Here's how you can take people from stranger danger to super fan
by simply sharing weird factoids about yourself and building trust.
Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And
welcome to the Weeniecast. I want you to
imagine that you're at the grocery store, you're picking out some oranges, you have your
eyes on some cucumbers across the way, and a random stranger
comes up to you and tells you that
they can build a website for you for
$4,000. Would you give them
$4,000? Probably not. You'd probably get a little
skeeved out. You'd probably think, oh, a stranger danger. This is what my parents always
warned me about. Next they're going to tell me they have a van full of
puppies and candy, which honestly, like, if someone came up to me and they're
like, I have a van full of puppies, would you like to come see? I'd
be like, I love puppies. Yes, absolutely. And
then that's how I would disappear.
You're not hugging. Hiring strangers for big jobs. So why are
you expecting your clients to do the same? It
feels counterintuitive. But when you start a business and you're promoting it online,
yes, you need to post about your work. Yes, you need to talk about your
ideal clients and the results that you get them and share
testimonials. But you also have to share about
yourself because otherwise you get lost
in the noise of all the other people who do what you do.
How many executive coaches are there out there? How many consultants,
how many lawyers, how many email marketers? They all do what
you do. So the fact that that's all you're talking about,
you're never going to stick out to your ideal clients, you're
never going to be memorable. And that's really the crux of it. Ooh, I just
got to use the word crux. That's an exciting day. I love it when I,
like, throw in a vocabulary word that I know but I don't usually get to
use. This is gonna be, this is like an auspicious sign for
today, especially since I only got like 5 hours of sleep last night.
I'm using impressive vocabulary words, at least impressive to me. You're probably like,
that's not an impressive word, Katie. I don't know why I'm so excited about this.
I'm gonna move on. The crooks of it is that
as small businesses, we do not have a marketing problem.
Okay? We're not sitting around a boardroom wondering how we're
gonna spend our $17 million on our commercial for the
Super bowl. Okay, well, maybe you are. I know I'm not. And I
know all of my clients are not having that problem. We have a
memorability problem. We simply need to be
remembered by the right people at the right time when they're
ready to invest in the thing that we help with. I have a client
who's a litigation attorney. He's not relevant to everyone at all the time. Thank
God. If everyone were getting sued and suing other people all the
time, I mean, it would be great for him, but miserable for the rest of
us. Right? So his social media content has to be memorable.
It has to stick out. He has to seem like a friend. He has to
seem trustworthy so that when you do get sued
or when you think, hmm, today feels like a
litigious day for me, I really want to go and sue someone.
And not just sue someone. I'm gonna sue the pants off of them. You're gonna
think, oh, I should call David Frymande, right?
Versus, oh, there's legal issues.
Who do I know? Who's a lawyer? And then you go and ask a bunch
of people, do you know a lawyer who handles this? That's the magic of
being memorable. That's the magic of sharing a little bit about yourself. Not a ton.
You don't have to be super vulnerable online, but you have to share enough so
that people feel like they kind of know you.
Let's talk through the client journey so that you can really understand
how sharing a little bit about yourself can take people from absolute
stranger to super fan. So I want you to imagine, if you want to draw
this, long as I describe it, go for it
on a line. There are five points. The point all the way to
the left is stranger. These are people who have no idea
who you are. They've probably never seen your content. If they have seen
your content, it didn't catch their attention, and they have no
reason to see your face or your name and think, oh, my God, I know
that person. The whole world starts off this way.
I mean, honestly, you come out of the birth canal, you don't even know your
mom. You've never seen her face. You don't know her name.
You don't know your dad's name. Everyone is a stranger to you when you're
born. Throughout our lives, we tend to close that gap.
Not a lot. There are a lot of humans in the world, right?
But we tend to make friends. We tend to get to know people.
Your goal with starting a business and promoting
yourself is to turn as many of those strangers into people
who know you. Our goal is to share content
that is interesting enough to those strangers that they think,
oh, I want to see more of this. I'm going to follow this
person. So they go from stranger to follower. And
it could be something funny you shared about your life. It could be something helpful
that you shared about the thing that you do. It could be a
testimonial. It could be anything. I always like to have my clients
just imagine that they're standing on stage and
there's an audience of thousands of people in front of them, but no one can
see my client because there's a canvas in front of
them blocking them from the audience. Their job
is as the performer, as the person on stage is to
jab their finger through that canvas as many times and create as many
holes so that the audience can see them. And one
hole is gonna be, I don't know anything about sports. Another hole can
be, I love dogs. Another hole can be, I've
watched West Wing 47 times. Plus, I've lost count.
