You are listening to the Hayley Osborne show with me, Hayley, your host. This is your place to learn how to become the superhero marketer in your business to become the number one in your local community, both online and in your surrounding areas. Every week, I’ll be teaching you how you can achieve the best out of your marketing your business and be the most fearless superhero version of yourself. Small business owners are the backbone of the economy. And I’m here to demystify local area marketing, to help you reach more customers, between myself from South Australia and my wildly inspiring guests from across the world. I’m so excited to discuss all things marketing your business with you. I believe in you. So let’s get started.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show here with me, Hayley, your host, we’re on to Episode 78. And I honestly can’t believe I say this every time but 78 episodes deep is huge. And today, I really wanted to highlight an important topic that I see time and time again with small business owners. And it’s how I give my audience a glimpse into my life and how I build trust. And I want you to be able to use this method too because this is something that comes up time and time again, that I actually feel like a lot of business owners struggle with because there are so many times that I hear of, but Hayley, you know, I don’t want to share all of my personal life on my social media. I don’t want to do that like I value that space between the two, and I want to draw a line in the sand and what that looks like, but I still want to build trust and I still want to grow my business. And yes, me too and I agree. And I think it’s really important that you give people a glimpse into your life. Because that does build trust. But I do believe that there is a plan around that and a strategy on how you do that to maximise that but still maintain a level of, like, your personal space, right?
What that looks like behind closed doors, you know, I love the shit out of my life, but I don’t really need to share all of it. And I don’t share all of it on my social media. But if you see my social media, you probably feel like you know me really well. And that’s because I have a strategy behind how I do this. And you know, you would know, yes, I have children they don’t feature on my Instagram, my Facebook or my LinkedIn. They don’t feature in my marketing because they don’t need to because I don’t run a business that has anything to do with children or anything like that. So I don’t feel that they have a place. However, I feel like I need to showcase the fact that, yes, I am a mum. I am a business owner who happens to have children, not the other way around. And I think that’s first and foremost and really shows through my marketing. But you do need to know that I do those things. And I wear many hats because that also builds relatability. Right. And so I wanted to share how I do that and how I maintain building trust with my community and how you can also use this method if you feel like you want to draw a line in the sand between your business and your life, but you want to blend out to give people a little glimpse into your life. And I think that’s totally fine. And you should because you know, you don’t need to share everything and everything. And it depends on what you do. Right.
I think that building that know, like, and trust is important to be able to do that. Well, you do need to have a plan. And the reason that you should be doing this is because people really need to get to know you before they can even like you, right? So you’ve got to build that knowing. And then when you do build that, they like you, right? So they’re like what they see, they’re like what they read. And then when they start to like you, they trust you. So when your ideal client and your audience trust you, the trust builds sales, right, and that trust is hard to get, which is why I find that most small business owners find this the hardest part.
I wanted to take you through what method I use and why I do it this way. So in my business, I use a bit of a three-step process. So we set up your marketing foundations at the beginning, right, which is your messaging and I use a framework inside my business called maps, which is market audience problem and solutions. And we go through that Together, we make sure your digital assets positioning and your digital footprint are in complete alignment with you. Because that’s really important because what I see tends to happen. What I found is that most business owners, when they come into my world, are out of alignment with what they are showing up as on their social media and what is on their website, they’re completely out of alignment. And usually, there’s a massive disconnect, right, and it’s the disconnect that creates friction and actually stops you from showing up as your best self. I’m not saying showing up, as you know, opens up the doors to your whole life because if you’re a private person, you don’t necessarily need to do that, but in alignment with who you are. And don’t forget that when we move through our business journey, right, we change and evolve as humans as well. We get older, and we like different things. And so if you do not evolve that with your business, as you personally grow, that’s where a disconnect happens. And I found that that’s where the, you know, complete alignment between you and your business is out of alignment. So I think that that’s really important to acknowledge that you need to fuse the two. And if you want to do that, to build trust and credibility, I think that you definitely need to come up with a plan to be able to do that and what you’re going to talk about.
So the following part in my three-step process is followed by planning and organising, optimising your content to increase sales. So there is a, like, a sequence in which this runs. And when you have that happy medium, you can give your audience a glimpse into your life and build trust by using this method as well. So what method do I use?
In order to build out content and have that really integrate into your life and you as an authentic person, you need to plan out what this looks like. So there are four steps for me to plan and organise how I build that know, like and trust into my marketing. The first part is to sit down and have a good think about how many posts, rights, reels or videos you are going to do a week. So for me, when you get this this first bit right, I recommend that you start with three per week, right? So that’s a kind of happy medium. It’s not overwhelming. You do whatever days you feel best suit you and you start with that. And when you look at that, you can seriously go for one carousel, one video and one still image per week. And that is a nice, happy medium to start with. So if you don’t have some consistency, you’re not going to know like what, in your stats, they’re not going to really showcase the best time a day for you to post the best day for you to post, you kind of have to get some consistency moving to be able to determine which days are the best for you. So if you start with this happy medium, that’s kind of like the sweet spot, right?
