Developing a connection with your Audience

Hi there, Amy Starr Allen here, and I'm excited to be here today in the Inner Circle. And the training that I'm going to do today, I'm going to talk about how to develop a deep connection with your audience, and really how to market from a place of inspiration rather than desperation. I've been on the internet, marketing on the internet now for about eight years. And personally for me, what I've done is what I'm going to show you today, which is really just get really good at connecting with my audience. Pretty much everything that I've done on the internet has been video marketing and blogging have been my main strategies when it comes to marketing.

And so these are things that I'm really, really passionate about, and they're both platforms that allow us the opportunity to really get in front of our audience and to be able to connect with them on a deep level. So that's what I'm going to be talking about today. Okay, so I'm going to start out with this quote that I really like by Tom Ford. It says, the most important things in life are the connections you make with others. And this is a belief that I have.

This is the way that I live my life. I like to come from a place of love and service, love of people. I really like to connect with people. And so for me to go out and copy and paste and just have it just be about ringing up sales without any actual connection, to do it that way for me would be unfulfilling. It wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't provide what I need in my life to feel fulfilled.

And so this is, you know, this is where I come from in my marketing as well. And there's three things that I'm going to talk about today that are the three ways that I, that I use to really connect with people and they are voice, vision, and value. So I'm going to go into each of those and what they mean and how you can use them in your marketing. The first one is voice. And so what do I mean by voice?

What I mean is to be authentic, just like I said, rather than copying and pasting somebody else's copy, somebody else's voice, somebody else's message, be yourself. That's what people want. People want to feel connected to someone. I know personally, anything that I've ever purchased, anything, anybody that I've ever joined, anybody that I've ever hired for service, it's because I feel connected to them. It's not because I'm getting the same email from them that I'm getting from 20 other people who have copied and pasted a message.

It's because of the connection. So don't be afraid to be yourself in your messaging. And again, a blog gives you a really good platform to be able to do that because that blog is yours. It's nobody else's and it's a great place for you to be able to express yourself. Offer your unique gifts.

So everybody has unique gifts and what I see a lot that stops people dead in their tracks is that they want to be like somebody else. They see somebody else that's really good at X, Y, Z. Maybe somebody is really good at a certain marketing strategy or they're really good at, you know, they have a certain talent in their life and they're having the success that you desire. A lot of times people feel like they have to go and somehow acquire that skill or that talent in order to provide value for the marketplace in order to connect with people. And it's not true.

You have gifts. So what are the gifts that you have that you can offer to make a difference for people? The next thing I want to say is be transparent. And what I mean by this is just don't try to act like you're somebody you're not. Don't try to act like you've got it all together.

Don't be afraid to be transparent and to be vulnerable with people. Let people see other aspects of your life. Your messaging doesn't always have to be about your business opportunity or your product or your service or whatever. You can let people into your life. This is a really, really good way to connect with people.

So for example, with me, I'm a single mother and anybody that watches any of my videos or reads my blog pretty much knows that because I talk about it a lot. I talk about my kids a lot. I'm also a musician and so sometimes I'll sit in front of the camera and play a song on my guitar and I'll add that to my YouTube channel and to my blog just to let people see into that side of my life as well. And you know, I love fitness. So I talk about, you know, that's something that comes across as well in my stories and in my videos and on my blog.

And so when you let people see the other parts of your life, it gives them a more well-rounded idea about who you are. And for me personally, in my primary business, I've attracted team members who have been attracted to me for one of those things that I just said, like I have a couple of guys on my team that joined me because they play the guitar and they like the fact that I play the guitar. I have a lot of single moms on my team who felt connected to me because of the fact that I'm a single mom. So don't be afraid to be transparent and let people see who you are on a well-rounded basis, who you are besides just somebody with a business that's marketing something. Another key is to be passionate about what you do.

