Inside Scoop: Amplify Your Platform

Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. If you have a business, you need to have a digital presence, right? That's nothing new. We know that. However, do you have a digital experience? Because that is what it really takes to thrive. So what does that mean? Well, I don't really know. That's why I have an expert on today who's going to tell us all about it and why we need it. Because your website, your social media accounts, all those things that you're putting out into the world, you know, they need to be there so that you have them, but they need to actually make an impact. There needs to be a reason for you doing it so that people say, ah, that's the person I want to hire. That's the person I want to follow. That's the person I want to, you know, do business with and buy and do whatever it is they tell me to do. So We're going to talk all about how to amplify your platform beyond just having a website and posting some stuff on social media. How can you really elevate that and boost yourself? And I have a great guest who I'll bring on in just a moment. But first, I want to share a resource with you to give you a little bit of a boost in getting the media's attention. And the media is very different these days. It's not only just TV and radio and that kind of thing. It could be an online show just like this one, a livestream show or podcast. So if you go to paularizzo.com/checklist, you'll get my checklist to become a go-to media expert. And you'll learn all about, you know, how to, to pitch media, but also how to create your own videos that are really compelling and get people to choose you and to follow you. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor. And so I have a few courses all about lists. As many of you know, I am a rabid list maker. I have two books about list making. So I have a bunch of courses here on LinkedIn on how to set your boundaries, you know, how to work in a remote or hybrid environment and be your most productive. You can check those out. Right on LinkedIn Learning, or if you go to paularizzo.com/linkedin, you can check those out as well. Look, I want to make sure that as many people who need to hear this show today hear it. So please, let's amplify the platform ourselves. If you want to share this, whatever platform you're on, just hit the share button so that your network hears all about this. Maybe they have a question about how to up their and amplify their presence and/or tag somebody, tag a friend below who you think might have a question or, you know, might be able to contribute to this to this conversation. We're going to be chatting away and taking your questions towards the end of our conversation. But without further ado, I want to bring on my fabulous guest, Miss Brandy Bernowski. Hello! Hello! Welcome! Thank you for being here.

Oh, thank you for inviting me to be here. I'm really excited.

Of course. So Brandy and I have known each other for— we were just talking about— about 4 years. We met at a women's leadership event, and, uh, you are a digital strategist and a website developer, and you've worked with some very fabulous clients, including Brené Brown as a big one, just to just name drop just a little for you right there. So you know about this stuff inside and out. What are some of the mistakes or the missed opportunities that business owners are making when it comes to being online?

Yeah. So one thing is that they're not really putting out anything into their website that actually starts to create an experience and relationship with people. That's one of the biggest things. They think that like a website is really just a digital calling card. It's, you know, like if I don't want to give someone a business card because I don't want to have on me, I can give them my website URL and, you know, give them some basic info. And I think it is a huge missed opportunity of really being able to say, how do I continue the experience that someone has had with me in person online? Or if the online piece is their first experience with me? How do I invite them into more? So really thinking of it as like an extension of who you are into almost another dimension, let's call it, you know, the digital dimension we're going into. And we really need to think about how we, how we align with that. And I, I don't think this is about, you know, being inauthentic, um, or not showcasing who we are, but really like, how do we bring ourselves into the digital sphere? So I want someone When they're talking with me on a call, whether it's a sales call or I'm meeting them at an event, if they hit my website, they feel like they are meeting the same person again. Even within my company, which I then drop the I language, start to use the we language. I think there's a lot of really good chance, opportunities there to really connect with someone. And we sometimes forget that's the purpose of things. The purpose of all of this online technology we have is to build relationships and make more connections. Not necessarily just to like throw information at people and hope that they figure out what to do with it.

