8 Ways to Serve Your Audience

Good morning. Happy Monday. Welcome to this edition of Monday Momentum. I'm battling the ring light circles, so I'm going to keep my head down. It's weird because I don't ever wear my glasses when I'm live, so I am trying to adjust. But today we're talking about how to serve your audience, and you may realize that every Monday I show up and serve my audience right here on on Facebook Live. And that's just one way that you can serve your audience. But we're going to talk about 8 different ways today that you can show up and serve your audience. So if you're watching, let me know that you're here. I'd also like to kick off the chat with, tell me one way that you serve your audience. Okay, tell me one way that you show up and serve your audience on a regular basis. And I'm going to talk to you a little bit about where this topic stemmed from today. Let me come over to the chat. I'd love to say hi to you this morning. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Diana. Um, the hair— listen, I cannot take credit for this hair, Diana. I go get my hair done every Monday morning, and listen, it is something that I have done for a couple years now, and, um, I will never not do that unless I can't afford to anymore. Like, I will not have my Starbucks to go get my hair done. I not eat out to go get my hair done. Like, there are other things I will sacrifice other than my Monday morning blowout that I get done. It just kind of starts my week off right, makes me feel great. And, and then I'm able to walk into Monday like a boss, like a boss, like I'm ready to roll. So I will never not do that unless I can't afford it anymore. So good morning, Lexi. The glasses— I— so if you guys don't know, I wear contacts every day. I cannot see. If I take these glasses off right now, I can see the screen, but I can't see any of the chat. So yes, that is how blind I am. But I typically don't wear my glasses, but I just felt like wearing them today. My book is out on Amazon. I became a number one new release in starting a business category over the weekend. So I was feeling like an author in my glasses today. Good morning, Sarah from the UK. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Theresa. Hey, Christy. Good morning, Vontina. Good morning, Tara. Good morning, Tracy. Good morning, everybody. Hey, Lisa. I got some YouTube watchers this morning. Okay. Carmela says, I do live motivational videos 5 days a week. This is one way that she serves her audience. I love that, Carmela. Vontina says, I do 2 times a week Facebook and YouTube Live. All right. Myra says, I serve by posting the daily gospel. That is a great way to be serving your audience. Good Monday Momentum morning to you, Erin. Good morning, Mandy. How are you serving your audience? Lexi says wedding tips, words of encouragement. Let's see. Good morning, everybody. Sarah says she preordered my book. Y'all, Thank you so much. I'm so excited. It's on preorder on Amazon and I'll share it with you in just a second. But that's not what today's about. I'm not here to tell you about my book. I'm here to serve you today. So I want to make sure that I do that today. So, all right, let's talk a little bit about how to serve your audience. Here's where this Monday Momentum stemmed from. Okay, so I was in the Launch Your Box group over the weekend. I was answering some questions, checking out to see what you guys were working on, and I saw this post from Allison and it said, hey, quick question, any help is much appreciated, y'all. Sarah tells us to serve our customers, but we only sell pecan pralines right now in our box with an early bird bonus item of a specialty ground coffee included. What do I do to serve my customer on social media and emails? I love the post others have showing how to match clothing items or decorate cookies, but I'm stumped. Thanks for the ideas. So I love this because here's what I want you to think about. Don't get tripped up. You are not that different. You, you see my examples of a style guide or how to pair stuff together or how to wear something because that's what I sell. But I want you to think about it in ways that you sell. Okay. So when I went to the chat, I, I loved it because there were so many comments about what Alison could do by so many of the members. And this is the beauty of being in Launch Your Box. You can post something and here comes our community with lots of different ideas. Sarah says, I love nuts and sweets, but I don't even know what a praline is. Don't be afraid to start at the very beginning of knowledge for those that are new to you. So that is one way that you don't be afraid to break it down in the most simple terms. Stacy said, post stories about pralines, interesting facts. How can they use your pralines in a bigger recipe? How do they pair them with wines? Things like that. April says, how about the content that communicates the experience? Will pralines connect your customers to cherished memories or family traditions? Share how your recipe has become a family tradition and the memories. For some, they are really buying a tasty treat, and those will be buying for a treat that reminds them of someone or somewhere special. I loved these ideas. Here's some more. Mandy says, what about sharing one of your favorite summertime