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# 🌀 Marketing Portals Away From Social Media
- URL: https://offthegrid.ghost.io/marketing-portals-away-from-social/
- Published: 2024-08-07T10:01:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T19:57:43.000Z
- Description: Revisiting my workshop from Holisticism's Summer Solstice Series
- Author: Amelia Hruby, PhD
- Tags: Free Posts, Podcast, #Migrated-1784129708849, #Import 2026-07-15 10:39

This week I’m sharing a replay of the workshop I taught for [Holisticism](https://www.holisticism.com/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) earlier this summer! ☀️

It’s called **Marketing Portals Away From Social Media**, and in only 45 minutes we:

- Explore the three stages of the creative marketing cycle
- Imagine ways to cultivate relationships + internet magic away from social media
- Answer a bunch of questions about SEO, pitching podcasts + how to know if your marketing experiment failed
- & Craft your new marketing plan — worlds away from Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, or Threads

This workshop is exclusively in the Clubhouse, and I’ve made a few edits to anonymize the comments shared from the chat and in the Q&A at the end.

If you enjoy it this workshop, I have to say that I think you would also love [**The Interweb**](https://offthegrid.fun/interweb?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)! That’s our online community + course library where I share more supportive workshops like this, and we have monthly calls to connect + make new biz friends.

xoxo, Amelia

#### Transcript

(00:00:03.132):  
Welcome, welcome, everyone.

(00:00:04.493):  
So I'm going to have a presentation that I'll share in just a moment,

(00:00:10.055):  
but just to invite everyone in and give you perhaps the lay of the land for what

(00:00:15.198):  
we're going to do today,

(00:00:16.238):  
we will start with,

(00:00:19.500):  
I'll introduce myself a little more.

(00:00:21):  
I will have a few reflection questions or invitations for you to share in the chat so we can kind of

(00:00:27.830):  
learn more about why we're all here today.

(00:00:29.511):  
And then I will guide us in a very brief sort of clearing exercise.

(00:00:34.155):  
We'll take some deep breaths together.

(00:00:35.596):  
We'll let go of some of the sticky feelings we may have around social media.

(00:00:41.261):  
And then I have a brief lecture around about creative marketing cycles and many,

(00:00:47.986):  
many different possibilities for marketing away from social media.

(00:00:53.696):  
And I will share a bunch of ideas and then offer some suggestions.

(00:01:00.202):  
And I plan at the end to have a lot of time for Q&A because I've discovered that

(00:01:06.748):  
there is no one size fits all approach to marketing.

(00:01:10.792):  
And I think part of the way I can serve those of you who came live today is to

(00:01:15.456):  
answer your questions about your businesses,

(00:01:17.818):  
not some like mine.

(00:01:19.341):  
imaginary business I made up to use for this workshop.

(00:01:22.204):  
So that's how we'll spend our time today.

(00:01:24.225):  
I want to invite you to make yourself comfortable,

(00:01:28.809):  
to consider if there's anything else that you need or would like.

(00:01:32.512):  
I welcome cameras on,

(00:01:34.034):  
cameras off,

(00:01:35.295):  
hang out in the chat,

(00:01:36.276):  
like blow up the chat,

(00:01:37.677):  
never once be in the chat.

(00:01:39.138):  
It's all up to you.

(00:01:40.039):  
This is, I always like to say that my spaces are low stakes, high permission spaces.

(00:01:46.124):  
You can do whatever you need and want to do.

(00:01:48.045):  
And the stakes are pretty low here.

(00:01:49.486):  
We're like hanging out to talk about social media and marketing.

(00:01:53.848):  
We can release any pressure that we're putting on ourselves for this session or to

(00:01:57.669):  
show up in a certain way or to take a certain thing away from it.

(00:02:00.791):  
So.

(00:02:02.580):  
With all of that shared, I'm going to share my presentation and we will go ahead and ease on in.

(00:02:10.402):  
And just so you know, I welcome interruptions.

(00:02:13.023):  
I will be monitoring the chat.

(00:02:14.843):  
I have my moon and Gemini and Venus.

(00:02:17.104):  
I am a chatty person.

(00:02:20.024):  
But if you have questions, please drop them in.

(00:02:22.685):  
And then again, there will be ample time for Q&A at the end as well.

(00:02:26.426):  
So

(00:02:27.546):  
Let's go ahead and let me share my screen.

(00:02:31.350):  
So welcome to Marketing Portals Away From Social Media.

(00:02:36.014):  
I am Amelia Hruby.

(00:02:37.755):  
I am the founder and executive producer of Softer Sounds Podcast Studio.

(00:02:42.460):  
We create purposeful, powerful shows for women and non-binary entrepreneurs and creatives.

(00:02:48.635):  
We edit the 12th House Podcast for Holisticism and many other shows you might have

(00:02:53.221):  
heard of or encountered in your time in the intuitive business space.

(00:02:59.281):  
And today I'm really arriving here more in my capacity as the host of Off the Grid podcast,

(00:03:05.022):  
which is my show about leaving social media without losing all your clients.

(00:03:09.903):  
I left social media over three years ago after having kind of grown a platform as a micro influencer.

(00:03:17.744):  
I got a book deal.

(00:03:18.484):  
I sold my book.

(00:03:19.785):  
I sold some courses and I realized that like it was really not Instagram

(00:03:24.866):  
specifically was really misaligned for me.

(00:03:26.706):  
And so I left.

(00:03:28.072):  
I launched my podcast studio with no social media.

(00:03:30.434):  
And in the past three years,

(00:03:31.935):  
it's grown to be certainly like a six-figure business with a great client roster

(00:03:36.197):  
and a lot of cool stuff going on.

(00:03:38.019):  
So I talk about all of that on Off The Grid podcast.

(00:03:41.541):  
And I also run a community or membership community called The Interweb,

(00:03:45.604):  
where I've worked with dozens and dozens and dozens of small business owners who

(00:03:51.127):  
want to leave social media,

(00:03:52.328):  
have left social media,

(00:03:53.609):  
or are just reimagining how it fits into their business and

(00:03:57.131):  
And we've developed creative marketing plans and experiments to help them grow and share their work.

(00:04:02.996):  
So I've been in this practice for a few years now,

(00:04:06.440):  
and I'm really excited to share with you today a lot of the things that I've learned.

(00:04:11.704):  
And I'll just start out by giving away the whole thing at the beginning,

(00:04:15.588):  
which is that I very strongly believe that you do not have to be on social media to

(00:04:21.113):  
have a successful creative business.

(00:04:24.898):  
If you are on social media, I embrace that for you.

(00:04:27.519):  
But I'm guessing you came to this workshop because something about it isn't feeling great.

(00:04:33.522):  
And so we're going to begin by unpacking that a little bit together.

(00:04:39.845):  
So I have a few questions.

(00:04:41.526):  
I just really want to invite you to see if I can get my presentation.

(00:04:45.768):  
Here we go.

(00:04:48.990):  
To open with.

(00:04:49.530):  
And I'd love to have you share in the chat.

(00:04:51.231):  
Take a moment.

(00:04:51.851):  
Think about these questions.

(00:04:54.161):  
I want to begin with like, why did you arrive here today?

(00:04:56.724):  
Why come to this?

(00:04:57.665):  
What's leading you to question social media right now?

(00:05:00.688):  
Why are you interested in this away piece?

(00:05:03.510):  
If we're marketing away from social media, what does that mean to you?

(00:05:07.755):  
I think there are some of us who are like,

(00:05:09.076):  
this feels bad and I don't want to sit in the bad feelings anymore.

