I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about visibility. How do you get yourself out there? Where should I show up? How do I launch my offer? How do I get over my fear of showing up online? How do I actually get people to know who I am? How do I get paying clients?
In today’s episode, we’re diving into all of those questions and more! Michelle Ellis is back on the podcast to talk about how to find clients offline (aka, walking into brick-and-mortar businesses to sell your services), how to find clients online, the different online platforms you can use to grow your business, how to tap into people with different audiences, ways to get more eyes on your business and so much more.
Connect with Michelle:Michelle’s website: https://michelleellisco.showit.site/#/
Michelle’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theorganiccopywriter/
Rachel: Hey guys, I’m really excited for this episode. I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about visibility. I actually just taught this masterclass the other day on list building and coaches were asking, how do we get ourselves out there? There’s so many different ways to shop online and so we want to dive into that. We also want to talk about going offline, we also want to talk about some different ways that you can collaborate with different people that have existing lists to get more eyes on your business. Because at the end of the day, you’re probably list building right now, creating your signature offer or course, and you’re wondering, how do I get this launched? How do I get people to actually know who I am so I can have paying clients?
Today, Michelle and I, we’re diving into this. So let’s talk about it. Let’s just assume that every coach who comes out of the door knows their niche. They know who they’re speaking to. They’ve done their market research on their ideal client. They don’t just think, where should I post? It’s really that question of where is my ideal client hanging out?
Let’s talk about that, even before we talk about list building. Because TikTok when I hear people say, is it Facebook? Is it TikTok? Is it Instagram? Is it YouTube? Is it Pinterest? There’s all these different avenues to post on, but how do you find out where your ideal clients hanging?
How To Find Out Where Your Ideal Clients Are Hanging Out
Michelle: The first thing is to know the demographics. You can do a little bit of digging online, there’s already research and studies, and they analyze this all the time because things shift around year to year. So Facebook has more of the 30 and 40 year olds. You have the 20s and early 30 year old on Instagram.
I think about what type of ideal client they are. Are they a career professional? They’re probably on LinkedIn. So really knowing who your ideal client is and where they’re at demographically so that you can really focus your energy on those specific online platforms. Also think about that locally. Is your ideal client into yoga? No. So why would you approach a yoga studio? You might want to partner with a local gym because your ideal client needs to lose weight.
Really knowing that and also knowing where they shop. It doesn’t make sense all the time to go and try to do a workshop at Whole Foods if your ideal client isn’t there shopping. Maybe you can build Doctor referrals there and different networking that way. But if they’re still shopping at the local store and buying Standard American Diet Food, don’t hesitate to go in there and post on their billboard for your next workshop, or brochure or flyer or anything you have going on.
Just think about it from their perspective, step into their shoes. Where are they? Where do you need to position your business and your services so that you can reach them where they’re at? Not where you think they are or where they should be.
For anybody who has not done this market research, it’s imperative to get at least three to five people on the phone to ask them specifically, where are you hanging out? What type of information do you consume? How do you consume it? Do you like ebooks? Do you like challenges? Do you like video courses? Do you like master classes? Master classes can be a 15 to 20 minute class where you’re teaching intensively on a certain topic. That person can deep dive there.
How To Show Up On Social Media & Gain Visibility
Rachel: Let’s talk about even showing up on social media and getting that visibility. What are some of your favorite places to show up?
Michelle: It depends on your demographics of who you’re targeting. Let’s say you’re on Instagram showing up on video or on Reels. That’s really going to stop the newsfeed. This is going to stop the scroll. People are gonna go and stop and watch. So make sure you’re hashtagging properly following similar people that you think that they might be interested in and you’re commenting, you’re liking their stuff so that they see your name pop up.
On TikTok, start engaging in comments. Being engaging on social media is really, really important. Sharing things from people and just really just trying to be present. Build a relationship on social, TikTok is really important.
If you’re on Facebook, you really need to be taking advantage of groups. So that means other people’s groups and other people’s audiences. Use that group as a list builder because you have those three questions to ask. You can ask, what are your biggest pain points? Do you want to sign up for my free gift? And name that free gift. Be very specific. And then ask, Do you agree to me emailing you my free gift? If they say yes, use that as a list-building group on Facebook.
TikToks are still one of the best ways to engage and have community. Facebook is also searchable.
Rachel: But when we’re talking search engine, I really love YouTube. Still, to this day, I do Facebook ads, I spend a good amount of money on Facebook ads. And still when I get people on a discovery call, somebody will tell me, I was Googling and found you on YouTube.
Michelle: Yeah, I believe it’s YouTube and then TikTok is the second largest search engine aside from Google. So everyone should be putting their videos on there. Even just putting your content on there. So if you’ve done a Reel on IG, or you do Facebook Lives weekly, or even a podcast or anything, on YouTube, make sure you have the proper description and the proper title, and making it public so that people can find you there as well.
Rachel: I keep hearing people asking about blogging, and I always say unless you’re sharing your blog, people aren’t just gonna land on your blog, unless you have really good SEO. And that usually takes hiring somebody and learning the ins and outs, or taking a course and learning the ins and outs of SEO.