Yeah. And more important now than ever, you know, I mean, now everybody realizes how important digital, you know, we've been doing this for so long, you know, you building websites, me doing video and being, you know, behind the scenes on all this. And it's like, we get it, you know, we, we know, but now the whole rest of the world is like, oh, a digital presence. Oh, I should have a website. Oh, people don't know who I am unless I see them in person. So, you know, how do you have that experience connect both the in-person person and then the digital person. But the idea of the experience, let's dig in on that a little bit because I think that is where, you know, that is where people obviously miss the mark because it becomes, okay, here is like the business card version of me on a website. That's what it is. This is, you know, a couple of bullet points of what I do, how to get in contact with me, and, uh, that's it. That's what a lot of people will do. So how do you build the experience? Like, what are some examples, or how can you actually do that?

Yeah, so I think a lot of the experience comes through in language and in the images that you use. So, you know, there's nothing worse than going on like an online dating platform and like meeting, you know, finding someone online and then meeting them in person and like, you look at their dating profile photo, you look at them and you're like, how did— really? You know, so consistency from what they experience in person with you to online is one key piece of it with photos, or even like consistency of feeling. So even if it's on a photo of you, like, what is that feeling that you bring to the table? And then how do you bring that online? But language, language is everything. You know how the way I speak, I really try to pull into the way I write for my website. And I know a good copywriter will do the same thing. So I see every, every interaction point as a little opportunity. So for example, Like, think about a contact form on the page, you know, the intro to that form, the language you use on the fields, the way you ask questions, but even more after they hit submit, what kind of message do they get? Like, how do you bring your personality into that? And it's, it's so simple. Like, there's, there's no complex technology that's needed to, to language in that way and to kind of like bring some fun into it. Or, you know, if it's, if you're a very serious person, just bring that level of guided expertise into it so people feel seen and heard during the process online.

It's interesting because I think a lot of times business owners will do this when it comes to their emails. They spend a lot of time crafting the emails and making sure that it sounds like them. And if they're doing a sales thing or a launch, it's like, oh, I want to make sure to give the full experience. Yet they don't necessarily do that on the website. They don't necessarily do that on Instagram. They look at it sort of as two different things. But I see this now, what you're saying. It matters everywhere. That you put these things.

Yeah, that consistency across platforms is everything too. Like, that's when we start to question who we're working with, when we meet them in person versus online, you know, on their website versus on Instagram versus on LinkedIn. And I think— I, I mean, I think we rely upon consistency as a measure of trust these days too. So it's one of those things that really helps build the relationship and to start establishing that trust, which is what they need in order to buy from you. People need to trust you in order to buy from you. So consistency is just one of those little ways, visual consistency, language consistency, and how you show up. There's nothing worse too than if someone's like, "Follow me on TikTok," and then they never show up on TikTok.

For what reason? Right.

Yeah.

It doesn't make any sense. Well, at bare minimum, if somebody's watching this and if you have questions, if you're watching on the replay or you're watching live with us, please ask the questions below and we'll get to those. But if someone's If someone's watching this and says, "Okay, well, I don't have a website yet," let's just say, what is at bare minimum the things that they should do or the questions they should ask themselves to start creating that content or the experience of what they want people to see?

So I think that one of the most important things that we can do on a website is, I mean, yes, you're going to give your bio, you're going to tell people what you offer, you're going to give them a way to contact you. Those are really key pieces. But I really think that when people land on the website, they should have some sort of emotive connection with you. So like you need to give them the message. You know, what is it that, what's that thing? Like, why are you doing what you're doing? Like, what's the whole purpose of this? What's in it for them? Importantly, what is in it for them? Right. A lot of times people wanna just describe their business, you know, and be like, you know, website development. Oh, I don't know what's in it for me really. So actually creating some sort of messaging towards the top of your site that helps people understand what they really get or what's that inspirational message you want them to leave with? Like, that's something that's very core to me that I'm making sure, you know, when I write my website copy and I'm working on Nusa copy right now, I'm like, what's that? If they only landed on my page and they only read the first 3 sentences and they left, what would they take away from this? You know? And how does that connect to the bigger picture of what I do and how I can help them and how I can help them step into something more for themselves? Yeah.

I mean, because that could be their only interaction with you.

Yeah.

