Jennifer Sakowski :

Hello. Welcome to a brand new episode in a brand new season of Raney Day Talks Podcast. I am your host, Jennifer Sakowski, and I feel like we’ve been building up for this with COVID, and being quarantined, and everybody’s scrambling to figure out where that they’re at and the impact that they can have and how can they keep their doors open, and what do they have to do online?

There’s so much activity around this right now, and I can’t help but to come online to record this episode. Because I feel as it is super timely. If you are someone right now who is struggling. Struggling, maybe it’s right before COVID hit you were about to launch your business. Maybe it was your website. Maybe you had a plan to start selling online, or maybe you had a new feature that you were going to roll out, whatever it may be, whatever it is COVID hit and it changed things, right?

It took us away. It changed our direction. It shifted our focus. If you’re like most people, kind of hit survival mode of what do we do, right? Because nobody’s been through this before, nobody’s hit a pandemic before like this, especially with the news media coverage as it is right now. So we don’t know. And you’re tired and you’re exhausted on trying to navigate through how to keep your business afloat and what to do next, and how do you plan forward? I’m going to speak to you right now.

You do the best that you can. Really, at the end of the day, you do the best that you can. And once that you’ve given yourself some grace, that right now it’s not going to be perfect. We still don’t know what normal will be like. We still don’t know how we’re going to get back to normal, and that’s kind of a thing in the past.

I want to encourage you right now to focus on building your authority. And a prime place to build your authority, doesn’t matter what industry that you’re in, is to build your authority online. And I’m speaking to people who maybe they have a website that they just launched and … Or maybe they have a website that it’s out there, they produce some content, but they’ve been hit by having to close their doors or had to take a step back, whatever it may be. I’m talking to the person who doesn’t have a website. Who is primarily on social media, or that they’re getting ready to launch and that they just haven’t … That was the next step in their plan. I believe that no matter what the circumstances, you still have the opportunity to build your authority to come out stronger after COVID. Stronger to your clients, stronger for your business, that you can come out stronger if you put the work in right now.

I’ve been giving this talk, really, in several different areas online. And it just resonates with so many, I had to share it with you too. And it’s how to build authority. And if you’re someone who’s, “How do I get people to buy from me, Jen? How do I get people’s attention?” You have to build authority. When we talk about search engine optimization, we talk about SEO, we talk about what’s their domain authority? What’s their authority online? So I’m going to chunk down a few quick points on how you can do that.

And the first place I always go to is the thing that I’ve struggled with. It’s about showing up. It’s one thing to have a business and open up your doors, but without … If you don’t show up to that job, if you don’t show up to that business, if you don’t show up online, how is anybody going to be able to find you? How are they going to know about what you can offer? So you have to show up. And sometimes I’m talking about you … Before I even get into business, sometimes we have to just show up for our own life. Take control over what’s happening, taking control instead of just going through the motions. Show up. Come on now, just because you’ve binge watched Netflix for the last two weeks, maybe four weeks. There’s no judgment here.

But maybe you haven’t. And you’ve just gone through the motions because you feel there’s nothing for you to do. I’m here to tell you, I’m knocking on your door. That yes, you can. It’s time for you to show up. It’s time for you to go in, take a shower, wash your face, change out of your PJs. I’m not even going to tell you to put some jeans on, but just show up. So often we think that we have this awesome project, or this awesome product, and that everybody … It’s going to fix our target audience problem. But without you showing up and sharing about it, sharing yourself, they cannot find you. So I’m here to just simply say, show up.

Now. All right, so you’ve got it. You got it. You’re ready to show up. You’re ready to get online. To start building some activity, because you want to be the authority in your field or industry. You got to create content. Period. You have to create content. That means you have to post on social media. You have to create a Facebook post, an Instagram post, you got to tweet, you got to do something. You have to post. I want you, if you don’t have a website, then go to social media. If you do have a website, post a blog, post a video, post an article, post something.

