When You Feel Like People Don’t Care About Your Content – Ep. 033

When You Feel Like People Don’t Care About Your Content – Ep. 033

LISTEN TO EPISODE

SHOWNOTES

In today’s episode, Ashley is diving into a topic that many entrepreneurs who depend on organic content to make them sales have faced: the feeling that our audience doesn’t care about what we’re writing or creating.

Key Topics:

1. The Struggle of Feeling Unrecognized And What To DO About it
2. The Traditional Marketing Advice that is probably self sabotaging you
3. The Unconventional and EASY way to Create Connection:
4. Redefining What Content Creation ACTUALLY is:

TRANSCRIPT

 Hello, my wonderful friends. I hope you all are doing so amazing today. I am actually coming at you from doing a workout class. I just got back this morning from doing a workout class. And when I tell you that I feel like my body is jello, my body is jello. It was amazing. It was amazing class. I’ve been doing burn bootcamp, if anyone knows what that is.

And it’s been intense, but it’s been really good to get my body moving and doing all those amazing things. So I am here today really quickly because I want to talk about something that is really been on my mind lately. I sent an email out about it and it is around the theme of when you feel like your audience doesn’t care about what you’re writing, right?

You’re putting out content and it’s not really getting a lot of engagement or you feel like you are just giving and giving and maybe people say, Oh, your content is so inspiring. Your content sounds really great, but you just feel like they aren’t caring because they aren’t actually buying or buying more,

and I think we all can just take a minute to appreciate that. We’ve all been there, you are no different from anybody else. You are exactly where you need to be. And. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this over and over again, even from entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with that are seven, eight figures, they still feel like sometimes the people that they are showing up for don’t really care about them.

So I sent out this email about it. And it’s been on my mind for the past couple of days. I had a lot of positive responses to the email that I sent out. If you’re not on my email list, come join me. It is my favorite place besides the podcast to speak about what’s on my mind. I love to just randomly write works best for me.

And fun fact, my Jupiter is in my ninth house of cancer and ninth house. Jupiter’s sometimes say that’s a great They say that’s a very great placement for writing, and publishing, and books, and I’ve always had the desire to write a book, so one day, but until then, it is possible. Podcasts, interviews, and emails.

So anyways, okay, so what do we do, right? So what do we do when we feel like our people don’t really care about us, okay? And I just want to preface this by saying I’ve been in this marketing game for a very long time. I went to college for marketing. I worked in corporate marketing.

I’ve owned my now marketing business for eight years. And I have, reached multiple six figures in my business with a very small audience. But there was a time where I felt that my people just didn’t really care about me. I felt like I was showing up and just giving and giving, and it wasn’t being heard.

reciprocated. And I’ve also over the years realized that there is a lot of things that I used to preach about marketing and content creation that I don’t really believe anymore. And sometimes I question, I don’t ever believe, I don’t think I ever actually really believed them to begin with. It’s just something that I was taught in the corporate setting and something that I was taught in my studies that.

I just figured, Hey, that’s how it’s done. But now having used that one, three profile line in my human design, going out and learning things and experimenting. I started just doing things completely differently than a lot of the people in the industry was doing or doing things. And it really did start to work for me.

I also, started implementing my astrology and human design and all that stuff. But I realized that there was something, there was this one thing that I heard over and over again. And I’m giving my age here. I was in high school right around the time of the iPhone and the iPod.

First, we had the iPod, right? I don’t know if anyone remembers the iPod. I loved my little bitty iPod that I had. I loved it. But I had that. And so Steve Jobs was really coming up on the scene and he was like, quote, unquote, an overnight success. Really was not, most people saw this company as very successful and everyone was getting iPhones.

When they first came out and there’s a, there’s something that he said that really stuck in the marketing world. And I can’t tell you how many times I heard it, not only in college, but then also when I started working in corporate and then I started doing my own business and that was your customers don’t care about you.

They care about your product or service. And I’m sure you’ve heard that. I’m sure you’ve heard it. It is actually originally from Steve Jobs. It continues to go on, but that’s just mostly what gets re, re quoted. And I’m sure you’ve heard it. You’ve probably heard many different iterations of it as well.