I can't tell you how many times, and you've probably seen it as well, where you see somebody sitting in front of a video camera and they seem robotic or just really like boring. And personally, I wouldn't want to buy something from somebody or join somebody in something if they weren't super passionate about what they were doing. Because the fact of the matter is there's plenty of people out there who are passionate about what they're doing. And so if you can be one of those people, if you really believe in your niche and what you're up to, it's easy to be passionate. So make sure that comes across in your messaging so that people can connect with you because people want to be connected to somebody who can lead them.

Somebody who's super passionate on your topic and with your message. So don't be afraid to be passionate. And then the last piece in this section about voice is my favorite. This is something that's near and dear to my heart, and it's what I call being on mission. So I'll explain what I mean by this.

One of my spiritual teachers did an interview with a couple of opera singers, and he was asking them, how is it that when you sing, you move people to tears, even though a lot of the time you're singing in a language that they don't even understand? A lot of times the opera singers are singing in Italian, and the audience speaks English, and yet they're still moved to tears. And their answer was that it's because they're connecting on a heart level. The mind is removed from the equation, and they're coming from a place of heart. And when you connect with people that way, it's an emotional connection, and you can move people to tears regardless of what the words are.

The words are the mind stuff. But when you connect from the heart, you connect on an emotional level. And then he asked them, well, what about stage fright? How is it that you can walk out onto a stage and sing in front of thousands of people without locking up and getting stage fright? And their answer was that when you're on mission, there's no such thing as stage fright.

Being on mission means that you have something to deliver to the audience, and it doesn't matter what they think about it. It doesn't matter if they like you. It doesn't matter if they clap for you, you know, if you're on stage. It doesn't matter if they judge you. None of that matters.

It's about getting out of the space of ego and just providing something from your heart, from a space of love. And when you do that, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks. Not to mention the way the message comes across is completely different. It's a lot more powerful, and it's, again, the way that you can connect with people on an emotional level. So let me give you a quick example about, you know, how I've used this in my business.

I mean, I've not just used this in my business. Since I've really gotten clear about what it means to be on mission, I use this all over the place. I mean, I use it in my business, I use it in my music. When I play music in front of people, I used to be, all I could think about was making a mistake or my voice cracking or something like that. And now I don't care about that.

If I want to play a song for somebody, I just play it from my heart and I don't worry about any of that. I use it in my parenting. It's a great way to, you know, be a parent without being judgmental about what you're doing or judging anybody else. And so it's a really powerful tool that you can use all over your life. One of the ways that I've used it in my business that's been really helpful is, for example, if I'm walking down the street, I live in Boulder, Colorado, and we have a downtown area that I spend a lot of time in, it's called the Pearl Street Mall, and there's lots of people around.

If I'm walking down the street on the Pearl Street Mall, surrounded by people in the middle of downtown, and I have an inspired thought, something that I feel like would benefit my audience, something that I feel like would be beneficial to share, what I do is I whip out my camera, and you guys have probably seen me do it. I just start talking to the camera, and I just record the video. I do it when I'm hiking. I do it when I'm driving. I do it in the moment when I have that inspired thought every time because, first of all, I know that if I wait, that inspiration tends to fizzle, and the message doesn't come across the same way.

But the second reason is because I believe that what I, you know, my message, getting my message to my audience is more important than the fact that if I shoot a video while I'm walking down a busy street, people are going to stare at me, and they do, and I really don't care because my vision is bigger than, you know, than my ego worrying about why people are staring at me. So if you can learn to be on mission and know that you have an important message to share with the world, and you're committed to that no matter what, you know what your why is, and you're committed to, you know, doing whatever it takes to accomplish that, but also doing whatever it takes to provide your unique gifts and your, you know, important message. And sometimes in order to do that, we have to get out of our own way and just come from our heart and get out of our mind and stop worrying about what other people think about us. Okay, so that's the voice piece. Okay, so the next piece I'm going to get into is about vision.