This is me on stage. This is all my stuff. Another one can be, I
talk about hot dogs all the time and weenies, but I don't actually like hot
dogs. Another hole can be I help people start businesses. Another
hole could be, I have adhd, and I work with people with adhd.
Another hole could be, I love cheese. It literally doesn't have to be
anything that is super interesting or
exciting. It just has to be stuff that people can read
and think, oh, I like cheese too. Cool. Oh,
I also am not that interested in sports. Huh? Oh,
she's telling people not to be a weenie. I think I'm kind of being a
weenie. Maybe I should follow her. She'll get me to stop being a weenie. It
doesn't have to be anything groundbreaking. And I think this is, like, where we
get really, really flipped out when it comes to
creating content for social media, is we think that we have to go skydiving every
single week. We have to have big, elaborate trips. We have
to be impressive. No, you don't. Literally, if you go
and share how you take your coffee, like, think of the
reaction people have to how people take their coffee. When
I see someone putting a bunch of sugar in their coffee, my teeth starts to
hurt. Okay. The amount of sugar just makes me want to recoil.
Even though I'm not even drinking their coffee. It's their coffee, right? My
sister, like, I'm gonna share something that's gonna make you think she's a
sociopath. I promise. She's not. She's a very nice person. But she drinks her
coffee black with three ice cubes. Cause she doesn't want to wait for it to
cool down. So she drinks black, kind of watered down
coffee. Like, people have a reaction to that. Right.
But, like, when you know something like that about someone, it makes you feel like
you know them. It makes you, like, that's something that you would know about
a friend that you went to coffee with. Right. So as
we're creating content and we're sharing it online and we're sharing parts of ourselves,
like, I want you to think about. You're poking all these holes in this canvas.
You're letting people see and have more details so they can add it
to their little folio of who you are. And eventually,
that person who has gone from stranger to follower, we'll jump
to the third point on our line of our client journey, and
that is friend. Now, the funny thing about this friend
point is it doesn't necessarily have to be an actual friendship. They can feel like
they're your friend and you still won.
You're not responsible for becoming friends with tens of thousands to people online. That's
not what I'm saying. That would be totally overwhelming, and your birthday parties
would be very expensive. We don't want that for you. Although I do love a
good birthday party. I'm starting a nonprofit called the Gay Birthday Club, and
it is a organization where we're going to call anyone in
LGBTQ community who wants a phone call. They have to sign up for it. It's
not like we're just going to randomly call everyone, but we're going to have volunteers
calling folks on their birthdays, singing happy birthday to them.
And this is specifically for folks who have stopped
getting a phone call from loved ones, from family members because
of who they are. And I'm a big believer that everyone
deserves, like, really bad, cringey singing on their birthday, whether
they want it or not, as a show of love. And just to know
that there are people in the world who are happy that they're there.
And so I'm really excited about that. But, like, speaking of
birthdays and there's more to come on this, I will be sharing more. I'm
super excited about it. I also am so excited because I actually have some
clients, some former clients, who are going to be on the board and getting involved,
and I just want to share this a. Because it was relevant because I mentioned
birthdays, but also b to point to this is the beauty of
being who you are online. This is the beauty of
showing up exactly who you are and building trust with people because you
literally attract the clients who are not just willing to pay
you money for the thing that you do, but who become friends,
who become super aligned to what you do, who want to
get involved in anything that you're up to. It makes your life
that much richer. It also makes the like your
power to have impact in the world that much greater.
So anyway, back to the client journey and building trust to his
people. So we have people who've moved from
stranger, absolute stranger, don't know who you are. If they tripped and fell over you,
they still wouldn't know who you are. At some point, they tripped and fell over
you. They saw your content. They thought, this content's kind of good. I'd like to
see more of this content. They became a follower. Oh. After becoming a follower
and seeing more of your content because it got pushed to their
newsfeed, they felt like, oh my God, this person just told a
story and I'm going to tell the story, but now I don't really know how
to refer to this person because they feel like a friend to me. At some
point, these people who are your friends online
are going to go to one of two places. Either they are your
ideal client and they have the problem that you solve.
At some point they're going to see a piece of content that you share
that is going to hit them in the gut and they're going to think,
okay, I can't do this anymore. I can't keep struggling with this
on my own. Here's someone who I know and trust, who I
like, who solves this problem. It could be
a legal problem. It could be you don't like doing your taxes on your own.
