I TALK ABOUT STANDING OUT A LOT!

I know that it’s one that comes your radar A LOT.  You feel like there’s so much noise but what’s the solutions to ACTUALLY being seen?

The world is a noisy place now.  Social Media marketing gets noisier by the day and there are not many markets where you have the world all to yourself.

I know that it’s SUPER scary to think about standing BUT it’s really important to stand out or you face one of two outcomes.  Either;

You will not be seen at all and therefore attract no-one to work with you in your business.  Playing safe is now a VERY risky strategy.

OR

You will just be one of many in a crowd and then people will only ever be able to differentiate you on pricing and decide whether they want to work with you based up your price tag (not a good situation to be in). Playing safe is now a VERY risky strategy.

So, it’s all well and good me rattling on about standing out BUT what does that really mean to you “in real life” (as my little girl would say).

Well it means that you need to start to think about things differently and need to look at a number of things in order to ensure that you aren’t just another……………………….(insert whatever it is that you do) in a noisy market place.

1. WORK OUT WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO

Who is it is that you are speaking to in your business?  It’s time to get specific here.  Who are your fans?

You need to look at this collectively and look at the similarities between the people that you love to work with collectively.

This is another way of looking at your niche and it’s a much more powerful than simply working on your niche from a “what do you do” perspective.

Who is it that you love working with?

What are their biggest problems RIGHT now?

What is it that wakes them up feeling bewildered right now?

What is it that is currently making them feel inferior?

Where would they love their business or their life to go?

What do they dream of?

Think about it a little bit like a journey and you are going to be the Sally Sat Nav that will guide them on that journey from a little town called stuck all the way to the bright lights of awesome.

When you know who it is you are speaking to then you can remove the vagueness from all that you do and start to speak to these people directly in all that you do in your business.  The biggest mistake that I see people making is that they forget who they are talking to and they complicate things beyond their audiences comprehension which means that fans just end up baffled and move on to the next source of help.  You need to get into the psyche of your fans on a regular basis so that you can always be talking to them and not befuddling them with technical terms, stuff they don’t understand/have any interest in or so that you can griping them with your empathy for their situation.

2. WORK OUT WHAT THEY ARE SEEING/GETTING FED RIGHT NOW

This one can be SUPER powerful.  This is all about you starting to look at other people in a similar sector to you, who are hoping to attract/speak to the same people as you.

WARNING – only carry out this exercise when you are feeling super strong and your resolve is at it’s peak – otherwise it will leave you feeling wobbly and inferior.

If you are or have been your own perfect fan (i.e. you have been that person in the past and have grown to do what you do through past experiences) and you follow the same sort of people on Facebook that your fans are likely to follow then take a look at your own news feed.  If you are not following a similar audience to your fans then you need to make a list of the Social Media accounts that your fans are likely to be following.

Take a look at what your fans are seeing;

is there a certain type of imagery that is being used in your sector?

are they being fed certain untruths or questionable statements/facts or messages that are designed to compel them into action.

What Can You Do To Be Different?

In my sector there is a multitude of pastel imagery with pictures of really tidy desks with beautiful bouquets of flowers on them.  Whilst I am all for a tidy desk (although don’t regularly have one) and I LOVE having a beautiful bunch of flowers in my locality this type of imagery really isn’t me.  I use imagery within my business that kinda reflect my personality BUT that also make me different to the others looking to attract a similar audience to me.

The right people will be attracted to work with you WHEN you give yourself permissions to be yourself.

A great image to use is one of yourself.  I have worked with some of my lovely VIP clients recently about their visibility and one of the major breakthroughs they have had have been as a result of using images of themselves within their business much more.

Invest in getting some good photos taken that you can not only use on your website but that you can also use in your social media marketing and other communications within your business.  No-one can copy an image of YOU!!!

In so far as what my clients are being fed then the most prevalent one is that someone can show them how to make £6.7 zillion pounds working 3.2 seconds per week.  It’s simply NOT true.  All overnight successes have been working towards that status for a long period of time.  Yes, it’s very compelling and even when you know it’s totally untrue people can get sucked into taking whatever action is being requested of them.  They are anxious that they will miss out on that one big secret.  Please rest assure that there is no one big secret.  There is no one thing you need to do in order to build that ridiculously big business.

3. WHO ARE YOU

Think about who you are and how you would like to be seen by your audience.

I am a little loud and quirky, I am completely straight talking and a spade most definitely is a spade.  I am equally capable to a great big hug and oooddles of support and a great big bum kick.  I am not going to let my Rockstars feed themselves full of bull and excuses why they can’t but I will also help and support them in EVERY way I possible can to fulfil their dreams.

I am intuitive and get a good feeling for people and projects.

I am a glass half full kinda girl.  Don’t bring me problems, let’s concentrate on the solutions and the ways that we can work on making the world a better place.

I try to make sure I am showing up in this way in all that I do.

