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Your Small Audience Isn't the Problem, but Here are Growth Tips Anyway · All In with Allie

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In this episode of All In with Ali, we are going to talk about
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Instagram growth or really any platform you can apply to. All this to pretty
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much any platform. But I'm going to be all the way real with you
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in this episode, and I'm going to explain to you why the issue is
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likely not the fact that you have a small audience, and the goal,
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at least for right now, should not be to be growing your audience.
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We're going to talk about what the real issue is and we're going to get
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all into it. Okay, But of course while we're here, we are
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going to get into growth. I am going to give you tips and I'm
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even going to give you some hacks on pitching yourself for collaborations and podcast episodes
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and a lot of fun things like that. All right, so let's get
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into it. Welcome to All In with Ali podcast, the podcast for online
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business owners and entrepreneurs who are ready to create the life and business of their
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dreams. I am so happy you are here. So okay, I get
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this question a lot, and lately, if this has been happening a lot
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like this used to be all of our biggest goal, like ever, was
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to grow, especially on Instagram, especially on TikTok. That's like the thing,
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you know, that was the currency was how many followers? And then
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that kind of died down, and I thought that we were kind of like
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getting to an understanding of what the real goal is, which is always engagement,
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which is always sales, and usually we don't need a huge audience to
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have a beautiful, sustainable, wildly successful business. But I don't know what's
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going on. All of a sudden, it's like a numbers game again.
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And that's fine, Like, you can have whatever goal you want. I
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am not here to tell you what to dream. But the only issue I
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have is when people mistakenly assume that that's the missing piece of the puzzle for
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them, right they think, Okay, business is not going very well,
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this isn't really working in the way that I want it to work, so
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okay. Instead of like really going inward and asking myself, am I really
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doing the things that I could be doing every single day to have business running
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in the way that I wanted to Or how's my content? Or do I
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have funnels in place? Or how often do I sell? You know,
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like the real business questions we should be asking. It tends to default to,
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well it just must be my audience. I've pitched a couple of things,
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I've launched a couple of things, people didn't buy. People said that
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they could afford it. So my whole audience must be just a bunch of
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broke people that don't want to do what I have to sell. So I
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need a whole new audience. And it's like no, Usually that's not the
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case, or somebody is like, well, I only have X amount of
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followers and I want this size business. So and I'm already you know I
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have this size business. I'm doing this in sales, like this is how
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big my business is. So in order for my business to drouble or triple
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in size in revenue, that I need to double triple my audience. And
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the answer usually is no. So here's the thing. What the real question
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that should be asked instead of asking ourselves how do I grow more followers,
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the question that we really should be asking ourselves always as business owners, is
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how do I increase my engagement in relationship with the people who are already there?
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And how do I get them to buy from me again and again and
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again. Because what I have found is when you can master that, when
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you can master selling and building trust and getting a certain level of traction with
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the people who are already there, then we can expand that. Then we
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have something to work with. But the issue with rushing to the audience part
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is if you're doing it and you're not covering the rest of your bases,
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then you're growing prematurely. Then you're focusing on the wrong thing. And then
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you're getting a bunch of people, maybe in a healthy way, maybe in
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a healthy way, to come and follow you, but your brand and your
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business isn't ready. So now you've just wasted a ton of your time and
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you have a bunch of new people looking at you, and you're not doing
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anything or you're not playing at the level that you want your RESI to be,
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So it becomes this self fulfilling cycle. And then and then I think
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that's when it gets really bad, where it's just again chasing, chasing,
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chasing more and more and more people that it's like, maybe I should run
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ads, maybe I should take out a billboard, maybe I should pay to
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be in that magazine, And it's like, do whatever you want. All
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of those options are there for a reason, but be smart about it.
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So I think where we should start this conversation is with a really quick,
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really really quick update on how the algorithm works. And this is pretty much
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across the board across all platforms. They all have their little differences, but
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for the most part, here's like the simplest way to put it. Okay,
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whatever platform that you're on. And by the way, this is really
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important because again, a lot of people, they prioritize growth and they're willing
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to do damn near anything for more people like you know, weird giveaways or
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I don't even know if buying followers is a thing. If it is,
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don't you dare ever, ever ever do it to maybe running ads prematurely,
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you know, they go the not a very smart way about it. They
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grow really fast and then their engagement is even worse than what it was to
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start with, and that does nothing for you. If your engagement is trash,
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nobody's going to see what it is you're selling, and it's going to
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hurt your business even more. So let's just do a quick, quick,
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little recap and reminder on how algorithms work. So algorithms or platforms that have
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algorithms in place for business, whether it's X, whether it's TikTok, Instagram,
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Facebook, LinkedIn. They are going to prioritize content that's getting engagement.