(00:05:13.120):  
And for other people, it's like, well, it's just not effective.

(00:05:15.542):  
So I need a better solution.

(00:05:17.624):  
And for a lot of us, it's both right, it feels bad, and it doesn't work.

(00:05:20.686):  
And so I think if we kind of get that clarity of like, wow, this feels bad, and it's not working.

(00:05:26.129):  
It's like, why am I here?

(00:05:27.871):  
Right?

(00:05:28.131):  
Like, what are you doing it for if you feel both of those things?

(00:05:31.653):  
And for me, that was a big part of my journey leaving social media as I was like, this feels bad.

(00:05:37.476):  
And for me, like, didn't really sell my book anyway.

(00:05:39.898):  
So I'm gonna get out of here.

(00:05:41.599):  
Like, I'm gonna do something else.

(00:05:45.416):  
So I want to take a moment just to clear some of this, these big feelings that come up, right?

(00:05:52.245):  
I find that for many of us,

(00:05:53.407):  
like our frustration with social media is very visceral and brings up a lot of

(00:05:59.124):  
For me, it feels like frustration.

(00:06:00.145):  
For other people, it can feel like anger.

(00:06:01.486):  
It can feel like disillusionment.

(00:06:03.787):  
It can feel like sadness.

(00:06:05.909):  
It can feel so many different ways.

(00:06:07.650):  
So I would like to guide us just briefly in three deep breaths.

(00:06:13.614):  
And then we're going to take a big stretch together to kind of

(00:06:17.216):  
expand our bodies before we expand our possibilities.

(00:06:21.397):  
So if you are somewhere where it feels comfortable and safe,

(00:06:24.958):  
I'm going to invite you to close your eyes,

(00:06:28.019):  
soften your gaze.

(00:06:29.199):  
If that doesn't feel good, you can be however you'd like.

(00:06:34.220):  
And we're just going to begin by releasing anything we're holding on to with an exhale.

(00:06:45.646):  
letting the air go.

(00:06:47.347):  
When you're ready, you can inhale, feeling the breath enter your body and letting it go in your own time.

(00:07:10.173):  
There's no need to alter the pace of your breath here.

(00:07:13.973):  
So you can inhale again whenever you're ready.

(00:07:16.215):  
And exhale in your own time.

(00:07:30.589):  
And take one more breath, however feels good to you.

(00:07:47.071):  
Now you can either leave your eyes closed or open them,

(00:07:50.013):  
but I'm going to invite you to take your arms and reach them overhead really high.

(00:07:58.599):  
See if you can stretch a little bit,

(00:08:00.521):  
feel your spine expand,

(00:08:02.702):  
and then take them down to the sides or take a big stretch one way,

(00:08:06.905):  
whatever feels good,

(00:08:07.986):  
just to make your body a little bit bigger right now.

(00:08:13.644):  
If you don't have the space to do this, you can take another deep breath and feel your lungs expand.

(00:08:22.071):  
Just take a moment to be bigger than you were before we started this.

(00:08:33.699):  
And now that we've done that,

(00:08:36.321):  
I'm going to invite you to receive some thoughts,

(00:08:41.265):  
feelings,

(00:08:41.686):  
reflections I have on marketing.

(00:08:47.777):  
So when I think about marketing, I think of the creative marketing cycle.

(00:08:54.162):  
This is not something I invented.

(00:08:56.043):  
People talk about marketing,

(00:08:57.504):  
a three-part marketing framework in many places,

(00:09:01.226):  
but I want to ground our conversation here today.

(00:09:04.248):  
So for me, the creative marketing cycle has three parts.

(00:09:09.192):  
As business owners, artists, creators, people sharing our work in the world, we

(00:09:14.522):  
We need to grow our audience.

(00:09:17.185):  
We need new people to learn about us.

(00:09:19.047):  
That's what growing our audience means, getting in front of and connecting with new people.

(00:09:24.274):  
We need to nurture our community,

(00:09:26.336):  
which is deepening and strengthening the relationships with the people who we

(00:09:29.540):  
already know,

(00:09:30.221):  
who know about our work.

(00:09:32.389):  
And we need to sell our offerings.

(00:09:34.531):  
So I'm assuming here that everyone either has or aspires to have a business, will be selling something.

(00:09:43.258):  
And that's a part of this marketing cycle.

(00:09:44.939):  
It's included here because I find that in my work with people,

(00:09:48.282):  
we can often get kind of stuck in growing our audience or in nurturing our community.

(00:09:54.186):  
And we may feel hesitant about selling, but that's a part of it.

(00:09:57.549):  
And the reason I put this recycling symbol here is because it is a cycle.

(00:10:03.531):  
We are doing these things all the time and they feed each other, right?

(00:10:07.932):  
We meet new people.

(00:10:08.953):  
We grow our audience.

(00:10:09.953):  
They come into our community and we nurture those relationships.

(00:10:13.666):  
And then as makes sense and is aligned, we sell to them and they become our clients or customers.

(00:10:20.652):  
And then often they introduce us to new people and that leads us back to growth.

(00:10:24.395):  
And, you know, ideally this is very regenerative, cooperative, and it flows.

(00:10:30.300):  
That's the creative marketing cycle in brief.

(00:10:34.884):  
Now,

(00:10:35.625):  
one of the struggles with social media,

(00:10:38.088):  
in my opinion,

(00:10:39.429):  
is that on social media,

(00:10:41.292):  
we are growing,

(00:10:42.193):  
nurturing,

(00:10:42.613):  
and selling in the same place at the same time.

(00:10:45.036):  
And as this slide shares, it all gets really like on top of each other.

(00:10:49.401):  
You can't really distinguish what's happening.

(00:10:53.840):  
On top of this overlap,

(00:10:55.941):  
we also have the fact,

(00:10:57.021):  
right,

(00:10:57.241):  
that on social media,

(00:10:58.402):  
our audience is often full of our friends,

(00:11:02.423):  
our family members,

(00:11:03.463):  
our past clients,

(00:11:04.604):  
people who've never heard of us before,

(00:11:06.184):  
bots,

(00:11:06.684):  
like all of these random followers that are also on top of each other.

(00:11:10.926):  
And it's really hard to grow, nurture, and sell because those are different communities of people.

(00:11:17.868):  
They're people you're just meeting, people you are wanting to know better, and people who are all in.

(00:11:23.317):  
all in the same place.

(00:11:25.239):  
And we're trying to do all of this for all of them at the same time.

(00:11:28.782):  
And I find that this is why we can get so quickly burned out and confused on social media.

(00:11:38.337):  
Let alone,

(00:11:39.138):  
right,

(00:11:39.598):  
the fact that there is an algorithm,

(00:11:41.620):  
the apps are always changing what they expect of us,

(00:11:43.962):  
like all of that is also happening.

(00:11:45.944):  
But even if we go into it as our most like sovereign,

(00:11:51.369):  
smart selves,

(00:11:53.150):  
it's still really challenging,

(00:11:54.932):  
even for the best marketers out there to grow,

(00:11:58.255):  
nurture and sell all at the same time in one location.

(00:12:01.818):  
it's a really hard task.

(00:12:03.900):  
It's like a really hard ask of ourselves and our businesses to do this on social media.

(00:12:08.104):  
And I think that's why for a lot of us, we either just quit or it doesn't work.

(00:12:16.271):  
And so what I want to kind of invite or empower us to do today is to pull those

(00:12:22.037):  
things out again,

(00:12:23.518):  
to start to think of growing,

(00:12:24.899):  
nurturing,

(00:12:25.380):  
and selling again as a

(00:12:26.854):  
phases of the cycle.

