About the episode
Welcome to episode number five of Entrepreneurial Outlaws. Before we dive into today’s episode, I want to just take a few minutes to thank you, I am blown away by the support that I have received. When I started this a few months ago, when I decided that I was finally going to host a podcast put out into the world, I didn’t really think about what it was going to look like at time, which if you know me, you know, that’s not really how I roll. I’m very analytical, I’m an over thinker, it is who I am and I just knew that I had to do it. If I was going to do this thing 2020, the shit show that it has been, this was the best time to do it and dive in because I had so much to say and still have so much to say.
So when I announced this and I started to talk about it and released the trailer and the first few episodes, your support has blown me away. The fact that even one person has listened to this show and has me in therir ears when they’re doing something in that day, driving their car, going for a walk, cleaning, working whatever it is you’re doing right now as you listen, wherever you are in the world. I just want to thank you because it blows me away that this is possible and I really appreciate you.
Anyway, today we’re to be talking about leveraging a small audience to grow your business. In the grand scheme of online business my audience is still pretty small. But this year in particular, in 2020, I have managed to grow my business and I’ve grown my business with a relatively small audience. I’m going to get into some of the numbers. I’m going to tell you my size of my email list and all those pieces, because I think you really need to have context when we talk about a small audience. I know that for some people, the size of my audience might seem big, but we all start at zero and I think that’s really important to remember. So today we’re going to be talking about leveraging your small audience to grow your business and I’m going to be sharing with you six reasons why a small audience is actually good for business.
Topics discussed in episode #5
Topics Discussed in Episode #5
- Leveraging a small audience to grow your business
- Why the size of an audience is objective
- Remembering that behind every number in your audience is a human face and you have to deliver value
- How to connect with and get to know your audience and why listening is a super power
- Learning to let your audience guide your content
- How you can invest in humans instead of advertising
- Why you need to humanize your onboarding process
- Making seeing, hearing, and taking care of your audience primary.
Episode Resources:
- Sign up for my live master class, From Small to Sustainable
- Haley and Heart Centered Podcasting
- Dubsado
- Jen Beattie
Connect with Melanie here:
Transcription:
(00:00):
Hey friends. Welcome to episode number five of Entrepreneurial Outlaws. Before we dive into today’s episode, I want to just take a few minutes to thank you. The amount of support I have received over the last few weeks as we have launched the podcast. And I have talked a lot about it on Instagram, in particular, I am blown away by the support that I have received when I started this a few months ago, when I decided that I was finally going to host a podcast put out into the world, I didn’t really think about what it was going to look like long time, which if you know me, you know, that’s not really how I roll. I am. I’m very analytical. I’m, I’m an over thinker. It is who I am. And I just knew, I just knew that I had to do it. If I was going to do this thing 2020, the shit show that it has been, this was the best time.
(00:58):
And I was going to do it and dive in because I had so much to say and still have so much to say. And so when I announced this and I started to talk about it and I released the trailer released the first few episodes, your support has blown me away. The fact that even one passed and listened to this show and has me in there is when they’re doing something in that day, driving their car, going for a walk, cleaning, I dunno, working whatever it is you’re doing right now. As you listen, wherever you are in the world. I just want to thank you because it blows me away that this is possible. And I really appreciate you. I remember when I was kind of getting everything ready in the first few weeks of figuring out what this would look like. My podcast data to Hailey, shout out to Haley for all the amazing work she does behind the scenes.
(01:54):
She can tag herself in the show notes as well. When her and I were talking on Instagram and she shared a post or a quote that referenced, it was really about what of mouth. And it talked about how it just takes one person, one person to share something that you have created with someone else. And it snowballs. And this past week, I have really seen that in my own business. And I, I hoped that I wished for, I was looking forward to that possibility, but I didn’t know. I expected to happen so quickly. And for those of you who have slid into my DMS and have shared with me part of your own star story, you shared with me how these episodes of resonating with you and how you connect with them. And you feel so compelled that you share it with your own people.