I want to say that it sounds good. It really does sound good. It sounds logical. It does sound very logical. And at the time that it was said we were in, Pluto was in Capricorn, Capricorn. We were focused more on logical, all that. I have a whole episode about that. You can go listen to it.

But now that things have shifted and we all know that things have shifted over the years I don’t really agree with it anymore. And again, like I said, it does sound good. It does sound logical. If someone wanted to learn a skill of, let’s say knitting, the logical thing would do is to just go find a class, right?

Hey, I’m going to sign up for a class and learn how to knit. And in a way, it takes the pressure off of us, right? We just need to show up as the expert and give information and people will buy from us, right? We don’t really have to ever really share anything about ourselves besides our knowledge,

knowledge was really pushed during this era of you just need to show up as the expert. You need to always talk about what makes you better, which I also hate, but it was always like, okay, how are you better and show up and give value, this is something we’ve been taught since the very beginning.

We’re taught this in our school systems. You take a class with this teacher, period, blank, right? This one teacher teaches this class. And your only requirement is to learn the knowledge and then regurgitate it back on a test. We’ve learned that over and over again. But I want to ask you something.

If I were to ask you, what was your favorite class that you took? In growing up, maybe middle school, high school, college, if I asked you what was your favorite class growing up, it would most likely be because of your favorite teacher. I know I had this class. I had a, I actually sucked at this class, which is hilarious.

I took a business law class. in college. And I was really not good at the material. I think I made a C in that class, which was very unlike me. I just could not remember all of the legalities, all those things because the legal system is so many loopholes and it was just not a class that I excelled in.

But it was my favorite class because of the professor and her name Miss Halstead. And she was so fun. She came up with jingles and she would run around the room and she did all these visuals and it was literally one of my favorite classes because of the teacher.

And I’m sure you’re thinking of this now. Oh, my favorite class is Miss Halstead. Why was it your favorite? Because of this one particular teacher, right? So I want to say what made that teacher different and what does it have to do with marketing? Okay, I’m going to get there. Okay. So hold on.

My undefined throat is doing its magic, but I’m going to backtrack back in my corporate marketing days. I studied a lot about what creates loyal clients. That was part of my job. I was the creative marketing director for a 4 billion company. And we needed, I did a lot of research. We needed to know What created loyal clients, right?

What made popular brands so popular? And one thing I saw over and over again was that they created a sense of safety. Now, when I say safety, I mean it in the fact that they told their people exactly what they were going to get. And they offered an incredible experience and or community around it. They created connection, just like your teacher did, right?

So of course that was on a corporate level. I know. However, on an entrepreneur level, connection is still very important. If we go back to what made that teacher different, they created connection with you. They created a relationship with you, and it might not have been a one on one relationship, but they created some type of relationship with you.

They created an experience when you walked in their classroom. They created a space. where you felt safe to be you, right? And it’s interesting. I go back to, I go back to that class with my professor and I really didn’t do great in that class, but I still also had a chance to be me in that class. I felt very safe in that class.

I could ask questions and not feel like I was being judged for the questions that I asked. I really felt. Like she cared about me. She would ask me, how can I make this easier for you? How can you know how can we make these concepts stick a little bit more? She took the time to create a connection with me.

And I felt very safe to be myself in her classroom. So knowing this and learning all of this. I’ve actually started to use this filter. I’ve obviously taken it from marketing into my personal life and I’ve started to use this filter and I’m run through all of my relationships through it.

Okay. And when I say relationships, not only your friends, but your clients and your relationship with your business, because this is going to be a very different concept, but I believe you have a relationship with your business. This concept originally came from a mentor that and she talked about.

Your business being a separate entity. And I really liked that. I really liked how she said that. And she’s like your spirit, there’s a spirit to your business. And I loved that. I loved that concept. And so I started looking at my relationship with my business. And so I started running this filter through all of my relationships, including my relationships with my clients, my relationships with my business, and the relationship that I had with people that I was following, with fellow coaches or anything like that, that I wanted to work with.

And that filter is, do I feel safe to be me in your presence? Do I feel safe to be me in your presence? So I even want you to think about that with your business. If you’re thinking about your business, do you feel 100 percent safe to show up as 100 percent yourself with your business? Or do you feel like you have to put on a mask?

