Want to Become an Influencer? 5 Tips to Grow Your Brand

[00:00] To have influence to be able to easily encourage people, to buy your stuff, to be able to persuade someone, to take just the action that you want them to take to have an impact simply by showing up and sharing. As creative business owners, we all want to be influencers, maybe not the influencers of Instagram fame, but we do want to influence our customers and our audiences.

[00:00:24] It's why we show up in our brands and on social media. But how do you gain the power of influence and how do you wield that power once you have it? That's what we're here to talk about today. Okay.

[00:00:39]Hello, and welcome back the 10 minutes to being boss a bite-size show, offer tips, tools, and tactics for helping you do business. I'm Emily Thompson. And today we're talking about being an influencer, but before we dive in, I do want to share more about our sponsor. Podia. If it's through education, through sharing what you know that you want to be an influencer, then I highly recommend you check out podia.

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[00:01:19]Now, for the past couple of weeks in the being boss community, we have been discussing the topic of influence and it was in a recent discussion that I was having with a crowd of bosses in our monthly Clubhouse conversation that we really dove into what is working in our businesses in terms of influence.

[00:01:39]The boss is at present for this meeting included a social media marketer and online strategist, a fashion brand CEO, a diverse set of creative business owners, all bringing their own experiences and insights into this conversation in the realm of influence.

[00:01:58]And if I'm being quite honest, whenever I set up this meeting and started creating my agenda for what we would be discussing, I anticipated. Some are really sort of detailed tactics around what is working in terms of the Instagram algorithm or how to best name your blogs these days or whatever it may be.

[00:02:18] But instead, what I got were some really great overarching themes that can be used no matter what platform you are wanting to build your influence on, and no matter what kind of business you have. So I wanted to bring these topics to here. And I will say because I love shouting out our community members.

[00:02:38] You can find links to all of the bosses who contributed to this conversation in the show notes or in the description for this podcast or video, depending on how it is you are consuming.

[00:02:52]What I pulled together from this conversation are five tips from bosses like you and from my own research and experience as an influencer, as well as to how it is that you can be an influencer for your brand. So let's get started. Number one is the basics. It's the basics for really any business but is especially particular for someone who's wanting to build some influence, whether this is within your own brand and how it is that you're positioning your products and your services, or if you are just trying to be an Instagram influencer or.

[00:03:29] Other sorts of influencers scenario. And that is you have got to have a clearly defined brand and very clear messaging as to who you are, what you do and who you do it for. It is through this lens that you should make every decision that you make. For your presence, whatever that may mean, it builds some important consistency that builds trust that enables your audience to understand and expect what it is that they are going to get from you.

[00:04:04] That comes from clear branding and messaging. One of those things that I've always said, is that consistency breeds, legitimacy. I know, and most of these realms, people are talking consistency and showing up, making sure your YouTube being once a week or posting your podcast once a week or sending your email once a week or whatever, launching a new product once a month, whatever it may be.

[00:04:29] It's about setting some sort of timeframe for you creating and showing up that to build consistency and how it, and when it is that you are showing up. But consistency goes significantly further than just how often you're showing up. But you using the same language it's you presenting the same look is you sharing the same set or a similar set of products?

[00:04:55] It's about you being consistent in everything that you do, not just how often and aware it is that you show up. That is defined in your branding and in your messaging. And that is the foundation on which you are going to build consistency, legitimacy, loyalty and trust in your brand. As you show up to influence in whatever way it is that you're trying to do so.

[00:05:23]Number two is to grow your network. And I'm not saying you're following here. I'm not saying your audience. I'm saying your network for you to really position yourself as someone with influence. You can't first dive into growing a broad audience of people who don't really know you. You need to grow a close network of people who do know you and get you.

[00:05:50] And it's from that close, tight-knit network that your audience is able to truly expand.

[00:05:57]And this is one of those concepts that's quite often glossed over in that search for those big Instagram follower numbers or whatever it may be. But growing your network, growing your referral network, your peer network, your business bestie network, you were word of mouth network of having clients and customers who are some of your truest.

[00:06:19] Fans of being engaged in your local community so that people know what it is that you do and how it is that they can assist you and bringing people into your fold is a place that I suggest literally everyone would be doing all the time, basically. And if you haven't done this yet, if you have not focused on growing your network, you are missing out on the secret sauce of growing your audience.

[00:06:47] Also one of the things that came up with a lot of the bosses and the conversation that I was having is most people feel they have the most influence, the highest impact in those one-on-one conversations.

[00:06:59] And it's through really getting in and getting clear with their branding and their messaging with working with those one-on-one clients and customers of having that tight-knit group of peers, that they can bounce ideas off of that they are really able to solidify the impact and influence. They want to have so that they can then scale it beyond those people.

[00:07:20] That network is everything for growing at your impact.

[00:07:26] I actually have a couple of podcast episodes. I would love to reference for this one is an episode on Word of Mouth Marketing that I did about a year ago. I'll make sure that it's in the show notes and the description as well as a podcast that I did very recently with my friend, Autumn Witt Boyd, who was a master at growing her network and has built an amazing six-figure business.

