Stop just "Adding Value"

EPISODE 0017: Have you ever heard someone say that you need to "add value" and build your audience before you can sell something?

I don't agree! In this episode, I'll tell you why and what you can do instead.

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Transcript

Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. We are pack again. It is February. 2021. And I am back after taking a break from recording. And publishing, um, through the holidays, through the beginning of the year. I don't know about you, but I feel like January always. Like it just flies by. And then my son's birthday is in February, so it's just kind of a busy three months really, um, for us. And so I decided to take a break, focus on some other things, focus on family. 

But I am back and wanting to update you guys. Um, the plan moving forward is going to be a new episode every other Thursday. So I've decided to just cut back to every other week for now. Um, but make sure that you are subscribed because I may be dropping in some extra episodes here and there. So you do not want to miss those. 

Make sure you are subscribed. And while you are over wherever it is that you listen to your podcast, . Make sure that you leave a rating and review. If you are enjoying the. Moms started business podcast. I would super appreciate a review that lets other moms know that they should listen. 

So in this episode, I am wanting to talk about something that I'm seeing a lot even, um, or especially. So I guess with the, the rise of the influencer, right. Um, especially like with Tik TOK, I mean, people are blowing up their audiences really quickly. Um, the whole Instagram influencer, right. Everybody that is now a content creator, that's even one of the options, like for your type of a profile on Instagram. 

Is a content creator or creator or something like that. Just this whole concept of, you know, you're someone that creates content puts out content. And I see a lot of people putting out a lot of content and a lot of it is really great content. But they're putting out a ton of content with this idea of. 

Just growing an audience, right. And putting out content to just get bigger and get more followers. And. And I don't know if everybody necessarily feels this way, but I know a lot of them kind of have in their mind. Well, I have to get a following. You know, to this amount of numbers before I can actually make money from it, or I need to. 

Reach 10 K followers so that I can have the swipe up. So that I can, um, you know, then start selling products or, you know, as an influencer, , I can only promote other people's products and get affiliate income, and they just kind of have it in their mind. They have to get to a certain point that they need to put out all of this value. And. 

Build this , huge audience before they can create their own product or their own offering. And I just want to. I'm kind of debunk that really. I want to. To show you in and share with you. And it's just the whole, the whole idea of this podcast really is that you can create your own offer. You can start your own business and start. 

Start selling something right out of the gate, you know, I mean, just think of it for yourself. Have you ever bought something? From a business or person that you had never heard of before. You know, have you ever seen an ad maybe, or, or maybe you've just heard them once on a podcast or someone else recommended a product to you? 

And you went, you know, you saw it. And you purchased. I know I have. I've definitely have, um, you know, I have the first time I've come in contact with a business. I have purchased from them. I didn't spend months following them and watching all of their content, listening to every episode of their podcast or reading. 

You know, all of their blog posts before I decided to buy from them. I just bought from them because it was. It met a need that I had or something that I wanted. And, and so I purchased it. So I want you to think about that for you, you know, is that the case? Have do you only buy from people that you've been following for months and, and consuming all of their content? No. 

Okay. And you don't have to either write the people following you. They could come in contact with, with your stuff, see your offering. Without. All of your content first. Yes, it is important that we add value and that we put some  content out there and show our authority and connect with people and, you know, help people. Um, 

Change change their mindset and beliefs and, and things around your niche. It's important to do that first. It's important to build that up. You do have to have people to sell to, but. You do not have to spend months or years creating content first. You don't have to reach a certain amount of followers before you can create something and offer it and sell it. 

You can actually build your audience. As you are launching your offer. And I want to share with you. And just an example of that. My student Amelia. She. You know, she had actually been blogging. A while ago beforehand. About something completely different. And, you know, she had some, some followers on Instagram, but they were actually following her for something else. 

And so she decided though that she wanted to launch a course about sewing. And so. She made the decision, right. She decided, okay, this is something I want to talk about. This is something I do see a need for maybe not necessarily even in her audience, but she saw a need for it somewhere. And so she decided to put the idea out there. 

And as she was launching this course actually doing a beta launch. So she hadn't even created the course yet. She decided to do a challenge. So she ran a challenge and she was able to get over 600 ladies into a brand new Facebook group. Most of them complete strangers in a matter of about two weeks. So these were all people. 

She didn't know. Right. She, she hadn't been nurturing this community for, for months or years. These were just random people from the internet, right. That she went out and found she got in front of them. Invited them back to experience. A challenge. And over the course of about two to three weeks, you know, from the beginning to when she actually like launched and closed the doors, she was able to sell her course and get 37 new members. 

Okay. All from, you know, zero. The 37 members in her course. So you don't have to spend all of your time creating content, trying to build your audience first. Sure. Keep doing that. If you enjoy you. If you enjoy creating content and, and you want to, you know, be doing that great. And we want to serve our audience, right. We want to serve people. We want to help people. 

And we like is that we want to build that authority. We want to build connection, but you don't have to spend a ton of time. Doing that before you can create your product, you can create your product. Right out of the gate. So I just want to encourage you, you know, that, that if you have an idea for something, if you. 

Are working on building an audience for the, for some day for maybe something, you know, well, I've got this idea for a course or a membership or, you know, Digital download that I would love to offer, but I need to add a ton of value first, and I need to build my email list. I need to build my Instagram to 10,000 followers. I'm just here to tell you that you don't. 

You don't have to do that first. It actually is probably gonna be to your benefit. If you go ahead and decide what you want to offer from the beginning. And start building an audience around that. Start building an audience of people that are actually going to pay you and buy from you. And so, you know, if you have an idea, 

Please put it out there, put out there and see if people want to buy from it. You know, that's exactly the process I walk people through in my program. Is I walk them through, coming up with that idea. Getting really clear on it. Building that audience of people that you can sell to while you are launching your new product. So if that is something that you want to do, please reach out. Um, just send me a DM on Instagram. I'm at came Elaine. I would love to chat with you and help you nail down your idea. 

And, and help see, you know, see if there's a way that I can help you get that out into the world. Don't don't hide your stuff. You know, I think it's really easy to think about ourselves and. You know, what, what are people gonna think of me? Are they gonna think that I'm just here for money. If I. 

You know, if I just start with an offer and I don't spend all this time adding a ton of value, are they going to think that I'm greedy or they gonna think that I'm just after their money? You know, Honestly, that is just one fear talking and, you know, thinking about what, what others are going to think of you, but it's also kind of selfish. 

In thinking about what people are going to think of. You. When in turn you could be thinking about. Who could I be helping or who could I not be helping? By me not putting that offer out. Are there people that need what you have to offer, but you you're too afraid to put it out there because you know, you need to build up value first and you need to put out a ton of content and you need to get to those 10,000 followers first. 

Think about the one person. The one person that you could help. 

And put that offer out there so that you can help them. All right. Thanks for sticking around. I am so glad that we are back at it. I have got some great episodes coming at you. I've got some interviews with amazing mom business owners. I've got some little short solo episodes like this, um, just to kinda. 

Help inspire you to, to get going and get your business started. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. And if this episode was helpful for you. Will you do me a favor and share it with a friend, simply take a screenshot, Sarah, share it on Instagram stories. Or you can even just text it to a friend. 

You know, that is one of the best ways to get the word out is just sharing with our friends. So. All right. Thanks again for being here. And I will chat with you again soon.