Expression
Tue, Dec 27, 2022 11:08AM • 35:07
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, brand, clients, marketing, talking, energy, create, melissa, work, rise, pillars, stories, core values, content, spotlight, year, susan, question, takeaways
SPEAKERS
Susan Finn
Susan Finn 00:08
Hey there, welcome to another Rise Above Noise spotlight where each episode I get to shine a spotlight on somebody in the Rise Above Noise community who's making a real difference and helping others with their own business growth. I'm Susan Finn, I'm a digital marketing strategist, my company is Rise Above Noise. And I've been working for over 15 years with transformation creators. That would be coaches, consultants, energy workers, and I guide them on their personal roadmap in their digital marketing journey to find more clients grow their business.
So together, we create a system that helps you to show up that's marketing in a way that feels generous, and it feels in service, so that people who are already searching for you can find you.
That's marketing.
In today's conversation with Melissa Henry, we asked the question, do you ever feel like you've fallen out of love with your business?
Do the day to day tasks of being an entrepreneur or business owner drag you down?
Well, Melissa is going to talk to you about her unique way of creating brand stories.
She helps her clients get clear on exactly what their content pillars will be, so that they get to show up exactly as who they are. Melissa’s superpower she'll tell you about it is being able to get people reconnected to their vision into their business and fall in love with it again.
Now I know you're going to have some great takeaways from today's conversation. So let's get right to it.
Here we are, for this week’s Rise Above Noise spotlight. And it's interesting. Very often I have the spotlights and panels, I guess I've been doing them on Wednesdays or Thursdays but today's a Monday morning one and I'm loving the energy here today. And we have a lot of people like think have joined us from the IDEA Lab for entrepreneurs. And so I will be sure to put the link to check out the IDEA Lab for entrepreneurs in the show notes. Later on. I don't want to do while we're talking here. But do look for that. Because look at the amazing people that are here. Before I do my favorite part, which is the shining a spotlight on an amazing entrepreneur, I'm going to just get us started, I usually get started with a digital marketing, Tip of the Week, letting you know, in Rise Above Noise, which is the name of my business, it's the name of my community, it's the name of how I feel about marketing and and when I say marketing, I want you to replace the word marketing with showing up. There are two things that I hold as my, my tenets, my mission, my non-negotiables in the work I do and how I guide my clients, through their journey, to show up to market to the people who need to hear from them.
Most of my clients are transformation creators, and most of them kind of shy away from push, push push marketing, and we're leaning towards that attraction marketing. And so I'm thinking about that and thinking about the coaches, clients, energy workers that are energy healers that I work with our truest currency, then what we have to hold and protect is our time and our energy.
So in everything that I'm doing with my clients, it's to protect time and energy and get this to go.
Now going back to our marketing is showing up. It's really I want you to know that it's just a vehicle, right? So if you are a transformation creator, a coach, a consultant, a healer, I want you to know that it's more important now more than ever, to show up, to show up to make that transformation to help our world become a better place to make people happier, stronger, healthier and better relationships, whatever it is that you do. It almost becomes your kind of an obligation to show up If we say marketing is showing up, it's really just the vehicle. So we do all the things right where, where you have a website, you have email, you have social media, you network, you're writing a book, you're on podcasts, you're blogging, whatever you're doing, that's the vehicle to help you show up for the people who need you.
And what I want to do with Rise Above Noise are either in every spotlight that we do in every webinar, I run in every program, it's what are you doing the show up to make that difference that you're here to make.
So if you think of that mindset, think about how it's going to affect how you show up, and how you attract people that you're here to serve. And honestly, so attracting the people you're here to serve, and honestly, you're not pizza, you're not going to make everybody happy. You will also be able to not, I guess repel is a hard word, but make it known that there are some, some people that you don't work with that would not benefit from you, I'm gonna go through these really quickly Rise Above Noise, the five pillars that I work with in for my clients, and anytime you're doing marketing, it's these five areas you want to work in. And at any point, you can be working on one, two, or maybe all of them. And first, I'm going to be talking about the first two today.
