What 2 old men can teach you about marketing...

Sam. Hello and good morning everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Coming to you. A little rushed if I'm being honest. This morning I have, it's like 9:33. I wanted to come live on the Facebook's, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. I will be going live later today on Tick Tock for my Thursday business tarot card reading. It's a little fun, it's a little like tongue in cheek. But like we. I pull cards and I offer like actual business strategy based on stuff that comes up. Obviously I'm checking it against like what, what is actually like doable business wise in the world. So don't want anyone thinking that I just get all my business strategy from tarot cards. I don't. Hello, welcome. Oh, Joe Gibbs. I didn't recognize your, your handle there. Anyway, this morning I want to talk about how to create content that actually gets paying clients. And I'm not like actually trying to do this influencer style. I'm just really in a rush because as I said it's 9:34 and I'm recording my podcast in about 26 minutes. So we're gonna do my little makeup routine as we go. Okay. So some of the most common feedback that people get when they're just starting their business and they have to promote their business to their potential clients is go and give value. Go and say helpful shit to people, share tips and tricks and all the things and then you'll get clients. Right? Which yes, sure, like sharing helpful tips and tricks. And here are my top seven ways to do X, Y and Z. Sure builds credibility in a certain degree. It, you know, it gives you something to post about. It's great for content creation. But here's where it falls flat. I'm just going to do my eyebrows. I don't know how people do their makeup and talk about a point while at the same time like, I'm going to screw this up. I usually do this in front of the mirror. This is the problem with being blonde by the way, is your eyebrows don't exist without getting penciled in. Anyway, we're not going to do too much anyway. So here's the problem with sharing value that is just helpful tips. I don't know about you, but whenever I see a post that is like the seven ways to create the X, Y and Z, I think, oh, that's really helpful. I'll save that. And then I save it and then I immediately forget that exists. And then like, I don't Remember who the person is who shared it. I never come back to it the next time they share something. Sure. Like I might, I might save that again. But it doesn't, it doesn't create like a stickiness. Right. Like I don't feel then connected to this person in any way, shape or form. It also doesn't like build a need, you know, like, it doesn't make me think, like, oh my God, that's so true. I need to work with this person. All right? And so whenever I'm training my clients on this contact, on this concept, I like to talk about the story of the two old men in the park. All right? And this is a fictional story. It's an allegory that I, I put together myself. I am basically going to be writing a book of fairy tales. No, I'm not. Anyway, that's it. That's all I do for makeup, like from what I was stressed out about. All right, so the two old men in the park, let's talk about them. So I want you to imagine this like really sweet little park in the center of like maybe a big town or a small city. And there's this mom who every single day, because her three year old is like obsessed with the fish in the pond in the center of this park, has to bring her two year old. Hi, David. Good morning. Has to bring her 2 year old or 3 year old, forget how old this kid is to the park because the kid will throw a fit otherwise because, you know, like the fish are her best friends and she has to go and give, give them like snacks and bread and all the things. So the mom has kind of fallen into this routine around where, around like 10:30 or 11 every single morning she ends up at the park. Now this mom realizes that around the same time she comes to the park every day, there are two old men that kind of sit on respective, their respective benches on either side of this little pond, right? And she, you know, will nod at them or wave and you know, they've, they've gotten to the point where they acknowledge each other and it's kind of weird they haven't spoken, right? So one day she's like, screw this, I'm going to introduce myself to one of these old men. And so she goes up to the first one and, you know, says, hi, you know, my name is so. And so I see you here every day. Just thought I'd introduce myself. And the old man is perfectly nice. He introduces himself back and you know, he says, yeah, please sit, sit. Like, you know, you know, and he starts having a conversation with her, and he starts saying, you know, I saw you with your daughter last week when she was having that little temper tantrum. And here's what I would have done differently. Here are the steps I would have taken to handle a child who is having a temper tantrum. And here's some other helpful advice. You know, if you ever have a squeaky chair, like a squeaky. Like my chair right now, use WD40. You know, it'll. It'll take that squeak, squeak right away. Also, if you have a leaky faucet, here's how you fix it. But if you can't fix it, if you don't have the tools, or if you're nervous about playing with your own