Be VISIBLE

Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. And I'm so excited to be going live today. I didn't think I was gonna make it, honestly. I am currently in a friend's basement. And don't worry, I'm fine. I'm not like kidnapped or, you know, trapped here or anything, but I'm on vacation ish this week and I'm still working. But as some of you might know, I'm not a morning person and being normally stationed on the east co of the United States in Eastern standard time, I'm now three hours earlier. So it's been some early mornings for me and I've also been trying to squeeze in time with friends and like all the friends that I haven't seen in a year and a half from being away and also squeezing in all the food that I have missed from San Francisco Bay Area. So I plan on being a little chubbier when I go back east and also have my heart a little fuller. But that's not necessarily what I want to talk about today. You'll be seeing pictures tomorrow from my meetup and I'm sure I'll be sharing a bunch of stuff from that today. I want to talk about one of the hardest things for new business owners to overcome to get themselves out of their I'm starting a business closet and that is how do I be visible? Okay. And let's just. I want to pause here. And if you're wanting to start a business or you're in the beginning stages of starting a business and this part freaks you out, just know you're not alone. It's the number one thing that causes stress from new business owners, in my opinion, in my experience, anyway. I think what happens here when people start thinking about building visibility and marketing themselves and promoting themselves is they get really freaked out that they have to do it perfectly. Okay. They watch Gary V. But who, by the way, amazing marketer and self promotion expert, but he walks around with a production team 24 7. I imagine he sleeps by himself, but during his waking hours he walks around with that kind of crew. So he's, you know, opining and giving advice and they're capturing it on film and they're just putting it into the editing room and cutting it into a social media post. You don't have that. Okay? So the expectations of you doing that is. Is non existent really. The only person expecting you to be operating at that level is you. And so if you're building visibility for your beginning business and you don't have a lot of experience. What counts as visibility. Now if you talk to any of my clients and just so you know, my setup here, I'm literally balancing my computer on the, on arm of a, of a couch while I'm here because it's really the only place I can plug in my, my computer in this basement. So hopefully I don't knock my computer over. But anyway. And for those of you who are tuning in, hello, welcome. And just so you know, I'm doing this through Streamyard. Sometimes it doesn't show me all the comments. It's the only thing that's wrong with Streamyard. But I'm going to the Facebooks, to LinkedIn, to YouTube and I guess now Twitter. You know, I'm not even on Twitter, but it's going to Twitter. But if you have a question or you're commenting and I don't call you out, know that it is not you. Sometimes the technology just fails me in that way. But anyway, so if you're just starting out, let's get back to the point. If you're just starting out and you don't know how to build awareness around what you're up to, who you serve and your new business, what counts as visibility. And if you talk to any of my clients, you will hear them say that they're one non negotiable. Every day is they have to do something that's visible. And so let's talk about what counts. Okay? Calling friends, calling friends and just letting them know what you're up to, that counts as visibility. Okay? You are telling people who are already huge advocates of yours that you're starting a business, who you help, what kinds of projects you're working on and they care and they're excited for you. Okay, extra points. If you ask them if they know someone who could use your service. Okay, extra points. But you don't even really have to do that. Depending on the service. Maybe you're taking out an ad in a local newspaper like that still exists. There are plenty of lawyers and professional service people who do that. You also don't need like a huge complicated social media strategy to to go and post to LinkedIn or to Instagram or to Facebook. And granted it helps if you have some strategies, but here are a few things that you can share on all three of those platforms and other platforms. You can share about your journey. You know, where did you come from and why did you land here doing this? You can share about a tough lesson you learned when you're starting. You can Share about a certification that you're going for that will make you better able to serve your clients in this new role. You can share a picture of your workspace, even if it's messy. Okay. This was the best news to me because I like, I'm just going to show you. This is my work area right now. Okay. It is just messy. I'm a messy person. The good news is, like, when you start your own business, you don't have to hide yourself anymore. You really don't. You can just show up as you are and that's that. That's like the beautiful thing. The other things that you can share is like, what you did on your day off and how nice it is to be able to take that day off without, you know, having to worry about, like, your boss pinging you or this other thing happening. Because even a post like that, that really isn't about your business tells people a few things. It tells people that you don't work for corporate anymore. Tells people that you have really healthy boundaries around rejuvenating and