So knowing who your core values are, who your ideal clients are, what are your core values? What are your non negotiables? What boundaries are you going to set up?
This is why I'm so glad Melissa is here today to talk about that. And that's also now you got to create the content that's going to kind of wave that flag and let people know, here I am, I solved the problem that you're having.
The third pillar is proof of concept. And our friend Jeff is here today. It's about telling the stories. It's about getting the testimonials, people, you know, I love you all. But really people only care about themselves when they're searching for something like what's in it for them. And so you have to tell those stories to show them, you want to protect that time and energy. Don't get sucked into that into that social media vortex, right, like be strategic, protect your time, do the things that are going to move the dial, keeping in touch is where I spend a lot of my time because I do spend a lot of time setting people up on their email systems, creating their lead generators, their list growth strategy, their automated welcome sequences.
These five pillars are what will help you to show up and and to be of service for the people who need you. And so I have to tell you, this spotlight that I do on the regular is my commitment to regular content, it gives me joy, I have a system for it. And it speaks directly to the people who I intend to attract. So if there's a takeaway, Melissa's gonna give you lots of takeaways too, but maybe this goes into it, like think about what gives you joy, so that you can show up with consistency, create content, now my content goes to a podcast goes to my YouTube, it goes to my blog, it goes on my email, it gets broken up into nuggets on my, on my social media. Sometimes I speak about it in places. So I'm using this one thing that gives me joy to create my week's worth of, of content. Alright, so I am going to kind of transition now. And this is the part I love.
I want to introduce you to my friend Melissa Henry, who's here today. She's the founder of personal brand typography. Melissa helps women Coaches and Consultants strategically clarify and showcase their personal brands. And that makes makes them marketing, right their marketing, they're showing up way more effective, so they can have a bigger impact while growing their business while growing their business, right multiple six, seven figures. So I asked Melissa what her superpower is. And she said that it's being able to get people reconnected to their vision of their business of their future and to fall in love with it again, Melissa, I'm so glad that you're here. Tell me about that superpower. How can you know what is that when people fall out of love with their vision?
09:47
Well, thank you first of all, thank you for having me, Susan. I'm super excited to be here. And this is I absolutely love, love, love talking about vision. It's where all of our emotions about Our big, you know, our why like the where we're headed that direction. It's really what gets us up in the morning, I think. And so if I can get people excited about it again, like, let's, let's just take a step back from all of the detail stuff that we do every day the to do list the all the things, take a step back and go, Oh my god, this is what I really want, I can see it, I can feel it, I can like it, you just begin to fall in love with it again. And then that gives you that energy and that motivation to keep going. So when I say that, that's what what i do i really do that my work always starts with that. And it doesn't matter if you're a client of mine, or if we're just on a phone call, like getting connected. Or if it's a discovery call, it doesn't matter. I want to talk about that first. Because that's, that's where everything comes from. So does that answer your question?
Susan Finn 10:54
Well, it does. Yes. And and write it in sometimes it's what we need that kick. I don't know, like, kick is a hard word, right, but something a little nudge, something that helps us get reinvigorated? I would say and if you can do that, with joy, even better off now, how do you use that? Well, why don't you tell people about the work that you do? And how you use this superpower in your work,
11:19
Well, so just I'm gonna just tell you guys, if you want to do this for yourselves, like, literally just sit there. I mean, and you know, it's sometimes better even to talk it through, at least it is for me, I'm a I'm a big time verbal processor. So if I have someone else, like talking about this with me, it really gets me going too. So if you want to, like have a coffee with someone, if it's a virtual coffee, or in person or whatever, ask each other questions like this. You say, Okay, so if all of your work was done, you were done like that there was nothing else for you to do in the world? What will What would you have accomplished? What does that look like? What does that feel like? What does that smell like? What does that taste like? All of those things? And you're going to start to think that way. And that means you get to think huge, big, big, big picture. Not just Well, I wrote a book and that is that no, no, how many lives did you change? And what is that look like? And can you imagine those people coming to you and thanking you? Because you changed their life. Like that is the big stuff. So and even when I've talked about this way, it gets me a little bit, like choked up, because I can feel it, I can feel like that energy around it. So that's just my tip on how to get there. But do it with someone else? It's way more fun that way. Because