And then, as you go through, the second part that I like to do is plan out the date-specific posts or business milestones, right? So think about in the coming week to four weeks. What’s coming up for you in terms of business milestones? Is it your work? One two, is it your birthday, like an anniversary with your business? Or are there is it coming up to Father’s Day? Or are there any special birthdays or Christmas, International Chocolate Day, Coffee Day, or International Women’s Day? What does that look like in your calendar? Where can you fit those in and how and if they matter to you or not? So once you’ve got those in there, then you can move on to step three of this process which is to be able to come up with ideas for photo topics or video topics. Right, so I like to split them out into photo topics or video topics and then have to think about what that looks like for you.
If I give you some examples of what I do, there are a few different examples here that you might be able to take into your business now. For me, obviously, there are photos and videos of me. I like to showcase my neon brand through my socials as well. And then I go live. I was going live every week but not recently, which I think is awesome to do. If you don’t do it yet. You should practice it because it really does help you to get confident in your speaking but I created a weekly series called Marketing Gossip Superhero Styles where every week I would go live and that is I photo or video topic, right? So that creates a system in my feed of what I post every week. And then I was posting superhero jokes, I wanted to include that, too, because it was really cool and funny. And they would kind of go out on a Saturday, I do post every week about this podcast. So that creates, that is, a photo of video on my feed, inspirational quotes, or, like, you know, messages throughout a carousel post. I do post video or photo testimonials because that kind of equals social proof and nothing screams like you’re amazing, like somebody else saying it. And then, I do talk about my lead magnets, which are the free resources that I have available for you. So there are a few sitting on my website at the moment. If you want to go and have a look at what they are to get you started.
And then there’s another photo topic in there. Or it could be a video and the title of that is sport. So I use sports throughout my feed of me either in the gym or running or whatever that looks like a video. I might have put my phone on time-lapse, but I use that a lot because I do believe that there is a correlation between, you know, business strength, mental strength, and physical strength. And so I know that, you know, when I exercise, it releases positive endorphins, endorphins, you know, dopamine, and all those things. And that makes me a better businesswoman. And so I like to have that as our photo topic in my feed. So then we go on to the next part. So that was me just talking about photo topics and video topics.
In the next part, we go on to caption categories.
So this is the fourth part of creating an amazing build, building know-like and trust sort of amazing content. So the fourth part is categories. And for me, so categories as in caption category, sorry, I should have said that you’re capturing categories. So what you actually write about in conjunction with those photos, you do not necessarily need to have the video or the photo showcasing what it is that you are specifically talking about if it is just a picture of me. And if it is like a branded photo shoot. So far, more photo shoots of me, one of those fancy photos, and not a no-makeup photo. I could be talking about literally anything. And so that’s why you need to have your caption categories listed. You need to have a deep dive into thinking about it and a plan of attack on what you’re going to talk about and how you’re going to say it because what I found and what I see as a fallback is people go into sales mode. And unfortunately, if you want to build that know, like and trust. And what I’ve found for myself is giving people a glimpse, you tend to fall back into that sales, you know, by my this, I’ve got this coming up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t make that doesn’t make sales. Storytelling is the thing that creates the know, the like, and then builds the trust. Because if you can be a great storyteller, you can be a great great at making sales for your business. So it’s all in the story, right? So this is where your captions are really important. So for me, obviously about me. So the way that I like to approach that is if one video or post or something like that creates a lot more engagement than another, I then will inject an about me post caption, right? There are a few new people around that have come into my world. Here are ten things that you might not know about me. And it’s not always it’s not always specifically that because I do come up with other creative ways to showcase that. But it’s important to reintroduce yourself on your social platforms. I really do believe that because people come for you.
The next one is a photo topic around my membership, superhero marketing. And I do take that very seriously. And I do love talking about it. And then I have the captions around my podcast, which is awesome. Then I always give out tips and tricks in my captions on my marketing posts on social media platforms, and then I talk about behind-the-scenes a lot. So, you know, I think that’s really important to share with people what’s happening behind the scenes. And then I talk about, you know, what I’m loving at the moment. I write captions on why I do what I do. I write captions on what motivates me and then I also write captions on the advantages and benefits of work. Working with me. And then lastly, which is a small percentage of my services, right? So there’s always a nice segue of a story, right? That leads into either the membership or, like, whatever I’m talking about that month. So that’s my captions for me. They’re my caption categories, I like to call them.