restoring yourself and resting. Tells people what kinds of things you like to do so they can feel really connected to you. So, like, maybe you went canoeing. And your ideal clients out there also love canoeing. Guess what? They have a really easy way to start a conversation with you now. Okay. That could ultimately end up in them becoming a client. You know, they could ask you like, oh, my God, Was that the Canoe 4000? I don't know canoes. Obviously you can post about your dog. I do that all the time. Okay. People basically know that I'm. I'm a liberal, poodle oodle loving sandwich eater. That is my life. Actually. I don't know if I post that much about sandwiches, but in case you didn't know, I love sandwiches. I'm all about different kinds of sandwiches. If you want to become my best friend, all you have to do is introduce me to a new sandwich that I will be crazy in love with. That's pretty much it. I'm very easy to become friends with, obviously. And the other side that I want to talk about here, that I actually was talking about with a client today is this fear that we let hold ourselves back from posting things and becoming visible. And this fear is based in our need or our desire to not be hated, to not have people react badly to us. Okay? Because we all want to be liked. We all want to be included in the tribe and feel safe and know that our spot is secure. Okay? But here's. There's good News and bad news. That's not possible. That's just not possible. The good news about not being liked, well, the bad news is like, people aren't going to like you and it's going to feel crappy for a little bit, okay? Like, we don't really need to dig into that. But the good news here is counterintuitive, okay? So if you're visible and you're letting people get to know you through a medium like social media, and if you are posting and sharing about your business and your business successes and this and that and the other thing, you're going to cause a reaction, okay? And the reaction could be like, oh, she smiles too much, I don't like her. Or it could be, you know, it activates their insecurity about them not going and doing that business. They could not like your politics. I'm. I'm very conscious about sharing about my political and not so much political, but like my social justice beliefs because I actually don't think that they. Those are political at all. I think human rights are human rights. There shouldn't be any politics there. I do that because I want to draw in people who feel the same and I want to scare away people who are on the other side, okay? It's very simple. And yes, of course, like, I'm scaring away business, but the business that I'm bringing in is that much more loyal to me because they see that I'm being brave and I'm saying my beliefs and I'm sharing about it and I'm being an advocate. So I want to use this example and I use this. I used to use this a lot. I don't know why I dropped it. Louis Vuitton, okay? So everyone knows the brand Louis Vuitton. They make beautiful in some people's opinions, I'm not a huge fan, but anyway, they make really nice designer, good quality purses and, and baggage. So essentially, you know, stuff that you put your shit in, right? We can get that for pretty cheap anywhere. But you know, they charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for them, okay? They have a cult following. People who like Louis Vuitton love Louis Vuitton, okay? They will wait in line for hours upon hours to be able to buy just one purse, okay? Louis Vuitton does not give a flying fuck that the members of PETA aren't buying their things. Louis Vuitton does not care that people who are against using animal bits to make luggage don't like them, okay? They have no interest in winning over PETA. It's not like they have their leather line and then their pleather line to try to acquiesce to both. They have just determined, no, we. We are a luxury brand. We deal in leather goods. That is what we do. If there's a subset of the population that doesn't like us or actually actively hates us for what we do, we're fine with it because it further defines us in the market. Okay? So people not liking you or people hating you or having a negative reaction to you in any way, shape, or form is actually a positive thing. Because what happens is those people run away. They run away. They stop tuning into you. They stop showing up to your workshops, they stop booking things on your calendar. And you know what that does? Creates all this incredible open space for your people to arrive and take up space and take up your time and experience you and have a determining connection where they're able to determine if they want to continue working with you. Okay? Imagine if the wrong people were still in those spaces, taking up your time, space, and energy. Okay? Not good. You want to scare them away. Okay? So I know we all have this desire to be liked, but when it comes to promoting your business, being liked by everyone is a great way to ensure that you never make a dollar. Okay? Because, you know, what's something that we all like? What's something that we all like? Like ice cream. But ice cream, you know, you spend $3 on it. Okay. If you're selling a luxury service. Hi, Travis. Oh, my God. Travis. Okay, so Travis offers Travis Lochner in my comments right now. I wish. I wish this is, like, live on Facebook, so I could just invite you up, Travis. But it's not. I just. I'm stuck here by myself. So for those of you who are on the different platforms from LinkedIn, you can't see Travis's very awesome comment, which is. What's up? What's up? I just want to talk about the service that Travis offers. Okay. He basically helps people put podcasts