It's important, as you probably know by now, it's important to have a vision. It's really hard to accomplish any, you know, substantial goals in our life if we don't have a vision and we don't have a plan. So having a vision is really, really important. So when you're connecting with your audience, it's really, really important to speak your vision consistently. And this is important for a couple of reasons.

For one, it inspires people when they can see what you're up to. You're not just about making this sale right now, you have a bigger picture, a bigger vision. And what that does is not only does it inspire people, but it helps them connect with their own vision. And when people can connect with their own vision, they're a lot more likely to want to join forces with you, to buy what you're offering, to join your team, to hire you for whatever service you're offering, because now they're connected to their vision. I call this operating from inspiration, not desperation.

Basically, when, you know, operating from desperation is like when you know that you've got bills to pay, it's almost the end of the month, you need to make some more money or you're not going to be able to pay your bills. And so you just put out, you know, send out a bunch of emails and post on your blog and make videos from a place of, I've got to make some sales no matter what it takes. Operating from inspiration is speaking your vision and helping to inspire other people. A person's decision to join you or buy something from you or hire you for, you know, your services should come from vision, not from opportunity. Not because you have the best opportunity on the planet.

There's a lot of really good opportunities out there and people will join you because of that. If you happen to get right in front of them at that exact moment where they're looking for that. But if they join you from a place of vision, they are going to be a lot more likely, first of all, to stick around because now they're not just joining because they need to make some quick money. They're joining because you've helped them connect to their own vision and now they want to see that through. You know, I personally, the success that I've had since I've been an entrepreneur for a long, you know, 11 years or so has never been a get rich quick thing.

It's always taken, there's always been obstacles and a learning curve and things that I had to overcome along the way. And had I not been connected to my vision, I probably would have given up. If a person joins you from a place of, I need to make some quick money, so I'm going to join this opportunity right now. And they're not connected to their vision at all. Well, guess what?

If they don't make that quick money that they need to pay their bills immediately, they're out of there. They're moving on to the next thing. Whereas if you can help them connect to their vision and they know what that is and they know what their why is and they're connected and they're connected with you and your vision. Well then when the obstacles come up, they just move through the obstacles because they have a vision. So speaking your vision consistently is a huge part of the equation that will make a huge difference in, you know, not only connecting deeply with your audience, but building a tribe of loyal followers who stick around because you help them tap into their own vision.

So this is a huge piece. And then the third V that I want to talk about is value. So it's important to create quality content that provides value to your audience. You know, you, it doesn't, you don't have to solve a problem in every single blog post or every single video. If you're creating content on a regular basis, then you know, you might just want to share a story, something funny that happened or something like that, which is great as well.

But you really want to focus on for the most part, for the majority of your content, solving people's problems on a regular basis, put yourself in their shoes and talk to who you were six months ago. You know, sometimes we take for granted how much we know inside of our niche. And you know, if you're, if you're committed to mastering whatever niche you're in, then you're probably learning new things on a daily basis. And in the last six months, you've probably learned a ton. It's probably hard for you to even remember where you were six months ago if you've been learning on a continuous, continuous basis.

And so think about who you were six months ago and what problems have you solved in your own life in the last six months? What have you discovered? And speak to that, solve people's problems. Because even though it might seem like a small thing that you've figured out, people really respond to practicality. This is a big thing that people overlook.

A lot of times people think that they have to have some big, giant result. And they overlook the fact that the little victories that they have along the way will really provide something for people. I just generated my first five leads online and I'm going to show you how I did it. This is exactly what I've done. This is pretty much all I've done.

This is what my journey has looked like online is really just every, you know, I decided that I was going to learn how to market on the internet and I didn't know anything. I knew literally nothing. I didn't even know, you know, what a domain name was when I first got on. I remember asking that question at the first event I went to and people looking at me like I had three heads, but I didn't know anything. And so what I did was I learned as I went and every single thing that I learned, I made a video and a blog post about it.