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Always why because if we are seeing okay, Because if a piece of content
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is getting engagement, that usually means there's a reason why. Right, if
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a bunch of people are engaging on a piece of content, that means that
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for some reason it's high quality or polarizing or attention grabbing, which means that
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we are going to be staying on that app longer or and it also will
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show you like more content that you specifically engage with. Right, So,
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like if you engage a lot with your friends and family or certain type of
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businesses or certain type of creators, you're likely going to see more of their
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stuff in your algorithm because that tells whatever platform you're on that that's the type
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of content and you want to see. So if they push you more of
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that content, you'll stay on the app longer, you'll spend more money,
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their ad partners will be happier, everybody is going to be all around richer
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and more successful because you're staying on the app longer because you are showing the
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right content. So, how we get the algorithm to work in our favor
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is we make sure that we are creating high quality content that's actually working in
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the sphere and the current client of social media or whatever platform it is.
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And you're on, right, there's different seasons to this. There's different trends.
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There's different like for a while on Instagram the thing to do with static
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posts. Now it's reels, right, Like you got to play the game
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a little bit. So how you hack it in your favor is you learn
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how to create the high quality content in the right way in ways that's going
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to get engagement from the type of people that you want looking at your stuff,
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which are your potential customers. Now, there also is a ratio that
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you need to be aware of. So and this this is all like hearsay,
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you know, this is kind of its general knowledge. But Instagram's always
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changing up the algorithm, TikTok's always changing up the other all like, this
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is what they do. Because we learned how to hack the algorithm, we'd
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all be bored, we'd move on. This is how they keep us addicted.
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So there's a ratio that we need to worry about. Right, So,
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like we have a certain amount of engagement and we have a certain amount
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of followers right now, and that is kind of like a baseline for our
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quality of content right Like, you have an average of engagement that you get
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on your content right now, and if your content gets a little bit more
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engagement, it's going to get more likes. Then engagement begets engagement. The
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more engagement it gets, the more the Instagram or whatever else platform is going
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to feed it out to more people, and that's going to continue to grow
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the engagement. So you have this baseline based on your audience size and based
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on the average amount of engagement you get currently. But if you were overnight
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to all of a sudden grow a ton more followers, hundreds thousands more followers
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because you did something to do that, you know, and I'm not talking
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about getting lucky and going viral, although that is one way to do it.
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But let's say you bought followers or ransom ad or I don't know,
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I don't know how else you would do this, But like, regardless,
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you don't want to do it because then you're changing that ratio. Right now,
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there's a bigger gap with the ratio of your followers to your engagement,
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and that the larger the gap of your followers to your engagement. That shows
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that platform that your content's kind of fallen off a little bit, so it's
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going to be deprioritized. So if you're a business owner and you literally bank
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on the right people seeing your content so that they want to buy from you,
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and then your engagement plummets, we're in trouble, okay, and we
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can get it back up and Instagram, you know, just like entrepreneurship,
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engagement's always going to EBB and flow. So if you're having a moment where
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the algorithm hates your guts, it's cool. We've all been there. It'll
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come back around. Just keep doing what you're doing and what you know how
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to do well. But this is why fast growth or a focus only on
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growth is not the answer. That is not what we want. What we
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want instead is we want a good, steady, healthy increase with the right
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people in a way that is nurturing the current people who have already said yes
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to us. And that's another thing that you really want to realize with this
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too, is while more of the right people is it is a good goal
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to have eventually when it's the right time. And while yes, that of
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course can benefit your business, and of course This means that you get to
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impact more people, which is wonderful. They're also the hardest ones to convert,
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right, It's going to take you usually longer to convert a cold lead
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than a warm lad lead. And as a matter of fact, if I
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go when I look at my sales right now, and I were to bring
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up profiles of my customers that spend the most money in my business, it
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is repeat customers. It's customers that's been in my world for a certain amount
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of time. They bought one thing, and they bought something else, and
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they bought something else, and then they bought something else. So all of
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that to say, and by the way, I'm like, if you talk
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to any seasoned business owner, this is typically the case. So all of
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that to say, growing is fine, we're going to talk about how to
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do that. But one of the biggest mistakes that you can make is to
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be so focused on new and on somebody else or something else and take your
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eye off the prize, which is the current people who are already warm,
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who've already said yes to you, right, if you're not continuing to nurture
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them with a new or really good content or whatever it is that you do.