together for their business. Okay. He helps them step into being visible in an incredible way, and he does a lot of the work for you. So if we're talking. And I was. I'm jumping ahead to the. The last topic here, because I'm excited that you're here, Travis, because this is so perfect. And actually, I should have you on as a guest at some point, because what you offer is incredible and people need to know about it. But anyway, if you don't know how to put yourself out there or how to package it or do any of the technical. There's help. There's help out there, like Trap. I'm just gonna put you up here like Travis here. He's one of those people that helps, okay? And there are so many people that help. And if you want any recommendations for different people on different platforms that can help you put this stuff together, please reach out to me because I use them, okay? I'm not out here trying to do it all on my own. No way. Okay? None of us can do it on our own. Even Jeff Bezos. Okay, let's talk about Jeff Bezos, okay? Everyone's like, well, he started Amazon from his parents garage and had nothing. No, no, no, no, no. He borrowed $300,000 from his parents, if not more. And I don't even know if he borrowed money from other people to start Amazon. And by the way, his parents owned a home where they were okay with him using up their garage to start his company. Okay? He had help, okay? He had help. He wasn't doing it all himself, okay? And I would. I mean, maybe he was a good photographer. Maybe he was taking, you know, pictures of the products or whatever that he was selling, but maybe he had another photographer come in. Okay? We need to stop putting all the onus on ourself to try to figure it out, to do it ourself, okay? Because, yeah, the information is out there. We are in the information age. If you really wanted to, you could figure anything out. I mean, I'm not gonna do this. Don't get worried, but I'm pretty sure, like, if I wanted to figure out how to do open heart surgery, I could find a YouTube channel about it, right? But don't worry, I'm not going there because that's a bad idea. But you see, like, I could also go and try to, like, you know, figure out how to code my own website and do that instead of use a really simple tool like wix, which I did. Travis. Amen. Faster alone. Further together. Support troops. The right role can change your world. Absolutely. Oh, my God, I can't read right now. I'm, like, tired. And like I said, I'm not a morning person. I've had early days all week. But anyway, you don't have to figure it out all on your own, okay? And I get it. Like, not. We don't all have a parent that's going to lend us $300,000 to get started, okay? So as you're getting ramped up, as you're trying to figure out how do I just build a basic level of visibility before I can afford to work with someone like Travis or maybe an Instagram person who can help you strategize and like implement some things there. All that matters is that you're consistent, that you're consistent, that you make people feel seen. Okay. So one of the things that I carry around with me always is this sheet, which, you know, doesn't look like anything to anyone else, but literally, I did a ton of research on my ideal clients because I wanted to know exactly how they describe their problems, how they describe what they need to learn, where they feel like they're starting, what their ultimate dream is, and like, what their fears are along the way. This is that this is a list of like, all the things they feel they need to learn, their zero to hero transformation that they want to go through and the fears. And I mean, if you can just like put this together and post about that and just make people feel seen and understood and normalize where they are in the process, that is valuable. You don't have to go on and prove that you're an expert left, right and center, because you know what you do there, there. You talk over people because you speak in your expert speak. And if they understood what you meant, they wouldn't need you. Your clients don't understand your. Your way of speaking about this. Lol. All good. Apparently I can't type either. Travis, we are just a pair made in heaven. I'm so happy to know you. So happy Leah. Leah connected us. And actually I got so excited that you were here, I completely forgot the other point I was gonna make. This is like vacation brain. I just had like, oh my God, guys, I had a burrito from Gordo's, okay? And if you don't know Gordo's Gordos is like, you know, a Mexican chain that's in San Francisco Bay Area. And I grew up with it and they just have the best burritos and it was just game changing today. And I'm probably not gonna have another Gordo's burrito for months and months and months because I don't know when I'm. But it just. It really rocked my world. So that's where I'm at right now. So after I finish this live right now, I'm going to drive up to Marin, I'm going to see a girlfriend for some drinks and. Yeah. And then I have another early morning tomorrow. So hopefully I'll be going live tomorrow morning, which is already going to be like afternoon for east coast and then evening for you Brits over there. But Anyway, I'm so happy. Travis, thank you so much for joining me for this. We have to figure out a time to go live together, because that would be so much fun. And also, thank you, all of you, for watching. And I hope this is useful. And if I think of the other point I was going to make, then I will post it somewhere, but I just got so excited. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and coach. Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to going live with you tomorrow. All right, talk soon. Bye.