Hello, my friend, welcome to the Tralongo track. I'm your host, Giana, and this is your weekly dose of a little bit of mom life, a little bit of business strategy, and all the insanity that happens in between. I'm so excited that you're here. I also know that you're busy. You got life going on. So let's jump right into the episode.
Welcome to episode 44. We're talking about creating content for yourself first. Ooh, juicy statement. Okay. Something I hear all the time, I get it in my DMs, I get it when I first start working with clients, is “Giana my life is boring. I'm at home. I do this and that. Same thing every day. I don't know how to make the personal side of my life interesting. I don't know what to post about, because I don't have anything fun to do,” and I get that.
It's why we see people do so much more content when they're on vacation or when they're at the zoo or going and doing fun things. But it's actually much more helpful to incorporate that personal side of your content in the boring, I say in air quotes, parts of your day.
We're going to talk about that a little bit today. The thing is, when you're in your own life, just like when you're in your own expertise, it is boring or normal, it’s what I like to say better, because you're doing the same thing day in and day out. So, of course, it doesn't feel exciting or new to you, but the people that are already following you and that are going to come and find you and follow you, they want the real version of you.
They want a peek behind the scenes into your real, regular life. Creating that you part of the brand is very, very important, especially, I mean, it's always been important, but especially in a time when there are so many people doing what you do online and the online space, regardless of what anybody says, it is a competitive place.
Your ideal client is probably following three or four people that do the same thing that you're doing, and there is this level of needing to show a personal side of your brand so they connect with you outside of just what your expertise is–what you're selling.
The three parts of the you part of your brand that are really important are authenticity, connection and authority.
These three pieces together show a real version of you. Not a watered down, trying to be like everyone else, trying to follow the trends that you don't even like. This allows you, when you know what these three pieces are, it allows you to show up exactly, and here's a really important benefit of the you part of your brand: that it’s truly who you are.
There's way less chance of social media burnout, because how you post and how you show up is way more natural versus trying to show up and be somebody that you're not. Your audience is also going to connect to you faster, because they can tell if you're being authentic.
Even if your life feels boring to you, people that are watching you are going to find comfort and connection in the things that you're both doing–that are boring. Again, I say that in quotes, because you're not boring. Like I would be friends with you in real life. If you're listening to this, we would be friends in real life. This is something that I go in deeper into in the Charmed Content workbook and my masterclass Stranger to Stand Out. Both are linked in the show notes of this.
If you're like, okay, I want to get my hands on something tangible so I can really do this. There's exercises in both of those offers to really help you get into the nitty gritty of your online brand. And with Stranger to Stand Out, we're breaking down specifically the authority piece, because that's the piece that people tend to struggle with the most.
Then in the workbook, we're breaking down all three of those pieces. The authenticity, which is being authentic to who you are talking to, how you talk in real life. I had a client before who drops the F bomb. She drops the F bomb in front of her kids. She drops the F bomb on lives. and she wasn't using it in her content.
But it was like, “Okay, but if you get on a call with a client, are you going to use the F bomb?” and she's like, “Yeah, probably.” Well, then it needs to be part of your content. That is going to attract some people and it's going to repel some people and that is okay. That is totally okay.
If you want to dive even deeper on any of those things, head to the show notes and check out those offers and keep in mind that when you create content for yourself first, with that authenticity, speaking how you speak, if you don't wear makeup every day, I don't.
I show up in my stories and lives all the time with no makeup on. Sometimes if I'm having a day where I'm feeling a little bit nasty, I put a filter on. Some days I do a full face of makeup and I shoot a bunch of different content and that's fine. But I'm not going to let me putting makeup on or not when I, when it's normal for me and always has been for me to not wear makeup every single day, I'm still going to show up as that version of myself.
You can do the same thing. That's really that authenticity piece. I promise you, and I just want to say this again, that when you figure out a way to show up authentically and pull away from trying to be like everybody else or be like a perfected version of yourself, your social media presence becomes so much easier. It's so much easier to show up when you're just showing up as your normal self, I promise you that, and being authentic.
I'll put this caveat on it. It doesn't mean that you need to air your dirty laundry or you know, if you're having a bad day, you don't have to come on and cry on camera and say you're having a bad day. Now some people do that and they are comfortable with that and that is fine, but some people are not confident and some of you are more private and that's also fine, right?
But we're showing up as a real version of ourselves, in a way that we feel comfortable with. This is really that, that first part of being who you are and creating content for yourself first. Now, I do just want to lightly touch on something to take this a couple steps further is, the you as your brand is one piece of the puzzle.
It's a piece of the puzzle that some people do really well and some people are missing. If you're listening to this and you're like, “Oh, I think I'm missing that piece,” then that's fine. Then you, you now know a little bit of what you have to do to be a little bit better about that. Now, the other piece is your niche.
This drives people crazy nuts, because it feels so elusive, right? It's always like, your niche, your niche, your niche, and people are like, what the heck is my niche? I want you to think about it this way. Who exactly do you want to help, and how do you help them? That's your niche. Boom, done. By getting to know who that person is, what she deeply wants, yes, what she wants on a surface level, but also what she wants like in her soul, you're able to create posts, stories, emails that speak to her, that make her feel seen and heard and understood and validated.
It is incredibly important that you brainstorm about the person that you truly want to be working with, so that instead of speaking to everyone and being general, which you don't want to do, because you're just going to get lost in the feed, you're reaching out to her directly so that she can't help but stop and read what you have to say.
This is what happens when you get clear. I have this testimonial from one of my clients, Krista:
“Since working with Giana, I've gained lots of confidence in myself and capabilities in writing content. My story followers have grown and I actually have potential clients commenting on my posts.” Boom. When you take your personality, the you, the authority, the authenticity, the connection, when you take that, combine it, I wish this was a video podcast, you can see all my crazy Italian hands.
When you take the you part of your brand, the authenticity, the authority, the connection, and you combine it with that niche, with that ideal client, that is when you get gold. That is when you really start speaking to the people that want to be in your world. That's when you really start getting momentum and you start getting more DMs.
And it becomes easier to create content, which leads to content creation taking less time. Those are really the pieces that you need to become BFFs. The ideal client side, the niche side and the personality side. Most of the time if you're listening to this, my guess is that you are probably missing one of those.
Like I said, there's resources available to you that are linked in the show notes that can help you dive deeper. One of the things that I'm really, really good at is asking the right questions to pull this out of you. And that's what both of those resources have for you. Look at your content, maybe have your best friend or like your biz bestie look at your content and flat out say like, I'm open to constructive criticism.
Does this sound like me? When you watch my stories, does it feel like something I would say to you in real life or I would send to you in real life? And if they say no, okay girl, then we gotta be working on the personality side, the you part of the brand. Okay? Tthe other thing you can do with your content.
We all have those clients that are like our ride or die clients, right? They've been with us since like day one. They've really almost become friends. They do know us and our brand. Send them a couple of your posts and say, “Hey, can you please just give me feedback on these? Like you're my ideal client. I love working with you. Are they speaking to you? Like, I will not feel any type of way. You know, if you tell me they're not, but I just want to send them, I just want to get some feedback” and offer them, “I'll send you a $10 Starbucks gift card, I'll give you one of my low ticket offers, but like, just let me know,” and then take their criticism and see how you need to react, to adjust.
Sometimes we just need that outside perspective. I'm going to leave it there with you today. I hope that this inspires some really exciting content and branding to come out of you. I will see you in the next episode where we are going to be talking about how to get more out of your free resources. This is going to be a really good nitty gritty one where you're going to want to take lots of notes. I'll see you next week. Have a good one. Bye.