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What they're going to do is they're not going to say, oh,
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she must be just trying to grow, so I'm going to give her a
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little bit. They're going to get distracted with somebody else's stuff, and if
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that person sells something that you sell, they're going to start buying from that
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person. And if that person does a good job keeping their leads and their
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people happy and cozy and engaged and you know, having different ladders to bring
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them up and to continue with them on their path of whatever the goal is
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that they sell, you've lost that person. We don't want that, okay,
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So we want to remember there's so much potential already there. I promise
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you. I promise you. And you might be listening to this and you
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might be thinking, no, you're wrong. I have launched things, I've
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put things out there, nobody ever buys. I don't get the engagement.
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And every time I put something out it's too expensive or it's not the right
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time or whatever. Okay, then you need to tweak your offers. That's
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an offer problem. That's usually not an audience problem. The only time that
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it really really is an audience problem is if maybe you started your account as
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one thing as one business, and then you did a really really big change.
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I'm not talking about a pivot into different pricing or maybe like different types
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of offers, but essentially for the same subject or the same niche. I'm
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talking like, you went from one business that is not even complementary to the
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other business. Okay, and your audience is full of people who were from
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the first business. Then in that case, possibly possibly, but like I
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have a client or had a client, and what was it that she hold
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on? Let me try and think of this specific thing. She sold one
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thing. Let's just say, I'll just make it, make it up.
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She was selling for a while, like skincare something, and then she changed
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to health coaching. Let's just say that that's a really good example. That's
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basically the same thing that she was doing. Okay, So she was selling
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this specific product and then she shifted over to health coaching and she was like,
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well, my business is so different and I think I need new people.
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And it's like, but people that needed the skincare they also could be
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interested in health coaching. No, right, Like you can have both.
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People want both. You just need to be patient with your messaging or direct
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with your messaging. And make sure we got that down first. And usually
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with the people that I'm working with, when somebody comes to me and they're
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like, I think I need more people in my audience, and I go
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with them and we talk about it, and we dig in and we really
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get to the root of what the issue is. Usually the issue is a
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content issue and a messaging issue. That's nine times out of ten what the
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issue is. And I know why this happens because if you have a belief
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in your head that what you're doing isn't going to work, you're not going
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to try very hard to do it, or you're not going to be consistent,
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or you're going to maybe get a result that you don't want, and
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that's going to be a confirmation bias of what it is that you believe.
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So I see this a lot where somebody has a business and they pivot in
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some way or they go to sell something, and they're testing out different things
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and they don't get the results they want because they're comparing themselves to other people
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or whatever, and then they start to think to themselves, it's because my
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audience doesn't want this. It's because it's the audience is too small or it's
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what the wrong people or they're all broke, or none of them take their
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lives seriously, you know, whatever the thing is that we're telling ourselves.
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And if you really really believe that, if you really don't believe that your
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people have the power to you know, buy or afford whatever it is that
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you sell, then why would you continue to show up and create good content
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for them and build relationships with them and curate a different offer at a different
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price point and try that out with them. You wouldn't. That would be
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insane. So all I can say is this, I have seen more businesses
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than I can count have multi million dollar success in their business with very relatively
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small audiences. I'm talking anywhere from a few hundred just to like a couple
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to a few thousand people. I've seen multiple wildly successful businesses be you sell
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and be sustainable with what we most of us would consider is a very very
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small audience. You can have more. There's nothing wrong with that. You
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can want exactly what it is that you want. But what we don't want
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to do is to fall in that trap that does not serve you and telling
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yourself that the size of audience that you have right now cannot serve you because
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you have to get started somewhere. There's not a way that you can just
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like poof all of a sudden shift your whole audience around. And usually the
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answer too isn't to start like a brand new Instagram account, okay, Like
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you got to start with what it is that you have. So unless you
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have a crazy scaled business model like your goal is okay, there are a
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couple of exceptions to this. If you are an influencer and you're ready to
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you know, you're like, Okay, I need X amount of commissions really
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fast. I need X amount of engagement so that I can get these specific
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brand deals. Right, you got these really big goals with your influencing,
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you want to get there fast. Then yeah, we need followers. But
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even then because because it's all clicks and commission in traffic, right, So
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even then though there's not like this quick you know, snap and you have
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a ton of followers, like, it takes work to build that trust and
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you're not most of the time, unless you decide to run ads, your
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followers are going to come from your content. So you got to buckle down
19:49
anyway and just start churning out content. Like it's your freaking job because it
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is. Okay, So if you're an influencer, then yes, we we
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need lots and lots of people. We need high numbers of people for you
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to hit large revenue goals unless you want to do all brand deals. You
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know, if you we're not going to get into it. That would be
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like a whole other conversation. So influencing that would be an exception. Another
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exception is if you are trying to build a business that's crazy scaled, right,
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like you have super low ticket offers and big goals and we need like
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all of those people to be you know, I don't know I meaning of
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an example. Like let's say you want to scale an ebook or something,
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or like I just have Bree Groves on the podcast and she's hitting multi or
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not multi almost. I mean, eventually she'll be at multi six figure months,
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but she's at six figure months right now with a ninety seven dollars offer.
