[Roundup] 5 Visibility Tips for Summer

Hello, we're gonna do something really fun that I haven't done yet on the show, I am celebrating that we are at like episode number 80, which is incredible. It's been a year and a half ish of podcasting for entrepreneur school and absolutely love it. And so I want to take you on a little journey today, back through five of our top episodes. And the theme for all of them has something to do with visibility. That shouldn't surprise you. I talk about it a lot. I think it's one of the most important pieces of growing a business, it's my favorite thing to talk about. And so I have gone through the archives, and found several clips from five episodes that I want you to hear. And you'll find in the show notes below if you want to go back and listen to the full episodes for any of these. If they're really resonating for you right now, then the directions on how to find them are all below. But for now, I just want you to have this like little journey of Entrepreneur School regarding visibility. And if you're new here, this is going to be a great little choose your own adventure into some of the content that we put out. So I hope you enjoy it.

This is the Entrepreneur School podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3am, a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur School.

So our first clip is from episode number 38, which was part of other visibility series that I did way back in the fall. And for the purpose of this episode, what I want to remind you is that it is so important to create a visibility plan that is going to work for your specific business, I see it time and time again. But in over 15 years of creating marketing visibility strategies, I have never written the same one twice, because you need to find something that is uniquely yours that matches your goals and your strengths. So in this episode, you're going to hear one of the five strategies that I actually recommend most for expanding your visibility. And one of the most underutilized ways to find more of your ideal clients. The one that I think is the most underused or underappreciated, I guess, of all of the visibility strategies, and that is offline marketing. Okay, so this is where you go IRL, in real life, and meet other people. So think networking events, think conferences, functions, places where here's two criteria for you are either full of people who you think would be your potential clients, so your potential audience, or they're full of people who are going to help you get in front of your potential clients. And maybe sometimes it's one event and it does both of those things, I definitely want to give you that thought of not just going to every single event that comes up because the hacking get super tiring, it takes a lot of your time and energy. And I know that you're busy and you have a lot of other things going on. So really be strategic and intentional when choosing the types of events that you want to attend. And consider how you can figure out how you can find a circle basically, that you want to continue going to. And it's awesome when you find a community that you can build your own reputation in. So one is just your local community because this is really a great opportunity for you to get in front of people who have businesses or who exist within the same space that you do. And you'll start to notice once you go to a few events, you see the same people over and over again, which is great because the more they see you the more they think about you and what you do and how either they could access your services, or they could share you with somebody else. So these are are usually when you go to an event, there's some kind of opportunity for you to do a little pitch like you got to introduce yourself, whether it's a, an opportunity to have like a 30, or 62nd, Business commercial, some events have things like that, or you're just going to meet somebody in the buffet line, or at the table for your luncheon, where they're going to ask you, what do you do. And so then you pull up the business card, you send them to your website, you open your Instagram profile, and you tell them what you do. So you create that connection, which is awesome. And I have to say that when I look back on all of the clients that I have got to work with over the course of my six years in running my own business, a lot of them have come from me going to events, and building a reputation for myself within the community where I live. So the very first thing I did, when I decided my business was going to be a real thing was go to a networking event, and hand out business cards. I was like, I don't know what I do. But here I am in business. And so like you meet people, and you see them again. And then I went to another event where I got my first two clients, and one of those clients ended up being an amazing partner with me for over five years. So there is so much power in creating real life relationships with people, then also just establishing yourself as the go to person in your niche in your community. It's really, really a great opportunity, especially when people are looking for local vendors to provide the services and looking within our local network first. So I know that there's a lot of power in that. And whether or not your business is something that you can do online, it's you consider yourself to have a digital business or like a virtual business, there's still extra power in the relationships you build within your own community. So don't forget about that as a network as a place where you can be building relationships getting visible, getting more eyeballs on your business. Because people trust people faster, when you meet each other, like you know, right away, if you vibe and connect with somebody. And that makes a huge impact. It takes a lot of Instagram posts to create that same kind of connections with somebody. So that's the first strategy that I still to this day, make sure that I'm using regularly so that I can build the kinds of relationships that I want to help grow my business.