then you can you can sit there and say, we're going to change the world ban, and then you do it. Right. So, um, but to answer your question about how I work with people, I actually, I was actually this morning, going through, like writing a post about, and I'm sure this will probably resonate with a lot of you guys, but I have a tendency to not celebrate my wins. And this is sort of common for me, like it's been like that I've been that way my whole life. And then now becoming an entrepreneur. You know, it was like, geez, that's like on, you know, overdrive now. Because we're just always so driven to, you know, we got this goal, and okay, great. We did that one. But now on to the next thing and never really looking back. So I'm taking this time at the end of this year to look back and say, Okay, I did not I'm gonna admit right now, because this is part of my post, I did not hit my revenue goal for this year. And I'm telling you for a while I felt some kind of way about that. And I was like, upset about it, frankly. And then I was listening to a podcast. And it's, have you ever heard this, it's called sheets, she sells radio, maybe you haven't. But Elise Archer is the podcaster. So she was talking about the fact that if we, if we don't hit a goal like that, and we can start to like, you know, just be upset with ourselves, et cetera. She says, rather than looking at that, look at the goals you did make, and then realize that those were more intentional for you like you had an intention behind those goals. That's why you made them and that those goals likely are setting yourself yourself up for reaching the one that you didn't reach. So I don't know that. Like, that's confusing, but I thought to myself, holy moly. Yeah. So I'm answering your question in a roundabout way. And that is, guess what I did do? I actually created my first group program this year. And I filled it with people. Like that's amazing, right? Like, I didn't think I didn't know that was gonna happen at the beginning of this year. I had an idea, but I didn't realize I could actually do it, and I did it. And so with that program, I work with people to actually do this work and it's if they're rebranding, if they haven't really like thought about a lot of these deeper aspects of their brand like that's what we do together. We go into that. They learn about these kinds concepts, they learn how to get to, you know, answer those questions. So things like what you just said? How do you arrive at your core values? You know, you can't lie the stuff you can't do in a vacuum, because there's more work to involved in. So how do you really define your vision? How do you really understand what your true mission is? How do you, like really dive into and I think we're gonna touch on this today, like micro niching. And, you know, getting over that, that fear we have, we all have around that, and I'm me included, I had to get over that fear too. So I know what it feels like, right. So all of those things, like we dive into that stuff together. And then you know, throughout the program, I'm helping my coaches and consultants get their brand set up, so that they then can start being more visible and being visible in a way that aligns them right back to all of those aspects of their brand. So that's one way I work with people. I also, you know, I've came at this, the beginnings of all of this came through, when I switched my niche from when I switch my niche. That was when I went full time in my business, that was five years ago. And I switched it, get this from newborn and maternity photography, to personal brand photography. And that was a huge difference is completely different. And, you know, I won't go the ins and outs of it. But there's like all kinds of reasons why that's completely different, including completely different clients. Right, so. So yeah, I had to start kind of from scratch, I think. And then, over time, what I realized was I had a very unique way to actually photograph people and that is creating these scenes, these stories that connect directly with people's brands as aligns with their personality aligns with how they want to show up, it aligns with who they're trying to attract. And it was just sort of natural for me, I don't know why, but my brain just works that way. So we create these session plans that gets people out of this variety. See, that actually is in alignment with their content pillars, with, you know, helping people see who they really are, like helping people get more trust, you know, like you gather garnering more trust with those ideal clients you're trying to reach. So that's another way that I work with, with my clients. And to be quite honest, most of the time, we're doing a combination of both of those things over and over time. So I have
Susan Finn 17:31
a couple of questions. Knowing knowing who listens to, to these episodes. So one is when I first started get in business. And I think this happens to many people. I thought, oh, branding, that's my colors and my logo. But I hear you, I hear you talking about your core values, your content pillars, like you haven't even mentioned, colors are logo. No. So when you're talking about but I did love how you said you take photographs, because I know that's what you were doing. You take photographs with showing the stories of the people with the stories and I've seen your photographs, right, people are holding signs or they're in a particular place, or they're, you know, they look like they're jumping off of something, or they've got books all around them or something like that. That's a whole different kind of branding, isn't it?