(02:47):
I just want to thank you. Like it means so much. And I don’t take that lightly. And this really, really is a great place to start today’s episode because we’re to be talking about leveraging a small audience, to grow your business in the grand scheme of online business, my audience, you guys were still pretty small. It’s a pretty small network of people, but this year in particular, in 2020, I have managed to grow my business and I’ve grown my business with a relatively small audience. I’m going to get into some of the numbers. I’m going to show you my size of my email list and those pieces, because I think you really need to have context. When we talk about a small audience, I know that for some people, the size of my audience might seem big. We all start at zero. And I think that’s really important to remember. So today we’re going to be talking about leveraging your small audience to grow your business. And I’m going to be sharing with you six reasons why a small audience is actually good for business. So let’s dive into today’s episode and I hope you enjoy it.
(04:04):
You’re listening to entrepreneurial Outlaws. I podcast the creatives into vets and paths and spiritual folks who want to grow a sustainable and impactful business on their own terms.
(04:18):
[Inaudible]
(04:18):
Together. We are paving the way for a new normal in online marketing and business. One that allows you to lean into what makes you and your business unique. And I’m your host, Melanie Knights storyteller, Pinterest strategist visibility, coach and CEO of content are, can be marketing or nontraditional marketing agency for creative business owners who don’t want to compromise the creative integrity to make money, get ready because each week we’re having the messy, honest, and transparent conversations about entrepreneurship, the kind that’s missing from the highlight rails of our social media feeds. And you’ll learn how to create intention and connection behind your content marketing so that you can sell without selling out. We’re uncovering the real stories behind what it takes to run a sustainable online business, the highs, the lows, everything in between, ready to break the rules and become an entrepreneurial outlaw. Let’s do this.
(05:19):
Okay. So I promised you that I’m going to share with you some numbers, give you some real context around the size of my audience. And when I’m talking about the size of my audience, what I really mean is the numbers. You know, how big my email list is, how big of an audience I have on Instagram. Things like that, because the reality is it is objective size is objective. When it comes to the size of an audience. And many of you are probably feeling like your audience needs to be bigger, that you need more numbers. You don’t have enough. And that may be part of you that kind of knows this isn’t true that you, you know, you probably don’t. But so much of what we see in the online space is based around numbers.
(06:12):
Even those marketing experts and coaches out there, people in the online space who will talk about the fact that you don’t need a bigger audience, but they have a really big audience. And that can be very, very confusing and even slightly misleading. So let’s talk about small audiences. Let’s dive into this. What does it look like? So for me, my business, I consider it to be small. I love it. I like the fact that I have a small business, and I’m going to tell you the six reasons why this is really good for business, but to give you some context, my email list, as of today, as I recall this episode, I think it’s around 430 people total. Now, not every single one of those people opens my emails. No, every single one of those people has bought from me or will buy from me.
(07:09):
And I think what’s really, really important to say is that when I started to grow my email list and it took me, I’ve been in business before and a half years, and I didn’t start to grow my email list on a consistent basis until 2019, it was around a year ago, the end of 2019. At that I started to see some real growth with my email list and that came free Pinterest. So I’m probably going to do a whole episode on what that looks like, because I think it’s really important. So many people are struggling to grow their email list. And I have found that even over the last year, when, if I’m honest, my Pinterest account has not had as much love as it had lost it, but I have still seen, you know, new subscribers signing up to my email list. And some of these people have become clients.
(08:00):
Some of these people have become members of my members of my membership and 430 people, still a small email list in the grand scheme of numbers. My open rate average is around 20 to 30%. And when I am given a clear call to action, we usually get an open rate, click rate of anywhere between a half and 3%, depending on the email. And depending on what it is I’m asking people to do what I have seen though in the last year, the people who respond to my emails, the people who open the people who consistently connect with me and consume my content via email. These are the same people who show up on my Instagram. These are the same people who connect with me that I’m able recognize that because I have a small audience I’m able to recognize those names. I’m able to get to know them as individuals, as human beings.
(09:05):
They are not a number on my email list. And this is really, really important because we look at our email list. We look at our Facebook group or our Instagram following, and we see numbers, but I want you to remember that there is a human being behind that number. Most of the time, of course this bots, but let’s just ignore those behind. Most of those numbers, there is a human being that human being is showing up because they’re like, Hey, this is interesting. I want more of this. It is our responsibility as business owners and as content creators to then reciprocate that and show up and serve valuable content, deliver value in some way, not every day, not 24 seven. We don’t need to burn out for it, but it’s our responsibility to build that relationship. And this is where a small audience is good for business because a small audience is no longer a factor in how successful your business is.