And then when I would have a small victory, like I just got my first five leads, this is how I did it. So, you know, I would make a video and blog post about it and what would happen is people kept coming back because they wanted to see what else I learned and what other victories I had. And they were small victories that added up over time to get me to where I am today. People really do respond to practicality. In fact, a lot of times it's easier for them to relate to somebody who's just getting started and just having their small victories than it is for them to relate to somebody who's so far along their path, like a millionaire who might not even remember how they got to where they are because they're so far past the baby steps and it's hard to follow that person because they're already so far ahead of where your audience is going.

Whereas if you're just getting started and you're having small victories and you can share those with your audience, they're going to latch onto you and they're going to follow you and they're going to come back and read every piece of content that you post because they know that each time you learn something, they can go implement that and apply it for themselves. Whereas somebody that's super, super successful might not be able to do that at this point because they're so far ahead of all those little small victories. So remember that people respond to practicality and just never downplay your small victories and anything that you've learned, whether it's a victory or not, learning something gives you the ability to provide value for your audience and it doesn't matter if it's a simple thing. I mean, you can do simple, like I remember I've done some videos about simple things like when I learned how to put a link inside of an AWeber email, how to make a hyperlink. Like I made a video about that, put it on my blog and people love that because there's, if you just learned it, the fact of the matter is there's somebody out there that hasn't learned it yet and you can teach it to them today.

And then you're their hero and then they're going to come back to see what you learn tomorrow. So people definitely respond to practicality. Another thing is you want to keep your content entertaining, engaging, and educational. You know, like I said before, you want to make sure you're passionate when you're creating your content. Keep it entertaining.

You don't want to be blase or robotic. Engaging, you know, ask questions. You can ask questions in the beginning of your video or at the end of your video. You can ask people to engage and leave comments. You can do the same thing on your blog.

It's really good to ask questions in your blog post so people feel like you're having a conversation with them. Keep it conversational and educational. Make sure, you know, like I just said, that you're providing value in the way of educating people, giving them something that they can take away and implement in their business or their life right away. And by doing this, what's going to happen is you're going to build a tribe, community, loyalty, and fans. This is what people want.

So don't get stopped thinking that you don't have enough yet. You don't have big enough results yet or enough success yet to make a difference for people because you do. And again, if you are trans. and you're willing to be transparent, and you're willing to let people see behind the curtain and see what you're doing on a daily basis to create your small victories, they will latch onto you and follow you, okay? So now I just wanna give you a couple tips in addition to what I just shared with you.

The first one is don't use insider jargon. Speak in words that everybody can understand, okay? Every industry has their own way of speaking. So you can speak like you would to your colleagues at a conference, or you can speak in everyday words, which is what I recommend. So in other words, in the internet marketing niche, I'll use that as an example, we say things like PPC and PPV and SEO and all kinds of jargon like that.

If there's somebody that's brand new to the internet and they wanna learn how to make money from home and they come to your blog and you're using all of this jargon in your video or on your blog, they're not gonna understand what you're saying. And what's gonna happen is they're gonna go find somebody that speaks their language that they can actually understand. You need to make even the most complicated topic as simple as possible. And what I see a lot, what happens a lot is that not only are people used to their insider jargon, but they wanna sound smart. They think it sounds smart if they use all this jargon.

Actually, dumbing it down to a level that everybody can understand, that's what's smart. The smartest thing you can do is to help people to be able to understand you. Your goal is to connect with people and they'll love you for it. Speaking in simple terms develops trust. Again, there's a lot of people, a lot of places where they can go find the information that you're offering.

As you know, the internet's a loud place. There's a lot of information at people's fingertips. And so if they go and they Google something and they find a video about it and the person speaking, the person teaching is speaking with insider jargon and they don't understand them and then they go and find your video and you are speaking in simple terms that they can understand, they're gonna connect with you. They're gonna learn to trust you and they're gonna come back for more information. And this goes for any niche.