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Do the math. That's a lot of people, Okay. So if
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you have that type of business you want to make that kind of money,
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then yes, we need numbers of people, so you better start churning out
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that content that's attracting in those people or running ads that's attracting in those people.
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But if you're not in one of those two camps, the influencer or
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the super scaled camp, you can create offers that appease and work with the
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sized audience that you have now. And I've done like my Money Moves Masterclass.
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I've done many programs where we play with numbers and we create high five
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figure months to close to six figure months with low to mid ticket offers,
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but multiple of them. You just got to be smart with it, right.
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You can have some low ticket offers, you can have some mid ticket
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offers, and some high ticket offers, launch them and take care of as
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many people in your audience as you can from different levels. You just got
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to know what you're doing as a business owner. How can you maximize the
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people that are there right now? So, yeah, you can have the
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small ticket offer, but and that's fine, you're going to get some sales
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from that. But if you have a couple one hundred people in your audience
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or a couple of thousand people, then we need to be creating some higher
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ticket stuff in the meantime, even if that's not your main goal in your
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business. So that you can be churning in or creating some revenue right now
22:26
while you grow your audience, but it's got to be a simultaneous goal.
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Okay, So before we go any further on growth tips, because I'm happy
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to give them, let's first cover our bases. Let's slow down to speed
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up, because again, usually the issue isn't even the fact that you need
22:52
to grow right now or grow like that's not the missing puzzle piece. But
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oftentimes you're not even ready for that level of growth that you think you are,
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okay, and that could end up hurting your business instead of helping your
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business. So if you are ready to grow your audience, and this is
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something that you really really want to focus on, I want you to ask
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yourself these three questions and answer them honestly. And if you answer yes in
23:22
all three of these, then great, you're off to the races. But
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if you answer no with any of them, please handle that first and then
23:30
focus on the growth. It'll be way more worth your time this way.
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So the first one, the first question I want you to ask yourself if
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you're wanting to grow, is do you have a brand that you are proud
23:45
of and that you are ready to display to people who do not know you
23:49
yet. Okay, so here's a really easy way to honestly ask yourself that
23:56
question. If you put out a real today and it went crazy viral to
24:03
where all of a sudden, millions of people were coming to your page all
24:10
over the world, all different demographics, all different ages, and their eyeballs
24:15
were on you. How do you feel about that. I'm going to be
24:21
real with you. If that happened to me and I've been in business since
24:23
twenty eighteen, I'd be a little a little sad about it because there's things
24:32
that i want to do to clean up my own brand. There's things that
24:36
I'm working on and I'm preparing myself for and cleaning up for myself. Like
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I personally don't want to go viral yet because I feel like I'd probably miss
24:48
out on a lot of people because I'm not ready to present myself to the
24:53
world yet. You got to get started somewhere. I'm proud of what I've
24:59
built. It's, you know, like my coach says, growth an evolution
25:03
over a lifetime. It's never going to be quote perfect. But you know,
25:10
if you're ready for exposure or if you're not quite there. So that's
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the first question I would ask yourself. Do you have a brand that you're
25:18
proud of and that you're ready to display to people who do not know you
25:22
yet. The second question to ask yourself do you have your business ready for
25:27
an influx of leads and customers? So if all of a sudden, let's
25:34
say you go viral and people love what they see because your brand is on
25:40
point and they want to buy from you, do you have the thing?