(10:11):
All will be. If you’re growing a business that can sustain and make impact and little is lovely. So want to share with you the six reasons? I think a small audience is good for business, and these are the same things I have seen in my own business. I spent 10 years in the corporate world. Well, I came in customer service roles. I worked as a, I worked for an online business. I was managed a small team of customer service. I have been shouted at and so on at many, many times by people who were less than thrilled when they received a damaged product or whatever it was, I have dealt with very, very angry people in that time. And so when I started my own business, I knew that customer service and showing up and leading with service in mind was going to be important.
(11:15):
I’m always thinking about I’m planning for ahead of those busy periods. So I’m already thinking about, okay, as this part of my business grows, what do I need to do now? What can I set up? What can I create? How do I hire to ensure that these parts of my business still deliver really great value? How do I ensure that I’m still serving my audience and my members and my clients in a really great way so that they get the service, they should expect. Service is a really huge part of my business because it’s something I did for 10 years and my corporate corporate career. And so I’ve had the brunt of customers who are not happy, and I’m able to see how we can leverage that in our online businesses. And it’s so much easier to deliver service and deliver value when you have a small audience.
(12:14):
And as I said, at the beginning of this, we all start at zero. So whether you have 10 followers, a hundred followers, 10,000 followers, it’s important to understand how you want to really have your business rep presented. How do you want to represent your business? How do you want to serve your audience and how do you want to deliver that value long time? So the fast reason a small loneliness is good for business. It’s because you can get to know your audience on a deeper level. So like I mentioned, I’m able to recognize people’s names. I’m able to see someone who maybe is on my email list and then they show up on my Instagram account and then we engage in some way on Instagram or my emails. You’re able to get to know your audience. Now there is a part, there is a level of responsibility here, right?
(13:07):
So yeah, sure. I can see a name, but how do we connect with that person? How do we get to know that person? What kind of questions are we asking them? All, we are asking them questions. Are we interested and showing interest in that business, in that goals, in what they want to achieve. When you have 10,000 people who are suddenly in your inbox, that’s going to be so much harder to manage. And in most cases, you’re not going to be able to manage yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with numbers. There’s nothing wrong with increased visibility and more people. Of course, that can work wonders. But if you can grow your small audience steadily, if you can do it slowly and sustainably, it’s that much easier to build those relationships, to get to know your audience on a deeper level, because your audience will tell you exactly what they need and want from you.
(14:07):
This is exactly the reason I’ve managed to grow my business this year, both from my services and within my membership, because I have used the Outlaws super power of listening. I’ve shared this, I think probably in episode, number two, I talked about listening as a superpower in online business. If you didn’t listen to me back, then listen to me. Now, listening is, you’ll see the power because when you listen to your audience, you can acknowledge where they’re at, what they’re feeling, what they need. And when we do that, we can deliver exactly what they want. And I’m not talking about delivering something different to every single possum, but asking the right questions, getting curious, getting to know your audience, and then being able to create content that actually works for them. It serves a purpose. It delivers value. So second reason is that you can personalize your conversations.
(15:12):
Just this past week. I had a lovely, lovely person show up in my Instagram DMS. She had found me on Pinterest. She was looking for batching. I found one of my blogs and then happened to stumble across this podcast. And she sent me a message on Instagram, talking about one of the episodes she had listened to and how much she had connected with it. And this message was so personal to her. This was the first time she had connected with me. This was the first time that she had reached out to me and she was sharing POB. Her story and POV has soul with me. And when people send me a message, typically I want to send you a voice message. I might send you a video. I’m not in my pajamas, but I will send you a voice message because you’re a human being and I’m a human being. And it takes no time at all just to hit that microphone button and record instead of just writing out. Now, if you’ve ever connected with me, you know, that I always send voice messages because my brain works so much faster than my hands can type. So I’m all for voice messages. Voxer is my best friend, but you’re able to personalize your conversations.
(16:43):
Take a moment to look at that person’s feet. Take a moment to see what their name is, especially if their name is not part of their Instagram handle. Take a moment to look at what they do, who they are, get to know them. You can hopefully do that from just looking at their bio and so that when you do respond, you can personalize and you can have a genuine conversation with that person.
