[SGC-19] 3 Tips for Working Smarter, Not Harder This Lunar New Year

Hello there, Content Creators. You're listening to the She's Got Content podcast where it's all about creating content for your coaching business. I'm your host, Dr. Melissa Brown, and I'm here every week to help you get your content out of your head, out of your heart, and out there into the world where that information and your services can impact the most people. Get ready to take notes today and then take action, Content Creators. Let's dive in with today's episode because you've got content to get out there.

Hello and welcome back Content Creators. At the time of this recording, the world is celebrating the Lunar New Year. And according to the animal Zodiac, we're leaving the year of the tiger behind us. It's now the year of the rabbit stretching ahead for us in 2023. According to ancient teachings, I've discovered online, the year of the rabbit means, the world is expected to experience a period of calm and peace. Heaven knows we're due for some of that. I surely hope that's true. So what else does the Zodiac year of the rabbit have in store for us Content Creators Well, the rabbit year calls for more time for rest and reflection. Dreaming. And self care. And it boils down to focusing in on a year of working smarter, not harder in your business. And heck let's just all work smarter, not harder in every and all things. Why not? I don't know about you specifically, but the past year seemed a bit, um, chaotic and unbalanced for me, and for many people I've spoken to. There was a lot of hamster wheel spinning going on for a lot of folks. Well, myself included in that group. So a focus on working smarter, not harder, sounds like the perfect prescription. Working smarter, not harder to get your content out there in the world is not a new concept. I'm sure you heard about this theme before. I think it's always a good idea to review some of the ways you can save more of your time and save on your efforts to get something done. I like to ask the question, what would this look like if it were easy? Because who doesn't want to be more time efficient with creating content to increase your reach and your visibility in the world? You know it's critically important to have your expert content out there to help those who are looking for you. To attract them into your world and to nurture and support them. You already know that that's extremely important. And if there are ways to be more efficient to get a bigger return on investment in the time and the effort you spend for that bottom line, helping more people with your services and products, then hey, I'm all for that. And I'm sure you're a hella yes, too! So, today, I'm going to talk about three ways to incorporate working smarter, not harder this year. And I think you'll notice that there's a common theme here. It's about getting visible and it's also about building relationships. The word Rolodex encompasses all your business contacts and friends. I like to say the size, the quality of the relationships with all of those people in your Rolodex. Is how you're able to roll in the dough. Because the larger your Rolodex and the better your relationships are with those people in your world, the more people who know you, like you, trust you, then you're going to have more potential opportunities to work smarter, not harder and build your business. Let's take a look at some of the ways to increase your visibility, get your content seen by more people, the right people, the folks who are looking for what you have to offer. The first way is to collaborate with others. There are so many ways you can leverage other people's audiences to grow yours and get your content seen. Let's just talk about a few examples here. You could write a guest blog post for a colleague. Make sure you include a content upgrade to have their readers opt in for a freebie to your email list from that blog post on your colleague's site. You want to choose someone who has a similar audience of course when you're collaborating for a guest blog post. A cross- blog conversation with another blogger will introduce you to their audience and your collaborative partner to your audience. Pick a topic and write about it on your blog with a question for your collaborator to take it from there. Include a link to their blog for your readers to go over there and follow the conversation. Then your collaborator posts an answer to your query and continues discussing the topic leading to another link back to your blog, where you respond in another post. This can go on back and forth until both partners feel the discussion is complete. You can also swap lead magnets with other coaches or entrepreneurs who have a similar audience. Someone who doesn't compete for the same services, although they may be complimentary or supplementary to what you offer your similar audiences. Another way is to team up with someone to swap live stream guest interviews. It's kind of on the same line as a lead magnet swap. But you're just getting live in front of their audience and they're getting live in front of your audience. You want to make sure as with all of these strategies that you have some call to action for all of these collaborations so that your efforts will pay off with an increase in your list growth. And don't forget about local opportunities too. Don't just think about online people. Think about local entrepreneurs in your area and how could you possibly collaborate with them? There's also likely local brick and mortar businesses too in addition to local entrepreneurs, people and businesses that reach your ideal clients. How can you collaborate with them for exposure to their audience? Here's a little example: in my local area, in the past, there was a local brick and mortar gift boutique. And the owner collaborated with a group of local women entrepreneurs and she opened up the store after hours to create a venue where those entrepreneurs could gather guests and offer a free talk. The store was opened for private shopping before and after, during some networking time. So it turned out to be a win-win for everyone. So think about some local shop owners you could approach to create something similar in your area. Another way is to start speaking on stages where you don't necessarily have to fill the seats for the stage. And I'm talking about speaking on others' stages. So this is the second way to work smarter, not harder. Speaking on others' stages requires a talk so come up with a signature talk that you can use in multiple places, to speak for live in-person events and virtual stages. Now, your signature talk is one that you can either make larger and add more content for a longer talk. Or you can accordion it down smaller. So maybe you cover only a couple of points which that longer talk would go into more depth with those bullets. Reach out to maybe consider joining local groups for speaking opportunities. There are local chapters of networking groups, rotary clubs, women's groups. They're