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Episode Summary:

Today we're debunking the myth that size matters.

For your AUDIENCE. Your audience size.

Well actually, I think there is a preferred size when it comes to your audience, which is small. Whatttt???? I know. Everything I'm about to say might break your brain, but in a good way.

Get ready to re-think EVERYTHING you’ve ever believed about growing a bigger audience, getting more traffic or followers, and conversions when you listen to today's episode.

Action Items from this episode:

Today, here's what I want you to do: start making a list of the problems your people have, why the PAID solution you offer is perfect for them, and exactly what the results are that they are after.

This might be a long list. That's the goal. Challenge yourself to ask, "What else?" at least 5 more times when you think you're done.

Then poll your audience and find out how THEY phrase the answers to what their problems are and what the results are that they're after. This is solid gold. You can have 1:1 conversations, send a survey, do a poll...get creative. But get some data and use it.

This is way easier than trying to find strangers on the internet and you will see results in your business bank account much faster.

Now take this data and go write an email to your list where you talk about their problem and your solution to it. Even if every person on your list shares your DNA. In fact, Schedule time to do it every week.

You'll find your voice, your tempo, your message, and your next clients from that small group if you're willing to show up for them...yes, those actual humans who are ALREADY THERE...and tell them how you can help.

Transcript:

Note: The transcription below was provided for your convenience. Please excuse any typos or mistakes the automated service made in translation.

0:00
Welcome back, my friend. So glad you're here. Now if you haven't already quick reminder, hit subscribe and leave a review if you can, so we can shout you out in the future. And then you'll also of course, automatically get each weekly episode right in your main podcast feed automatic is the key. Today we are debunking the myth that size matters for your audience, your audience size. Well, actually, I think there is a preferred size when it comes to your audience, which is small, what I know, everything I'm about to say might break your brain, but hopefully in a really good way. He huge problem that I see in the Health and Wellness Business space, is believing that every online marketing guru out there knows what they're talking about. Because they want to help you get a bigger audience. It's believing this that you need to have a bigger audience, you need more traffic, more people more eyeballs. So you think the problem that you have here is not having the right strategy for doing this, for compiling a bigger audience for growing, growing, growing, always growing your audience. But the actual problem is the mindset behind this, that you need more people in the first place. I call this wanting to collect more strangers on the internet. There's such a huge emphasis on online marketing strategies these days. And it seems like everyone has a process for growing a big audience or being an influencer, or getting seen by more people. And that that is the same thing as having a business or marketing a business. They become synonymous in our minds for some reason. But that is just a thought error. It isn't true. There are plenty of practitioners with big audiences that don't make any money because they aren't high. And therefore foundations, which we talked about, on the last episode, remember, belief in themselves, belief in their people belief in their offer and belief in what's possible for their business, I can think of a lot of people who report to me they have a huge audience, and they're not making any money. So we know that the audience doesn't equal money. But somehow in our brains, this all gets tied up together, it seems really connected. And it seems like marketing a business means big audience. It doesn't, it doesn't that is just a thought error. So first and foremost, let's acknowledge that, that Hmm, maybe they're not the same thing. You can have all the followers and all the email subscribers in the world, and you would not help them one bit if you don't believe in them. And if you don't believe in yourself, and if you aren't so sold on your offer, that you're selling them that you can sell it in your sleep, then that audience doesn't matter, right. In fact, I'm going to tell you, it is way better to have a small audience when you're still building those foundations of belief, because you will sell way more, I'm going to get to that in a second. I know from working with so many people at this point that where you want to be is at a point in your business where you can just sell to all the strangers on the internet, instead of being visible and vulnerable to the judgement of your personal network. I get it, I felt this way. And I work with a lot of people who feel this way. So I understand where it comes from, I also know that it will keep you broke. That's what we're talking about today. Where this really comes from is a desire to hide in a way. And to do that our brains really latch on to the idea that it would be better to only be visible to strangers on the internet, because somehow that's safer. And when you're having thoughts like I don't know, if I can really help people get the results they're coming to me for you're doubting, again, you're doubting your people, you don't have a high belief in your people. You don't have a high belief in your offer at that point, right? If you're having those thoughts, or if you're thinking I've already had other business ventures that didn't work out, so I don't want my friends and family to think oh, here she goes again. Guys, you find it. I know that thought because people have told it to me.