At the end of the day, it’s really good to reach out to 10 different vendors that you can reach out and say, here’s a chiropractor’s office, here’s here’s health food store, can I do a blog takeover? Or can I do a newsletter takeover? So you have it on their blog, you have more people reading their information on their blog, and then, on that same blog, link to a freebie. So you’re building your list.
You can do the same thing in a newsletter. Send a newsletter, or even do a video, which would be more of a vlog newsletter. But you can do a video and then lead them to the call to action to sign up for your free.
How To Find And Work With Local Clients
Michelle: What’s really nice about partnering with local people is local referrals are always amazing. How many local chiropractors are there? Do they have a website? Are they blogging? Are they putting content out? I’m getting some lists locally, and I see some of their newsletters, and some of them need some work.
Can I help you out and do a blog once a month for you? That could be your monthly newsletters because then you can get featured. And then they can give you referrals and vice versa. So there’s a great collaboration there.
If I was still health coaching, I’d be on TikTok. But for TikTok, the biggest thing that holds coaches back is fear. If you bought content from us, you have tons of TikTok content. You can even a portion out of a program and make a newsletter.
Say it’s on leaky gut –you can take it out of the 30-day Gut Fix and have a whole part on leaky gut. You can definitely go into any one of the program files where there’s blogs, and pull out a blog and use that as a blog. Change up the name of the blog, add in a recipe, make a TikTok, and then add your link to your freebie. But if not, you can really spend some time on just stepping back, doing a video, transcribing that video and making a newsletter out of that video. Making it really easy on yourself to generate that content.
Rachel: And don’t be tied to the outcome. That person might say no right now, but it doesn’t mean it’s always a no, it might be yes. Later on, they may reach out to you or in a little while or in a couple of weeks or months from now. You never know.
Michelle: But really just getting your name out there and also creating that relationship, especially if it’s local. It’s really awesome to go in person and introduce yourself. Try not to be afraid of what they might say, but I’m in this space. And this is what I focus on. And I know that you’re in this space, and this is what you focus on. I think it’d be a great asset for us to collaborate, I can help your patients and I can refer my clients to be your patients because
Rachel: I would I walk in with a business card. Anytime I went into a doctor’s office, I just had business cards. I would say hey, this is what I do. I would love to help you, if we can make a relationship that works to benefit both of us. That’s the most important thing that you can do locally.
Michelle: Online, don’t be afraid to DM people, to reach out, to send an email. especially when you see places that you can really collaborate with. So a lot of people have podcasts, a lot of people have a blog that’s rolling with guest bloggers and summits, even I remember hearing in the past talking to a health coach doing this summit. I wish I had the nerve to go and pitch so that I could be a part of it. I knew enough.
Rachel: I remember doing that I saw this. I saw this gut Summit coming out. And another person I knew was on it. I remember going and pitching to her. I was super scared. But I was like, This is what I’m going to talk about: heavy metals and children, the toxicity and children and how to detox them naturally. It was something that I knew I could talk about. Something I was very comfortable in talking about. And she said yes.
So it was one of those things. Once you’re on one summit, I always say it starts with that visibility, to get on a summit, what did I do? I had visibility on YouTube, I showed up on my personal page, sharing all the time about things that I was doing with my clients, and things that I was doing with my family. I started getting known as that detox girl.
How To Show Off Your Skills To Potential Clients
Michelle: Also think about how you can amp yourself up a bit and showcase who you really are and all of your talents. So if you’re emailing someone, and you’re trying to pitch them, don’t be afraid to say here’s a recent podcast that I did, or here’s a recent blog that got published, or here are some testimonials from some clients that I work with.
Really validate who you are, and start to build that trust. Don’t be shy about that. I am sure that unless you’re completely starting out new, you might not have testimonials or any anything, but don’t be afraid to use some from friends and family.
Rachel: Exactly. I remember being in health coaching school, and we would partner with our peers. So I walked out with feedback from people that I was Student Coaching with and vice versa, I had an accountability partner. So definitely take advantage of anyone that you work with free or paid and really use that opportunity to get even exchange a testimonial.
Michelle: I don’t even do yoga, but I did go into a yoga studio and I pitched to them doing a class on burnout. And we did a class on burnout, I actually pitched to a coconut water company, which was Zico Water asking if they would donate coconut water. I told them this is what I was doing. I also pitched to POPchips to find a chip that was healthy for people. And both donated! POPchips donated and coconut water donated.
I ended up doing a paid class on adrenal burnout and it turned out great. I started being able to do a blog for them once a month and a newsletter. It really brought in a lot of local people. I spend two hours a week going into local venues, walking right in the door, asking who I needed to speak to health food stores, gyms, chiropractor studios, yoga studios, spas or salons, all these different places that I knew my ideal client. When I was at the nail salon, I also would just be talking to everyone, hanging out. Maybe your ideal client still needs to get pampered.