always looking for great speakers to share information with their members and their audience. Check out the opportunities for speaking at your local library to give an educational talk or a PowerPoint presentation. Contact local PTA groups in your schools, in your area if the audience and your topic would be appropriate for the parents in a local school. Some of these opportunities may not allow you to sell your services directly from their stage, but you might be able to give away your lead magnet in exchange for their email addresses. Speaking on other stages include speaking on podcasts. That may sound a little intimidating at first, but keeping with the smarter, not harder theme here, start by making a list of people you already know who have a podcast that might also have a similar audience as you. Ask them if you could be interviewed for the show, offering a specific topic or a transformation for their listeners from having you on the show. Once you've done a few of those podcast interviews to get your confidence up, then start exploring and targeting other podcasters who are popular with your target audience. You'll then have some podcast interviews to refer the host back to so she can listen to your brilliant past interviews. And be sure that you've listened to her show too when you pitch yourself. Make this ask specific to her. For instance, write in your email about something specific in a show. Cite a previous episode that you particularly loved and got a huge aha from. No one wants to receive a form email where you plugged in the name and send it out to 30 podcasters. This effort to really customize your ask is worth the extra time spent. And here's a tip to take your podcasting guest efforts to the next level. I got this tip from my friend Laurie-Ann Murabito, who's a speaking strategist. I'm going to link to Laurie-Ann's website in the show notes so you can check out her brilliance too. Laurie-Ann got booked on over 30 podcasts last year and here is the way she did it: after the recording is turned off on your interview before you say goodbye to your host, ask them," who do you know that my message or my story would be a good fit for their audience?" Podcast hosts know other podcast hosts. And that could really snowball into a lot more bookings for you too when you ask that question. Okay, here is another way to get onto other people's stages. Offer to teach inside other entrepreneurs' groups as a guest expert. Maybe you know someone who has a, a group or a membership and what you teach about or have a service for would be a complement or a supplement for what that group is learning. Offer to come into the group as a guest expert and teach that group for the host. Here's another tip to remember when you're on others' stages, always have a call to action to bring people back to your lead magnet landing page. And if for some reason, you can't promote your lead magnet, at least bring them back to your website's homepage, where you have a lead magnet call to action visible-- some type of an opt-in box there on that landing page for your homepage on your website. The third way that you can work smarter, not harder in increasing your visibility and increasing your reach, is to consider hosting small round table zoom sessions every week or every other week to network in small groups. Small groups of entrepreneurs that you have invited into this small round table discussion. And your intention is developing relationships and collaborations. Now the ideal number of people in these groups is about four or five, including yourself. So you're not talking about huge groups of people. It's a part mastermind part networking format for this type of meetings. And what you do is you invite a group of people to come together and each person shares what's been working for them and each participant has a chance to make an ask for what they need. Maybe they're looking for opportunities to be on a particular type of a podcast. Maybe they're looking for speaking opportunities. Or lead magnet partners. Maybe they're looking for a new coach. The asks are going to vary. And everyone in that round table can mentally think of their Rolodex, scan their Rolodex to see who they know that they could possibly connect with the participants in the round table. It's also good for everyone in that round table to share their descriptions of their next ideal clients. And then the participants can keep their eyes open for any of those people who might say they're looking for X, Y or Z, or who would be a perfect fit for one of their round -table table mates. Everyone shares their contact information and that way people can get in touch with each other after the round table is over. Now the round table sessions last about 90 minutes or so. And there's no selling going on during the time of these round tables. This is purely for networking, relationship developing and collaborating. So, consider doing the round table zoom sessions on a regular basis and see how it goes. So there you have it: three ways to work smarter, not harder by leveraging other people's audiences, their stages, and their Rolodexes, their networks, so you can connect through collaborations, build up those relationships, and network with others with the intention of giving. That's the way to keep growing your audience, your leads, and add new clients. Happy Lunar New Year. And may the year of the rabbit bring you peace and contentment. And may you find new and effective ways to work smarter, not harder to get your content out there into the world. Until next week, remember that there are people out there looking to find you. Stop being invisible and start collaborating with others to find more ways to reach those people who are looking for your solutions.

Thank you for tuning into this episode of the She's Got Content podcast. I hope you got at least one nugget to take action on this week. If you got value from today's episode, I would be so grateful when you leave a five star rating wherever you listen to podcasts. It only takes a second and it really helps me get my message out to impact even more people so they can in turn, keep the ripple going. If you're listening on Apple Podcast and leave a review of the show, it would really make my day, and you just might receive a shout out on the show as my Content Creator of the week when I read out your review. And last but never least, if you want an endless supply of just right ideas for content you can write about for your blog post, your emails, your videos, podcast episodes, all the content things, then you wanna head over to my website at shesgotcontent.com/content and pick up your free workbook, Never Run Out of Content Ideas. Look for that link in the show notes today along with the other links mentioned in today's episode. Until next time, Content Creators, you've got an audience waiting to hear from you and you've got content to share with them. Stop being the best kept secret and make a bigger impact when you've got content out there in the world.