3:44
So good. If you're having that thought you don't have a high belief in yourself, you don't have a high belief in what's possible for your business. And you're not having a high belief in your people see how this works. But if you're having these thoughts, you're secretly wanting to grow your business behind the scenes working with strangers from the internet. And then what your brain is telling you this is the thought error here, you're thinking Well, yes, when it's a raging success with all the strangers, then I'm going to reveal this beautiful creation to my personal network to my nearest and dearest, am I right? That that is there somewhere. Like if we get this to be really successful with strangers on the internet, then we will feel confident in telling other people in our life that we have a business and it's open for business by that specifically. Or now if that one isn't exactly the thought that comes up for you, it's probably something along the lines of believing that there just aren't enough people that need your help if you aren't collecting strangers from the internet. So this comes from a really grasping panicky feeling that basically that there just aren't enough potential clients. It's a fear of not enough people. Obviously, this is not having a high belief in your people, right? It's not having a high belief in what's possible for your business. Your brain might make a really compelling argument for this. That I'm trying to think this is what it sounds like sometimes, like there aren't enough people in my area, or there aren't enough people that can pay for my help out of pocket without insurance or some version of that, right? Your brain can get really crafty on making it seem like this is plausible. And this is an actual concern that there aren't enough people that fit your filters. It sounds really believable. And what the reason our brain does that is so that you focus on collecting strangers online and growing your audience a quote unquote, growing your audience endlessly, instead of doing the very simplest things to make you more money and help more people, which we're going to get to very shortly. Because you never have an audience problem, ever. That is never, ever the problem. Now, this also can go a step further, where somewhere along the line, we start to think that we're doing it wrong. If we're working with friends and family, or a friend of a friend, or your clients are coming via personal referrals, and not random Google searches. It's so weird that our brains do this. But they totally do. I hear it all the time. My clients will tell me Well, yeah, I have clients, but they're all referrals at this point. And they say that as if it's a problem. And I'm like, What? No, my friend, this is not a problem. This is the best case scenario. And I'll tell you why. going straight to advance online marketing strategies to find strangers on the internet, before you've had enough practice working with enough clients, and you've had enough marketing and sales conversations, to use actual data to inform that digital marketing is a problem. It doesn't work, you probably know this. It's never the platform or the tactic. That's the problem. It's always the messaging. So if you're early in your business, and you test out some social media marketing strategies, or some copy on your website, or send a few emails, and they don't land, your brain, and it's totally normal, because you have a human brain that will do this will tell you that the problem is that strategy, or that you're not good at business, right now, what's never the problem, your messaging is the problem. It's always what needs improvement every single time. And that's, that's okay, my messaging, can I always use improvement? So can yours just, it's always going to be the answer is that it's just a messaging problem. It's not that you need another flashy online marketing strategy on a new platform with a different kind of video or a new hashtag strategy, or a better email sequence. No, it's what you say, and how you say it. Also known as your messaging, that's always what you need to be refining and improving, always. And if you're trying to get a bigger audience of strangers, so that you don't have to face rejection or negativity, let me just give you a spoiler, it will be worse with the strangers from the internet.