So this is the exciting part. And this is where it all comes together, which I can’t show you, but I kind of put them into a table sequence. So I’ve got the photo and video kind of topics vertically down the side. And then I’ve got my caption categories across the top. And if you’ve tabled them, then you know, you could strike while the iron is hot on any one of those tables. And they correlate to each other. So you, if I post a photo of me in the gym, or playing netball, or whatever that looks like, and I go down the line of my caption categories that I’ve just finished reading out to you, and I land on my why, that is what I’m going to talk about. Okay, so that is how you navigate that kind of mess. How do I give my audience a glimpse into my life and build trust? You have to have a plan. And you have to have basically a fallback, right of things that you can always talk about. And the reason that I use this is because I, too, get, you know, stuck with things to talk about content-wise. And if I didn’t sit down and have a strategy, and if I didn’t practice what I preach, this would be a whole nother conversation. But I’ve come up with this clever way to have a fallback because that way, then I’m not stuck for things to say when to say it, I always have something informative to say and I’m not just, you know, chewing the fat all the time. But I am like building trust. And I am trying to give you a glimpse into my life. So that is kind of like a surefire way to not have anything to talk about and also not fall into that like tricky. Easy, slippery slope of selling on your social media because that does the opposite of building, like know, like and trust.
And then you know, if you want to train your content muscle like a boss, and like I said before, there’s a couple of things that you can do. So you can go live on your social media every week. There is nothing like building confidence. And, you know, cement booth, so to speak, like going live. So I’ve gone live so many times across my social media, and the people that join you can be quite jarring in a good way. So I’ve had my idols join me live. And I call a spade a spade when that happens. And it’s quite confronting, but it’s actually really funny. And it’s a good test of your character to see if you can keep going. And then create one new video a week and I go through this in my membership. Actually, there are very clever ways for you to be able to create new videos. And I’ve got all the hacks and I absolutely love it. So if you can do that one per week, that is really awesome to, you know, be able to train this muscle of yours to keep going.
And then when you have that consistency, that’s when you build your know, like and trust, right? And that’s how you give people a glimpse into your life. Because that’s your life online, right? You don’t have to show everyone inside of your house, I don’t. And I think that I do a pretty good job of creating content and always having something to talk about and never needing to share my children because I have a fallback, which is a strategy. And I absolutely love that I’ve taken the time to do this because I never second-guessed myself. I always have something.
Another thing you can do if you’re not sure about your caption writing and you know I’ve given you really good caption category ideas, but have a really good lean into your zone of genius and how you would write about that and how you would storyteller around that and that is your answer to really great captions. And then another one too, you know, build that know like and trust is slid into people’s DMS through their Instagram Stories, respond to them. That’s an absolutely great way to be conversational, be real, be genuine and create relationships. I absolutely love this and I’ve made so many new connections and friendships just through my Instagram stories. So if you feel scared to do that, just do one. All you need is one run on the board of success and someone writes back a genuine message and you will feel pumped. You know you will feel really good about it and you will be prompted to do it more.
And then another one is To, You know, buy and read business books, oh my god, I cannot stress this enough. This gives you so much leverage for, like, $20 to $30. I love reading business books. Business books have given me so much goodness and so many ideas to implement and it’s affordable. And you know, other things can pitching yourself to wait for a speaking opportunity, so leaning in to do to go live with other business owners. So for me, when it comes to my podcast, I do like to go live with my guests. When the podcast episode comes out, I think there’s such power in that. And there’s such, you know, genuineness and trust building in going live with somebody else as well. And it’s a great way to reach new audiences. So that’s kind of like my, my take on how I give my audience a glimpse into my life, what my full backs are, what my plan is, how I do it. And through that, I build trust. And I really do believe that if you sit down for a little bit and think about what that looks like for you, you can use this method as well. And you will actually realise how important it is, and how by just giving yourself that time to breathe and think about, you know, working on your business from a bit of a periscope level rather than working in your business, you will be able to come up with your own caption categories and your own video topics and use mine as examples. And move forward, how you are going to tackle this for your own audience and your own life and how you build trust.
So I encourage you with so much energy and enthusiasm to get into it. The owner loves it. And then you know this, this space is a marathon, not a sprint too. So you know, if you don’t see results after four weeks, that’s pretty normal. I’m up to episode 78 of this podcast now. And only now is it starting to get some good traction and open up some serious doors. So keep going, keep building that know like and trust. And if you want to let me know how you going, just feel free to send me a message on Instagram if you’ve loved this episode. And if I’ve been able to help you with your content and give you some really fresh ideas too. I would love to hear from you. And that’s all this week, my friends. I’ll catch you next week. Bye.
I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe, you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday. And while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it. Also, don’t forget to tag me @Hayleykosborne over on Instagram and share this podcast with your audience so they can get learning too. If you want more, head over to www.Hayleyosborne.com.au/podcast for today’s show notes and links. I’ve also got an awesome free eBook, a new one waiting for you on my website, the 10 Essentials every local area marketing plan needs and I will catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.