(00:12:29.575):  
We can think of it seasonally.

(00:12:30.936):  
I often think of this as like we grow in the spring,

(00:12:33.998):  
we nurture in the summer,

(00:12:35.218):  
we sell when we harvest in the fall,

(00:12:37.299):  
right?

(00:12:37.979):  
We can have that sort of approach to it.

(00:12:40.881):  
You can take an elemental approach to this.

(00:12:42.682):  
There are so many ways to think about these things,

(00:12:44.763):  
but what I'm going to try to do today is help us just pull these marketing phases

(00:12:50.045):  
back apart and

(00:12:51.809):  
so that we can have more clarity in our marketing efforts.

(00:12:57.516):  
And to me,

(00:12:58.477):  
in my experience,

(00:12:59.478):  
clarity,

(00:13:00.119):  
alignment,

(00:13:01.260):  
and resonance are what have always brought success to my business and the

(00:13:04.664):  
businesses that I've worked with.

(00:13:06.606):  
So if we can be really clear in how we're marketing, if we can have our

(00:13:10.570):  
channels, messages and strategies aligned.

(00:13:13.131):  
And if we can really focus on that resonance with the right people, then it feels like magic.

(00:13:18.592):  
But like the things sell,

(00:13:21.113):  
the people keep showing up,

(00:13:22.473):  
we're able to like run a profitable,

(00:13:24.854):  
sustainable business.

(00:13:26.214):  
And so I think all of that starts with

(00:13:29.654):  
pulling this again back apart, getting back into this cycle instead of collapsing it all.

(00:13:34.437):  
And I just want to say,

(00:13:36.017):  
part of the reason we collapse it all is it's really appealing to be like,

(00:13:39.779):  
great,

(00:13:40.040):  
I can just go to one place and do one thing and that's it.

(00:13:43.521):  
Some of you might hear what I have to say today and be like, Amelia, I don't want to do all this stuff.

(00:13:47.784):  
No thanks.

(00:13:49.024):  
I don't want to have to think about different strategies to grow, to nurture, to sell.

(00:13:52.726):  
It can feel like more

(00:13:54.407):  
But I think what we have to remember is I just keep making this triangular motion.

(00:13:57.848):  
Like it's in flow.

(00:13:59.028):  
It's not that you're doing everything all at once,

(00:14:01.549):  
but you're finding that sequence and that alignment for yourself.

(00:14:06.470):  
And I have found that that helps me stay grounded and centered in my work and in my marketing.

(00:14:12.251):  
And then I connect with more people from that place.

(00:14:17.611):  
So what I'm going to do next is I'm going to talk a little bit more about each phase,

(00:14:22.276):  
and I'm going to list a bunch of examples of things that do this work,

(00:14:26.761):  
strategies or channels you can use for that phase of the creative marketing cycle.

(00:14:30.786):  
I will be clear with this slide up, I am not saying you should do all of these things.

(00:14:35.952):  
I may be saying you should pick one for each phase.

(00:14:39.266):  
Please do not walk away from this saying that Amelia told you that you need to go

(00:14:43.469):  
do SEO,

(00:14:44.049):  
lead magnets,

(00:14:44.530):  
partnerships,

(00:14:45.030):  
guests on podcasts,

(00:14:45.790):  
teaching memberships,

(00:14:46.491):  
flyers,

(00:14:46.791):  
summits,

(00:14:47.091):  
and ads right now.

(00:14:47.972):  
Absolutely not.

(00:14:49.353):  
This is like a lifetime's worth of business work, honestly.

(00:14:53.696):  
But what I want you to see is that there are so many options and none of them are social media.

(00:14:59.079):  
And there are so many ways that we can grow our audience in this instance.

(00:15:05.731):  
And how do we choose?

(00:15:06.872):  
Well, I like to see what do I feel called to do and what seems aligned with my skills.

(00:15:13.058):  
So let me talk briefly, like I'm gonna get like a 30 second, maybe 60 second blurb for each one of these.

(00:15:19.223):  
And I would invite you to just kind of listen and notice if there are one or two

(00:15:25.009):  
that you're like,

(00:15:25.569):  
yeah,

(00:15:26.090):  
that feels interesting right now.

(00:15:28.109):  
rather than like frantically taking notes on each one.

(00:15:30.111):  
I can answer questions at the end if you have specific questions,

(00:15:32.834):  
but just kind of inviting you to tune in to what's feeling exciting or fun or

(00:15:39.542):  
joyful or powerful to you in this moment.

(00:15:43.792):  
So when we're in the grow phase,

(00:15:45.956):  
we are growing our audience,

(00:15:47.298):  
which means getting our work in front of new people.

(00:15:50.804):  
So here are some ways that I've seen be really successful for that.

(00:15:53.788):  
I think I've done all of these at some point in my business and had clients do them even more.

(00:15:59.198):  
So one growth strategy is SEO, search engine optimization.

(00:16:04.803):  
So this is where you set up your website and or create blog posts on your website

(00:16:10.268):  
that speak to specific search queries.

(00:16:13.250):  
And then as people search those things,

(00:16:16.113):  
particularly on Google,

(00:16:17.734):  
you work to make sure that your page is surfacing for that.

(00:16:21.637):  
So these, you know, random people on the internet who search that will find you.

(00:16:26.542):  
Now,

(00:16:27.571):  
If you know anything about SEO,

(00:16:29.274):  
you might know that right now there are a lot of questions about this because the

(00:16:32.919):  
implementation of AI overviews and things like that are shifting how people search

(00:16:37.627):  
and whether or not they click through.

(00:16:40.404):  
That's true.

(00:16:41.404):  
You know, and also SEO is not a great strategy.

(00:16:43.785):  
If you're like, I need new people tomorrow, this takes 6, 12, 18 months to get going.

(00:16:49.467):  
So this is a slow growth strategy.

(00:16:53.028):  
The nice thing about it is it can be kind of one and done.

(00:16:55.689):  
It's like you make the post and you like let it cook.

(00:16:58.630):  
And you like kind of change every so often.

(00:17:01.233):  
When I started up my business three years ago, I did a bunch of this work.

(00:17:05.497):  
And I would say just now, some of them have really gotten cooking.

(00:17:08.840):  
And I'm finally seeing these blog posts like start to more consistently bring in,

(00:17:13.264):  
I mean,

(00:17:14.305):  
honestly,

(00:17:14.665):  
not even huge numbers,

(00:17:15.606):  
but like 10,

(00:17:15.886):  
20,

(00:17:15.886):  
50 new email subscribers a month or a quarter,

(00:17:19.810):  
right?

(00:17:20.331):  
So

(00:17:21.684):  
That's SEO.

(00:17:22.565):  
One option for growing.

(00:17:23.626):  
This is great for people who are like, I am magical on the internet.

(00:17:27.569):  
That is how I want to work.

(00:17:30.011):  
SEO might be your superpower.

(00:17:31.732):  
And I'm a great writer.

(00:17:32.553):  
That's another important factor here.

(00:17:36.035):  
Another way to grow your audience is with lead magnets.

(00:17:38.818):  
So this means that you offer a free,

(00:17:42.481):  
generous resource of some kind in exchange for someone's email address.

(00:17:46.324):  
And then typically you give them that free resource and

(00:17:49.967):  
via email and now they're on your mailing list.

(00:17:51.897):  
So that's another way you can do this.

(00:17:54.448):  
Partnerships are a great way to grow your audience.

(00:17:57.509):  
So connecting with other people who have similar ideal clients as you and sharing your work.