Do you feel like you have to put on a facade? Do you feel you have to act a certain way in your business? Or can you just fully be you in the relationship with your business? I’ll tell you reflecting on this for me. I realized I spent a lot of time building relationships based on being liked and I also treated my business that way.

I would think that the more, the more money I had in my business, the more I would be liked, or the more my business would be liked and appreciated. Right. When I became an entrepreneur, that being liked also, when it came to my content, looked like being an authority. I wanted people to see me as the quote unquote expert.

And if I knew all the answers and I gave them everything, I would be liked. And people would buy from me and this is where I started to feel really resentful in my content because I would show up and I was giving all of my knowledge and I was pouring so much into my content, doing so much. I really wanted to be seen as the expert.

I wanted to be seen as the best of the best. And anytime someone asked me a question, I needed to give them all the answers. And it was a way of being liked, right? Being liked meant being seen as an authority. And I want to preface here did I know my stuff? Absolutely. 100%. But I never felt like my clients or those people knew me.

My content was what’s the word I do want to say? My content was I don’t want to say masculine cause that’s not the word, but it was so forward facing. It was I am the authority. I am the expert pay attention to me. And it was more of this. I don’t need people to know this.

I need people to know that. I know this. Let me say that again. I was approaching content from a place of. I need people to know that I know this, not from a place of, I need people to know this. It was very me based, right? But what was ironic was that my clients didn’t actually know me. There was nothing behind the expert mask that I was wearing.

And the truth of that was I didn’t feel safe to be myself around. The people in my community and therefore they didn’t feel safe to be themselves around me either. I was quite literally living the your customers don’t care about you. They care about your product or service concept. I was so focused on my service.

I was so focused on my service. And not focused on building a connection or relationship with people. And here’s the thing I just want you guys to know this, your people probably already know that you’re an expert, they probably already know that. They would not be following you if they didn’t want what you offer or they weren’t paying attention to what you were offering, right?

They already know you’re an expert and your future clients aren’t only looking at you as an expert, they’re not just looking for a solution. They’re looking for the right person to deliver that solution and to be the right person. You have to build connection,? When you’re showing up only ever talking about your expertise, I bet you’re also falling in convincing energy and you’re most likely getting a lot of like I know statements.

Oh my gosh, this is so great statement. Which most likely infuriates you. It makes you feel unrecognized and undervalued and like your people don’t care about you. And you just get so frustrated. I can’t tell you, I literally cannot tell you how many of my clients or how many other entrepreneurs come to me and they’re so frustrated.

And they’re like, I feel like I am constantly showing up in my content. I am giving value. I’m helping people left and right, but no one is buying from me. And it’s not coming from a place of. I hate all these people there because they’re not buying from me or they’re not coming from a place of it’s only about money, but.

They’re coming from a place of I’m running a business and I need to make money and It looks so easy for everybody else Why is it so hard for me? And I want to just take a moment here like saying that because I also see this happen all the time and then my people Immediately start gaslighting themselves of like I shouldn’t be thinking this I should be grateful.

I already have a business no. No, it is absolutely frustrating and infuriating to put so much time and energy into something You and it not be reciprocated. Okay. There is not a single person on God’s green earth that would not be frustrated if they just gave and gave and gave and gave and they never got anything in return.

Okay. Not a single person. I know that for a fact, not a single person. Okay. So it’s okay to be frustrated. It is okay to be mad about that. It is okay. You’re really, tough. Emotions are totally welcome here. I can hold them for you. I can support you through them because we also to have to express them and feel them to move them out of our body.

So I just want to say that it is okay to be frustrated. We’re not going to sit in that frustration. We’re going to, we’re going to express that frustration and then move on. But it is okay to be frustrated, right? So yeah, but I want to ask you this. Okay. So I just talked about, I like losing my thought.

I just talked about, you only ever talking about your expertise and Falling into convincing energy and then maybe getting a lot of I know statements or getting a lot of this is so great. Oh, my gosh, I was just talking about this type energy, right? And it makes you feel undervalued and underrecognized.

But here’s my question to you. How can you be recognized and valued when you. aren’t showcasing you and you’re only showcasing your knowledge and expertise.