Definitely just try to reach people where they’re at and don’t be afraid to show up. That’s the most important thing and no one’s going to do it for you. Unless you’re paying some one. But you still have to show up and assert yourself as this is what you do. This is who you help. And so it’s really important to do it and practice it to feel more confident.
How To Repurpose The Content You Create
Rachel: Right. There’s definitely ways to repurpose. If you think about doing a video on YouTube, at the same time that you’re shooting that 8 to 10 minute YouTube video talking about what I eat in a day or how I heal my gut or 3 reasons that you’re not getting better with your hormones or 3 reasons your hormones are not getting balanced. If you start doing that, you can take on the same day, do a one minute video and just talk about that same topic and then you have that one minute video for Reels, TikTok, even Facebook. I see tons of people these days on their personal page sharing Reels that they did for their business.
Michelle: Yeah, and Reels are fun. It takes a little practice at first, but Reels are so fun and you can use images with them. If you’re on Tik Tok and you’re creating it, you could do video and if you’re really good, you can do one of those what I eat in a day or go with me through a day, I’m not that fancy.
Rachel: I love watching those. I also love the recipe ones. Whenever someone does a recipe that also has that stops the scroll for me.
Michelle: It’s so funny. I was watching The Voice or maybe it was American Idol. But I was looking up what the voice was of a contestant and I went to go click over on her page because I loved her voice. It was one of those things that had the most views and it was one of her TikTok Reels. And it was, this is how I’m getting ready for the show. This is what I’m eating. It was that reality lifestyle behind the scenes vibe. It had a ton, 1000s and 1000s of views. I was glad she’s getting herself visible and that’s honestly, it’s really just shooting your life.
Moving Past The Fear Of Showing Up Online
Rachel: Well, that’s the other part that we have to talk about. It’s the fear of showing up. I see so many people who think that they need to get the perfect plan. If you’re doing Instagram work on your social media profile, make sure you have a healthy social media profile. Make sure you’re taking time to get published on other platforms like Medium or Thrive global or MindBodyGreen. Look for places that are taking writers so you can start saying here is my article on Medium or my article on Thrive Global. Start boosting that and your visibility to be able to have “as seen on” your website.
But you’ve got to work on that fear of showing up. Because I hear people who say, should I be on Instagram? Should I be on Facebook? Should I be on YouTube? Should I be on Pinterest? You should really be where your ideal clients hang out and definitely find that out. So you don’t waste a lot of time. I would say for me, I’m on Instagram. I’m on Facebook and I’m on YouTube. I have to get better at doing TikTok. I go to binge there a lot but the truth is I’ve never bought anything from them.
But Michelle has you have bought stuff, right?
Michelle: I have. There were just these really cute little hiking Carhart hats, and this one person was making the stitches on them with flowers, something totally unique. It was a video and I followed the whole journey. Follow me on Instagram, I’m only taking orders via DM and all this stuff. She got me hooked. So TikTokit really depends on how you show up in your marketing.
I don’t message on TikTok, I just don’t even read them. I just watch. But many times, I noticed that it carries me over to someone’s Instagram. They’ll take TikTok videos vice versa put them on IG and go back and forth. There’s different things that you can do with each platform. Just try and add special effects and different music and things like that. So really just taking what you can and multi purposing it.
Rachel: Keep in mind that if you’re doing lives, you can also do that on Instagram. You can have an Instagram Live, you can have Facebook Live, you can do great interviews with people. Also, there’s so many podcasts in this world.
You can get on some of these podcasts. Just make sure you pitch to them. Say, I have a really great free gift for your audience. This is how I would help them. I can talk about these three topics. Tons of people pitched me for The Healthy Hustle Podcast and that’s exactly what their pitches include. They just say these are the topics, show me a one pager, you can make it really simple.
But make sure that you’re definitely going back to the basics. Write down 10 places locally that you can reach out to, spend time to go into places locally. That’s a really big thing before we jump into the online market, but it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start a Facebook group. You should definitely start a Facebook group if your persons hanging out there. I love my Facebook group community. People know that they can come in there and ask me questions and I’m going to personally answer. A lot of people set up Facebook group strategies for list building and visibility where you’re doing once a month webinars, weekly Lives. TikTokit’s a great place to nurture your ideal client.
But remember at the end of the day people need to find you. So make sure that you’re determining which platform is right for you, and just go forward and get it done. Would you say that you want to add anything else Michelle?
Michelle: You hit the nail on the head there. Just get it done and do it. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t try to be perfect. Just keep moving forward and keep going.
Rachel: At the end of the day, think of your ideal client. For most of you that have gone through your own healing journey. Think back to when you were really sick. Where did you go and get the information? Did you Google it? What were you googling?
When you think about what were you Googling, you can turn that into various social media posts. If I was going on to YouTube and searching, then maybe it would be good for you to go on to YouTube and post videos. Same if you are going into Facebook or going into Instagram. Remember, start asking people. Start doing polls on your Instagram and your Facebook. Ask on Facebook. Are you more on Instagram or Facebook? Ask on Instagram. Are you more on Instagram or Facebook? Keep it really simple. Find out where your ideal clients hang out and then show up in a really beautiful service-based way.