(00:18:03.971):  
That's kind of what this is, or maybe like this is a summit, right?

(00:18:07.532):  
So you have sort of ways that you are cross promoting each other so that you get in front of new people.

(00:18:13.194):  
Guesting on podcasts is a really great strategy for this.

(00:18:16.095):  
It's a way that people are kind of putting you in front of their audience and

(00:18:19.116):  
asking you questions and letting people get to know you.

(00:18:22.031):  
Teaching and memberships can be a great way to grow your audience.

(00:18:24.632):  
Again,

(00:18:25.313):  
people are about like someone's vouching for you,

(00:18:27.194):  
putting you in front of their community,

(00:18:28.754):  
letting you do your thing.

(00:18:31.075):  
If you're more of an IRL person, I love flyers.

(00:18:34.837):  
I love yard signs.

(00:18:36.058):  
I love stickers.

(00:18:36.998):  
I have used all of these with success in my business or business ventures at various times.

(00:18:42.361):  
So love that as a strategy.

(00:18:47.250):  
Summits would be something similar to this,

(00:18:49.931):  
but we're seeing a lot of online summits where you have a bunch of people do talks

(00:18:55.534):  
together and then share it with their audiences,

(00:18:58.015):  
again,

(00:18:58.295):  
as a sort of cross-promotional effort.

(00:19:00.296):  
And then you can also grow through ads.

(00:19:01.897):  
So there are different types of ads.

(00:19:03.698):  
I do newsletter ads and podcast ads because I like to work directly with creators.

(00:19:08.980):  
You can also, of course, there are paid ads on Google, on LinkedIn, on Twitter.

(00:19:13.683):  
Instagram and Facebook with meta, all of that.

(00:19:16.266):  
That's not really my game, but that's another way to grow your audience, get in front of new people.

(00:19:22.212):  
Again,

(00:19:22.632):  
these are just meant to be kind of a menu of ways that you might get your work in

(00:19:27.477):  
front of new people,

(00:19:29.359):  
because we need that for our businesses to grow and for it to continue selling and

(00:19:34.665):  
making sales.

(00:19:37.199):  
Are there any of these growth strategies that people are like, I love this.

(00:19:40.720):  
I already do it.

(00:19:41.560):  
Or I want to do this.

(00:19:43.260):  
Or even like, I hated this.

(00:19:44.961):  
It never worked for me.

(00:19:46.001):  
Would you share in the chat?

(00:19:46.941):  
I'd love to know.

(00:19:47.942):  
How are you kind of growing your audience?

(00:19:49.842):  
Or what are you interested in doing to grow your audience?

(00:19:53.203):  
Teaching and memberships and working on SEO.

(00:19:55.483):  
Interested in guesting on more podcasts.

(00:19:58.533):  
More SEO.

(00:19:59.233):  
I'm definitely like a slow growth, Capricorn rising kind of person.

(00:20:05.357):  
And I will say like some of,

(00:20:06.918):  
again,

(00:20:07.558):  
when I think about what to choose here,

(00:20:09.280):  
there are a bunch of just different like levers to consider.

(00:20:12.001):  
One of those is like, how fast do you need to make money?

(00:20:15.503):  
Because again, like if you need to make money tomorrow, SEO is maybe not going to do that for you.

(00:20:20.346):  
You might actually want to work on like a partnership or teach at a membership where you're getting...

(00:20:28.266):  
more immediate exposure to people and more depth of exposure in that or connection.

(00:20:33.692):  
We could say instead of exposure.

(00:20:34.893):  
Um,

(00:20:37.455):  
but if you're like,

(00:20:38.717):  
I'm trying to build this business for the longterm,

(00:20:40.859):  
maybe what you do is focus on those slower growth methods.

(00:20:44.062):  
Google has been sending me some clients lately.

(00:20:45.824):  
So I'd like to lean into SEO.

(00:20:47.365):  
Yeah.

(00:20:49.728):  
Um,

(00:20:50.675):  
On my podcast, we also did an episode on SEO with Emily Gertenbach.

(00:20:54.498):  
So you can find that.

(00:20:55.299):  
I'll talk about that at the end.

(00:20:57.641):  
I agree.

(00:20:58.321):  
SEO can feel overwhelming.

(00:21:00.563):  
There's like a lot.

(00:21:02.624):  
My like 30 seconds on that is that the best thing to focus on for SEO is finding

(00:21:09.230):  
the right search queries.

(00:21:10.531):  
What are people actually searching and how can you show up for that?

(00:21:14.233):  
And then...

(00:21:15.350):  
putting headings in your blog posts.

(00:21:17.751):  
It's like the two things that I think will work the fastest for you.

(00:21:21.013):  
So that's basically what I focused on with SEO.

(00:21:24.295):  
And get niche about it.

(00:21:25.476):  
So I work with SEO for my podcast studio, Softer Sounds.

(00:21:29.438):  
And my blog posts on like how to start a podcast gets no traction because there's like a million people

(00:21:35.041):  
bigger companies out there supporting that.

(00:21:37.544):  
But my blog post on the eight best free Canva templates for your podcast art does

(00:21:41.748):  
pretty well because there's a lot less,

(00:21:43.809):  
but there are many fewer people talking about that.

(00:21:46.732):  
And so it shows up in search better and it's much more specific.

(00:21:50.055):  
So I think that that is also a way to basically,

(00:21:53.779):  
again,

(00:21:53.959):  
we're just trying to get ourselves in front of new people and

(00:21:58.678):  
SEO is a way to get ourselves in front of new people with search intent,

(00:22:02.260):  
but guesting on podcasts,

(00:22:03.480):  
teaching and memberships is a way to get ourselves in front of new people who have

(00:22:07.082):  
already been like gathered and qualified in some way by these other folks.

(00:22:10.943):  
So that can be really a great strategy.

(00:22:13.024):  
Okay.

(00:22:13.584):  
Let's talk about, let's move on from growth.

(00:22:17.406):  
So these are again,

(00:22:18.246):  
all ways we've talked about to get in front of new people,

(00:22:22.548):  
bigger,

(00:22:22.848):  
grow your audience perhaps.

(00:22:24.500):  
bring new people into your world and your work.

(00:22:26.941):  
Now let's talk about nurturing the folks who already know about you.

(00:22:30.542):  
So once people learn about you and they say like,

(00:22:34.944):  
okay,

(00:22:35.244):  
I would like to hear a little more,

(00:22:37.025):  
we wanna give them possibilities to get to know you better.

(00:22:40.126):  
Because typically all of this maps, again, it's kind of the journey toward the sale for business owners.

(00:22:45.529):  
So they need to hear about you first and they need to get to know you and then you

(00:22:48.950):  
need to help them decide to purchase from you.

(00:22:51.571):  
So now we're in the getting to,

(00:22:54.088):  
know you or like you phase.

(00:22:56.249):  
So I think a newsletter is a great way to do this.

(00:22:58.510):  
A lot of people think a newsletter is an audience growth strategy,

(00:23:02.051):  
but I think if you're doing a weekly or monthly newsletter,

(00:23:04.872):  
that's a nurturing strategy.

(00:23:06.633):  
It's a way of staying connected.

(00:23:09.114):  
Similarly,

(00:23:09.714):  
a nurture sequence,

(00:23:10.695):  
like a welcome email or a series of welcome emails,

(00:23:13.416):  
that's a way,

(00:23:14.136):  
like when somebody says,

(00:23:15.216):  
I'm intrigued,

(00:23:16.057):  
that's a way to get them really interested and excited pretty fast.

