that you can deliver—your expertise, your track record, your credibility.
• Telling your story isn’t boasting; it’s necessary repetition to establish trust.
  • “We can never say it enough... I talk to people all the time and they’re like, ‘Wait, what was your business? What did you do? Who are you? How do I know you can help me?’” — Leslie (02:28)
• Leslie’s own journey—blogger, event host, marketer, coach—is a touchstone for her audience’s trust.
• Showcase your history, results, and multi-faceted experience often.

2. Certainty in Themselves (05:25)

• Customers must believe they can achieve the result with your help.
• Social proof—testimonials, client wins, transformation stories—is essential.
  • “Every client win that I share is there to build up certainty in my audience... They’re thinking, ‘Can I do that? Is it possible for me?’” — Leslie (06:13)
• Share a spectrum of wins: huge success stories, micro-wins, and everything in between.
• Leslie illustrates with her own client’s journey (chiropractor to nutritionist) and demonstrates why repeating testimonials isn’t bragging—it’s helping “fence sitters” see possibility for themselves.
• Personal anecdote: Leslie was inspired by seeing others’ success in her mastermind, which fueled her own conviction that she could achieve the same.
  • “If they can do it, I can do it too.” (06:58)

3. Certainty in Your Process (08:13)

• Customers feel safer knowing you have a step-by-step system.
• Leslie details her “five step process” in her own program:
  • Learn to stand out
  • Reach people locally
  • Grow a local following
  • Create demand-building content
  • Learn how to sell
  • “It’s the only five skill set you need to master to get fully booked.” — Leslie (08:39)
• Contrast: A vague, “we’ll figure it out” approach erodes certainty and confidence.
  • “If I was like, nah, you know, just come in, we’ll dig in... You’d be like, no, doesn’t sound too certain to me. That’s not a process.” — Leslie (09:18)
• Every business (even if they haven’t formalized it) has a process—identify and communicate yours.

Notable Stories & Memorable Moments

The Year of Cake Disasters (09:46 – 15:25)

• Leslie uses a string of personal misadventures ordering cakes to illustrate how process failures destroy customer certainty:
  • Misorders due to missing confirmation steps, date mix-ups, and unclear web information.
  • With each failed order, her willingness to buy at those bakeries plummeted.
  • “I no longer feel certainty to buy from them. Their process isn’t working.” — Leslie (13:04)
• What would restore her certainty? Clear communication, confirmation steps, and transparency in process—shared upfront, not left to chance.
• “All I want is to see someone post on social media or have on their website a clear process of when I order a cake... so I can feel certain that when I show up… it’s going to be ready.” — Leslie (15:07)

Application: Certainty = Messaging (16:25)

• Clarity and repetition in messaging is the common theme:
  • Who you are
  • What results you deliver
  • The process you use
• This messaging should be woven everywhere: social media, website, emails, in-person signage.
• “In your marketing, in your social media, in your emails, your website, your signage, everywhere. It’s you talking about how you help people, clearly about how you’re the one to do it, the results you get them, the process you take them through, that is messaging.” — Leslie (16:34)

Actionable Takeaways

• Continually share your track record and qualifications—never assume everyone knows your expertise.
• Regularly showcase client wins and testimonials across platforms to build belief in what’s possible.
• Map out and communicate your process clearly in your marketing materials.
• Ensure your business’s systems (from ordering to delivery) reinforce the confidence you project in your marketing.

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:21: The importance of certainty for customers
• 01:07 - 05:25: Creating certainty in you as the provider
• 05:25: Building certainty in customers (social proof)
• 08:13: The value of a clear process
• 09:46 – 15:25: Cake ordering stories—process failures undermine certainty
• 16:25: Translating certainty into messaging

Tone & Closing

The tone throughout is friendly, energetic, and candid. Leslie uses personal stories and practical examples to drive each point home, emphasizing that certainty is both a mindset and a marketing toolkit. She closes by inviting listeners to master these skills inside her Localpreneur Academy.

Memorable Quote:
“If they can do it, I can do it too.” — Leslie (06:58)

This episode is a must-listen for any local business owner who wants more buyers saying "yes" with confidence—instead of hesitating because your process or presentation is unclear.