plumbing, then, you know, you want to tie a string around the tip of the faucet and draw it all the way down to the bottom of the sink so that way the water will fall down the string and you won't hear that drip, drip, drip all night. That'll drive you insane. Right? And he continues to give her, like, helpful advice. Right. You know, here's what you do for a wobbly chair. Here's what you do for this. You know, if your dog isn't paying attention to you, here's how you train it to give you attention or to, like, snap to. And. And, you know, notice you, and it's a perfectly pleasant conversation. He's nice, you know, and it comes to the time where it's lunchtime for the little girl. So the mom says, you know what? We have to go. Thank you so much. It's been so nice to meet you. And then they head home. So the next day, because she's met the first old man, she goes to the second old man, and she introduces herself, and he introduces himself back and says, you know, sit, come, come sit down. And she sits down and he says, you know, I noticed you last week when your daughter was having that temper tantrum, and I just want to say you did a great job. You, like, having a kid at that age is so difficult. Like, they get on your last nerve, and you handled it with grace and patience, and you're doing such a good job. And then he goes on to share, you know, you know, the struggles he had with his kids when they were around that age and how, like, it's kind of funny that they have kids at that age now, his grandchildren, and they're kind of getting their comeuppance right, because their kids are, you know, in their terrible twos or Whatever. And you know, he asks her questions and you know, he shares stories that just really connects with her because, you know, it's aligned to what she's going through right now. And he makes her feel seen. You know, he makes her feel seen and like, there's no shame for how she's doing life right now, but there's also the sense that like, he knows what he's talking about. So, you know, again, time comes to an end. It's lunchtime. She has to get her, her kid home to have lunch. And you know, the next day, who does she go back to? Who is she going back to on day three? And there's a right answer and a wrong answer to this rhetorical question. She's going back to old man number two, right? I should probably give the old men names. That's probably better storytelling. But anyway, because here's the thing, like, helpful advice just thrown at you willy nilly out of context, out of, like, here's the need of my life right now. I mean, it's not particularly helpful. You know, it really isn't unless I'm having that problem at exactly that moment. You know, seeing the seven tips for how to do X, Y and Z, it's something that I might save for later, but I'm never going back to it. Like, let's be real. However, when you, when you point to people and you say, hey, you, you're doing great, like, everything you're struggling with right now is normal. You know, I talk to people all the time who struggle with similar stuff and just know that like, you're not broken for, for having a hard time with it. There's not something inherently wrong with you that you're having a hard time with this, you know, also sharing your past experiences of like, what you went through and what it felt like to go through, that shows that you have incredible empathy for where they are, right? And I want to offer you this. You know, if you were that mom and you had had those two conversations with these two old men, you know, old man number one, helpful advice, right? Gave value old man number two, made her feel seen and connected with and like reduced the shame of, of what it's like to parent, that is also value, right? You know, day three, she's going back to old man number two. She feels connected to him. She feels like she has a relationship with him. They are buds now, they are friends. There is a conn, you know, if ever she wants advice on parenting, who's she gonna go to? She's gonna go to Old man number two, right? She might go, like, if she has a squeaky wheel on her, on her office chair, she might go to old man number one. But that's not. Those aren't the big. The big juicy things that she's going to be willing to spend money on, right? The things that she's willing to spend money on for support. Like, that's what she's going to go to old man number two for, right? So when you're thinking about coming up with content and sharing value, I want you to get really clear on is this to do list that could be randomly relevant to them in this moment or not? Or am I providing value that builds connection and trust and shows them that I get them on a deeper level right now? To be able to do this, to be able to do this, well, you need a niche, okay? You can't empathize with the whole world and say, hey, I get it, like, I don't have children. It's not authentic when I say, oh, like, raising a child is so hard and all this stuff. Like, I can empathize with parents, but I can't speak from experience, Right? You know, I had one client and I absolutely loved working with her. And, you know, when we came to the end of our agreement, you know, we had this conversation about continuing, and what she was really struggling with was how to handle her young children and her business at the same time. I can't really advise