(00:23:19.578):  
So if you have a

(00:23:22.459):  
writing a really fun welcome email or a whole,

(00:23:25.264):  
if you have a business,

(00:23:26.105):  
like a whole nurture sequence that kind of walks people through what you do,

(00:23:29.210):  
how you support them,

(00:23:30.372):  
etc.

(00:23:32.236):  
If email is not your thing, there are other ways we can do this.

(00:23:35.338):  
I love seeing folks offer like office hours,

(00:23:37.960):  
like just showing up on Zoom for an hour,

(00:23:40.002):  
being available,

(00:23:41.243):  
answering questions.

(00:23:42.804):  
You can also do this with like a free workshop.

(00:23:44.705):  
If you're like showing up and letting people ask me anything is a nightmare to me,

(00:23:49.088):  
then offer a workshop where you kind of guide the experience and you walk people

(00:23:53.271):  
through something.

(00:23:54.012):  
I think having your own podcast is a nurture tool.

(00:23:58.695):  
I think, you know, you might when somebody first learns about it, maybe it's growth.

(00:24:02.620):  
But if they're going to stick with you for episodes over time, they're getting to know you.

(00:24:06.545):  
They're getting to trust you.

(00:24:07.746):  
That's really nurturing that relationship.

(00:24:11.883):  
having your own online community or being active in other online communities.

(00:24:16.566):  
When I first launched my business, I was very active in the Holisticism Hub and the North Node.

(00:24:21.708):  
And I met a lot of people who helped me grow what I was doing.

(00:24:24.730):  
So I think that's a great way to nurture.

(00:24:27.151):  
And again, it doesn't mean you have to start your own thing.

(00:24:29.072):  
Like go where the people are and

(00:24:32.725):  
be like a genuine, excited human there, right?

(00:24:35.026):  
Don't just show up to be like, here's my thing, buy my thing, take my thing.

(00:24:37.608):  
Like be there to be excited about what they're doing, to get to know them.

(00:24:41.290):  
And over time, those relationships I find will really like bring so much into your work and your life.

(00:24:48.719):  
I've seen some really cool case studies that do great nurturing work and that kind

(00:24:53.181):  
of bring people through your process or help them get to know your work better.

(00:24:56.442):  
I think that IRL gatherings can be a great way to nurture community.

(00:25:00.704):  
I see a lot of people kind of getting off the internet and back into physical spaces together.

(00:25:06.926):  
I think that will,

(00:25:08.947):  
you know,

(00:25:09.607):  
whether or not you're comfortable or want to do that will depend on many,

(00:25:12.669):  
many factors.

(00:25:14.025):  
But if you feel called, I've seen a lot of retreats reopening and things like that that are happening.

(00:25:19.786):  
These are all ways that you can nurture the people who are paying attention.

(00:25:24.807):  
I'm sure there's many more.

(00:25:27.468):  
Something I see a lot of that I'll just flag here is I find there are kind of two camps in these phases.

(00:25:33.609):  
There are the people who grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, and forget to nurture.

(00:25:37.630):  
And those folks...

(00:25:40.450):  
often are on social media because it's been sold to us as a growth platform, right?

(00:25:44.632):  
It's like, let me try to go viral.

(00:25:46.073):  
Like I am all in on growth and that's okay.

(00:25:49.995):  
But it becomes problematic for your business if you're just growing and you're

(00:25:53.696):  
never doing any of this stuff to circle back,

(00:25:55.817):  
to bring them in,

(00:25:56.558):  
to get them closer to a sale.

(00:25:58.159):  
Like it doesn't actually do your business much good to grow an audience into

(00:26:01.720):  
infinity if you're not also maintaining and deepening those connections and selling

(00:26:06.443):  
to them.

(00:26:07.683):  
Similarly,

(00:26:08.323):  
I work with a lot of folks who are great at nurturing,

(00:26:10.824):  
like they love people,

(00:26:11.964):  
they love their community.

(00:26:13.444):  
They have a newsletter and a podcast and an online community,

(00:26:16.645):  
and they do a free workshop every quarter,

(00:26:19.306):  
but they're never getting their work in front of new people.

(00:26:21.946):  
And so at a certain point,

(00:26:24.007):  
those people have already bought from you and they're bought in and you need new people.

(00:26:27.828):  
If you want to continue making money in your business,

(00:26:29.868):  
if you want it to be profitable in a longer term way.

(00:26:32.952):  
And so we need both basically is all I'm trying to say.

(00:26:36.395):  
And if you would identify as one of, I was always a nurture person.

(00:26:39.497):  
I was like, I, I just want to write my newsletter and I want to make a lot of money.

(00:26:45.561):  
Honestly, that's kind of my life.

(00:26:48.163):  
Um, but that didn't work.

(00:26:49.084):  
I had to actually get in front of new people.

(00:26:51.205):  
Um,

(00:26:52.566):  
And I will also offer here that this stuff can also break these molds.

(00:26:56.048):  
Again, these are just ideas.

(00:26:58.350):  
My podcast is a great growth tool, actually, for my business.

(00:27:02.512):  
It's grow and nurture.

(00:27:03.893):  
It does both.

(00:27:05.534):  
For you,

(00:27:06.174):  
it may be that your newsletter is a fantastic growth tool and you actually use a

(00:27:11.057):  
lead magnet as a nurture sequence,

(00:27:12.578):  
whatever.

(00:27:13.578):  
You get to make it up.

(00:27:14.719):  
I'm just giving you some options.

(00:27:16.139):  
So let me pause there and say,

(00:27:18.480):  
I'd love to hear from in the chat,

(00:27:20.200):  
like how are folks nurturing your community and your business?

(00:27:23.601):  
How are you bringing people in closer once they hear about you?

(00:27:27.782):  
Are you doing any of these things or other things?

(00:27:31.363):  
Newsletter and podcast, sometimes workshops, super random, occasional email newsletter.

(00:27:36.184):  
Newsletter and podcast, but I fell off.

(00:27:41.328):  
I've just learned from you that I've been stuck in the growth phase for years.

(00:27:45.330):  
That's okay.

(00:27:46.171):  
The great news about that is now you got all these people and you can start nurturing them.

(00:27:51.813):  
And what can be nice about once you've like grown an audience and you nurture them,

(00:27:56.476):  
if you've got them nurtured,

(00:27:57.636):  
once you sell,

(00:27:58.417):  
they're like ready to go.

(00:28:00.078):  
Now that doesn't work every time.

(00:28:01.779):  
You can't,

(00:28:02.639):  
I'm not necessarily saying you should like grow and nurture your audience for five

(00:28:05.420):  
years and then sell.

(00:28:06.521):  
That's a long-term business cycle.

(00:28:09.823):  
But yeah,

(00:28:11.896):  
Just different ways to work through and combine these phases.

(00:28:15.497):  
So I'm a big fan of choosing a strategy that aligns with the energy and the skills

(00:28:21.959):  
that you have and running with that.

(00:28:25.020):  
For Off the Grid, my podcast, I have a weekly podcast and we send an email every Wednesday.

(00:28:29.682):  
It's like a newsletter.

(00:28:31.162):  
I put the show notes in an email and write a little blurb and send it out.

(00:28:34.223):  
It's not a whole other newsletter in addition to the podcast because...

(00:28:39.895):  
I run a whole other business.

(00:28:40.895):  
I don't have time for that.

(00:28:43.356):  
So let's go to our last phase of the creative marketing cycle, sell.

(00:28:49.719):  
So as I said in the beginning, I often find that this can bring up the most feelings for people.