Our next visibility tip is from episode number 60, called the three most effective collabs for your business. Collaborating is one of my most favorite ways to expand visibility and boost your reputation. And in this clip, you're going to hear why collaborating is important. So you can start thinking about thinking about how you can apply it in your business. Why you should collaborate. And the number one thing in case you haven't heard me on the soapbox yet, is about developing strong business relationships. So the more that you can connect with other people and build relationships, that can support you in your own network, for your business, the better off you will be. First of all, entrepreneurship can be very lonely. So this is one way to help navigate that. But having relationships is so so important because people are going to think about you recommend you refer you and talk about you to other people. And that really helps you to get your message across to get connected with more people who need to have you in their world. And of course, a benefit of this is that it helps to speed up your audience growth. So there are other people already out there who are building audiences of people that are similar in makeup, to who you're looking to talk to you. And that is really like the key to determining any good business relationship is how you can support add value to the people who they're already like serving. And so how you can show up and say, here's how I can help you help your audience. Make you look good. Help them learn something, help them get somewhere faster. And again, that is a good benefit to the person who you're speaking to. So that sort of your leverage point. And it also when you are focusing on collaborations, it helps you to build your reputation as a thought leader or an expert in your field. So this is that whole brand growth. How do we become the go to brand in our space, we make connections and we find opportunities use to get in front of people, the groups of people, whether that's like speaking or whether that's through different types of collaborations that I'm going to share here. And then of course, collaborating is more fun, it makes your business more fun. It allows you to get out and do something that we're there's an energy of other people around it. And I just love it so much for that. Because again, sometimes you can just be, you know, stuck sitting in your basement, recording podcast episodes, or working on email, copy or updating your website or trying to create more social media content. And here you are. So engaging with other people becomes, helps it be really, really fun to run your business. And you get feedback. Because there's this other piece that I find where, you know, your brain gets to a place where you don't realize, like that what you know, and what you're sharing is actually not common sense to everybody. And that's the truth. We just, once we've, we become an expert in something we're like, oh, yeah, that's easy. That simple. Nobody, everybody must know this. And the truth is they don't. And the more you can collaborate with other people, the more you're going to have that reflected back to you and really be reminded that what you are doing is valuable, that what you're sharing is insightful, and that people need it. And so that is a lovely kind of additional side effect, where you get sort of that validation, and that feedback that helps you to remember that you are in fact, as valuable as you are.

Our next visibility tip is from episode number 63, how to stop relying on social media for visibility. Probably my favorite topic, probably something that I'm going to continue to talk about a lot in multiple episodes. But this one really digs into why some of the risks of using social media and just how to shift your perspective on how to use social media differently. Because spoiler alert, not telling you, you don't have to use it at all. There are some truths here. And that is that people are going to look on social media to do a little more digging on what you're all about, see if you're legit, check that you're still operating, right? So when when people find you on various platforms, they'll likely go and look and check your social media to see, you know, is this business still active? What else can I learn about this person, this is where the opportunities come in to share some of your more personal side, your personality, your brand, and help that shine through. Because if you go quiet too long, it can appear that you're no longer in business. So there is something to be said about a little bit of consistency when it comes to your social media presence. And that it is in fact important that you have one, I am not going to sit here and say let's screw social media, we don't need to use it. I don't agree that that's true. It is a very popular and important tool. But it doesn't need to be the driving force behind the way that you reach people and grow your business. And I think that's where the shift needs to come in. Because if we can think about that a little bit differently, and just flip it to how can I use social media to supplement what I am doing for visibility? And to maintain a presence and test out messaging and create connections? Versus how do I get found on social media? And how do I find clients on social media? And how do I make sales on social media? And if we stop asking those questions, we can use this tool entirely differently. So what we'd like to suggest as far as what to do instead, is integrate social media strategies and use other forms of visibility as your primary. So for example, I have to say that I've had my business for almost seven years. And so I've had social media accounts for that long. And the majority of my growth that comes from people finding me in other places. So now you find me on my podcast, or on other people's podcasts. Or if I do a speaking event, or I go somewhere and I'm networking in person or somebody finds my website and then they connect to me from social media from there. That's the pathway versus five in the Explore feed and everyone's finding me and my business is growing from social media as the source. See the distinction? I hope so. So social media, really to me is all about relationship building and connections. It's a place where you have an opportunity to have a conversation, which is a fantastic use of the tool, we have direct messaging features and chat features and commenting. That can happen on any social media platform that you're using. And that is where you can leverage those things and reach out and send voice memos and make real connections with people who are engaging with you. Because this is this is the opportunity to really start a relationship and relationships, build trust, and trust is what leads to ultimately sales.