I mean, I've literally, like I said, I'm a single mom. I've literally, I Google stuff when I need to know, like right after I got divorced, I got my first drill and I had never used a power tool before and I didn't know how to change out drill bits. So I went to Google to learn how to change out the drill bits. And the first video I found about it, I couldn't even understand what the guy was saying because he was using all this jargon about tools. And so I went, I moved on and I found another guy that spoke, explained it as if he was explaining it to a child.

And that's what I needed at that time because I had never touched a power tool in my life. So now over time, I subscribe to that guy's YouTube channel and anytime I need to know anything, how to's about handyman stuff, he's the guy I go to because I trust him because I know that he'll do a good job in delivering the information to me in a way that I can actually understand it. So this is huge. Do not use insider jargon. Another tip is to just make sure when you're creating a blog post or a video that you tie it all together at the end.

At the end of your post, just summarize your message to help tie it together for people. I like to say, wrap it up and put a bow on it. And then you always wanna add a clear call to action at the end. You wanna tell people specifically what you want them to do. I think a lot of people think that if you throw a link there that people will just click on it when actually human psychology doesn't work that way.

People don't know unless you tell them or maybe a few people will click on the link but you'll get a lot more results if you actually have a clear call to action. I'm gonna talk about the call to action in just a minute. But you wanna say something at the end. You wanna give people the opportunity to go further with you if they want because they are there for a reason. They've come to get some kind of transformation which is why they're on your blog.

And so you don't wanna leave them hanging. You wanna give them a call to action at the end. Something like click the link below to get my free ebook about whatever or that's just an example. But you definitely wanna make sure that you have a call to action at the end of your video or your blog post. And then the last tip that I just wanna give you is consistency.

Consistency is key. Create consistent content and engage people. It's better to create one post a day for 10 days and not 10 posts in a day. The more consistent you are, the quicker you're gonna gain trust and allow people to get to know you. If people know that you're putting out a piece of content every single day or a Monday through Friday, they're gonna come and expect that you're gonna have a new piece of content there on a consistent basis.

You could even go so far as to have a schedule like Q&A Tuesday where you answer a question every Tuesday and you have a page. You can have a page on your blog that's ask your name where people can submit their questions via a content form, and once a week you could answer one of those questions. And what that does is people know that every Wednesday you're gonna be answering a question and if people submit their questions, they're gonna be checking back to see if you answered theirs but the other cool thing about that is it gives you a way to make sure that you're providing exactly what your audience is looking for because you're answering their specific questions and also creating that consistency for them so that they know that every Wednesday they can expect this from you. But whether you have a schedule like that or not, I recommend being consistent with your content. Don't just post on your blog once a month and then not have any consistency at all because people will forget about you.

They'll wander off and they'll find somebody who is consistent. So you definitely wanna be consistent, okay? And then the last thing that I'm gonna talk about real quick that I just, like I said I would, is making an offer, the call to action. I know that some people have trouble with this. They don't like sales.

They don't wanna feel like they're salesy. So I'm gonna give you my interpretation of making an offer as a heart-centered entrepreneur and in hopes that maybe this will make a difference for you and make it easier for you to make an offer at the end of your piece of content. So this quote, this is a quote that I love that kind of summarizes what I'm about to say, but it's by Dr. Steve Maraboli and it's, every single time you help somebody stand up, you're helping humanity rise. So if you think about it that way, I'll say it again, every single time you help somebody stand up, you are helping humanity rise.

If you don't give somebody a possibility to step into, you're doing them a disservice. So think about that when you're making your offer, not that you're trying to make a quick buck and that you're being salesy, but that you're giving somebody an opportunity to help them rise up and improve their life in whatever way that is, depending on what you're offering. So I like to call this the mindset behind the money. As a heart-centered entrepreneur, we wanna make a difference for people and make money doing what we love, right? And the hardest thing for a lot of people to do is to ask for the sale, is to make that call to action.

