How to get clients online

Oh, Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, coming to you live on the Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. We're not dealing with the other platforms. Just this moment, and I'm so excited. I haven't gone live just myself in a really, really long time. I'll be honest. I hate, I don't hate summer. I do not like hot weather. And my, my window air conditioning unit makes so much noise that during the summer, like, when I have to record or I have to do anything, like, I have to turn it off or else you can't hear me or it, like, sounds like a really, like, ugly background noise. And I just didn't want to be hot and sweaty all summer. But it's finally September and it's cool. So welcome. Way too much information. We're starting this off on an ADHD note. Anyway, as you're joining. Hello, welcome. I love. Excuse me, Hiccup. I love this to be interactive. So if you have any questions around what I'm covering, then please pop. Oh, my gosh, please pop them in the comments. You know, one of the things that I, I want to talk about today is, like, the importance of using social media to grow your business. And first I want to dive into, like, all the other ways you absolutely can get clients. Okay, you can get clients by going to networking calls. Okay? You can get clients by booking yourself as a speaker at events. Now, that does take a lot of time and energy, but it's possible. You can get clients by cold calling and asking for, you know, their business or asking for referrals. You can get clients literally by going door to door. You can get clients by putting an ad in the paper. Okay, you can get clients by paying for Google Ads. There are a lot of ways to get clients now. They all either require a lot of time and energy, usually embarrassment. They risk, some of them risk a lot of rejection. And if you have ADHD and you have rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria, that's really painful anyway. Or they cost a lot of money. You know, it. It genuinely does cost a fair amount of money to put an ad in the paper or in a magazine. And especially if you're just starting out, like, you're not sure what messaging is going to work. So you could spend money on something like that and have it go nowhere, right? And then, I mean, I don't know about you, but, like, I'm going. I actually. So I, I go door to door with my political volunteerism and like, in two hours, I can go to 43 doors. I did it the other day. I had help. I had a friend who was like, or you know, a fellow volunteer who was kind of like driving us door to door. But on my own I could probably do like 2730. Right. So that is an option. And also there's no guarantee that any of those people are going to be your ideal clients. Or you can post something to a platform that's free where your ideal clients are showing up and are consuming content already and you can talk about topics that are really interesting to them. And even if your post tanks, even if, like you get the lowest of the low engagement, you know, we're talking like 100 views, 200 views, 300 views. Okay, that's bad engagement. That's bad view viewership on any social media platform. But that's still 100, 200, 300 people who are seeing you, hearing your message, reading your stuff, finding out about you and your work and your business. I don't know about you, you might have a different opinion here, but I think that is fun. Far more effective and appealing than doing any of the other things. Okay. It's also a lot more economical. Time wise, money wise, energy wise. So how do you do this? How do you do this realistically? Realistically within your life, within your business, you're already busy. There are really three things that you need to figure out to be able to get clients on social media. I'm going to be going through these three things. If you have any questions on any of these, please pop them in the comments. And also, if you're watching this recording after I've done it, then feel free to shoot me a dm. I'm happy to answer questions at any point anyway. So the number one thing that people run into is they, okay, so it's so easy to get a plan. It's so easy to like find someone's template and you know, get their calendar for what you should be posting. And you have the things and, you know, you have the instructions on how to do the thing and say, okay, cool, this week I'm going to post every single day. Then what happens? Usually you might post day one, then you get busy and like day two you might like half ass it. And day three, you're just too busy. And then by day four you're like, well, I failed yesterday. Like should I post today? And then you don't have time and before you know it, you've posted like one and a half good pieces of content. You feel bad about it and it Takes you a while to get back on the horse, right? It's so easy to say you're going to do something, but you have to actually build in the time. You have to build in a routine around this. In 2020, when I had to move my business from in person networking because that was how I got my clients to, to online because world was shut down, I made a deal with myself. I made a deal that I would block off two hours every single day to posting on LinkedIn. Now, I just want to name my privilege here, okay? I was super fucking privileged to have two full hours every single day. I didn't have kids, I didn't have a dog. At that point, I had minimal responsibilities, like beside feeding myself and bathing myself and, you know, surviving the craziness that was our world. Then you do not need two hours a day, but you do need to give yourself consistent time that you're going to do this. Because if you've never done it before, if you've never done, like a social media strategy, if you've never seen it through, if you don't know how to create content, it's not like you're going to be able to take the five minutes between meetings and squeeze out like a full post. You're going to need some time to develop it, to write it, to post it, to engage on the platform. My dad is calling. I'm going to reject the phone call. Oh, no, he's getting lobster. I'm having, I'm having. I'm actually having one of my clients over for dinner tonight. I'm so excited. And I'm having like a whole little thing and he's picking up the lobster because we're making lobster rolls and it's very exciting, very Cape Cody. But I hope, I hope it was just a pocket dial, but we'll see. Anyway, okay, he's just telling me what time. All right. That's