[00:07:48]Plus, maybe it's legit great to business that she has built in the past six years from focusing on her network. You'll find links to both of those in the description below

[00:08:00]No tip number three is more about the online space and really growing your audience. So whenever you are looking at online, building your presence online, showing up in the places online that you need to be, the tip is for you to focus on where your audience is or wants to be. So for you, you need to consider where it is that your audience wants you to show up. Do they want you to be in their inbox?

[00:08:26] Do they want to interact with you on social media? Do they want that to be on Instagram or on Facebook or on YouTube or in a podcast or wherever it may be. You need to get really clear with where they want to interact with you and show up in that space. And this is where I would love to hear from you. Please head down into the comments and share with me where it is that your brand needs to live online because it is where your audience wants you to be. Take a moment, to get really clear and then go share in the comments. I would love to hear where it is that your audience hangs out online.

[00:09:05]Tip number four is. A no brainer maybe, but I have to say it because it is of utmost importance. You can have the clearest branding in the world and the most amazing messages of everyone is so clear as to how it is that they can refer people to you. And all of the word of mouth marketing, you have all of the friends, you have all of the audience, or you're maybe getting all of the audiences.

[00:09:31]That's even not going to be possible until you get number four and order. And that is that you are showing up and you are adding value in the places where you are. And this is two-fold. This is really important because a lot of people forget that these things sort of happen in tandem, but are separate.

[00:09:52] The first one is for you to provide value to the people who are paying you burst and bore. Most. This may be your clients, your customers, the brands who are hiring you to be influencers for their brands. You have a prerequisite. A requirement, not even a prereq, just a solid requirement for you to provide value to those who are paying you first and foremost.

[00:10:21] This is something that I see a lot of baby bosses getting into trouble within their early years, or really sort of once they get started and they start to try to grow, they have customers or clients. They want to start building their brand and their sort of auxiliary revenue streams. And they start treating a course or building their social media or looking for sponsors or whatever it is.

[00:10:44] And all of the effort that they're putting into this growth phase of their business comes at the expense of them not serving their customers or clients. And just the way that they should be. You have to always prioritize the people who are paying you above the growth of your business. And it is through your balancing of your priorities that you make the adjustments right

[00:11:07] into growing auxiliary revenue streams in your business do not make your customers or clients. The people who are paying you pay that price that is for you to figure out on your own. The second piece of this is for you to also bring value to your audience. The people who may not be paying you yet, the people who have subscribed to your YouTube channel, the people who are following you on.

[00:11:33] The people who are on your email list, make sure that you are adding value in the places where you are showing up because it is through that value that you have the capacity to get them, to click the link, to buy the thing, to take the action that it is that you want them to take. It's by you showing up consistently to be of value that encourages them to do what it is that you ask them to do.

[00:12:00] And finally, once it is that you have done all of these things, the next step for you is to play to your strengths and have fun. Being an influencer, building these businesses, um, building your capacity for impact is only going to be as impactful as it is you showing up doing what it is that you are great at and enjoying yourself while you do it.

[00:12:27] One of the reasons why I started the podcast is because I like to have conversations. I know what my strength is. My strength is having conversations with other creatives and business owners that brings out really great nuggets of insight and information and inspiration that encourages other creatives to go live their business owner dreams as well.

[00:12:49] It is through playing to my strength that I have been able to create the impact, the platform, the audience, the influence for myself that I have been able to do. But I also have fun with it too. After six years of podcasts, and guess what I wanted to do show up on the videos, right? I wanted to get on YouTube.

[00:13:07] I wanted to expand my platforms, try something new, have some fun. And so it is through that lens of let's have some fun that I've been able to do so much more in my business and that I'm able to feel inspired and encouraged to keep doing it. Being an influencer, is it really the dream job for so many people?

[00:13:29] And if you're not having fun doing it, you're doing something wrong. So prioritize, showing up, playing to your strengths and having some fun while you do it.

[00:13:40]And that's it. Those are my five tips. I will say too. I have two book recommendations. I'm going to leave you with today as well. The first is called, Start With Why by Simon Sinek. It's one of my favorite books for getting a recentered or centered for the first time into why it is that you were here doing this thing that you are doing from what you can build a firm foundation for branding and messaging for building your network for showing up authentically.

[00:14:07] All of those things that we've talked about. We've also been book clubbing, this book and the Being Boss Community as well. So all of the bosses are really enjoying it as well. Highly recommended five stars, five stars. The second book is a book called Influencer by Brittany Hennessy and is a really great resource for anyone who wants to.

[00:14:27] Actually work towards the job title of being an influencer or for anyone who may want to work with influencers in an influencer marketing campaign as the CEO or marketing director of a brand.

[00:14:41]And with that, I leave you. Thank you so much for coming to hang out with me. If you do want to join me for conversations that equate to all of these really great little insights and details, I highly recommend you come hang out with us in the being boss community, a community for creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs.

[00:15:00] And until next time do the work be boss.