(17:09):
[Inaudible]
(17:09):
And it’s really, really profound how far that goes. And again, with a small audience, you can do this on repeat. The fact thing is that you can create best content. You can create better content. When you have a small audience, this is especially true. If you struggle with what to say, what to write, maybe you are a rule follower like me, and you’re trying to let go of some of those shifts in your business. You can create. That’s a concept when you have a small audience, because like I said, you can to know your audience on a deeper level. You can ask them the questions that are going to help guide your content.
(17:57):
If you can rely on your audience too, you show off your audience and you can rely on them showing up for you. When you ask questions, when you want to know more about what they’re struggling with, what it is they need, how can you serve them? It allows you to create better content because you’re creating the exact content they’re telling you. They want. And I’m saying this, like, it’s easy. I spent three years not getting this. I spent three years not understanding how to do this. One of the typical things that we hear when we first, our businesses, we get told, create content based on what people are asking you. What’s everyone asking you? How, what are they asking you? What do they want to know? You know, what does everybody ask you about your life or your business? Or how do you do X, Y, or Z?
(18:49):
And I don’t know about you, but I used to be like, well, no, one’s really asking me anything. So we have to be proactive. We have to ask if no one is asking you questions, stop asking questions yourself, ask them, send them a message, send them a voice message, send them a video, but ask questions and keep asking questions until you can really refine your content until you can really figure out what it is that people want from you as a business owner. And as you asking those questions, create content for your feed that reflects those answers. If you can teach them something, that’s going to answer that question, teach it, do a video, do a live posting your feet. I don’t know whatever it is you need to do, but create that content and then look how it’s received and take that information, take that feedback and figure out what’s next.
(19:52):
And I know that when we create content and we kind of put it out into the world, it’s kind of vulnerable, right? It’s still kind of vulnerable putting that content out to the world, especially when it’s possible. And we can often hit, publish or hit post and wonder what’s going to happen next. Is it going to be received? Do they really want this from me? But what I want you to remember is that whatever happens, it’s not personal it’s data. So when you hit post or when you hit publish, yes, don’t hide don’t then, you know, pull the Dewberry of your eyes and say, I’m not going to look at the numbers. Look at the numbers. The numbers are important. They tell you something. They tell you whether it’s the content has been received well or not. And it tells you whether or not you should create more of that content who I see so often, especially on Instagram is people creating content that they kind of want to create for themselves, but they’re not creating it for that audience. You don’t need to chase down another thousand followers. You don’t need to even chase down another 10 followers, create content. The people who are already there, the people who have already said, Hey, I want to learn more from you, teach them. And what happens is when you teach them, you teach them content that is shareable. They share it. And then they invite their friends. And I used to hear this all the time and I didn’t really believe it.
(21:27):
And the reason why it was because when I was creating my content, there was no deep connection. I was trying to follow this way of thinking. I was trying to create content that connected with people, but I had no idea how to connect. I had no idea what part of my business I should be using to connect. I had no pump, no idea which part my story I should be using. And I had no idea what people wanted to learn from me. And so this was a process by hope, by explaining some of these things to you in these episodes, you’re able to see that you can bypass all this lining that I had to do and start to do this for yourself. So a small audience allows you to create that to content. Number four is that you can invest in humans instead of advertising.
(22:20):
Now, this is going to be a lot of people. They may not listen to this show, but there’s going to be a lot of people who would disagree with me on this one. I’m not saying that advertising isn’t doesn’t work because it doesn’t have a place in business. It certainly does. But if you’re anything like me and you’ve been burned by online advertising in the past, my experience was losing a few hundred pounds and not making a single sale. If you’ve been burned from advertising in the past, you’re probably really, really reluctant and resistant to putting money into advertising. And I don’t blame you. There are reasons why there is a reason why people run advertising businesses. There is a reason why people have a Facebook advertising or Instagram advertising courses and programs. There’s a reason why people have that service because they know what they’re doing.
(23:19):
I do not know what I’m doing, especially not for Facebook and Instagram. And if you have been banned in the past and I show business grows, you might be really resistant to a try and figure out on your own. You may not have the time to figure it out on your own. When I think about the amount of time and energy I used to put into figuring out Facebook appetizing, it was a law. It was really hard. And every time I would do it, and it was B pieces I had forgotten because it just, my brain doesn’t work in that way. You may not financially be in a position to hire somebody to do it for you. And one of the things I have seen in the last few years is my experience has been when we hire somebody to do work on our advertising, we really want to try and understand advertising ourselves fast. What goes into that? The reason being is we want to understand which questions to ask, what KPIs to measure, what we should be looking at. And it’s really important that we understand those pieces because otherwise we could end up getting burned again.