25:45
Do you have the offer? Do you have the scalable offer? Do you
25:47
have a funnel in place? Is there a way to capitalize on more leads
25:53
and people flowing into your world so that when they're hot and they're ready to
25:57
buy from you because you just want viral and just blew their mind. You're
26:02
striking while the iron's hot versus not having the things in place, and then
26:06
they say, oh, okay, she's cool, and then they forget about
26:07
you and they move on to the next person who does have their ducks in
26:11
a row, big, big question to ask yourself do you have your business
26:17
ready for an influx of leads and customers? And then the third question to
26:22
ask yourself is do you have a system in place to be consistent and engage
26:27
consistently. Do you have a team, do you have the time? So
26:33
again, if you go viral, or you get an influx of people and
26:37
people are dming you, or people are commenting on your stuff, or they're
26:41
just like holy crap, like what you're doing is amazing, do you have
26:45
a system in place to keep that momentum up or is it just going to
26:48
be like a flash in the pan? So flash of the pan moments are
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cool, but wouldn't you want like, wouldn't you rather have a big break
27:03
versus a flash in the pan? You hear people talk about that, right,
27:07
You hear people talk about like if you're if you're looking at maybe somebody
27:11
who's famous or somebody who's created like a ton of success. You often will
27:17
hear them talk about their big break, like the moment that they were prepared,
27:23
their preparation met with this faithful moment where preparation meets opportunity. Wouldn't you
27:32
rather that? Wouldn't you know, wouldn't you rather be prepared when the opportunity
27:38
strikes so that that's your moment versus like, oh, yeah, that was
27:44
cool, I want viral? But you know it kind of fizzled out because
27:47
it wasn't prepared. We don't want that so again, Like it's not to
27:53
say that you can't go viral again or whatever, but my issue is when
27:59
people dedicate so much of their time and energy fishing for all of these new
28:03
fish, and then they get the fish and they have nothing to prepare the
28:08
fish with, right, they basically have to throw them out back into the
28:14
wild because they don't have anything prepared to handle the new fish. Meanwhile,
28:18
they've spent all of this time and focus on the new fish that their old
28:22
fish that we're already there have died. They're not there anymore. They're paying
28:25
attention to somebody else. Okay, so cover your bases first, do those
28:32
things, get your brand in check, get your systems in check, have
28:36
your business ready, and then let's focus on the growth. So the fastest
28:45
way to grow on most platforms is through your content, through putting out good
28:52
content. And I know that that is not what you want to hear,
28:55
but it's just the truth. Okay. I'm sure they're so like weird growth
29:00
strategy out there. You know how there used to be like follow unfollow.
29:04
I doubt that's a thing anymore. Surely, to god, people aren't still
29:07
doing that. I'm sure there's something like some sort of I don't know that
29:15
would kind of be like today's follow unfollow, But even if it was,
29:19
even if there was a thing like that, I would not share it here
29:22
because it's probably not smart. Okay. The smartest thing that you can do
29:26
to grow the right people in the nice, steady way that we want to
29:33
grow it, that's not going to hurt our ratio of engagement, that's not
29:37
going to hurt our business, is through your content. And the cool thing
29:41
about that is that it currently takes care of your people who are here.
29:47
So it's two birds one stone. Instead of again outwardly focusing and spending all
29:52
of our time and energy trying to hunt for the new people, we are
29:56
creating and curating really really good content that's serving our people who are currently there
30:00
right now really well while also attracting in the new people at this same exact
30:06
time. So I should look at my stats. I'll do that in just
30:10
a second. I'll post this on Instagram the week that this goes out,
30:14
but I'll go and I'll look at my Instagram sets because for the past few
30:17
weeks I've been more consistent with reels, and you know how I feel about
30:22
reels. I went through a season where I absolutely hated them, but I've
30:26
kind of found my groove in them again because what's working right now is pretty
30:30
easy for me to make, like having a very simple b roll video five
30:37
to seven seconds long, put some text on the screen. You can automate
30:41
it with many chat or not, and it just it works really well.