the update on my life. Congratulations. You know all the stuff. Anyway, I just had a little panic because I was like, oh, no, he. What if he, like, they're out of lobster. What if he's, you know, needing to tell me that? Anyway, see, I told you this is going to be an ADHD one. We're already there, okay? So routine. You're not going to be able to create content in between all the things that you already have going, okay? You're not going to have the brain space. You're going to feel rushed. And when you feel rushed, you're not going to create something that's worth posting, okay? So you literally need to block off time, okay. If you want to start building this into your business, if you want to start getting clients the free way, because you don't necessarily have to pay for social media. You can if you want to, but you don't have to. You're going to have to build this consistency, okay? Consistency is so important. It's one of the reasons I run this 30 day content challenge. Creating a client attracting content 30 day challenge, because it forces people to block off an hour every day, Monday through Friday, to focus on their content, to focus on what they're posting that day. The first half hour of these calls is kind of silent work time so that folks can just like sit down, like look at their content plan, see what they need to do and just get it out. And then the second half hour is all about feedback. So I give feedback on how they can improve it. But really, like, how do you create a habit? You know, usually it takes about 30 days to create a habit. So whatever it is that you're doing for your social media plans, whatever plan you're following, whatever strategy you've got, none of it is going to work if you don't build that time into your schedule to actually do it. So you have to build routine, all right? And know that it's going to take a lot longer in the beginning to create content than it will after a couple months. All right? In the very beginning, it would take me an hour or two to write a decent piece of content and then post it. Okay. After about a month of doing that, it would take me about 45 minutes. And then after about another month, it would take me about like 20 minutes. Okay? It changes over time. And if you're following a strategy that really works, if you're following a strategy that like, you know, hits all of the buttons for your ideal clients, then guess what, you can reuse all that content. Okay? You do not have to create content fresh all the time. You can reuse, reduce, recycle. All right, so that is number one for just a logistical thing for you to have an effective social media campaign. Number two is you need to have a plan. I know it feels like really, really big to have like a social media strategy and a plan, especially when you've never done this before because, like, it's kind of the blind leading the blind. And, you know, you're just blind. You don't know what you're doing because you haven't done this before. And just know that there are a lot of plans online and I know it can feel super overwhelming because it's like, well, this person has a plan and that person has a plan. That person has a plan. Like, which one is right? And I know I shouldn't be saying this. I shouldn't be saying this. Like, my team, my copywriter is probably going to think like, no, no, that's not the point. You're supposed to be promoting your shit. But you know what? They're basically all right. They're all. They're all right. They're all right for someone, right? This is your business, okay? This is your business. You are the one running this business, okay? You have to figure out a plan that works for you, that feels aligned to your personality, that feels aligned to your goals, all right? So it really ultimately doesn't matter. There are a few people, you don't want to buy their plan because they just don't work. And typically they're the ones that have pods attached to them, so don't do that. But I mean, generally, if someone has a plan, you follow the plan. Guess what? You're being visible. Guess what? You're talking to your ideal clients. Guess what? Like, they're going to start remembering you because you're posting, because you're showing up every single day, all right? So don't overthink this, all right? But you do need a plan, and here's why. You need a plan, okay? Because I want you to think about. I'm going to do a little drawing here. I want to think about the client journey, okay? So we have five points on the Katie McManus client journey, okay? So Client journey, okay? So everyone starts here. They start here. They're a stranger. They don't know who the fuck you are. They're a stranger. They've never seen your content. They wouldn't know you if you fell over. If they fell over you or if you fell over them. You know, either way, we want to get them from stranger to follower, all right? And that means they just have to see one or two pieces of content that gets their attention, makes them think, huh, I like this piece of content. I would like to see more content like this. I should follow this fella or this. This woman or this person. So then they get to follower, right? And then we have to take them from follower to this point where they feel like they're a friend of yours, okay? They've had enough interactions with you in the comments. They've seen your stuff, they've heard some stories. And then from friend, they can either go to client if they're Your ideal deal client, or they can jump to superfan. Okay? So superfan can either be X clients who've worked with you and know exactly how incredible you are, or it can be people who just feel so connected to you, they know you're legit, but they're just not your clients. They're never going to buy from you, but they will refer people to you. Right? So we're talking mostly in this range right now. If you're just starting out with a social media plan. So how do you get people to follow? You have to share something of value, okay? And I don't mean you have to give away all of your stuff for free, but you do have to show that you understand them. You do have to show that you get what they're struggling with, that you understand their goals. And, you know, you have to give them either some empathy or just point them in the right direction or simply just give them hope that they can do this. All right, It's. It sounds counterintuitive, but stop being a weenie and start your business already is actually a hope builder, right? It sounds kind of negative because I'm calling