(00:28:57.022):  
We have a lot of feelings wrapped up around what we think sales is.

(00:29:00.303):  
And we have these

(00:29:04.011):  
cultural archetypes around like the used car salesman that make us think sales is

(00:29:08.693):  
something manipulative,

(00:29:09.854):  
coercive,

(00:29:12.135):  
and a little skeezy.

(00:29:14.036):  
But it doesn't have to be that way.

(00:29:16.337):  
I think that selling this phase of the creative marketing cycle is about offering

(00:29:22.019):  
opportunities for people to purchase from you and helping them discern if what

(00:29:27.642):  
you're selling is right for them right now.

(00:29:30.658):  
And for me,

(00:29:32.399):  
that doesn't happen through like false urgency or like manipulative expiring

(00:29:40.162):  
bonuses or other things that we might see people use in the online business space.

(00:29:44.764):  
But I find that people need handholding.

(00:29:47.285):  
I need handholding, right?

(00:29:48.606):  
If someone's selling a coaching program,

(00:29:50.427):  
I would like them to kind of hold my hand and walk me through making that decision.

(00:29:54.288):  
And I think that's what selling is about.

(00:29:56.935):  
And as a business owner,

(00:29:58.276):  
our job is to do that with our integrity and to cultivate the energetic sovereignty

(00:30:04.741):  
necessary to be okay if they decide this isn't for them.

(00:30:09.044):  
So even if we're like holding their hand and walking them down this path,

(00:30:11.846):  
at any point they can let go and we can say like,

(00:30:14.167):  
okay,

(00:30:14.367):  
great,

(00:30:14.888):  
maybe another time.

(00:30:15.888):  
And like,

(00:30:16.809):  
That can be really hard.

(00:30:18.870):  
I say it like it's easy, right?

(00:30:20.011):  
It feels like rejection for me.

(00:30:22.072):  
It can feel really bad when people don't buy from you.

(00:30:25.755):  
But that's part of our work as business owners in this part of the creative marketing cycle.

(00:30:31.638):  
So what are some ways that we can sell?

(00:30:33.219):  
Maybe you're like, Amelia, whatever.

(00:30:34.840):  
I'm super pumped to sell.

(00:30:36.081):  
Let's do it.

(00:30:37.582):  
Here's some ways that we can sell.

(00:30:39.683):  
Sales emails, obviously super popular, right?

(00:30:42.305):  
We're all selling over email.

(00:30:45.006):  
You can offer promotions.

(00:30:46.227):  
So by this, promotions can be anything.

(00:30:47.907):  
It can be 10% off.

(00:30:48.948):  
It can be BOGO.

(00:30:50.489):  
That's a whole promotion strategy.

(00:30:52.850):  
It can be an expiring bonus.

(00:30:54.371):  
It can be time sensitivity.

(00:30:55.691):  
There are so many ways to offer a promotion to make a sale.

(00:30:59.773):  
You can do a launch.

(00:31:00.754):  
A launch is one sales strategy.

(00:31:03.395):  
As I said on a recent Off the Grid episode, we don't have to launch, but we can launch.

(00:31:08.097):  
Launches are a sales strategy that focuses on like a time-bound sale.

(00:31:13.246):  
cycle in which like things something is available for sale and then not available

(00:31:16.687):  
for sale and everything you do in between other sales strategies include

(00:31:21.668):  
testimonials so gathering and sharing them is social proof you can sell using

(00:31:25.989):  
proposals so if you're like a consultant you're not doing this other stuff you're

(00:31:30.009):  
not offering promotions or sales emails you are doing sales calls and sending

(00:31:34.170):  
proposals and following up and like doing relationship marketing in that way

(00:31:38.171):  
Um, referrals is also another great sales strategy.

(00:31:41.172):  
You may have, you know, a lot of accountants out there have referral only businesses.

(00:31:45.414):  
Like they'll only take clients who are referred and that's how they don't even have to really do sales.

(00:31:49.656):  
They're just in demand enough and that works for them.

(00:31:52.577):  
Um,

(00:31:53.643):  
Podcast producers are not that in demand, so I do a bunch of this other stuff.

(00:31:57.006):  
But, you know, there are many ways that we can sell.

(00:31:59.247):  
I'm curious, how are you all selling your work?

(00:32:04.351):  
So something that's not on here is like wholesale, line sheets, having your own online shop, although...

(00:32:11.198):  
having the shop itself isn't necessarily a sales strategy.

(00:32:13.961):  
It's like the necessary tech to make the sale.

(00:32:18.084):  
But yeah, please share in the chat, how are you selling your work?

(00:32:20.526):  
What are you doing to kind of like make that purchase happen in your business?

(00:32:25.511):  
How are you supporting a client or customer in making that purchase?

(00:32:29.915):  
Sales consultation.

(00:32:30.895):  
Yeah.

(00:32:31.536):  
Sales calls, discussing how it's going to work.

(00:32:34.439):  
Word of mouth is the best.

(00:32:35.620):  
Occasional sales emails.

(00:32:38.288):  
I like to do more sharing about what I'm offering with incentives.

(00:32:41.009):  
So that I think is like really lightweight way to do sales that can feel pretty easy.

(00:32:45.111):  
It's like a light lift for us, right?

(00:32:47.472):  
And I've done this as well.

(00:32:48.573):  
So for instance,

(00:32:49.633):  
with the interweb membership,

(00:32:51.454):  
I think twice this year,

(00:32:52.575):  
I was like,

(00:32:53.895):  
I'm just going to make it 10% off and put a coupon code and three emails and see if

(00:32:58.117):  
that helps people opt in right now.

(00:33:00.278):  
And it did, it worked.

(00:33:01.198):  
One time it worked, the other time it didn't really.

(00:33:03.540):  
So, you know, it just depends.

(00:33:05.540):  
We have to try it out.

(00:33:07.230):  
But what I didn't want to do is like write, you know, I didn't want to do a whole launch.

(00:33:10.233):  
I didn't want to write like eight emails and time everything and do all of that.

(00:33:13.376):  
I just thought maybe if I try out a promotion, I'll make some sales right now.

(00:33:19.142):  
If we want to make more sales,

(00:33:21.023):  
I think one thing we can do is focus on honing how we're selling to the people who

(00:33:25.107):  
are already paying attention.

(00:33:26.809):  
The people we've nurtured, like how are we selling to them?

(00:33:29.349):  
Are we only ever doing a lightweight promotion and maybe we want to try a launch or

(00:33:33.611):  
more of a sales cycle with an already engaged audience?

(00:33:36.972):  
Are we just kind of hanging out waiting for referrals,

(00:33:39.033):  
but we actually want to go pitch some work that can work really well,

(00:33:42.134):  
right?

(00:33:42.394):  
I know I saw people earlier who were like, I'm not interested in cold pitching.

(00:33:45.475):  
That's there too.

(00:33:47.156):  
You get to choose, but I think that...

(00:33:50.302):  
selling can happen in many ways.

(00:33:52.483):  
But for me, what all of this comes down to are these two things.

(00:33:57.586):  
So when we talk about marketing portals away from social media, I think we're cultivating these.

(00:34:02.768):  
We're cultivating relationships and we're cultivating what I call internet magic,

(00:34:07.511):  
which is like how I combine all the things that I do online that sort of draw

(00:34:11.653):  
people into my work.

(00:34:12.873):  
So one way to think about this is with your relationships, you go out and make friends.

(00:34:18.236):  
I know that sounds really simple.

(00:34:19.297):  
Some people are like,

(00:34:21.075):  
I hate you, Amelia.

(00:34:21.896):  
Is that easy for you?