7:44
Whatever your worst case scenario is of what humans might say to you, it will 100% come to fruition, when and if you grow that bigger audience. So dealing with the fear of rejection and fear of failure, and feel of exposure, right now, when there aren't that many people paying attention is key. You want to build up a thick skin to a certain degree to handle a big audience online at some point in your business. Because those people will always reflect back to you the things that you're secretly afraid of. Remember, our clients or potential clients are always going to be a mirror for our beliefs. So if you're kind of hiding, because you're afraid that people are going to tell you you're too expensive, or you're they're going to tell you, you don't know enough, or they're going to tell you that they don't think you can really help them, they will always tell you those things. So you got to clean that up. That's why we are always focusing on the foundations first and foremost, which is your belief in yourself, your belief in your people, belief in your offer and belief in what's possible for your business. When your level of belief in all of those things is high, you have a thick skin, you can handle it when the strangers on the internet question you it's not a problem. But in the beginning, if that's really something that you're afraid of, you cannot shortcut it. By just working with strangers and not your personal network. I promise you it's a recipe for disaster. Because remember, it's always your messaging that needs improvement, always. And when you're aware of that, you will get better at how you communicate with your people. And you will get a thicker skin, you won't fear the failure or the rejection or vulnerability because your level of belief is so high. But luckily for us messaging and copy is easy to improve when you're focusing on the right things. Here is what your marketing and sales messaging needs to revolve around at all times. It is so simple. You need to talk about the problems that your people have. You need to talk about the solution that you offer them, which is your offer the thing they pay you for. And you need to talk about the results that they get when they work with you. That's it, their problems, the solution you offer and the results they get. Rinse and repeat over and over again. And do you know how you get really good at understanding your people's problems and the results that they're after? You work with more people. You have more conversations with real humans in your life about the struggles they're having. You ask them Questions, you take notes, you help real people that are already there, instead of trying to find more strangers on the internet, because finding strangers on the internet is not step one, my friend. And do not compare your business to someone who has years of experience in refining their messaging, because whatever results you're getting right now will actually be compounded with a bigger audience. Remember, if you're not converting your sales conversations, it will be worse when you have more people in a bigger audience got to clean all of this stuff up with a small test pool of people in the beginning. And that's the people that are already there, the real humans that are already interested in what you're doing, they're already asking you questions, they're already kind of tuning in, those are the people that are going to inform all of the big marketing strategies later, when you are ready for that, when you have the thick skin, you are selling your highly profitable, you know exactly what you're doing. And then the big audience will kind of naturally be happening on its own, which we're going to talk about in a second. To bring this full circle here is the process that does work. Instead of endlessly pursuing growing an audience for no reason. I want you to obsess about the problems that your people have, like obsess about it. Think about it all the time. What are their problems? What's keeping them up at night? What are they thinking about? What have they tried before that hasn't worked? Why are they frustrated? Ask yourself these questions. And then I want you to obsess about the solution that you offer them. The one solution, I really, really encourage you to have one offer that you sell, and have it be the best offer that's going to help them and why is that the best for them? Make your brain get really specific obsess about it, why is this the best solution that they could have? Why is it the perfect solution for them right now, get really specific about it. And then of course, get specific about the results that they want to get, it might be different than the results you think they want to get. So ask a lot of people what are the results you want? What is the perfect scenario for you? How will you know when you've made it? When you've made the transformation? What would just rock your world ask all sorts of questions to real humans and find out what they say what in their words is the best case scenario, those are the results that they want to get. That's what you want to talk about. Take your brain there, write it out. Think about these questions from different angles, do it over and over again every day, ask new questions, reach out to more people to get their responses. Be really curious about how you can explain these things differently. Don't be afraid to say the words by the way, I can help you. Because in these conversations, as you're collecting this data, people will want your help, don't hide from it, say the words I can help you because you can. So got all of this exercise and taking your brain to problem solution results will grow your belief in those four foundations we keep talking about so much. When you take your brain there to the place where it's collecting evidence on purpose for exactly what your people want, and how you facilitate the results that they're going after. And then you sell that offer, that's a win win for both of you, you're doing it, you're building belief in all of those things, unintentionally, even at that point. And along the way, you're making money. You're helping people, they are getting results, they're sending more and more referrals, the best learning apprenticeship ever. Because you're getting better and better at it. They're getting better and better results. And you're making money the whole time. You keep having more conversations. And again, you're getting more refined and more concise with how you articulate your messaging. It's getting tighter, it's less fluffy, it's less vague.

13:41
People are coming to console calls with you already sold because of your messaging because of how you've already talked to them. And they can feel the shift in your clarity and in your conviction. And so then they buy even more. And guess what is inevitably happening the whole time, your audience is growing organically, naturally, without you even focusing on it directly. Your audience is just growing. In my free course, I have an entire lesson on what to put on your simple website, and what to do with your small email list. So important because having those things in place, even when it seems insignificant, because you don't have that big audience yet. That is what will get you that big audience. So if you haven't started the free course yet, shameless plug go to build a profitable practice.com forward slash free, you can start right now. And then when you have that big audience, you will be so much better at talking to them in terms of their problem and your solution and their desired results that you won't be trying to hide from them. You won't be vague and inconsistent with your copy and your content. your emails will be better your conversations will be better. You'll be clearer and more confident and more consistent. And that's what will make your practice even more profitable and impactful. not growing your audience. Are you hearing me big audience that doesn't convert to paying clients know what good is that. But big anyway is such a subjective term.