When you look at marketing and content creation through that lens, your content becomes an invitation into safety, connection, and relationship. People begin to buy not only because of your expertise, but because they connect with you, it would be like, Let’s say you were sitting in a room with someone and you really loved, let’s say, koala bears.

I’m just making up a random thing. You loved koala bears. And you sat in a room with this other person who also loved koala bears. And you were an expert on koala bears and you were telling this person all about koala bears and their energy was so off. Their energy was just like, yeah, that’s cool. Wow.

Fascinating. And they didn’t seem excited. They maybe were like 30 years older than you. There was literally no connection except for the fact that you both liked koala bears. Would you even want that person? Let’s say you were selling something with koala bears. Would you even want to work with that person?

If you didn’t have an emotional connection to them, if you didn’t have a friendship type connection with them, probably not, it would be really weird. The energy would be off. And, I want you to even think about past coaches or service providers that you’ve worked with. You most likely worked with them because they had the solution you were looking for and you wanted to work with them specifically because of who they are, their energy, their connection you had with them.

Your people feel the same. To answer your question or the whole topic of this podcast, what do we do when you feel like your people don’t care about you? Start caring about yourself. and start showcasing yourself online. Go write a piece of content that really showcases who you are.

I want to know something weird and funky and totally out of the norm for you, I want to know something personal about you. I want to know how I can connect with you. Do you love ASMR? Cool. Great. Share it. It’s super weird, but Hey, someone else can connect with it. Love to, read spicy romance novels.

Yes, absolutely. Can we talk about ACOTAR for a minute? I literally just finished it yesterday. Amazing. How can you connect with these people? How can you connect with your people outside of. What, that is the key, right? Your people are already paying attention to what, they want to connect with you. And if you look at every big name, a player in this industry, they all became big because they built relationships and connections with their people outside of their expertise. I’m just going to use Jenna Kutcher.

Cause I think we all know her. If we’ve been in the marketing world for any amount of time, she, it. Quote unquote, became big. I don’t like to say, use these terms, but she became a very popular course creator through connection with people. If you were to ask anyone right now, who has known Jenna Kutcher for a while, we can tell you that she used to love Mac and cheese, that she bought a 300 camera off Craigslist and decided to go for her dreams as a photographer.

We know that she went viral for her Instagram feed. And I guess I want you to understand, I don’t really follow this person, but I know it. Because when I’ve seen her speak or I’ve ever seen when her content does ever pop up for me, she is building personal connections. She’s sharing things about herself that people can connect on.

And I want to say this does not mean be super vulnerable and start sharing like everything about your life. No, you can still remain a very private person. I’m still, I’m also a very private person, but I want to be able to connect with you. on some level. Pretend you’re having a conversation with a new person.

Let’s say you are a mom and you’re listening to this and we’d all know how hard it is to make mom friends in our thirties. Imagine you go to a mom networking event and you can’t talk about your business like at all. Like I just say that like the, what do you do question is not allowed.

Okay. You go to this group of all of these moms. What would you share with those moms? If you had to do an introduction of Oh my God, I’m about to find my best friend here. What would your introduction look like? Mine would literally be I’m obsessed with astrology and human design. I gentle parent my kids.

I love ASMR because I’m a little weird. I love spicy romance novels with fantasy. I love ACOTAR. I just, I loved fourth wing. I loved all those books, right? I, live by the beach. I love doing beach days. I, love coffee, all those things, what would be some of those things that you would share and start sharing those in your content.

It does not always have to be about your business. Okay. You do not always have to be selling. Okay. And everyone’s hashtag always selling, always be selling. You do not always have to be selling because I’ll tell you that sharing those things about you as well. Is what people makes people connect to you.

And that is the decision people again. I’m going to say this one last time, and I’m going to end it. People aren’t just looking for the solution. They are looking for the right person to deliver that solution. Okay, that means you have to be the person and you don’t become the person because of just because of your knowledge.

I’m gonna say just because of your knowledge. It is important to showcase your knowledge. Okay, I’m not saying that, but they want to know who you are. And connect with you. Okay. That is the end of this episode. I hope this was very helpful for you. I am going to go. I have a lot of things I need to get done today.

But yes, I can’t wait to catch you on the next episode and hope you have the most amazing day. Bye.