It could be, I want to start a business. It could be, I want to
get in shape. Whatever I need to just book a call with them. I trust
them. I know them. I feel comfortable with them. Right. That
basis of trust is there and they're willing to have that conversation about
giving you money to have your services, or they're
not your client at all, but they feel so connected to you that they
actually jump over the fourth point, which is client, and go to the fifth
point, which is Superfan.
And superfans are people who know you, trust you, like you understand
exactly what you do. They show up to your webinars, even if
they're not your ideal clients. They comment on your content even if the
content's not relevant. Them, because they want to promote your
work, because they believe in what you do. They believe in the help
that you offer. And these become some of
your best referrers. Squirrel. Which that word
referrers reminds me of that one episode of 30 Rock where
Jenna Maroney is in that movie the rural juror, and no one can pronounce
it. The rural juror. Yeah, that was a great show. Anyway, back
to the point, squirrel. Either way, you're either getting a client or you're getting people
who want to refer to you, which is incredible. And the
beauty of this, for those of us with ADHD is we tend to
have a lot of weird interests, and we tend to change interests a lot.
So we always have something new and novel, generally, to talk about.
And I know there's, like, this fear because we get made
fun of for it. We have weird interests, and, of course, like, our friends make
fun of us for this because we're constantly jumping from one thing to the
other, and it seems, like, really scattered to them, especially if they
don't have ADHD, because people who aren't
neurodiverse tend to just kind of have a couple interests, and we tend to
overthink this with our marketing because we're like, okay, well, I have to have content
pillars, and I have to share very specific things about my life, and it has
to be part of my quote unquote brand. And no, it
doesn't. It doesn't have to be this, like, perfectly formulated
brand image. It has to be you.
One of the best compliments you will ever get on
a sales call with someone that you've never spoken to before who has discovered
you through social media is they'll show up to the call, they'll
talk to you for a few minutes and say, oh, my God, you are
exactly how you show up online. You are the exact
person whose content I've been reading. You
sound the way you write, you sound the way you summarize stuff
on Instagram. Instagram or TikTok or wherever you're showing up. And
it's that click of it wasn't an act.
That nail in the coffin of, this is the person that I'm going to trust
with my money and with my future. But here's the thing.
Trust is two ways. Ooh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have
to keep listening to find out. But first, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel,
squirrel.
This is really scary. To go and be ourselves, our genuine selves
on social media. We have to trust
that we're going to find the right people out there. We have to
trust that there are going to be people who are going to resonate with us.
We have to trust them enough to accept us as we
are. Often people shy away from this. There are a few ways
people shield themselves from having to trust their audience.
One is they become the teacher. They spend a ton of time
giving away their knowledge for free and shoving
infographics at people and creating all of these slides
on canva and carousels and all that jazz, and
they just shove knowledge in people's faces. And sure, yeah,
that proves that you know some stuff, but there are a lot of people who
know stuff. Doesn't necessarily mean that I trust them enough with my money. And also,
if you're teaching me how to do the thing on my own, why do I
need to hire you? You've just given me everything I need to be powerful on
my own. Right. Even if it's just the surface knowledge,
which normally it is, it's not actually gonna help anyone, but it gives them enough
confidence to think that they can go and do it on their own, and then
they just get themselves into trouble. A recent client was creating kind
of a Persona on LinkedIn, in particular, a Persona of someone who is, like,
way grouchier than he actually is. Wonder who I'm talking about,
Neil. Hmm, I wonder. And of course, I just want to
name. I don't divulge information from my client sessions. Neil has
volunteered for this to be featured on this podcast. I do
honor confidentiality with my clients, unless they don't want me to.
And of course, like, you know, we see, we see actors doing this, we see
personalities doing this. We see a lot of public figures doing
this, right? And of course they are. There's. There's
protection in that. But as small business owners, we don't
necessarily have to do. They go to the same lengths to protect our privacy as
Taylor Swift does. We, we're also not in an industry
where we have to, like, put on, like, a particular Persona, like the
WWE. You know, a lot of those wrestler guys, like,
they're not going around being the villain or being Mister
America or whatever. I don't really watch wrestling, if you can tell.
As business owners, we get to just be human beings. We do not need to
have a Persona. One of the things about starting a business is learning, you know,
you have to learn how to sell your services. And it feels so icky, right?