15:07
What is a big audience? Anyway, it's all subjective. I have a very small audience compared to most people at my income level, like most people at my income level for my company have an email list that is 10 to 20 times bigger than mine. And in fact, a lot of my peers cannot believe that my company makes the revenue that it does without any social media, and just selling via email to my smallest. And I love it, it's not a problem at all. In fact, I love it. Because it tells me I'm getting really, really good at thinking about your problems, and the solution I offer, and the results that I help you achieve. That's something I get to do. It's something that I am so proud of, and it is an honor to be able to do that I obsess about it. I don't spend time thinking about flashy new traffic strategies, I don't worry about it at all, I spend my time thinking about how I can better serve the people who are already here. Like I think, How can I not explain this concept as clearly as I could? How can I use new examples that will be more helpful? What else do they need to understand to get faster results? This podcast is a great example of that. I don't need a bigger audience via a podcast. But I just am excited about reaching people in a different way. Like how can I do this in a new way? How can I teach people in a way they want while they're in their car? instead of reading emails only from me, right? Like, what is that? Like? It's so fun, but not because I need it? Because I get to do it. So these are the questions I asked myself. And as a result, my messaging is getting better and better. It's converting higher and higher, and my small audience is growing. But not because I'm focusing on that metric. It's because I'm helping people who are already here to get better and better results. And that is what spreads organically, it does. When you put value out in the world, the value comes back to you, you cannot help it. Now, in fact, there's another reason I want to talk about for you to be very, very comfy and content with your small audience, whatever smaller, big may mean to you. But if you feel like you have a small audience be content with that, when you're just getting your messaging figured out. And here's why I like to use sending email broadcasts as an example to illustrate this point. Because I love emails, and I want you to love emails, I want you to have your own list that you own, that is not subject to anybody else's algorithms or platform that you can always use. So I will be very outspoken about that forever. And I will always use email as an example when I can. Okay, in the beginning stages of growing your practice and your email list, when the only email subscribers you have are close friends and family, your brain usually wants to quit. It seems like a very, very terrible use of time to be sending emails to just a handful of people. And then your brain will tell you things like well, they aren't even necessarily my ideal clients. So this is a waste of time. But do it anyway, here are the two reasons why. First and foremost, write those dang emails and send them every week because in the early days, the people that are on your list, they want to support you. That's why they subscribed in the first place. They are interested in what you're doing. If they weren't, they wouldn't have subscribed to be on your list. So don't discount them just because they're friends and family. And they might all share your DNA. That's not a problem. They Subscribe for a reason. And it's possible that the reason they subscribed is an interest for their own purposes and healing something in their own life. But more likely they subscribed so that they can understand more about what you're doing. And send referrals your way. Have you ever thought about your email list like this, that you could leverage the support of your biggest cheerleaders in your life, and give them lots of opportunities to share your expertise with other people that you don't even know your dream clients that you don't even have direct access to yet. We all love a solid personal recommendation. referrals are gold. So make sure that your closest network of people knows exactly how to recommend you. Consistent emails week after week with a clear call to action on the next step to working with you is a great way to increase those referrals coming your way. And not only will you get better at nailing your messaging, you'll also be having referrals coming in, people will start talking about what you're doing. The people in your life are not going to see this business of yours as a jabi job hobby. They're going to see your consistency. And they're going to think of it as a business because you're thinking of it as a business, right? It's also the only way that you're going to get better at nailing your messaging, and that's with practice. Which brings us to another reason that you want to prioritize writing and sending emails even when that list is small. And that's because you're probably not very good at it yet. And that's okay. Do you know how you get better at conveying your thoughts in email? You practice writing emails, lots of emails. People ask me all the time how I got good at writing emails. You know what I did? I wrote a lot of emails. In the beginning it might not come easy. Your perfectionist brain might want to take way too long to put your ideas on the page. But that's okay, do it anyway. And then challenge yourself over time to write an email in an hour or less, make it happen. Don't spend all day on those emails forever, you will get so much better with practice, your brain will get faster at thinking of ideas and thinking of ways to explain the problem, solution and the results. So get those not so great emails out of the way. Now, when not as many people are reading them, I'm gonna say that again, get the not so great emails and messaging out of the way now, when not as many people are watching or reading them. By the time you have that big email list or big audience that your brain thinks is the key to getting all the clients and all the strangers on the internet, you will know exactly how to help them, you will know exactly how to speak to them directly in their inbox each week. So hopefully, I've made a good case for this for the small audience being solid gold for you right now.

20:57
Here's what I want you to do. Start making a list of the problems your people have, why the paid solution that you offer is perfect for them. And exactly what the results are that they're after the three things, this might be a long list, that's the goal, you want it to be a long list, challenge yourself to ask what else what else at least five times when you think you're done? What else what else, and then pull your audience and find out how they phrase the answers to what their problems are, and what the results are that they're after. Again, this is solid gold, you can have one on one conversations with people and record them. You could send out a survey, you can do a poll, get creative, but get some data and use it start, just start right now. This is way easier than trying to find strangers on the internet. And you will see results in your business bank account so much faster when you're focusing on the real humans that are already there. Now take this data, the problem, the solution, the results, all of the little phrases that you compile, and go write an email to your list where you talk about their problem, and you talk about your solution to it. And even if every single person on this list hears your DNA, it's okay, schedule time to send this email every week, your list will grow I promise. And you'll find your voice and your tempo and your message and your style. And your next clients from that small group of people if you're just willing to show up for them. The real people who are already they're not the strangers on the internet that are elusive, and hiding from you. And of course, that small group, that small audience will grow and grow the more energy and value that you give it. Okay, that's it for today. My friend goes serve the hell out of that small audience right now. You can do it.