18:29
Yeah. And I'm glad that you brought that up. Because I think that's a common common common thing that is kind of a misperception of this. So, and I have a graphic, but I don't have it available right now. But I think it's pretty, it pretty much describes this. So if you want to get technical about, you know, branding, marketing, sales, all of that, what I'm talking about is foundational. It's a strategy. And the reason we call it brand strategy is because if you don't know these things, you cannot mark it effectively, period. Right? And you can't and here's the thing, you can go get a logo, you can pick colors, you can create a website, but all of that stuff, mate, it's probably not I'm gonna say probably 100% not going to be in alignment with you, unless you've actually sat down and done this work ahead of time. So I'm not saying don't go and pick your colors or whatever. But I'm saying that if you spend the time figuring out these underlying elements, right, it's, it's deeper work is the thing, and I think that's the thing. It's not the sexy part, right? What's sexy, oh, I have this awesome logo, and it's so cool, or it's so pretty or whatever. But does it mean anything to your ideal clients? does it communicate anything? Same thing with the photos by the way, I've seen people do that. They'll go out and they'll invest a whole bunch of money in a brand photo shoot, but they they haven't identified and this has happened. I'm telling you like I've had clients come to me and before Before I did this sort of deeper work with my clients, they came to me and they're like, Oh, I just need photos for my website. I'm like, okay, but then what? Like, what are we photographing, right? So they would get these photos? And then this happened twice, they would get these photos. And then they would, would they either wouldn't use them that happened once, because she didn't know how she didn't know where, who, what, nothing. And then the other one, she put them on our website, but she didn't have like a dial in understanding of who she was working with, and what her offer really was going to be. And so two years later, when I talked to her again, I'd kind of kept in touch with her. And then then I asked her what was going on with the business? And she's like, Yeah, I'm not really doing anything. Oh, great. So she wasn't even making money from it. So I, that's when I was like, nope, nope, you got you have to understand this first. So the strategy is, get into all of that, get it set up and ready. And then then it's when you understand where you're going. And if you don't mind, I want to give one quick example of that. So we talked, I just touched on the Micronesia topic, which I think we'll probably do a little bit more into. But here's what happens when you do things like what I'm saying, when you get into this work. And you really, really get this all dialed in for yourself. What happens is, and let me just give an example. Because I think Jeff will love this case study. Right? So. So what happened was I had this client who she did credit card processing for small businesses, but she did it that she was able to give them a discount on the merchant fees and things like that, right. And she was struggling because she was like, Well, my mentor says, I'm supposed to go door to door to all of these, you know, local businesses, and I just can't do that. I've got a, I've got kids, I don't have the time. And I don't want to do that. Like that sucks. I don't want to be, you know, I don't even like door knocking Forget it. So we started talking, I said, Okay, well, who do you love working with? And so we started getting into that. And we went deeper and deeper. And finally she said, Well, I really love working with restaurants because my family, you know, that's part that's my background. So we I know it and I was like, Cool. Okay, so we're not door knocking either. Okay, so now we started talking about that. And we were I was asking her well, where do you Where would you find these people? You know, you want and we start local? We can just start local. That's easy. So were we we would be fine them if not at their restaurant? And she said because I said, Well, associations, groups, like what are we talking about here. And finally she goes, Oh my God, there's like a Food Expo thing that happens, like every quarter around here. I think that's what she said, I can't remember now. But you know, and she get and I said, Great. Call them up, and you're gonna go and you're gonna speak to them, you're gonna speak to the group, they're gonna be like all of these restaurant owners there. So she was, Oh, I'd love to speak. I was like, perfect in alignment with your brand right in line with her personality, how she likes to do things. And so that was the thing like it was an aha for her that, Oh, my God, I can go to these expos talk to, you know, I don't know how many people let's say 100 people at once. And they're not like if she went and she spotted her mentors advice and went to the restaurants directly. She didn't she's like, Oh, my God, people go in there all the time. And they like lay their business cards down. And there's nothing new about that. I said, Well teach them something, then they're going to trust you, they're going to come up to you afterwards. And and sure enough, that's exactly how it worked. So it's like, this is what I'm saying. It's like we need to like, if you do that micro niching process, if you get into that those detail areas, you're going to find this is way easier than your you think. And sometimes, many times oftentimes, we don't have to be posting all the freaking time on social media to get these, these amazing clients.