Because it’s one thing to open up your doors, but it’s not if you build it, they will come. It does not work like that. I’m sorry, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. What happens is, is that you open your doors and then you have to create that attraction. You got to put a little something out there, get their attention, and then nurture them back into your business.

So what should you be creating? The best approach in this, okay? If you want to laser focus in on the type of content that you should be producing here it is. Define your audience. Who is it that you want to sell to? If you could think of the people who are your clients, or maybe you don’t have clients yet, still works. Think of who you want to sell to. Who do you want to hang out with? Who do you want in your Facebook group? Who do you want in your chair? Who is it that, man, if I could just have 25 of those, man, I just love them.

They pay on time, they do the work, there’s respect, whatever it may be that they’re just a dream to work with. I want you to write everything that you can think of down about them. Where they hang out, what they do, what their problems are, male, female, age range, occupa-, whatever you know about them. Because I’m hoping you spend some time with them before. And if you’re not sure, go to a Facebook group, go to Facebook, look up some groups that those people hang out in and just start listening, start paying attention to them. How do they talk? What do they want to know?

That’s where I would start because it’s so much easier to create content when you’re speaking to that person. That you can picture sitting across the table and talking, helping them solve their problem. That cuts through all of the stuff. You just dial right there. Because what happens is, and I’ve found this in the Facebook groups that we run, is that when people start asking questions, or they’re, “Oh Jen, this is really good. How do I do this?” And I go to write the email or I go to write the blog post. And it just pours out. It’s because I’m feeding that one person’s need, I’m solving their problem. And they’re the type of person that I want to talk to.

So that’s what I want you to do. When you are ready to show up, you’re in this place. And you’re, “Okay, Jen, what kind of content should I be creating?” I want you to decide who it is that you’re targeting. And then I want you to speak to them. And remember how you speak to them matters. Because you have to speak to them so they’ll get it. Not to the people that are in the industry with you, not to … I’m not going to speak to another marketing person like I would talk to my client. Because I’ve got to create the storyline, right? I have to create that story for them to get to them to walk through, right?

So that’s what I want you to focus on is when you go to create that content, take the time right now to nail that target person that you’re going to speak to. And then once you have that target, then I want you to make a list of all the problems that they have. Maybe all the questions that they send your way. That they might DM your Facebook page, or that they’re calling and leaving messages about. Whatever those frequently asked questions, whatever those problems that arise, that for your industry. I want you to take them and then one by one, start creating a post for. Start creating a blog post for.

So it may be a tutorial. I just got out of a … In demand hairstylist, my good friend, [Christen Rollie’s 00:11:24] Facebook group. For them, it’s … They have the ideal person who they want in their chair, right? When they come out of COVID and they can go back to the salon. So it’s so what do they need? If it’s me sitting in their chair, they need to help me put together a quick tutorial on my hair before I go into Zoom, or how to work with last night’s hair without … You just have to decipher what your audience needs and create the post for it. And please don’t overthink it.

The quicker that you can produce this, obviously the better, because it is a crowded space. And I know that sometimes you’re probably thinking, “Jen, man, there’s so many of me out there. There’s so many and it’s so crowded. How am I going to stand out?” Well, first you have to show up to stand out. And two, what you put out is different. Even if it’s the same message, the same industry, the same talk, but your interpretation, what you put out is different. It’s delivered differently and uniquely, than it is the other person who’s doing the thing.

And what you do will resonate with the people who want what you have to offer. So don’t overthink it, just show up as you, and if you’re in my Jennifer Sakowski group, give yourself some grace, embrace the mess and just show up for the people who want to buy from you that you can help them. So be strategic with your content, focus in on that niche, and then write those posts answering their most frequently asked questions.