Our next visibility tip comes from episode number 71. What is a visibility tour, this is the framework the strategy that I have been applying myself in my business for about a year now. And so in this episode, I'm going to share what it is why you should use one, how it helps you to become the go to expert in your field. And I also walk through a case study of how it has worked and some of the results that it has created for me in my business. The purpose is to enhance your visibility and increase the volume essentially have your marketing and your message for a specific period of time. And my initial recommended timeframe for that is 60 days. So that's that's eight weeks, where you go a little harder than normal, you commit to some consistency, which doesn't mean you have to do something every single day. But you build your momentum. And so that's the real benefit of going on a visibility tour. It's it creates a chain reaction of momentum. And it's really amazing because you don't tend to know what one action you take is going to lead to. I mean, we'd all love to know that if I do this, then this is going to happen. But the reality is, you have to like reverse engineer it, you have to go, this happened because I did this, and I talked to that person and I went to this event. And I can trace it back to like step number one, right, which is a fun game that I like to play. For me, it goes all the way back to when I was 13 years old, I have the choice to pick between two different high schools. And if I had picked the other one, I would have never met my husband, though sometimes it's amazing how a decision and an action can really create that ripple effect that spreads out to sometimes for months at a time, right? Because a lot of what we do when it comes to visibility can be a longer game, it's not necessarily an instant result or response that comes. So I want to share a bit of a case study of how this has been really rolling out for me with some recent examples for you, so that you can see how it's been building. So first of all, the very first thing I did was last summer, I was like, No, I don't work that much. But I'm worried about having that summer lag, where, because it's nice outside, and I don't want to really do anything. I'm like, not focused on my business at all. And I was worried about what would happen if I let myself do that, who would mean September would come. And I'd have to feel like trying to get the wheels back underneath me. So I wanted those wheels to be rolling all summer long. So what I did was I committed to taking a visibility action, like once per day. And these actions, which I've shared about in many other episodes are like 10 minute actions, they're things like reaching out to a past client, or connecting with somebody who you want to collaborate with, or putting something out there like writing an email to your email list or to somebody who you want to start to do an event with to speak at their podcast to do something like that. These are short little actions that are really just putting yourself out there and creating that momentum and creating those relationships.

Our final visibility tip comes from episode number 72, the two mindset shifts that you need to help you get more visible. Now most of what is holding us back from putting ourselves out there. It's all in our heads, which is like I roll but also that's an empowering statement because you are in control of all of the conversation that is going on in your head. So in this episode, I talk through the subconscious beliefs that are holding you back and how to get yourself to take action, even when you don't want to. So let's talk about crushing that imposter syndrome and the news flow Asch that you already know is you have to talk about your business for people to know about it. It's truly the only way for you to make money for you to be able to serve the clients that you want to help. If you talk about yourself, and you build up that brand awareness, but it's scary, because when you think about marketing and visibility, the thoughts go running through your head. When if I get rejected, or I fail, or I seem salesy, or I'm not professional enough, or I'm too much, or I'm just I'm not ready. Right? I heard it said before, and I absolutely love this, if you don't have imposter syndrome, you're not trying anything new. So anytime that you try a new way of promoting yourself, or you have a new offer that you want to sell, or you're new at your business, or you're new to an industry, impostor syndrome is a requirement. So you actually better feel like an impostor at first, because that is how you grow. And so we really just have to build that confidence muscle over time. And it truly comes from taking action. So you don't have to know exactly what to do or how to do it. You just have to get yourself into momentum by taking action because action creates results. Strategy is great. But raise your hand if you have ever been stuck, overthinking and trying to perfect things, because you're trying to find out the exact way to do it before you actually just do it. Right. You've heard it said before, you need to start before you're ready. And overthinking is a disease. And so here's how I suggest that you can get yourself to take action. I've just coined this term that I'm calling the future you mindset. So it's like how you don't want to plan your meals on a Sunday night. But you're so thankful when Thursday rolls around, and now you know what you're having for dinner and you order pizza. Like I'm literally patting myself on my back. I'm recording this on a Thursday, Thursday is that is the day by which I fall apart when it comes to the meal planning for sure in that scenario, but I already made dinner. It's in the crock pot. We're having it like everybody can go to their 17 activities tonight, because it's going to be easy because I planned for myself on Sunday when I didn't want to do it. I was like Thursday, Kelly, she'll be so happy that this meal was made. So do it for her. Right for that feeling like how amazing is it when you crawl into bed with fresh sheets, because you remember to change them before 10:30pm You didn't just like take the laundry out and put it on the bed and then come up to your room and go, oh, there's that pile of sheets on my bed. I have been there so many times. So if current you does not feel like writing the email to ask about the collab, that is fine. Do it for future you. Right? Think about where you're going to be two months from now.

There you have it. That is our first round up episode. I want to know did you like this format? Was this helpful? Are you listening for the first time Are you new to the show and this is a good way of you getting to know us a little bit better. We would love to hear your feedback. So pop on over to Instagram. You can find me at ks ko underscore Kelly, send me a message and let me know what you thought of this RoundUp episode.

You did it you just listen to another episode of the Entrepreneur School Podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prep dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode and tagging us on Instagram, head to entrepreneurschool.ca for tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community. And until next time, go out there and do the thing.