people a weenie. Like they're afraid, but that then gives them the option that they don't actually have to be be afraid or they can be afraid and still do it. Right? We want to just plant some hope with our people, and that is considered valuable. We also remember, we want to go from stranger to follower to friend. What makes people your friend? Usually. Usually having friend, like conversations, you know, like sharing stories or talking about things that matter to you or even just talking about, like a weird thing that happened that day. It doesn't have to be anything too vulnerable. And then of course, like to take them from friend to client. This is where you really need this plan because you need to share very specific pieces of information, right? You need to write content that really speaks to the pain that they have, and that's going to really speak to the people who want to get out of pain. You need to write about what their big goal is, what their desire is, right? Because for the people who aren't driven by their pain, who aren't driven by the problem, they're going to buy so they can reach their goal, right? They're going to die. They're going to buy from their desire, okay? So we need to speak to them as well. We need to speak to the folks who need to see social proof. We need to share some testimonials. We need to talk about case studies. We need to Talk about our client successes. And if you're just starting out and you don't have any client successes, talk about your own successes. Okay? Talk about you going through this. All right? That is just as good. You are your number one client after all. We need to, like, build up your story. How did you get here? Why do you do this work? Right. Because a lot of people need to feel connected to you and your why. And lastly, we need to share some details about what you do. All right? People buy for all kinds of reasons. We have really emotional buyers. We have people who are very relational. They need to feel connected to you, and we have other folks who need to know the details before they get on the call. All right? So we need all of this content consistently rotated around so that they can feel. So that it hits the button for them, so that they know that you're the right person for them for whatever it is that you do and so that they book a call. All right? Whatever strategy you do, just make sure it hits all those points. One of the things that I actually built out for my clients in the 30 day content challenge that I'm running right now, it starts on Monday. We're doing all content creation training this week. But one of the things I built out is a fully customizable content plan so that everyone has a plan that they can follow. And I've actually created four plans because, you know, there are different stages of business. So the first stage is for the people who, like, are in the closet. They have, they have a job. They don't want their boss to find out that they are starting a business, but they need to start posting. They need to start creating relationships on social media. Okay, so there's a full content plan for folks like that so you can stay in the entrepreneurial closet but also start building your brand. Um, the second plan is for folks who are out of the entrepreneurial closet but have not been posting. So you have to start building some relationships and certain introducing your work. All right, the third plan is all about, like, if you've been posting consistently ish. And people kind of know who you are and you've been sharing personally, but you haven't really made that jump into doing sales content. It really pushes you. It pushes you to really start hammering your audience. Audience not hammering, but, you know, like really making sure that they're aware of the good work that you do. And of course, the fourth plan is for those folks who've done all that on one platform and want to make the jump to a new platform. Okay, so again, we're introducing you, we're building your personal brand, but we are jumping into getting you doing sales content pretty, pretty quickly, because that's what you're there for. You're there to get clients. All this is included in the 30 day challenge. By the way, if you're curious, I would love to have you join. We do have a lot of content training happening this week, so if you join sooner, you get to come to those live. And it's so much fun. You get to ask questions if anything doesn't seem clear anyway. So you need a plan. Okay? That's number two. Number one is you need a routine. Number two is you need a plan. Okay? Just pick a plan. Just pick any plan. I recommend my plan. But of course, there are other plans out there that work just fine. All right? And I know I shouldn't be saying that. I shouldn't be promoting other people, but you know what? There are a lot of really talented humans who can help you do this. If I'm not your person, I want you finding the person who's the right one for you. Okay? The third thing that you need to know that you need to do and have is, you know, you need to have some know how. You need to know the things. You need to know how to create the content. You need to know how to use the social media platform. You need to know how to get your stuff in front of your ideal clients. All right? You know, there are so many ways you can learn how to do this. You can do it observationally, kind of see what works for other people and try it on and kind of develop your own style. That does take time. It's a lot of trial and error, and it's really hard because, you know, if you don't get a win early on, you tend to lose steam because you're not getting any, like, dopamine from it. You're not getting any feedback that this is the right thing to do. You know, you can take a copywriting class. You know, I think absolutely every single person who's even considering starting a business should learn how to do copywriting. I think it's one of the most undervalued skills or underrated skills that business owners need to know, especially early on. But you need to know how to do that. You need to know how to write in a way that people are going to get sucked in and start, like, being like, oh, my God, yeah, that's me. Or, oh, my God, I feel like I'm friends with this person. All right, you need to learn how to do that. You need to know how to use the social media platform. Okay, that does take practice. But there are a bunch of different ways that you can learn whichever platform you are trying to get on. You know, I, I'm. My personal