(24:26):
But what you can do instead of investing in advertising is you can actually invest in humans. This has been something I’ve been able to do this year in my business right now behind the scenes. We have a team of five people. It’s so incredible to, to think, sorry, no, six. I was trying to count in my head. We have a team of six behind the scenes and a few of them work for, do work with me and then do work for clients. And we kind of have this really, really great hybrid of kind of customer facing what kind of internal and external, one of the best things. Okay. I should caveat this by saying, hiring a team is scary as hell. I just want to put that out there. I’m going to do a whole episode on hiring my experience, hiring a team, especially during a global pandemic, it’s been both really, really rewarding and exciting scariest fucking hell, because now it’s not just you.
(25:29):
And there are people who also need to pay their bills really scary, but also really rewarding. And the good part about it is that it builds such incredible connections. You have these incredible human beings who do what they do really, really well. They are able to focus on their zone of genius so that you can focus on yours. They are able to support you and your business. They’re able to support your clients if need be. And they’re able to really just dive into these projects and these strategies with you. It’s, it’s like going from doing it on your own and, and not speaking to another human being a week to suddenly having this team who you can speak to and connect with. And when you have questions, you realize that you don’t have to figure it out on your own. And that is really, really wonderful.
(26:23):
And sometimes that investment in humans may not even be an investment in a team. It might be an investment in a membership or a mastermind. You can invest in other people, you can invest in your business, but you can also invest in further education within the online space. You can invest in human beings, other people of advertising, building out those connections, being able to, when you have a small audience, being able to connect with others who can help you build your business. Because what happens is typically as we grow, suddenly we have less time to do the things that we did to get here. There is a saying, what got you here? Won’t get you there. And I used to hear this a lot and not really understand it. And I know that when they say this, I told him about mindset and you know, evolution within a business and adapting.
(27:20):
I get that. But what I really started to look at was what got me here. Won’t get me there. The things that I had time to do and was able to do a year ago and not necessarily the same things I could do. Six months later as my business grew, I didn’t have the same amount of time. And I felt like I was failing behind the scenes because I couldn’t show up. I couldn’t do this, all these different things, one of my attention and needed my attention. And that was when I had to get really strategic and say, okay, where do I need help? Where do I need the most help? Where am I spending my time on things that I don’t need to be doing? Things that don’t need to be done by me? Somebody else can do it better. And so we’re able to invest in humans instead of advertising and still grow our business. When you have a small, it is, and you can invest in the team, invest in support of some kind. You can do that instead of advertising, and you’ll get some time back, still focus on growing a business. You can still focus on building an impactful business, a sustainable business, even with a small dance.
(28:38):
Number five
(28:41):
Is that you can humanize your onboarding process. I’m going to be totally transparent. One of the first things I did in my business this year, as I build out my services, I invested in dub Sato, and I hired one of my first hires was Jen, she is my OBM and she kind of figured out all of the behind the scenes pieces of my dub side. We did all these like Y clothes and it looks it’s incredible. She did a great job. It is amazing. I am so grateful to have her on my team, but one of the things I found, I was really, really resistant to sending people through this onboarding process because it didn’t feel possible enough. And this was because of how I had been running my business. The same thing, right? What got me here. Won’t get me there. I wanted to be, I wanted my own onboarding process to be more humanized.
(29:40):
I want to be the face of my business. I want to be the one, sending messages, sending emails. I want to be the one connecting with you. If you’re going to trust me with your content, do you want to trust me with your business? Then I’m sure as hell gonna make sure that you have that part of me. And there has to be some boundaries. There has to be some balance. That’s the sun, but you are allowed to humanize your onboarding process. It doesn’t all have to be robotic and just happen without you. And when you have a small audience, you can continue to humanize that onboarding process. You can continue to be the face of your business whilst it grows. And for me is someone who wants to always be the face of my business. I don’t want to have a big, big business where I am.