recipes or something that would pair well with your sweet treats? Cameron says, when do you eat pralines? After dinner, afternoon tea, breakfast, during the holidays, decadent desserts, special occasion. Then show them how to pair with drinks or flavored coffees, teas, Cocoa cocktails. Like, there's so many ideas here, and it's a direct reflection of the community. And so what I want you to understand is that you're not different. When you think about serving your audience, all the— that all that you need to think about is how to apply it to your product and your business. Not that, okay, well, Sarah sells clothing. Her examples are clothing. I sell food. I can't figure this out. Sometimes we're too close to it. So that's why Alison sharing it in our community and all these other business owners showing up and saying, oh, here's some things that you can do. It's going to spark those ideas. So I have 8 different things for you today. To think about serving your audience. And if you're not understanding what I mean by serving your audience, we need to build a know, like, and trust factor with our audience before we ever ask for the sale. Okay? So what I want you to think about is before I show up and ask for you to buy my subscription, before I show up and ask you to buy one of my things, what am I providing? What am I doing to build a know, like, and trust factor? I don't want to be a used car salesman. I don't want to just sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, hard sell, oversell, all the ways that you can sell. I don't want to do that. I want you to see that I am a person just like you. I want you to get something from me. I want to serve you. That's one reason that I show up every Monday right here with one teaching point. I can save all this content for inside our memberships, but this is how I show up and serve. It is something extra that I do every single week aside from all the paid content that I deliver. My podcast is another way I serve my audience. I'm giving real actionable how-tos and steps to build a business. I'm doing it a little bit differently on Monday Momentum. I'm trying to inspire you. I'm trying to motivate you. I'm trying to help you get pumped up for the week so that you can make progress. That's how I'm serving you. So let's talk about how you can, you can serve your audience. And I think about it in a product way. It's easy to teach somebody something. It's easy to, you know, share your knowledge. But let's talk about it in a product way. Okay. So number 1, if you're a note taker, get your notebook out. Let's make some notes here. Share a how-to or ways to consume your product. Share a how-to or ways to consume your product. So if I'm here trying to always try to find something on my desk to show you, I sell earrings, right? 10 outfit ideas for your earrings. That is a way that I can serve my audience. Do you know how many TikTok videos and Instagram Reels I watch with people putting outfits together, outfits for 40-year-old women, outfits for business women, outfits for whatever. I could put together a how-to wear your earrings 10 different— with 10 different outfits, how to use your bag in 10 different ways. I'm going to use it for a road trip. I'm going to use it to take food to the, you know, a family gathering. I'm going to use it for this. I'm going to use— like, this is what I'm talking about. How to do something or how to consume your product. We need them to consume our product. I need you to take your earrings out of your subscription box and wear them. And if I give you 10 different outfit ideas, You're going to be like, oh, I have a shirt like that in my closet. Oh, I can pair that with jeans and a blazer. Yes, I'm going to do that. And then I'm going to wear these earrings a lot. So how can you do that with your own product? Think about how to consume your product. Share step-by-step guides, share tutorials. Number 1. Share how to use or consume your product. Number 2, what pairs with your product? Okay, so if I have a dog bed, I'm going to give you different things because you guys see examples from my business all the time. I have a dog box. What would pair with my dog box? So maybe I send you some treats, Maybe I send you some toys for your dog. What pairs with that? These treats my dog love. They will also love these. Here's where you get them. If your dog love these treats in my box, here's some more from this company. Here's where you get them. What pairs with your product? For t-shirts, I sell t-shirts. What pairs with that? Oh, those earrings that I just talked to you about. Oh, a kimono. Oh, a cute little sling bag. Maybe these glasses that I got offline— online from Warby Parker would look so cute with that leopard kimono that I just sold you and that black t-shirt that was in our t-shirt club. What pairs with your product? When you think about Allison's pralines, what pairs with that? A drink? Coffee pralines? Tea pralines? Like what pairs with that product, what dinner can I make, and then pralines are the dessert. Number 3, advice or life hack. This doesn't have to have anything to do with your product. What advice or life hack do you have for someone? It's funny because I posted a picture the other day, um, of my coffee, and I always put my stopper right in my sleeve. So