120 | How To Build An Audience With Zero Followers (What They Don’t Tell You)

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You don't need to be more

visible to grow your audience.

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You need to be more useful,

more you, more interesting.

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Today I'm excited to cover

a topic that has been highly

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requested for this podcast, which

is how to build an audience.

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Even if you are starting

from zero followers,

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you are listening to episode 120

of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I'm Jo Lott, your host and

I help coaches build their

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business with honesty, not hype.

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Most coaches think they need to post more

or be on every platform, but the truth

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is, if your content is boring, it doesn't

matter how visible you are or how much you

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put it out there, it's not gonna generate

the result you want in your business.

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If you aren't sure who you're talking

to, if your content feels a bit generic,

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and if you aren't spending time

really thinking about what is

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going to stop the scroll, then

you can be wasting a lot of time.

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I've spent a long time doing that,

posting into the void, wondering why

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people weren't engaging, and slowly

realizing it wasn't how often I posted.

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It was about what I was saying

and how I was saying it.

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I had a social media manager for maybe 18

months prior to January, and now if I look

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at my stats, since I took my own content

back and really put a focus on what I

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was creating, thinking about the best

hook, working really hard on my visuals.

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Now, if I look at my analytics on

LinkedIn, for example, there is

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such a noticeable shift in exactly

when I started doing that in terms

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of the graph that you see, and that

also translates into followers.

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So instead of more content,

think more curiosity.

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What is gonna make someone stop scrolling?

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It's not always information.

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It's interest.

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So here is a simple

audience building rule.

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Start every piece of content with a hook.

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Not a hi everyone, or here are three tips.

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Really spend 80% of your time

on the first line of your post

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and on the visual of your post.

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It needs to be something that evokes

curiosity that makes people say, what?

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What could this be about?

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Our time is so precious and the

people who win are the people who

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can spark that interest enough for

people to stop their scroll and

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actually look at what you have to say.

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Let's make this practical now.

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So here are three hook templates

that you can steal right now to

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actually take action on this episode.

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The first one is, everyone says X,

but here's what no one tells you.

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This challenges common wisdom and people

are curious enough to hit see more or

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to look further into your post because

they're wondering what your opinion is.

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So for example, everyone says Post

daily, no one talks about what to

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do when you have nothing to say.

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So whatever you can do to challenge

the norm is really exciting.

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Even if you don't think you're a

particularly controversial person, like

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I certainly aren't, but it really does

help to think, I believe, for example,

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in honesty, not hype, and just having

that strap line has made me a lot of

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money because I have challenged hype.

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Okay, hook two is, I used to

believe X until Y happened.

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This type of hook shows

growth or transformation.

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So for example, it might be I used

to think you needed to get a low paid

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local admin job to get term time only.

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School hours only work until I created

a six figure business working 20

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hours a week and term time only.

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So that is my genuine transformation

from my previous 10 pound an hour

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admin job when my daughter was

starting school and I had no way of now

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getting to London as well as dropping

two kids at different locations.

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So I did take that step back into a

low paid admin job, and now I have

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gone on to build exactly what I was

seeking at that time and completely

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challenge the norm that you can earn

good money around the school run.

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That post always does super well for

me as it's inspiring and it shows

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growth or transformation and that

it's possible for a lot of different

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people who may be in that situation.

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Okay, hook three is, here's a truth I

wish someone had told me when I started.

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This builds trust and mentorship energy.

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For me, that might be something

like, I wish I knew that just having

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a coaching qualification would have

very little impact on gaining clients

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and growing your coaching business.

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Again, that challenges the norm.

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It helps people learn through your

hindsight and hard earned lessons.

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So now you have three hooks to get

started today with super engaging content.

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let's go deeper into what I call my

Super Signal system, because audience

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building is really about sending

consistent signals to your people.

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So Signal one is, I see you.

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To show that you have radical deep

empathy for your ideal client and

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you understand their problems deeply.

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Signal two, I've been there.