Susan Finn 23:51
Well, I love this story for so many reasons. One is right, you saved her time and energy, she has kids, she didn't want to go knock in. Right, he didn't enjoy it. And that was her energy. And it wasn't effective for her. It didn't give her joy. And the fact that and she loved working with the food thing, and that she could do the one to many, which is what marketing is as well. It's showing up one too many. Her marketing at that point was the speaking and then having some kind of a follow up process. So that's the organizing and the scheduling. Right. So it's all the things it's the stories, it's knowing the micro niching and and so then I think what you've just done is demystified her content creation because now it was so so so so clear. It wasn't everybody in the community that she was talking to. It was to food to restaurants and their unique challenges.
24:45
Oh, absolutely. And that's what becomes super fun by the way, because this like all of this stuff informs so many areas for you and it's not even just marketing. I always talk marketing because most people are like, that's their marketing and marketing anatomy like Everybody's got marketing on the brain all the time. So that's where I go. But then imagine this, like, you know, like you if you know these things about your brand, then how much easier is it for you to make decisions like investment decisions in your business? Like for example, let's say you've decided and this is actually hits hits home for me, I'm actually creating a live internet show next year. It's gonna be like, debuting in January. And I didn't come at that with like, it wasn't like, Oh, let me just try this next thing, right? No, I said, Okay, well, I love doing. I love doing this, like, you know, talking, man, I'm right. So, and I love being interviewed. And I love interviewing people. And I'm like, holy cow, why am I not doing this all the time? Yes. So then I got involved with Pablo Gonzalez, you know him, Susan. Right? Like, yeah, and so he was doing this. And I was like, I want in on that. So I invested in his program, right? And that, and I'm putting all my, all my energy and effort into that to make this an amazing show. So I don't and then that becomes my content creation, right. So it's like, when you know, this stuff, you can say, was like, the most important thing for me to invest in my business this year. I think probably all of us here are, you know, we've either done our budget for next year in the process or getting ready to or whatever. But we're thinking about that, like, what do I really want to make happen next year. So now you don't have to do all the things you don't have to like, do out, do Facebook, and, you know, Instagram ads, or whatever. You don't have to. You don't have to write a book, by the way, because so many people are like, I just got to write a book. It's like, yes, if it's the right time, if it's in alignment, right. And so, gotta know all this stuff in order to figure that out. Yes.
Susan Finn 26:52
So good. And now, I know that we could talk for hours. And we have, and we will some more. Because like, I think I mentioned at the beginning, if you're just joining us now we, Melissa and I are members of the IDEA Lab for entrepreneurs. And we have each of us, I think has a monthly program in that, in that we offer through there, all of the experts within that community are offering a monthly, like, oh my gosh, for people like me who are addicted to learning, this could be a thing. However, I've met all the people, they are all amazing. I can't wait to take everybody's classes, you know, really to keep upping our game and to keep figuring out what it is that that gives us joy and to show up. Now I have I have a note here that you're offering a free visibility masterclass. Is that correct?