here's, here's my scenario. I go to Starbucks in the morning, get ready in the morning on Mondays. I go to Starbucks on Monday because it's right next to where I get my hair done on Mondays. So I get my coffee and I go get my hair done. We'll always have them put a stopper in it because I don't actually drink it for like 30 minutes because I'm in the shampoo bowl, so I need it to stay hot. So I always have a stopper in my coffee when I get to the salon. And then when I sit down and she starts to blow out my hair, I put my stopper right here every time. And I was posting a picture in the salon the other day and she's like, oh my gosh, that's the greatest Starbucks life hack I've ever seen. I never know what to do with my stopper when I take it out of my drink. And then when I get in the car to come over to my office, I put it back in so it doesn't slosh around in the car. but then you don't have to lay it anywhere. It's just a simple life hack. Put, put your stopper in your sleeve when you go to Starbucks. Things like that. What life hacks can you give? Okay, it could be simple. Think about your audience. My audience is Southern busy moms. You know, what life hack could I share today? And it could be simple. And the problem is we don't even think that that's a life hack. We don't think that somebody doesn't know not to do our to do that. But it could be like a dinner, a quick dinner recipe for my Southern busy moms. I don't sell anything that has to do with food, but you know what, if I show you how to make my Crock-Pot chicken enchiladas, you're going to be like, yes, that's the best life hack ever. It could be what I'm binge-watching on Netflix this week. I'm serving them, got a long weekend, check out my 3 favorite Netflix binges that I've been watching lately. I'm serving them. I'm sharing something. So number 3, advice or life hack. It can be so simple. Don't overthink it. Number 4, educational content. Educational content. This could be in the form of blog posts, podcasts, articles, videos. I do a lot of educational content for this page. And you guys consume it a lot. And so that can be for you, what's my knowledge, what's my expertise? Okay, if I have that dog subscription, what do I know about how many times a week you should walk your dog, how long you should walk your dog? Did you know that the sidewalk is like 160 degrees right now in the sun and it can burn your, your dog's feet, I would make a post about that and share that. That's educational content. How often should I wash my dog bed? How often should I change my dog's collar? Educational content, very simple. What's in a praline? What's in a praline? What are the ingredients? I even think educational content would be a video of me making the pralines. I want to know how it's made. Either— is that show— I can't remember what it's called, but, um, it's like Dirty Jobs or something. Like, you go behind the scenes and you learn, like, what these people do, and, like, they have the worst, dirtiest jobs. And that's educational. I had no idea things were made like that. I had no idea that's how you got that from that. That's educational content, and it can be in the form of videos, blog posts, podcasts, any way. How do you educate your audience? Number 5, community building. Y'all know I love a good community, and I've built some really incredible communities inside Launch Your Box and Scale Your Box and my mastermind. Because I believe in community, and I believe that when you have a really strong community, it builds a lot of retention and loyalty. So how can you build community within your business? How can you serve your audience by building a community that they want to be a part of? Private groups, Zoom nights, book club, Connection calls. How do you build a community? Some of you offer in-person workshops, some of you offer Zoom workshops, some of you offer different things. Does your product have a way for you to build a community? Number 6, free resources. I'm talking ebooks, templates, recipes, checklists. So many, so many opportunities for resources. You can serve your audience by providing free resources for lots of different things. Who's still stumped? Who still is like, I can't figure out how I would serve my audience? Tell me in the chat. Number 7, host Q&A sessions. So easy. You can just go live and say, hey, y'all, I am going live tonight. We're going to talk about monograms. And I would love you guys grab your glass of wine, cup of coffee, whatever it is you're drinking, and join me for a little chit chat Q&A. Girl talk. Ask me anything. That's a great way to share your expertise. Great way to share your expertise. And that's a great way to have back and forth conversations with people in the chat and you, you get to share your knowledge, you get to engage with your audience. Number 8, inspiration and/or entertainment. Share stories, share quotes, share content that's just fun and entertaining. How many of you, like me, lay in your bed at night and watch TikTok videos? I follow a lot of people just for their entertaining content. I— Matt Rife, can we talk about Matt Rife? Um, I watch his— I watch his TikTok videos, listen to him make jokes about people in the crowd. I watch try-on videos, I watch cooking videos, I watch people make cakes and cookies, and I don't bake. That's