So let me just talk for a minute about why it's important to make that offer. Number one, it's a disservice to your audience not to. If you don't make an offer, people aren't being given the chance to grab the transformation that they're hungry for. Like I said, they're on your blog for a reason. They've come there to get some information that's to help them in whatever way.

Now, if you add a call to action at the end of your blog post, it could either be the last paragraph of your blog post or it could be you sign your name and then put PS and give them the opportunity to go further with you, whether it's to join you in a business, whether it's a free ebook that you have, whether it's selling them a printed book that you've published on the topic. Giving them the opportunity to take it a step further is really important. I like to say it's your moral obligation because otherwise you're basically leaving people hanging. They've come there to get something. They might love what, maybe what you gave them is enough, but if it's not and they love what they got from you and they want more, you need to give them the opportunity to do that and make it easy for them.

Don't make them have to go searching around to figure out how they can work with you. Make it easy for them. Have a call to action right there. And then the other reason why it's important to make an offer is that it's a disservice to you as well in a bigger way than you realize if you don't. And the reason is because basically you're doing all the heavy lifting for other people in your niche.

You're gonna be educating your audience and somebody else is gonna make that sale. So for example, let's say you are in the photography niche and you just wrote this amazing blog post about some cool stuff that you can do with photography and it's awesome and this person's reading your blog post and they love it. And they get to the end and they're like, wow, I wanna learn more stuff like this. Let's say you have published a book about photography and you don't offer it at the end. You don't have a call to action at the end of your blog post offering your book.

Well, if that person's ready to learn more, like you've just inspired them and they wanna go deeper, they're gonna go to Amazon and find a photography-free book and buy it from somebody else. So you've basically done the heavy lifting, you've educated your audience, you've inspired this person and now they're gonna go buy something from somebody else. And this happens all the time. It's the same with a business opportunity. It's the same with a service.

If you're writing, say you're a massage therapist and you're writing great content about the body and different ways that massage helps the body or whatever, and you don't give people the opportunity to book a massage with you or to sign up for your course, your virtual course that you offer about massage or whatever it is, then you're leaving people hanging and they're gonna be like, wow, this sounds really good. I'm gonna go book an appointment with somebody else. So you wanna always give them the opportunity. Again, it's completely optional for your audience whether or not they wanna go further with you, but you wanna at least give them the opportunity to do it and make it really easy for them. So this is why it's really, really important to always have a call to action.

And your call to action might just be offering people the opportunity to work alongside you inside of your business opportunity or to be mentored by you. This whole process is about helping people have the opportunity to get to know you like you and trust you. And what will happen is over time, as that starts to happen with your audience, some of your people in your audience are gonna want to work with you. They're gonna wanna be mentored by you and they're gonna wanna join you in your business and learn what you know or do what you do. And so you wanna make sure that you're always giving them the opportunity to do that easily.

You wanna make sure that you're offering that to them at the end of your blog post. So it can be that or it can be a product or a service, whatever it is, you just wanna make sure that you're always giving people the opportunity to go further with you. Because chances are, maybe not the first time they come to your blog, but over time, if they keep coming back at some point, they're gonna be ready to do that. And you wanna make it easy for them. You don't wanna make them have to go searching around your site trying to figure out how they can join you.

So having that call to action there is gonna be super helpful. So the way that I like to think of the mindset of a heart-centered entrepreneur when it comes to making offers, again, I know that a lot of us don't like to feel like we're being salesy. So I look at it like this. You wanna make offers and be bold. I know that it takes being bold for a lot of people to actually make an offer.

You wanna do it because you love people and you wanna help them. If you think about it like that, you'll come from a heart space. You'll come from a space of love and it won't feel so difficult. And you'll make a huge difference. And you're gonna find that people wanna join you because of that or purchase whatever you're offering.

So that's what I have for you guys today as far as developing a deep connection with your audience. And I hope that this has been helpful and that you can take this information, start applying it and start to see some amazing results in your business. So thank you so much and I will see you soon.