favorites are LinkedIn. It's my number one. It's my boo. I will never abandon LinkedIn. It is one of the best platforms out there. I also really love Instagram, even though I'm very inconsistent on Instagram. And of course I love TikTok. TikTok has a lot of potential, but on TikTok you need to be aware people are not buying high ticket. They are not. Very few people will go from a TikTok to buying a high ticket program or service, but they will do low ticket. So it's kind of a great like paid lead gen thing to do. But you need to learn how to do that, you know, and that's one of the things that I personally realized was missing from the 30 day challenge. You know, I ran it back in May and it was amazing because I'm giving feedback throughout and people are really learning how to get better with creating their content. But my goal for this 30 day challenge that starts on Monday was that I want every single fucking person who's in the challenge to get a client during the 30 days. And while it's great to learn over 30 days, that does mean that you have kind of a learning curve. So that means for the first like week or so you're not knowing what you're doing because you're still learning from the feedback I'm giving. So. So that's like a whole week or two where your content is not going to get you a client. Right. And I realized kind of in the final hour of launching it that there needed to be a training portion, there needed to be a full on training portion. And so I built out like a whole curriculum. There are four hours worth of training along with this challenge. Everything from how, like, how do you create content that will actually convert clients, how do you do hooks, how do you do calls to action, like actually get people to buy from you and book a sales call with you. How do you style your content? Because that is actually key. People are not going to sit there and read or watch your content if it's not styled in the right way. It's not styled in a way that's digestible to them. And of course, because it's one of the things that I do in my content is how do you use your intuition in Creating content. Okay. How do you tap into the inner knowing and like the universe, all the woo stuff to understand what you need to say? Right? Because there are those days, even though you have a plan, where you're looking at the plan and you're saying, I don't think I can talk about that today. You know, maybe there was something really awful that just happened, like another school shooting. Unfortunately, that happens a lot in the United States. Maybe something really dramatic happened celebrity wise and there's like all this gossip happening and you feel like you're just getting left out of the conversation and like whatever it is that's in the plan is just going to get left out. Maybe something big happened in your industry and like you need to comment on it. It would be weird if you didn't comment on it. How do you, how do you tap into that intuition and really channel it so you can understand on a deeper level what people need to hear from you that day and what conversation you need to be starting through your content. So I'm really excited about that. But really, you know, when it comes down to it, when it comes down to it, if you want to get clients using social media, the number one most important thing is consistency, okay? You have to be consistent. You have to show up even if you don't follow a plan. You showing up and just being visible is going to help you, right? Because people can't give you money if they don't know that you exist. And even, even if you're just posting pictures of ferrets, like in handsome clothes, like you might be the ferret person, but people are going to know your face and they're going to know your name, okay? They're far more likely to be closer to giving you money because they know that you exist. Unless they're really anti ferret. I don't know anyone who's like that, but there are people, I guess, who don't like them. Anyway, if you want to join the Challenge, it is kicking off on Monday. However, if you join this week, you can come to our live training sessions. They're happening every morning at 9am Monday through Friday. Friday. Everyone who joins, everyone who joins the Challenge will get access to those recordings. And the cool thing about the Challenge is it's only $197. I decided on that pricing the first time I ran it because I was like, okay, well this seems like a good price point for something that I've just, you know, made up, you know, for the first time. And, you know, I ran figured, okay, well, I'll do it one more time at that price point, you know, and then I'll raise the rate. But then I added all this content training, so the price for this will be going up dramatically the next time I do this. So if you want in, this is the time to do it. Um, anyway, um, good luck with getting clients on social media. I know it feels overwhelming. I know it feels like everyone else is succeeding at this and you just haven't hacked it yet. They've just been long at it longer, all right? They have invested in themselves. They've figured out what works for them. You will get there, too, if you stick with it. Okay. Like, literally. You just have to stop being witty about it. Deal. All right, I'm off to prep the kitchen to cook. To cook some lobsters. Wish me luck. Gonna be hanging out with Lauren Lefkowitz, who, if you're watching me, you probably also know her. We're in the same circles on LinkedIn, and I wish you an amazing Wednesday. I will probably be going live again this week. I'm not sure yet when, yet. I'm mixing up my words, but I will keep you updated. And again, if you would like to join the challenge, please DM me. I'd be happy to give you the link. It's going to be so much fun. Last time we did it, it was so incredible. The energy, like the AHA's people had, the confidence building. And also, like, just seeing that you can post and talk about yourself and share about your business online and not die. There's nothing that builds bravery and courage like that, like just going and doing it, even when you're afraid. All right? So stop being a weenie. Start posting, and if you need some help, come and join us. All right, everyone, thank you so much for being here. Again, if you had any questions, DM me. If you have questions about content or, you know, creating routine, just DM me. I'm happy to give you my feedback. And I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and I will see you all later. Bye.