Right? It's just like that. Right? Like they may have heard your name or saw you somewhere or saw, you know, and then you're like, oh, let me check out the website. And it really, like you, you really only have that short window of time and, you know, their energy to say, do I get this person? Does this person get me? Are they talking to me or are they just talking about themselves? Which is, you know, what most websites are. You know, I would say a lot of people just say, here's who I am. This is my bio. This is what I do. Rather than, you Here's how I can help you, the customer, the client, the reader, whoever it is. Now, what about social media? Because, you know, there's a million best practices on how often to post and what to do and whatever. But, you know, at a higher level, you know, what are the types of stories or the types of things that we should be posting on social media as business owners?

So I think these can really vary. I think we love— so we love stories and we love seeing people's stories of success. So anytime you have a transformation story about one of your clients, those are wonderful to post online. And it doesn't just have to be a testimonial. I mean, it can be a written testimonial, it can be a video testimonial. It can be like that shift of here's the old website, here's the new website. And I don't even have to get too much input from my client on that. But to visually see transformations is great as well. So I love transformations. I was here, this thing helped me, I've ended up here. Your story, your why, that's so crucial. I became a developer because I was teaching myself to develop and I was helping my friends in the process. And I kept coming up against like, why is the industry wired this way? Like, this is not okay. Like, I'm very passionate about empowering the people I work with because I want them to come back to me for the cool stuff. And I want to make sure they're educated along the way so that they know they can tackle this digital stuff themselves. If they want to then delegate, go for it. But I don't want anyone to not be in the know because I think there's a lot of missed opportunity and potentially missed income and revenue. And it can be disastrous if you don't know what you're doing really.

Yeah. Right. And it's true. I mean, well, you talked about consistency before, but consistency with this too. You want to make sure that you are posting regularly to the community on, let's say LinkedIn, if LinkedIn is where your people are, or if Instagram is where your people are, that you're there constantly. Constantly, not constantly, but you're there, you know, pretty consistently so that when they are going to your website and then they click over, you know, to your point about like TikTok, make sure you're doing something there. Make sure, otherwise, why is it on the website? Like it shouldn't even be there. So what is your advice though about for people who feel the overwhelm of, of social media and feel like, oh my gosh, now I have to be everywhere and there's a new platform and now I have to learn that one. And you know, I mean, this will go on for till the end of time because there'll be new things popping up all the time. Yeah.

So I think the biggest thing is one, you cannot be on every platform. There's not enough hours in your day to serve people, do the work you're meant to do, spend time with your family, take care of yourself, and be on every single platform posting content regularly. I think it's really important to know where your audience is. That's crucial. Don't be in places that your audience is not, but then also know where your energy is. Like if you really hate something and like you find yourself dreading it every time you go to it and like shutting down. Don't do it. It doesn't serve the world to have that sapped out of you every time because there might be some clients on Twitter, but you really hate Twitter. I think you need to give yourself the permission to recognize when you are resisting something because you're afraid of it versus you're resisting something because it actually really trains you. And when it does, You need to pull away from there. Focus on the other places that your audience is. One of the big things for me is we're on Instagram, we're on LinkedIn, but my favorite place to actually meet new people and socially connect is in person at events. So there's never a bad time to do that. And I think I kind of lean a little bit more towards that way and I allow my team to lean more towards Instagram and LinkedIn. That's the other thing. You can hire people who like it more than you do.

Totally. I was going to say, you could always throw some money at that if you need to. If that's the issue and you really need to feel like you need to be there, you might as well hire somebody, which I want to talk a little bit more in a second, like when you know it's time. And if anyone has questions on that too, please leave those in the chat boxes below. But I wanted to ask a little bit more about— I just lost my train of thought. You had it up there, Ali, my producer in the background. You just had it up, whatever that was. That was what I was going to ask about. No, before that one. It was, yes, building relationships. There it is. Thank you. Uh, I wanted to ask about that. Like, how do you now build relationships online? Because I think for a while, I mean, people understand how social media works, but it would be a lot more yelling things out, right? Like Twitter, like you're tweeting it out. It's like, here, that's my fit, my idea, bye. And then people just leave it there and don't really interact with other people or comment or see what happens or have any kind of like, let's take this conversation and then meet for a Zoom call or something like that. Like, how do you build those relationships from a digital-first place?