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So sharing your story and struggles

will help them to see that you know

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where they're at, and you know how

to get to where they want to go.

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And signal three, here's the path you

give them, the simple steps forward.

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When you hit all three of these in your

content, you stop sounding like a coach

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and start sounding like their coach.

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And I can hear your questions now

because as we know as coaches, you

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don't have to have been there to

be able to show somebody the way.

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You can provide that space for them.

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So what happens if your journey isn't

the same as your ideal client's journey?

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So maybe you are a leadership coach,

but maybe you have never been a leader.

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For this one, I would say get

out there and get social proof.

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I am not a marketer by trade, but how I've

done this is by starting from absolute

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scratch from my HR background, nothing

to do with marketing and built business

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building and marketing skills just like

you if you are that leadership coach,

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without that leadership experience,

you can either start stepping into

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leadership right now and showing that

there is a different way, or you can

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also go out there and get as many case

studies as you can so you can start

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to share your client's transformation.

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But I know in many of the coaches

I work with, you often do this

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work because of your own story.

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So really do take the time to stop

and consider your own personal

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transformations because I bet there are

plenty and you may be underestimating

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your own valuable experience.

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let's share some real examples

now and how varied these can be.

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So one of my favorites is Kate

Waterfall Hills TikTok, which says

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what's the benefit of working hard

and doing a really, really good job?

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Hmm.

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More work.

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And that just shows so many of us who

slog our guts out for organizations

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and what you get in return usually

is more work coming your way.

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So if you can create something like

that that resonates so deeply with

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people, you have the potential to

create a viral post that people just

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register so deeply in their bones.

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It also helps to create shareable content

that you want other people to see because

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it's funny, because it's so relatable

and because we've all seen that before.

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So I think you are so lucky if you

are a leadership or a career coach

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because nearly everyone on the planet

can relate to redundancy, changing

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career, leadership challenges.

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So you have got such a great topic if you

can find the right way to talk about it.

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One of my biggest list generators is

my blogs, so I have been writing and

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publishing on my website, my entire

business journey from: 2020

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And you can see right back to when

I had no clients, no confidence.

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And you can literally follow that journey.

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So anything you can do to create

that annual review will really

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help people to see who you are

and to be able to relate to you.

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I know loads of my clients started to

do this as well when they saw my annual

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reviews, and it helped gain them clients

too, because people see who you are and

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they can literally track that journey.

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So building an audience isn't

about becoming someone else.

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It's about learning the skill

of creating good hooks, good

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content, and keeping eyes on you.

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And don't rely on social media alone.

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If you are building out your audience,

this is essentially your top of funnel,

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and what we need to do is move people

into that next step, which is often

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a blog post, an email, a workshop,

some way of them becoming deeper

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into your world and being nurtured

in a more close, intimate way.

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So I leave you with this one thought.

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How can you create content that is

so good that your ideal client wants

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to share it with their network?

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And that will mean looking at the

top creators in the world, analyzing

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what they're doing, looking at

frameworks, looking at hooks, looking

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at visuals, and really taking the time

to think how can you make your content

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1% better than it was yesterday?

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And imagine when you do that, how

good it's gonna be in a year's time.

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I hope today's episode was helpful.

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If you want help doing this, then join

me inside the business of coaching,

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which is my mentorship program where

we do this live, we create posts that

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generate hundreds of likes in literally

nine minutes while we are on mute,

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and we post within that timescale.

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So if you are a tool prone to

overthinking, then come join

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us and you will make huge

progress using proven frameworks.

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Super, super quickly.

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You will find the link to the business

of coaching in the show notes.

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If you enjoyed this episode, hit the

subscribe button so you get alerted

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for every single episode I share.

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And if you are feeling super, super

generous, I would be super, super

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grateful for a review and rating if

you're an Apple listener or a rating if

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you are listening on any other platform.

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It helps me be able to continue

to create amazing content for you.

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And like I say at the end of

every episode, trust yourself.

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Believe in yourself and be the wise

gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

Thank you so much for listening to this

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episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.