Who are you?

 

 4. WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE

What is it that you would tell your fans if you sat down together over a cuppa?

Think about the steps that you would tell your bestie to take if they were in the position that your fans are in right now.  This is the bones of your content and will help you to see exactly what steps you need to be talking about.

Positive and encouraging messages to your fans is an important part of what you do.  You need to help them to believe that a solution to their issues IS possible and that you can help them achieve that.

REMEMBER – when you are coaching, mentoring, training (whatever label you want to stick on your lapel) you are a problem solver!

5. STOP PRETENDING & START SHOWING UP IN YOUR OWN GLORIOUS WAYS

You don’t need to be anyone else.

You don’t need to speak like other people speak or write in a way other people write.

You don’t need to give yourself rules

You have permission to be yourself, 100% yourself, no filter (although do brush your hair, come out of your yoga pants and take your slippers off every now and again because that will make you feel better too).

People buy from people and people need to get to know you, like you and trust you before they will invest in working with you.  You need to be the perfect solution to their problem BUT even more importantly you need to be right person to help them on their journey.

Start to write as you speak – I make sure that I write exactly as I speak as it gives you a feel for who I am.   I don’t always speak in a grammatically correct fashion and therefore don’t always write that way either.  You can a feeling from my writing (whether it’s on my blog or on Social Media) of who I am. We would have the same conversations over that cuppa as we have when you are reading the stuff I write.

 

 6. USE VIDEO

Using video in your marketing is not only absolutely EPIC for your visibility but it’s also a great way to supercharge the relationships you have with your fans.  People get to put a face, voice and mannerisms to a name.

I also get really passionate and gesticulate A LOT when I record views, I am not great a sitting still BUT that is who I am and I am not going to try to filter or edit that.

Videos are quick and easy content to bring together.

If you have never done a video before then this one will make your heart flutter a little bit and will make you get ever so slightly sweaty at the thought of recording YOUR face and YOUR voice.  What will people think of me? Will they understand me? What if they don’t like me? What if they say nasty things? What if….what if……what if….. I’m sorry to say that this is your stuff and it’s purely you getting a little bit uncomfortable about being visible.  I know, from experience, that once you do that first video it becomes stacks easier.  I have cajoled (perhaps bullied a little) some of my Rockstars to record videos and without fail, they have always come back saying that it was nowhere near as hard or uncomfortable as they imagined and that they were confident and comfortable with doing it again.

7. COME FROM A PLACE OF GIVING

This one is REALLY important.

I have had this conversation TODAY with a VIP Rockstar and I have talked about giving away much more than is comfortable.  Stop worrying about giving away your “secrets” and start to think about the ways that you can help & support your fans rather than how you can tip their purses upside down and make money out of them.

People will very quickly feel like walking purses if all you ever do is go to them asking for money.

Build the relationship.

Look at the ways you can help your audience.

Look at the things that you can do in order to make their world a better place.

Look at the things you can do to help them on their journey for free, the things you can help them with in exchange for their email address and the things that you will do within a product or programme which they purchase.

8. IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

It’s about YOU, it’s about YOUR FANS but it’s about the relationships you build.

If you look after your fans then everything else will look after itself!

 

 

Emma Holmes is the Proud Owner and Founder of Rebels & Rockstars: a hatchery for entrepreneurs with soul.

Helping heart-centred and soulful entrepreneurs to build ridiculously big businesses is her vocation, and she still pinches herself sometimes, that this is actually her job. (She used to be a lawyer who loved living in corporate land, but when mummy guilt arrived, she challenged herself to a new adventure.)

Emma’s also an outsource cheerleader, and a spiritual but practical kind of soul. And she is definitely not scared of a challenge. (She set herself the biggest challenge of her self-employed life in 2015 – to grow a £100k online business without using the ‘tried-and-tested icky sales techniques’ that £100k biz owners usually resorted to.)

Her 2015 success story has since been put to good use (many times), and Emma is positively thrilled to have helped her clients with some pretty amazing online launches – 18k income in one day, launches of £54k+ in sales, and a 30K in 30 days project are just a tiny snapshot of her clients’ achievements.

But what makes Emma beyond ordinary is that she has her own interpretation of business success, and it isn’t about totting up your bank balance.  She knows real, long-lasting business success is about creating a sustainable business you love, which grows naturally, fits around your lifestyle and family, and enables your authenticity, and sparkly personality to shine.

As well as being a real-life human blogging machine, Emma has also been featured on That’s Manchester TV and BBC Radio. She’s written for Business Rocks, Freelance Parenting, Fresh Business Thinking, Talented Ladies Club, and MeMeMe.

In a nutshell, she’s proud to be a square peg who doesn’t care about round holes and fitting in boxes. And she encourages her clients to do the same.

https://www.rebelsandrockstars.com/

https://facebook.com/EmmaHolmesRebelsandRockstars/