27:45
Yes, I am. And this, I think this is so good for well, pretty much anyone I know, there's people out there that maybe are farther along in business and have done some of this work, etc. But this is what I've done here is I have a I think it's about 45 minute class, I'm gonna grab my link and put it in the chat here. And then Susan, I guess once we, once we put this out there, we can put it in the comments. So yeah, so what that does is you'll you'll listen to the class to get sort of the understanding of where I'm headed with this. And what I want. What I want for everyone is to understand wherever you are in business, you know, however long you've been in business, whatever work you've done on your brand, you can figure out with this training and with the corresponding quiz, what are some really good avenues for you to take when it comes to visibility? So like, general categories, like should I actually have a podcast, you know? Like, should I be doing ads? Should I be doing events, things like that. And so I just created that because I do see so many people struggle there. So go ahead and grab that and and you'll get the class instant access to the class and to the workbook. It's a quiz kind of workbook. And then hopefully, that will give you some light on to Okay, well, then next year, maybe this is my next thing I'm going to take on I've already done these things. Maybe I can layer this on. And also note too, and I think I put it in there, I don't recall exactly. But sometimes you need help with this, you guys. So hiring your first VA, it's a freaking game changer it was for me. So don't be afraid to kind of make those investments and they don't have to be large to begin with. But a lot of getting more visible is getting that support staff and structure. You cannot do this alone. It's too hard. It takes too much time. And so if you want to be consistent and have that consistent cadence on social media, with your newsletters, with your blogs, with that podcast with that live show, whatever the heck it is you're doing, you need the support. You need the
Susan Finn 29:55
support, and that's interesting that you I'm glad that you brought that up and I know we have to wrap up And we both have somewhere to go. But what I wanted to mention, which I'm glad you brought up the whole virtual assistant thing or support, because as I'm moving into the new year, one of my goals is to make sure that I, in the work that I do as a consultant, as a strategist in digital marketing, I don't do all the nitty picky things and you know what people don't have time to do, like you were talking about all of their posts or editing their things, or making their Canvas or whatever. So I am actually this week while it's quiet, putting together my outsourcing list of people so that if anybody needs anything, so far, I have most of the things covered as far as what people might need so that it's kind of the Rise Above Noise will be sort of like not an agency but a collective of people working together to help transformation creators show up great market. I love that. Is there anything before we I do too, I'm really excited because you know what, it's there's just so many amazing people out there. I know so many amazing graphic artists and copywriters, and website designers and search optimization people. And people who are so so so creative with Canva I love Canva. Right, like I could be on Canva all day long. I don't think it would be effective in my business to do that. So you have to outsource what's what's taken your time, right, protecting our time and our energy.
31:28
Yep, in fact, I'm bringing on a new person. You know, in the new year, I'm actually team is going to be like, like, I don't know how well this far support people. I think I'll end up with two or three people next year. So congratulations. Thank you.
Susan Finn 31:45
Alright, we can't do it alone. Listen, thank you so so much. Is there anything else that I missed that we should talk about before we move on with our day?
31:53
There's more to talk about. But do this another time? Because I would love to tell people how they can Micronesia because I think that's one of those hard like those hard things for people to do. But I could give some guidance on that. But maybe it'll just be another another chat.
Susan Finn 32:07
We'll do another chat. We'll do another chat. And we'll do it in the IDEA Lab together. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this week's Rise Above Noise spotlight. Did you grab some takeaways? I know I did. Right. So this, use this opportunity to take that moment and think about the work that you've already done. How many lives have you changed already? What does that look like? When you dig into those questions, you're going to have begun the process of demystifying your content creation. When you work with a brand strategist, you create your stories, your content pillar, so that you create the right visibility strategy for you. And for your brand. When you have your brand defined, it makes you feel more comfortable about showing up, right, that's marketing showing up as marketing. So the idea of doing that deep work of creating the content pillars of our brand, so that we can make our niche that is speak directly to the person that we intend to help that potential client, it gives us the roadmap to show up fully as ourselves and grow our business with ease and with flow. So think about that, how would it feel to fall in love with your business all over again. So as I mentioned in our conversation, our only true currency in this life is our time and our energy. So as we're working at building our businesses, we really need to practice that efficiency and slow and to do what we need to do to shine in our zone of genius without sucking up our precious time and energy. So think about who you can lean on where you can turn to have a strategy that supports your business growth and also supports your resources, your time and your energy. Thank you can see that the Rise Above Noise community is revolutionizing how service professionals show up in our marketing in your marketing to make a real difference in the world and now more than ever. Our world needs you. It needs our transformation creators to be successful in your venture to show up and service and make real difference in our world. Thank you for joining me today and I do look forward to seeing you in our Rise Above Noise community and sharing my next rise above Rise Above Noise spotlight