entertaining to me. That's serving me. I— and when you're talking, when you're talking on the video and you're explaining the process or you're sharing some story, I'm building a connection with you. I already feel like I know you. So it doesn't have to be like you have to provide all this incredible knowledge Just have fun. Be inspirational. Be entertaining. That's how you build your know, like, and trust factor. Diane, I make soap. Diane, you could do all of these. All of these. What pairs with your product? What life hack do you have for soap? Just a fun little story, and this is a story you could share too. My grandparents lived on a farm, and, um, you know when the soap gets really little and you can't hardly use it anymore? We would save all those. Grandma would never let us throw anything away. We had to save them. She would melt them together, and then you'd have like this big bar of weird looking soap because it had all the little pieces of soap stuck to each other. That's a funny story. That's a life hack. Address the most common problems people have with soap. Itchy, dry. Show the benefits of your product compared to those. What free resources could you provide about your product? What kind of entertainment could you show about soap? It could be funny stuff. There's so much. I want you to stop overthinking it because every one of you have a way that you can show up and serve your audience in different ways. And the problem is we're so close to it, we don't see it. Ask your audience, go to your page today and ask your audience, what do you want to know about my product? What would— ask them some questions. Who is your ideal customer and what would serve them? And sometimes serving them has nothing to do with your product. Here's my chicken enchilada crock pot recipe. I don't sell dishes, I don't cook, I don't— I mean, I don't sell anything that would go with that. But you know what, it's, it's an easy recipe that you can start in the morning before you go to work because I know that you guys are Southern busy moms in my audience and you just need a quick dinner that's not the same 6 things you always make. That's a way I can serve. It doesn't have to have anything to do with your product. Building genuine relationships and trust with your audience will lead to long-term customer loyalty. People don't want to always just show up and be sold to. They want to feel like we're BFFs. They want to feel— and they feel like they know me. I can go to Walgreens this afternoon, Somebody in there will know me, and they feel like they know me well enough because they watch me live every week and my personality shows. And they're like, hey Sarah! I'm like, hey! You want people to feel like they know you. Use social media to be social. Stop looking at it like a negative thing. Why do you get on social media? Why do you, why do you get on social media? See what other people are doing? See what's going on in the world? Watching stupid TikTok videos while you're trying to fall asleep? That's why I get on social media. Be social, show your personality, and just be you. We get in our heads so much. About who we think we need to be on social media. Just be yourself. Just be you. You're going to attract people like you. Number 1, share how to use or consume your product. Number 2, show what pairs with your product. Number 3, share a life hack or advice. Number 4, share educational content. Number 5, community building. Number 6, free resources. Number 7, host a Q&A session. And number 8, share inspiration or entertainment. Stop overthinking it. Just be you, Stephanie. Don't get in your head about it. When I first went live, nobody was there either. It takes consistency. You have to build a relationship. The first time I went live here I had a very small number of people, but then they got used to me being live every Monday at 9 AM, and more people came and more people came. And when I showed up and gave them something of value and really served, like, oh, this is good stuff. I'm going to come back and join Sarah every Monday because this is getting my brain going on a Monday morning. You have to be consistent with it. More people will come. I will never forget the time I was live and someone other than my 3 best friends commented on my life. For a month, the only people that would ask me questions or engage on my lives were my 3 best friends that I asked to show up and support me. And then one day, someone I didn't recognize asked me a question, and then that led to more people and more people. It takes consistency, okay? And just remember that more people are going to watch that on the replay, so it doesn't matter who was there or not there during your live. More people are going to watch that, okay? Keep going. All right, all right. I want you to serve your audience this week. Find a way to show up and serve your audience multiple ways this week. The more we can show up and serve, the better we will be able to sell. But if we're only showing up to sell, we look like the used car salesman. We all know how we feel about those. All right, so I'll see you back here next Monday for another episode of Monday Momentum where I get to serve you, and I genuinely love it, and I want you to love serving your audience too. All right, have a great rest of your week.