(30:35):
You know, I’m no longer here. I’m just, you know, I’m just the name on the name on the website. That’s not how I want to run my business. That’s not what I want to do because I get joy for my business. I have purpose in my business. I did not enjoy working in the corporate space. And for me, this business is something I have built. This is something I have nurtured and grown and figured out and invested time and energy and money into the same for you. And so if you want to continue being that person in your business, it’s okay to humanize your onboarding process, whether that is a program or product, whether you send a video, a customized video to everybody who joined your membership, I do that. So when you join my membership, I send you a video. It is me. I’m talking to you in real time because I don’t care whether you spent $50 with me or $5,000 with me, you’re still going to get the same amount of me. You’re still going to get me in real life. I’m still gonna show up fee because you’re trusting me in some way with your business and content. And that means a lot to me.
(31:51):
The last reason I have, and I’m probably over time, I’m probably going to come up with the new reasons. But the sixth reason is that everyone feels heard, seen, and taken care of
(32:09):
When you have a small audience and you are
(32:14):
Getting to know them on a deeper level, personalizing conversations, creating content, they actually won. You’re investing in people and you’re being a human. And you’re making sure that you’re humanizing your content, humanizing your onboarding processes. Then everyone feels HUD scene and taking care of.
(32:40):
And I’ve mentioned this a number of times on Instagram is past few months, but this year we all want to feel something, but we don’t want to feel fucking afraid. We don’t want to feel afraid to run our businesses. We don’t want to feel afraid to invest time, energy, money in our businesses. And I don’t know about you, but they have been times in the last year or two, where I have been terrified of investing, terrified of getting too invested or involved in a course program membership, whatever it might be for fear of not being heard for fear of not being seen. And for fear of not being taken care of, if you have ever been in a Facebook group or any kind of group where you’ve invested a decent chunk of money in coaching, but then you’ve been chucked into a group and not had your aunt’s questions answered, or you’ve been thrown into a group and just felt like a number or you’ve been promised, you know, coaching.
(33:56):
I’m going to be there for you every day. Woo. And not received that. It’s okay to be afraid of investing again. And this is something I have seen over the last couple of years. I talk about this. I talk about this with my team and say that a lot of people come to me when they’ve tried everything else. A lot of people come to me to my membership, to my, for my services because they’ve tried everything else. They followed all the rules. They’ve invested in all the programs and the coaching. And I’ve been let down, they’ve been let down, they’ve invested thousands of dollars into coaching.
(34:42):
And I’ve got more from being in, working with me or being in my membership for a fraction of the cost, or one of the things is just accessibility. I was joking with one of my team the other day about the idea of us not being able to get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. Well, I’m sorry. Like cool, wonderful, great. But I’m going to get out of bed. I’m going to get out of bed for less than $10,000 day and show up. I’m going to show up for you. If you invest $50 or $5,000 or more, I don’t like it doesn’t make any difference to me because I want everyone who comes into my business to feel HUD seen and taken care of. And this is what you can do with a small audience in your business. Your people need to feel hard.
(35:35):
They need to know that they are not the only ones that have felt that way. They need to feel seen. They need to understand that whatever, as they’re going through, you’re able to meet them where they are. You don’t want to give them a 10 step to do list because they were already busy or they’re already overwhelmed and they don’t need that. They want to know that they’re seen and they want to be taken care of. They want to know if they invest any amount of money with someone else that they going to be taken care of. And what’s so interesting is to see here. I have seen the good folks in small business, flourishing, thriving, winning, because we’re fed up. We’re fed up of the bullshit with fed up of seeing, without being taken for a bride. We’re fed up of seeing the same thing over and over, over again in our feeds. We want something different. We want to feel high. If we want to feel seen, we want to feel taken care of. Remember, you’ll probably part of someone else’s small audience. I’m a part of other people’s small audiences.
(36:48):
And when I feel seen, heard and taken care of I’m like, let’s go, I’m here. I’m ready. That is how I consume content. Now is how I consume social media. And one of the things I want to just mention, because this keeps coming up from me over and over again, and I keep talking about it and I keep saying it, and I’m going to keep saying it because it’s so unbelievably important is that people are paying attention. People are paying attention to your content, whether you think they are or not, people are paying attention. If you are growing an audience, if you run a business that is thoughtful, intentional, and you want people, you want to work with people who are also thoughtful and intentional, you want to work with people who are creative or introverted. They lead with humility and integrity and they want to make an impact. If those are the kinds of people that you want to work with, those are the kinds of people that you want to have in your business and your life. Then they are paying attention. Even if you don’t know that, even if you don’t see it, even if they’re not commenting on every one of your posts or sharing all of your content, they are paying attention.