(00:34:22.696):  
No.

(00:34:23.777):  
Making friends is hard.

(00:34:24.857):  
I understand.

(00:34:25.958):  
I'm going to flip this in a second and you might feel more seen in that version.

(00:34:29.460):  
If you're an extrovert like me with a lot of chatty Gemini placements,

(00:34:34.864):  
relationships are the part where I just like go make friends.

(00:34:36.945):  
I cannot help myself.

(00:34:37.885):  
It's just what I do.

(00:34:38.706):  
And then with the internet magic,

(00:34:40.867):  
I'm like sharing my work online consistently and letting it kind of draw people in.

(00:34:47.062):  
This has been,

(00:34:48.623):  
again,

(00:34:49.223):  
when I,

(00:34:49.603):  
this is the overarching framework under which I do all of that other stuff.

(00:34:53.706):  
I'm not saying like, it's not a hope, a wish and a prayer.

(00:34:55.927):  
I'm not,

(00:34:57.568):  
I believe in some forms of manifestation and like to utilize them,

(00:35:00.509):  
but I'm also not some,

(00:35:01.490):  
I'm way too practical.

(00:35:02.631):  
I'm like, again, Capricorn rising.

(00:35:04.391):  
I believe in doing the work and that's how I work.

(00:35:08.514):  
So for me,

(00:35:09.194):  
I go out and make friends and I let the internet be this sort of space where I am

(00:35:13.136):  
showing up and receiving things.

(00:35:14.617):  
For you, it may actually feel like the exact opposite of this.

(00:35:18.219):  
You may use the internet to like push your work out into the world,

(00:35:21.600):  
meet people,

(00:35:22.440):  
be like exuberant and all over the place.

(00:35:25.042):  
And then you cultivate relationships by kind of drawing people in through your work over time.

(00:35:30.464):  
But I think being in business, marketing anywhere is about this rhythm.

(00:35:35.606):  
It's about how are we putting ourselves out there and how are we calling in what we

(00:35:38.707):  
desire and like cultivating that resonance in the process.

(00:35:43.994):  
And so.

(00:35:46.212):  
I promised you that this workshop was about marketing portals away from social media.

(00:35:50.934):  
And I think this is the last kind of piece that I'll,

(00:35:54.035):  
I guess there's two more tiny pieces that will go into Q&A.

(00:35:57.696):  
So I think a marketing portal is just where we've opened this space.

(00:36:01.097):  
We've chosen a channel.

(00:36:02.677):  
That's where you're showing up.

(00:36:04.718):  
We've cultivated a message.

(00:36:06.479):  
That's what you say and how you say it.

(00:36:09.139):  
And we have a strategy.

(00:36:10.780):  
That's how we direct the flow toward what we want.

(00:36:14.281):  
And doing those things together intentionally is how we open this magical marketing portal.

(00:36:20.322):  
So with any of the things I've talked about today, we have the creative marketing cycle.

(00:36:24.603):  
In any business, you need to know how am I growing my audience?

(00:36:27.663):  
How am I nurturing my community?

(00:36:28.984):  
How am I making the sale?

(00:36:31.624):  
When I first started, I literally sorted all of my marketing efforts into those categories.

(00:36:35.945):  
And every quarter I sat down, I was like, how am I growing this quarter?

(00:36:39.086):  
How am I nurturing this quarter?

(00:36:40.586):  
How am I selling this quarter?

(00:36:42.335):  
It was very like clear and intentional.

(00:36:47.062):  
But I think I add this piece in because often we might choose a marketing channel.

(00:36:52.009):  
Like we might say, I'm going to be on email.

(00:36:55.219):  
but we're not clear about our message and we don't have a strategy, right?

(00:36:58.700):  
So email itself is not a strategy.

(00:37:01.521):  
Email is a channel.

(00:37:02.681):  
Similarly, Instagram or TikTok.

(00:37:05.002):  
I'm gonna be on TikTok, that's a channel.

(00:37:06.763):  
But that doesn't mean you have a message or a strategy.

(00:37:08.723):  
What makes it a marketing portal,

(00:37:10.384):  
what can get us away from social media is that we have all three of these things.

(00:37:15.085):  
So for instance, for me with email,

(00:37:18.459):  
I use a lead magnet strategy.

(00:37:21.541):  
And my message is all about leaving social media and making that accessible and expansive for people.

(00:37:27.205):  
And so that's what I'm always sharing around there.

(00:37:30.087):  
The lead magnet is my strategy and I combine it with a weekly email when the podcast is in season.

(00:37:36.372):  
But these are the kind of things we're triangulating between.

(00:37:38.674):  
And just to wrap us with one more thought,

(00:37:46.638):  
I think that it's important that we open our portals with intention.

(00:37:51.201):  
I'm not a believer that we have to be everything everywhere all at once,

(00:37:55.384):  
as the movie tells us or doesn't tell us.

(00:37:57.626):  
Anyway, we don't need to do that.

(00:38:00.346):  
I think we should be intentional.

(00:38:01.908):  
What do you love to do?

(00:38:03.129):  
What are your skills?

(00:38:04.411):  
What do other people tell you you do really well?

(00:38:07.514):  
Go to those places.

(00:38:09.036):  
What do you want from this?

(00:38:10.617):  
Do you really want to make more money?

(00:38:11.899):  
Do you really want better collaborative partners?

(00:38:14.862):  
What do you really want?

(00:38:16.363):  
How can you match up your skills and your desires and your marketing?

(00:38:20.660):  
And then with all of that intention,

(00:38:23.441):  
we also have to hold it lightly and remember that it's all an experiment.

(00:38:26.922):  
No one thing is going to magically make your like 10x your business, 1000x your business, whatever.

(00:38:34.725):  
Maybe it will,

(00:38:35.665):  
but probably not if you're counting on it too and gripping it really hard,

(00:38:39.487):  
hoping it will,

(00:38:40.367):  
right?

(00:38:41.207):  
We have to remember that it's all an experiment.

(00:38:43.268):  
I have done so many marketing experiments and sales experiments that failed.

(00:38:47.930):  
In fact, the last time I taught a holisticism workshop, it was a great workshop.

(00:38:51.732):  
And at the end, I was like, you can do a VIP day with me and it'll be so great.

(00:38:55.213):  
And no one booked it.

(00:38:56.413):  
Not a single person booked, which is fine.

(00:38:59.355):  
It failed.

(00:38:59.795):  
It was okay.

(00:39:00.475):  
It didn't matter.

(00:39:01.375):  
I mean,

(00:39:01.816):  
it gave me great information that that was not,

(00:39:04.717):  
my audience was not trying to like spend that kind of money with me.

(00:39:07.398):  
Cool.

(00:39:07.958):  
Great.

(00:39:08.338):  
Now I know that.

(00:39:09.779):  
So again, open portals intention.

(00:39:12.813):  
But remember, it's all an experiment.

(00:39:15.658):  
And if you liked what I talked about today, you can hear me talk.

(00:39:22.129):  
Maybe my slide will move forward.

(00:39:24.373):  
Apparently not.

(00:39:26.555):  
I run a podcast called off the grid, leaving social media without losing all your clients.

(00:39:31.120):  
And there's literally 75 episodes worth of me talking on there.

(00:39:34.944):  
So you can hear a lot more about this.

(00:39:37.146):  
If you're new to the show, go back to the beginning.

(00:39:39.509):  
The first five episodes are a mini course in how I love social media and

(00:39:44.233):  
and how to move through these three phases of the creative marketing cycle.

(00:39:47.935):  
And there's a free toolkit that's associated with that.