So I think there are a few different ways you can do this. And obviously one like great, very effective, long-lasting way is always by getting people on your mailing list and emailing them and inviting them in your emails to like email you back. You know, like that's rare. You know, like let's start a conversation or, you know, let's take this, this conversation we've started to have by email and let's bring it to the social platform and have a conversation there with more people. I think that's really exciting. So we Creating those opportunities to make connections and meet you in other places is really, really nice. But then I think it's good to look for those opportunities where you can make a direct connection with someone, email them in some way, get on a call with them and actually just start building a relationship. And I think one of the best ways you can build a relationship is just by asking people how you can support them in their journey. I ask people that all the time, like, what's going on? Doesn't mean I'm going to necessarily open every door for you. I may not have that ability. But at least if I can have some sort of sense of what you need, I might be able to make a connection for you. I may be able to give you advice. I don't know what it's going to be, but I sometimes, you know, I like to invite, um, the, you know, the serendipity of the universe to connect someone with me if they need a resource that I have.

It's like, ah, being a person first.

Yes, that, that we're people. We actually are human beings. We're not just like little digital pixels running around the interwebs. The whole time. Exactly.

Exactly. It's always fun to see. I do on my email list, whichever one I'm talking to, whether it be about productivity or about media and video, whenever I do say, "Hey, just shoot me back an email here and let me know what you think or if you have a question or whatever," and people do, they're always very surprised that I reply back. I think that is lovely and also sad at the same time because I think people feel like, "Oh, I'll never be able to talk to this person," whatever. It's like, I'm just a person. Like you, you know, I can reply back to my own emails. Um, but it is, it is nice to kind of invite and open yourself up in that way, and not everyone will do that. So the more you can be a real person, the better, for sure. Uh, and that is a, you know, a good, a good strategy for that.

Um, what about if, if someone is, you know, overwhelmed by all of this?

Which, of course, you're, you know, there's too many platforms to keep track of on any given day. But when is, when is it time to say, okay, well, I have learned about as much as I can learn, learn about Twitter, uh, it is now time to bring on a team or bring on someone who can help me. And what does that look like? What can it look like? Uh, you know, what's your advice there?

So I mean, I tend to source from people I know because I want to hear about people's experience, like direct experiences with a provider. So usually I'll go to my network, um, like let's say I've done this for clients too where I've been like, okay, I need someone who specializes in thing.

Yeah.

And I'll ask my network, you know, on Facebook, LinkedIn, who do you know? Who do you know that can— you can refer me to? Tell me a little bit about the experience. How do you know them? How are you connected to them? Like, give me some info so that I have some sort of idea of the expectation to set. So certainly for social media, I helped one client this year hire a social media specialist, and it was as a referral from another client who said, I've been having phenomenal success with this social media person. Like, you If you need someone, she's the one to talk to. And they were just at that point where they weren't seeing results any, they were kind of plateauing on their own results. And in order to free up the client to do her genius work, as opposed to being on social all the time, they needed someone who actually understood some more of the nuances and algorithms and kind of tips and tricks to actually scale them faster. And actually get more out of all of the content they were putting out there. Like, she was— the client was putting out such good content, but it wasn't having nearly enough traction because it wasn't being repurposed. So that's when it really became an obvious, like, move for them. Like, they were at the point of, like, we are plateaued with what we can do, and we need to— we need to do something different and work with someone who can have more impact with what this is possible for us.

And it's important to know what you're really good at and to know what you're just not going to be really good at and be okay with that and say, you know, I need an expert to bring in so that I can really focus my time on the things that I can only do in my business. And you all know what that exactly is. And so learning how to build a website might not be it. I mean, the very first website I had, I built myself, because that's what you do. That was 10, 15 years ago or whatever it was. And I tinkered with learning how to do it and messing things up and whatever. It's like, I don't want to do that now. But in the beginning, you try things out and you do all that. But this has been fabulous. And if anyone is watching the replay, you know, please do leave questions, comments below. We're happy to, to dive in there. I know Brianna is watching over on LinkedIn. She says, great question. I don't remember which question it was, but thank you. That's great. And Brandy, could you fill us in a little bit about your, your little freebie here, a 30-minute consultation? If people are interested in chatting with you, they can go to acmeandaim.com/contact. And so how do you work with people?