on that. Right? So we decided, and she had met someone, we decided that it would be best for her to invest in working with a coach who would help her with that balance. Right? Because that was her struggle. You know, you can't. If you don't have a niche, you can't, you can't empathize in that way. Right? And if you try to, it's not authentic. So the other thing that you need when you have this niche is you need deep understanding of how they talk, of how they describe their problems, of how they talk about their fears, of, like, what winning looks like to. To them. Right? Without that, you're just going to end up being the expert who's talking over them, right? They're not going to understand what you're saying. And the people who do understand what you're saying won't need to work with you, right? They. They don't need you. But when you build that connection, when you have the niche and you're able to speak in their language and you create content that empathizes with them, that is where people feel that stick they feel that connection with you. They have that trust in you. And also when it gets to be too much, when they get to the point where they realize they need help with this thing, you're the person they think of to help them, okay? Not the person who's sharing all the tips and tricks like this. No, they're, they're coming to you because if you understand them that deeply where they are now, and you understand where they want to go and you know that's the work you do, they're gonna trust that you know how to get them from point A to point B. Right. You know, to do this, you need a niche. Okay? You can't do this without a niche. You need to do your market research. Okay? This is one of the things that I do in all of my programs. I have my clients go through and do market research interviews with their ideal clients to deeply understand where they are now and where they want to go tomorrow. In addition to that, you need to figure out how to take all that information and position it in an empathetic way. Right? That's another thing that I train my clients on is how do you take that content, that, that feedback and turn it into an actual post that people will be like, oh my God, that's exactly where I am right now. That's exactly how I'm feeling. Wow, this people, this person gets me. Sorry, I haven't had enough coffee yet. This person gets me. I'm going to follow them and I'm going to pay attention to them because if they get me where I am right now, I wonder if they can help me get to the next stage where I want to go to next. Oftentimes when people start working with me, they have spent a lot of time being the first old man. And they're so frustrated because they have been posting on social media consistently for months and months, if not years, and they still haven't gotten a client from it. And they don't know why. They just cannot figure out why, why they haven't gotten a client from it. And you know, when I explain this to them, it clicks. It clicks. They realize, oh my God, you're right. Like, I've been the first old man. And for me to get clients, for me to build that trust and that, like, I need to come back to this person because they're a trusted resource for me, they have to be the second old man. That, that is, that that's the kind of value that really converts high ticket clients. All right, with that, I have approximately 12 minutes to go and plan out. Well, not really plan. I don't really plan my podcast. But to jot a couple notes down about what I'm kind of thinking about doing two podcast episodes on today with my producer, Neil Valeo. Which by the way, if you are thinking about doing a podcast, he is your man. He is absolutely incredible to work with and I, I can't, I can't say more good things about him. He's been one of the best hires in my business, one of the best partnerships in my business, I should say. And working with him is a delight. He does all the hard that I don't want to do. It's really incredible. Like I just have to show up and talk. But yeah. Anyway, again, I will be doing Tarot Thursday later today at 1:00pm Eastern Time over on Tick Tock. Okay, so if you're not on TikTok, get on TikTok. Actually, I might, well Tick Tock for sure. I might do a dual stream with LinkedIn. I just don't want to annoy people on LinkedIn because I'm not doing my normal like show arc where I'm talking about something. Just the vibe is very different. Anyway, my username over on TikTok, if you want to follow me there is katie.kdhd. okay. I have it on the little ticker thing over on Streamyard right now and if you want to come and join at 1pm I would love to see you there. I will be answering any questions you have about your business. I will also be opening up 10 minute slots. If you want to do like a proper 10 minute spot coaching and have me pull a few cards and really advise you on what you need to be doing next in your business, then plan, please come on over and that's about it. Anyway, I have 10 minutes left now so I gotta go. I'm just imagining I have time anxiety for other people. I'm just imagining like you watching this and be like Katie, like if you only have that many minutes, go, go, go. I'm going, I promise. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Thank you so much for watching. I hope this was super useful and I will see you tomorrow. Okay, bye.