What Conversation are YOU Leading?

The online environment is rife with conversations to LISTEN to. Consumption of information is at an all time high in our current environment. But are you LEADING in any of your conversations?

As individuals, and as businesses, we are all only passionate about SOME conversations. That is part of what makes us unique. And have you ever noticed what happens when you get into THOSE conversations? You get excited...and people can FEEL that you care.

That's a HUGE contributing factor to becoming a digital influencer.

Speaking about the things you CARE about.

So I ask you again...

What conversations are you leading?

What do you want people to know about your industry they don't know?

Shall we look at an example?

Defining YOUR Conversation

Every business, from a small solopreneur to a global enterprise was created for a reason. Usually, because someone (the founder) saw a gap in an industry and believed in filling that gap. So, let's go back to your company WHY...

Why does your business exist?

As a development company, do you exists JUST to write code? Is it to solve people problems with technology? Is it to give developers a place to be more than just a coder?

Maybe it's to take the fear of technology away. Maybe it's to demonstrate the power of a fully baked digital transformation instead of only implementing technical pieces.

Or maybe it's one of a million other things.

But I'm pretty sure it's not JUST to write code (go deeper).

And I'm pretty sure it's not JUST to make money (go even deeper).

The same exercise can be done for any type of business. Life coaching. Marketing services. Executive coaching. Sales training. A coffee shop. A clothing line. A tech giant. I could go on, but hopefully you get my point.

For the ease of story telling, let's pick an example. Let's say you're an online community focused on creating space for people to do their own discovery to bring their personal brand to life through belonging to drive a meaningful impact

That's the goal of the Your Business Peeps Community if you didn't know 😉

So...why? Why does a community exist to do that?

Because I believe that too many people believe that someone ELSE knows how to accomplish their life goals BETTER than they do, and too many people go looking for answers externally and waste so much time, effort and energy trying to accomplish THEIR goals through someone else's means. I don't believe in people being anything except who they are, because THAT person is who is going to make YOUR contribute.

Not Right or Wrong

If you notice my belief statements above, you'll notice that there's no inherent truth in the statements. These are things that I believe based on my experience and my areas of expertise.

Now, if I said "the sky is blue", there's an inherent "right-ness" about that. It's at least a commonly accepted truth. But my belief statements aren't based in societal truth. They are based in my beliefs and my beliefs alone.

Which means, there will be people who agree with them, and people who don't.

To some degree, they're controversial.

Because they aren't written for someone else. They aren't written with the purpose of finding an "ideal client".

They're written for the purpose of telling people what I want them to know about me.

What You Want People to Know

There's lots of things people COULD know about you and your organization. They might know that you're a parent (good for creating connection with other parents). They might know you used to play a competitive sport (good for specific references). They might know that you love music (and find connection based on lyrics or band preferences).

All of these things are a PART of who you are as a brand, but if you had to pick ONE Thing that people knew about you, what would you choose?

Hint: There's no right or wrong answer. There's only YOUR answer.

No one but you gets to decide what you want people to know about you. No matter how much experience they have with marketing, or how good they are with SEO.

No one knows you better than you know you. And your heart will tell you YES when you find the right answer for you.

On a business level, now that there are MORE individual personal brands invested in your organization, we start to get more inputs. But at the end of the day, if what the market knows about you has NOTHING to do with your WHY...then your missing an opportunity.

Start A Conversation

Once you're clear on what you want people to know about you, you need to give them a way to LEARN that about you. Most businesses (and event entrepreneurs) default to marketing tactics to share who they are.

In a one-way message.

We write blog posts. Social posts. We create brochures and websites. We get really excited about what we know and we focus on TELLING people it.

And we forget about giving people a reason to LISTEN.

This is why I love using conversations as a kick-off point for anything marketing and sales related. Because in a conversation, especially one I'm passionate about, I can't help but show you what matters to me.

And the same goes for you.

When you show up in the conversations that trigger your passions, people can FEEL it. And a feeling leads much more quickly to the classic "Know, Like and Trust" than information alone can.

So, if you know your why, and you know what you want people to know about you, GO OUT and start those conversations!

And...Don't Forget to Listen

Because it's no longer a conversation if you don't listen.

Listening is a HUGE contributor in creating trust 💖

And...Keep the Conversation Going

When I was in Toastmasters, I watch so many people struggle writing and giving speeches because they chose topics they thought OTHER people would be interested in, but they weren't particularly interested in. The same struggle exists in choosing your conversations.

If you pick something you're NOT passionate about, it will feel REALLY hard to keep the conversation going. So make sure it's something that's meaningful to you...

And don't be afraid to adjust or change it as you or your business evolves. That's the nature of human beings...to evolve.

So Tell Me...

What Conversations are YOU Leading?

And where can I find you having those conversations?

If you're not currently using the power of conversation to create YOUR digital influence, we should chat.