Because we've all been in those buying situations where we're working with a
salesperson who we do not trust, they have not given
us any reason to trust them. They're using every
single pushy, manipulative tactic in the book,
and we just feel super grossed out by
them. Right. And oftentimes we don't buy from
them. We. We peace out sometimes. Like, we're in a situation where we can't.
We can't peace out. Like they have something that we genuinely need and we just
have to deal with it. But I can personally think back to
several purchases I made and investments I made in the beginning
of my business with people who I had red
flags from the very beginning that I didn't trust them and I
overlooked them and I regretted it, like, literally
had this whole arc in my head and
then went off on that one little tangent and I lost it. Those of
us with ADHD, one of the most magical
situations we can set up for ourself is where we're surrounded by people
who get us, people who get our weird sense of humor, who have
some similar interests, who have the same values.
We launch ourselves into, like,
the stratosphere of our best selves, of our favorite
selves. We become so creative. We have
clients where we're not worried if we're good enough for them. We
can take chances that oftentimes work out when
you focus on building trust with your audience,
showing them enough of yourself that
they can think, oh, man, I really want to hang out with this person. And
actually, I want to do more than just hang out with this person. I want
to invest in working with this person. You're not just getting business.
You are attracting your tribe. You're attracting
the group of people who will not just
make you feel good about who you are, but will become that
rising tide that lifts all boats. This is one of the reasons
why, you know, when I have clients who come to me and they're like, I'm
a witch and also I want to do corporate coaching, so I know I need
to drop the witchy stuff completely, forget it, hide
it, like, not bring it up at all. And I just need to go, like,
really hard with the corporate stuff, I'm like, no,
absolutely not. Absolutely not. Because here's the thing about
people. People can sense when you're hiding something. People
can sense when you're not showing up the way you actually
are, when you're putting on a front. They may not be able
to know exactly what it is you're hiding or, like, where the disconnect
is, but, you know, when you're talking to someone when they're being
fake, you know that feeling? There's like, this, like, creepy,
crawly feeling under your skin? You're just like, I gotta get away from this person.
It's not real. You think you're helping your business by hiding the thing
that you think makes you weird and not hireable.
By hiding it, you're making yourself actually weirder and
less comfortable to be around and less trustworthy. And not only
that, you're not giving the people who actually love the witchy
side of you. You're not giving them access to you. They're
out there thinking all these corporate executive coaches like, eh, they just
don't feel like the right fit for me, for who I am, versus if
you trust them enough to come out of the
broom closet or whatever it is that you call that and be yourself and
let them be themselves with you, you'd be able to
do some really incredible work together. And again, we don't have
a marketing problem. We have a memorability problem.
If you're an overworked, really stressed out,
overwhelmed HR rep who has to find an executive
coach to do some kind of lunch and learn workshop,
you're gonna go through the stack of resumes that are all the same
generic leadership development, executive coach
language around synergy and all the other buzzwords. Are
you gonna think, oh, my God, that funny person on
LinkedIn or on Instagram who talks
about clearing energy and all this stuff like that would be really
interesting to bring into the office? That would be entertaining, at least. And I know
there are a few people who'd really connect with it. The ways you've had to
dilute yourself to be able to fit into, like, a corporate
environment and be acceptable, and that's made you have an
easier time matriculating into school and workplaces and social
events, that's not gonna serve you in running a business. You
blanding yourself out blends your brand out
as well. It makes you harder to remember. And if you're harder to
remember, you're harder to hire. And there are enough
robots on social media right now sharing
generic information about whatever it is that you do
right. I don't want to be friends with a robot. I don't want to become
the client of a robot. I don't want to refer other people to robots.
I want to be friends with a person, and I want to work with people
I like, and I want to refer to people I like. And I don't
care how weird your interests are. There are people out
there who will like you for it. So go and be
your glorious, weird, interesting
hopping all over the place ADHD self. It will get you
clients and it will build the trust that you need for those
clients to stick around and actually become your tribe.
Honestly, like, if someone came up to me and they're like, I have a van
full of puppies, would you like to come see her? I'd be like, I love
puppies. Yes, absolutely. And then that's
how I would disappear. So if I ever disappear from
the world, just know that that's probably what happened. That or I saw a bobcat
and I was like, kitty, kitty, kitty, come here, be my friend. And then it
mauled me to death. Something I need to work on is to increase that
fear of wild animals. I just don't have it.
Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.