(00:39:51.116):  
So grab the toolkit, go listen to the beginning of the show.

(00:39:54.357):  
And then from there, you can just pick episodes that sound fun.

(00:39:56.998):  
But I can drop that link in the chat.

(00:40:00.120):  
But for now, I'm going to stop my share because I want to have time for questions.

(00:40:06.042):  
I did an okay job.

(00:40:06.984):  
We have eight minutes for questions.

(00:40:08.846):  
Yeah, I'm here to answer all your questions.

(00:40:10.528):  
What you got?

(00:40:10.929):  
I see a question in the chat.

(00:40:13.653):  
Can you say a little more about pitching podcasts?

(00:40:15.896):  
Yeah, certainly.

(00:40:16.877):  
So I think that...

(00:40:20.674):  
Pitching podcasts, like in a very basic way for anyone who's like, what are you even talking about?

(00:40:24.735):  
Pitching podcasts is about pitching yourself to be a guest on shows.

(00:40:30.276):  
Or if you have a podcast, pitching people to partner with you in some way.

(00:40:33.857):  
But typically,

(00:40:34.318):  
we're pitching ourselves to be a guest on a show,

(00:40:37.018):  
which means we're probably emailing that person and saying something like,

(00:40:40.519):  
hey,

(00:40:40.879):  
I really love your show.

(00:40:42.560):  
And I think I'd be a great guest.

(00:40:44.480):  
And I would love to talk about these things.

(00:40:47.261):  
And so

(00:40:48.704):  
I like pitches that are specific, but open-ended.

(00:40:53.510):  
So I find that what I can tell you is some bad pitches I get and some mistakes not to make.

(00:40:59.496):  
And everyone has to craft their own kind of perfect pitch for themselves.

(00:41:03):  
But I think that some people...

(00:41:06.175):  
think that liking your show is enough.

(00:41:07.917):  
And they like write you an effusive email about how much they love it.

(00:41:10.299):  
And at the end, they're like, I'd love to be a guest.

(00:41:13.061):  
And that's nice,

(00:41:14.243):  
but it asks the host to do a lot of work to figure out like about what,

(00:41:19.387):  
why,

(00:41:19.768):  
when,

(00:41:20.148):  
what,

(00:41:20.508):  
what am I doing here?

(00:41:21.709):  
So I think that that's one mistake to avoid.

(00:41:24.852):  
Another mistake to avoid is like to show no understanding of what the show is really about.

(00:41:30.077):  
So many people pitch me

(00:41:32.119):  
So many social media marketers pitch me to be on off the grid.

(00:41:34.960):  
And I'm just like,

(00:41:35.560):  
you have missed the entire point of the show,

(00:41:37.901):  
which is about marketing without social media.

(00:41:42.762):  
So that's another piece of it.

(00:41:43.982):  
But in terms of how I would structure a pitch, I typically like.

(00:41:50.822):  
say something specific about why I love the show,

(00:41:52.923):  
introduce myself in brief,

(00:41:55.565):  
emphasizing any specific businesses or credentials that I have.

(00:41:59.166):  
And then I offer a bulleted list of some things I think we could talk about.

(00:42:02.788):  
And I try to make them pretty attention-grabbing or compelling.

(00:42:06.951):  
Maybe not clickbaity,

(00:42:08.071):  
but this could maybe be a cool title,

(00:42:10.192):  
something that's really going to make it easy for the host to say yes and see

(00:42:13.854):  
immediately how it fits into

(00:42:15.815):  
the types of episodes they create I don't get pitches like that so often but when I

(00:42:20.359):  
do they're like an immediate yes what I tend to get a lot more of is people who

(00:42:24.142):  
really love the show have a vague idea of what we might talk about but then I then

(00:42:30.186):  
I have to decide if I want to do the work to cultivate them into a guest or not so

(00:42:34.970):  
I think that's that's kind of my advice on pitching and I

(00:42:38.141):  
Okay, let me grab these other two questions real quick.

(00:42:40.864):  
Asking for advice for someone who has so many business ideas that aren't

(00:42:44.287):  
necessarily related or I don't want them linked.

(00:42:47.209):  
Well, I think that...

(00:42:52.705):  
I would say I wouldn't know how to answer this without knowing your human design or astrological types.

(00:42:58.410):  
Because some people need to do one thing or need to be really careful and focused

(00:43:03.934):  
on what they pour their energy into.

(00:43:05.756):  
And other people can really do a ton of stuff.

(00:43:08.738):  
And actually, that's what fuels them and keeps them motivated and going.

(00:43:12.321):  
And so I think that...

(00:43:15.134):  
the best thing to do is to like learn about yourself and what works best for you in

(00:43:19.835):  
this sort of instance.

(00:43:21.755):  
For me, I'm like in the middle.

(00:43:23.216):  
Like I like to have a lot of projects on my plate, but I can hit this like wall that's like no more.

(00:43:28.857):  
And then when I hit that, I like, then I can burn out and I have problems.

(00:43:31.778):  
So I tend to, I think it's just a personal energetics question for each of us.

(00:43:36.959):  
I think you can do a lot of different things if you can be like pretty clear about

(00:43:39.819):  
who you are as a person and kind of share from your POV.

(00:43:43.779):  
I don't know about not wanting them linked.

(00:43:45.280):  
Like what I love is I love to see a creator who's got like eight businesses and I

(00:43:48.961):  
love to explore all of them.

(00:43:50.922):  
And sometimes when somebody is like doing things and I don't even realize they're connected,

(00:43:53.804):  
I don't always know how I feel about it.

(00:43:55.864):  
Okay, let me grab these last two questions in 60 seconds.

(00:43:58.666):  
Best tip for starting in a coaching business,

(00:44:00.727):  
just the one thing,

(00:44:01.607):  
most effective way to grow audience quicker.

(00:44:03.908):  
Best way to start a coaching business,

(00:44:05.229):  
talk to every single person you know or want to work with,

(00:44:08.670):  
one-on-one relationship marketing all the way.

(00:44:11.223):  
That's what I would recommend.

(00:44:13.124):  
Michelle Warner is great at teaching relationship marketing,

(00:44:15.965):  
but I think that is always going to work better for coaching than immediately

(00:44:21.588):  
starting with a traffic strategy,

(00:44:23.049):  
like grow an audience.

(00:44:25.410):  
When you're experimenting, how do you decide how long to try before assessing?

(00:44:29.392):  
Yeah, I feel like sometimes I go too fast and don't give things enough time and or do the opposite.

(00:44:34.128):  
Um, okay.

(00:44:34.828):  
Here's my quick and dirty rule for that three months or three tries is what I do.

(00:44:39.229):  
I try it either try it for three months or I do it three times.

(00:44:42.350):  
Um,

(00:44:43.770):  
and then I assess,

(00:44:45.271):  
I think it's like somewhere in my brain,

(00:44:47.891):  
I'm like three times makes it a pattern so that I feel like I have enough information.

(00:44:51.572):  
That is a rule, a personal rule I use.

(00:44:54.453):  
I don't know that if it's

(00:44:56.049):  
It's not statistical advice.

(00:44:57.750):  
I'll just say that.

(00:45:01.092):  
Okay.

(00:45:01.473):  
Is creating a link tree on social a good way to leave a quiet profile up?

(00:45:05.755):  
Yes, I have done that and it worked well for me and I enjoyed it.

(00:45:08.798):  
Okay.

(00:45:09.598):  
That's the end of our time together.

(00:45:10.799):  
I love ending on that note.

(00:45:12.240):  
Thank you.