Then after you’ve done that, after you’ve created a few docs, you wrote some few notes on your phone, whatever it is that you store. Then I want you to strategically share it. I want you to start. If you’re new, are getting online, I want you to start with what platform that you are most comfortable with. So if you hang out on Facebook and you’re comfortable with Facebook, go there, start there. But please, do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already, claim your handles. Claim your social media profiles. So if you haven’t got on and created your account on Twitter, do it. Just do it, let it sit there until you’re ready for it. Because I’m going to show you how to interlock, interconnect or integrate all of them. So do that.

If you haven’t gone on Pinterest, if you haven’t got on LinkedIn, go ahead and create those accounts. Lock them in, save the information, puts your name up there, add a quick bio, upload your logo, your profile image, and just keep them until you’re ready for them. Because just like domains, if your a business name or name, personal brand name, is something that’s very common, it may be hard to keep consistency across those handles. So just get creative, do what you can. But that’s the number one thing. I just want your name to show up everywhere because just because you don’t have website, but if you’re active on social media, when somebody searches for you, you will come up. You will be surprised if you jump on LinkedIn and you start creating articles and putting out content, rich content for your target person that you want to sell to, you will be surprised if you go to Google yourself, that how your name comes up. Okay? I really want to encourage you to do that.

Then, so once you have all those ready, I want you to go over to the place that you are most comfortable at and then start creating posts. Utilize those answers that you just wrote out and the target that you’re sitting and then start putting it out there. Then when you’re done, so for example, if you’re on … If you’re most comfortable on LinkedIn, then I want you to create that … Because LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, if you don’t have a blog, you can create long posts like a blog. You can spell it all out there. Do that, then I want you to go over to Twitter and create a post that uses the URL in LinkedIn’s post back to it. So now you’re showing up in more than one place, which really starts to get Google to work in your favor, but you’re driving traffic to where you’re most comfortable at.

Maybe you are really good with Facebook, but you haven’t gone over to Pinterest. So create your long post, your image. You don’t even have to get fancy right now. If you are fancy, good for you. If not, go over to Pinterest, create a pin, utilize the same image that you used on Facebook, and then use that URL of the post to drive it back from Pinterest. Because Pinterest, I swear people are forgetting that it is a huge search engine. I know we have in our business, it is a huge, powerful search engine that is being under … It’s being forgotten by some businesses. So if you have a how to, a tutorial, a before and after, some great images about what you can put out there, create the post and make sure that you use Pinterest and link it back over.

So if you have a blog, then that’s a no brainer. Create the post, write it out, shoot for … I’m going to put out there minimum 500 words, right? Lay it out to where it’s easy if someone skims it, that they can pick out the key points. And then create … Put your blog title, your featured article in it, then share that across all those social network profiles that you’ve claimed. So that way you’re continually, once again, you’re telling Google, “Hey, this is who I am. I’m consistent. I’m putting out relative content to that targeted person.” So when someone Googles, I have something that they need.

And the more that you do that, the more organically you will get noticed. I’m not telling you you’re going to become number one. I’m telling you how to start to build your authority online in a very crowded space. You got to show up, you got to create content, and then you have to strategically share it. Right now is the prime time to do it because it is hard, if you’re like us, we had content planned out. This happened. Then we had to quickly adjust, right? Same thing. You just have to adjust. You have to flow with it. But that’s why, if you know who you’re speaking to, it will be that much easier to help them navigate during this time, right? Because they’re probably … Your target audience are probably having problems dealing with this COVID pandemic. Well, that’s a great post. How can you help navigate that with them? Start there.

I hope that you have found this helpful. And please tell me about it. Do me a favor, if you haven’t already, go over and hit subscribe to whatever your favorite podcast platform that you’re listening to this right now, hit subscribe. That helps me and that continues to push this podcast forward.

Thank you to our Sponsor

A huge thank you to Mark Levander of Mark Levander Productions for sponsoring season one of Raney Day Talks. It truly is because of Mark that we’re able to put these podcasts in our YouTube channel and a lot of our videos and load the animations together. So, if you’re interested in launching your own podcast or need work with photography or videography, please contact Mark at MarkLavanderProductions.com.