(38:07):
So even if you feel like your content is frustrating or overwhelming, and you’re not getting the exact results you wanted, remember that behind every task, it may not always be an ROI that may not always be in a return on investment. But I guarantee you, if there is intentionality behind what you’re doing, there is an ROI or return on opportunity. And we overlook that roo way too often. So when you are showing up in your business, when you’re doing that thing, and you’re like, here I am again. And it feels like no, one’s listening. I promise you. They are. I promise you someone out that needs to hear what you’ve just written. I promise you that if you hit publish, somebody is going to find that content, whether it’s today, next week or next year, and it’s going to be exactly what they needed. And when that happens, when they’ve reached out to you and tell you, Hey, I needed to hit us today, listen, and respond and be human and personalize and get to know them because that is what small business is good for.
(39:19):
That is what we are able to do right now. And we need more of that. So I hope that today’s episode has been able to show you how small as objective, wherever you are in your journey. We all started with zero followers. If I walked into a room right now with, I dunno, I think my audience total is like 1600. If I walked into a room right now with 1600 people staring at me, waiting for me to say something profound, I’d probably want to go and hide, but we forget that sometimes when I’m creating content in the online space, we forget that there are people behind those numbers. And I promise you that whether that person who just signed up for your lead magnet is 10th or 10 thousands. They don’t care. They don’t give a crap what number they are. All they know is they want to know more. And so it’s our responsibility as content, creators and business owners to deliver that value, to keep showing up, keep us a bearing. If you are here, that I know that you want to make impact, that you want to do better, that you want to bring that into the online space, into industry and into your niche. And it’s going to take perseverance and trust me. I know that can be hard. I still have times when I cry and I want to throw everything away.
(40:38):
Yeah.
(40:38):
Perseverance is going to win and we have to show up and continue doing the good work. So I just want to thank you for listening in today. I want to thank you for being here. And I want to remind you that as you’re listening to this live next Tuesday, the 20th of October, 2020, I am hosting a live master class is cooled from small to sustainable. And as you can probably tell, we’re going to be diving into how to turn your small Instagram following into a sustainable business. It’s a live master class where you will learn how to Gannett CLI organically, no paid advertising. Find, attract, and engage your people on Instagram without doing all the things without draining your energy without them doubting, if you’re doing it right anyway, because if you’re determined to finally feel less fed up less, all consumed by your and less like a hamster stuck on that, never ending wheel of content creation and anxiety around Instagram.
(41:40):
Then this master class is going to help you get to a place where using Instagram for your online business feels easy and enjoyable. It will bring you purpose. It will bring you joy. And I will be telling you about my membership. I will be going into detail of the membership, but this is not a 60 ish minute pitch Fest. I say 60 ish minute, because I like to talk and you guys ask questions and it’s really fun. And my slides might break again. So really, if you want to also show up and see how I do business differently, then it’s worth your time. And this master class is completely free. You will walk away with three are heart moments. Whether you decide that it’s the right time to work with me or not, you will still get something from this masterclass. This is how we roll. So I hope you’ll join me. The link is in the show notes, you can go to Melanie nights.com forward slash small to get your free seats. And I hope to see you there. And I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and I will see you next week.
(42:51):
[Inaudible]
(42:51):
Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of entrepreneurial Outlaws. If you see yourself as an entrepreneurial outlaw and enjoy this episode with you do me a favor, it would mean the absolute well to me, if you could take a moment to subscribe to the show and leave a rating and review by leaving a review, you are helping me to grow out we’ll community and together we can show other entrepreneurs that breaking the rules can actually be good for business. Don’t forget. You can find the show notes for today’s episode, along with any of the links that I mentioned on my website@outlawcreatives.com forward slash podcast. And if we’re not already virtual busters, you can come and hang out with me on Instagram. I am the one with the country music playing the lukewarm coffee in my hand, and I’m dishing the down how we can make entrepreneurship more inclusive and transparent. Plus I’ll probably send you some fun gifts. So until next time Outlaws.