So I always just like to start people, like with people getting to know someone better. Like that's what it comes down to. And that's what this call is all about is just let me ask you some questions and figure out where you need support. Sometimes people think they need a website first and it's actually not the thing that they really need. Like really, like they actually need something else first. So it allows me just to get to know someone, get to really analyze like what's going on, what are your goals? And then sometimes it's working with me for our website. Sometimes I start to refer out to other people if you actually really need to work with a photographer or copywriter or media specialist. There are so many different other paths that sometimes we tell ourselves we need the new website, but that's not really what we need. So yeah, just like it's 30 minutes that anyone can schedule with me to kind of pick my brain and happy to give people advice and recommendations and make sure that they get what they need, something that they can invest in. That'll have the return and not just something that you like kind of lose money on.

So fantastic. I mean, and I love the fact that you are like transparent about that. Like, it might not be the website. The thing I can do might not be the thing you need, which is really important. And, you know, you and I have shared clients through the years. Thank you for your referrals. And, you know, for me, too, I've said, you know what, talk to Brandy. She's the one who knows this stuff, you know, inside and out. We have a question from Brianna, who is here on LinkedIn. She is asking for tips on a great About Me page.

Oh gosh, so many different ways to do this. Um, so let me tell you kind of what one of my biggest tips is for the About Me page that is so often missed, and it goes beyond the story. Like, you should be telling your story on the About Me page, but, um, where are you leading people? Like, we forget that. Like, we write About Me pages and then we get to the end of our stories and it's just done. And you should be leading people when they get to the about— the end of the About Me page. Where do you want to them to go on your site or what do you want them to do? Like if you've got a book, do you want them to, to read it, you know, buy it? If you have a video for them to watch, is that the next step? If you want them to, you know, investigate your services and contact you, don't just end it and hope that someone's inspired enough to figure out what action to take with you. That is so crucial. And I think that's one of the biggest mistakes people make on their about page is they're just like, here's my story. Done.

And the end. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, you really need to spoon-feed. That's a good one. I gotta go check my about pages because I don't know if I have that actually. So after we get off this, I'm gonna go check it out. But that's a great tip. I love that, you know, because not only do you want to, you know, tell people who you are and all that, but like, all right, well, if we're going to take this to the next level, here's how to do that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think with the about me page too, you want to remember, like, you need to tell people about who you are and why you do this in context of your video, of your business, not necessarily like everything they've ever wanted to know about you. Like, you might put some like fun, like, you know, fun facts about me or something like that in order to like more personally connect with your reader. But overwhelmingly, like, you need, you need to be like leading them, like, why is your story maybe also the beginning of their story, you know, like there's that connection, like there's that piece. Like again, there's a reason that I do the work that I do, and there are people that I help because it— like, I was my own client at first. So, um, making that connection so you're not just like, I was born in this town, in this place, but like start us with the, the details that help us figure out why you're here with us doing this work.

Yeah. And I've seen a lot of about pages that have like the short about, the long about, and it's like, that's a lot of about. You know, it's like, you need to break it down for me a little bit, you know, because, you know, to your point from even earlier, it's like you have a couple seconds to make that impression, and people will come, they will see, is this what I need, is this what I want to know about, and then they're going to get out of there. So you don't want to lose them in that, in that storytelling. Yeah, fantastic. Well, thank you again, this has been great. And, uh, if you have other questions, leave them in the chat boxes below. We'll get to those, uh, in the after In the, in the, in the replay world, uh, thank you, Brandy, for being here.

Thanks, Paula, for having me.

Of course. And, uh, you know, I want you to check out that go-to little gift that I have. If you go to paularizzo.com/checklist, you can check out my go-to, uh, how to become a go-to media expert and, uh, all kinds of, you know, information about video and how to, how to use it in your, in your business and in your world. So, uh, can't wait to chat with you again. Have a good one. Thanks.