30:48
And I can do that because it's not complicated, it doesn't take a ton
30:51
of time, and I actually enjoy myself. So I've started doing these reels
30:55
again a lot more consistently, and I've grown quite a bit from you just
31:02
from reels. And the best part about it is, while these numbers aren't
31:07
much to write home about, I mean, they're like maybe a couple hundred
31:10
people in the past month, which is still pretty good. But the best
31:15
part about it is these leads are exactly who I want to come in for
31:22
the most part, because my content is focused and you would not follow me
31:26
unless you were interested in online business coaching and tactics and like the things that
31:32
I share, and those are the people that are coming into my world.
31:37
So the best thing that you can do if you really want to grow with
31:40
the right people so that you can continue to grow your business online is to
31:45
focus on creating really good content. Now. Also, what I want to
31:51
say with that too is I don't like when I say put out really good
31:56
content. I don't mean go on Instagram, see see what so and so
32:00
is doing that's getting a ton of engagement, and then do exactly what they're
32:06
doing. I think it's a good idea to get ideas on. Okay,
32:13
here's like the general vibe of what's working for everybody right now. Okay,
32:16
lots of shorter videos, lots of text on the screen that disappears really fast
32:22
because then people have to watch the reel over and over again. Okay,
32:25
that's kind of working. Like get a general feel for what's working for the
32:31
most part, and then go make it your own in a way that feels
32:36
really good for you. So a few months ago, the thing that was
32:43
working on reels were like all of those transitions, really long videos, videos
32:50
where you know you're pointing to different things, and you got to put a
32:54
ton of text on the screen and you gotta time things. And I just
32:58
found it to be so exact, which is why I ended up kind of
33:01
staying away from them, and still I posted just static images and that worked
33:06
for me because I like to write, and it just like the energy was
33:09
behind it that that works just fine for my business. And now again because
33:17
there's a little bit more simpler of a vibe that is converting on reels,
33:23
I'm into it again. I can do that cool. I don't want to
33:28
be dancing. I don't want to be pointing at weird things that aren't there.
33:31
I'm not trying to do the most on Instagram. I just want to
33:36
get your attention so that you see that I know what it is and I'm
33:39
talking about with a call to action on how to get more of it that
33:44
I'm talking about so that you come into my world and you stay in my
33:46
world. That's what I'm wanting to do, and that should be your goal
33:50
to. But if you don't enjoy the type of content you're creating because you're
33:54
trying to recreate somebody else's thing, then you're going to do it a couple
33:59
of days and then you're going to fall off, and then it's not going
34:00
to get you the result, and then you're going to think that what I'm
34:04
talking about is full of bologne when that's not the truth. It's just that
34:07
you're not being consistent. So we have to have a level of discipline and
34:10
commitment here too. Okay, this is a long game strategy. Okay,
34:15
so pass the point of our content. What are other ways that we can
34:20
grow? So this is where we want to start considering collaborations. Now,
34:25
in the same way that I said that growth needs to kind of be like
34:30
the last thing on your to do list. You need to have the things
34:34
in place before you grow, I would say the exact same things for collaborations,
34:38
because by collaborating with somebody, you're going to cross market each other's audience.
34:45
So it's it's literally what that's growth, right, So this my point
34:49
is, it's the same thing. So make sure you have your ducks in
34:52
a row. Make sure you have your content in check too, and that's
34:57
churning, and that's taking care of your current eyes and doing what it needs
35:00
to do. And then let's talk about what some collaborations, some strategic collaborations
35:07
could look like. So again, all a collaboration is is you partnering with
35:14
somebody in some way to cross market each other's stuff. So it doesn't necessarily
35:19
mean that both of you have to be pimping each other out, but it's
35:25
a collab nonetheless. Okay, So there's a few ways that you can do
35:30
this that's going to help you grow your audience. You and I feel like
35:35
the best way to do this would be to think of one to three topics
35:44
that you could riff on, that you could teach, or that you could
35:46
talk about that would appeal to somebody else's audience. So we're looking so the
35:53
people that we're looking to collaborate with are people that have audiences that we also
36:00
want. Okay, So if you create something or have something to sell that
36:07
is for just women in general or a certain demographic of women, then we
36:10
want to partner with somebody with that specific audience or a very very similar audience.
36:16
Otherwise what's the point of the collaboration. And you also want to make
36:22
sure too that you guys don't have competing businesses. Now, if you guys
36:27
have a good relationship, then you might not even care, right, Like,
36:31
I have Mastermind members, I have clients who have brought on the podcast
36:37
that technically you could probably consider as competitors, but like, who cares?
36:40
If you have an abundance mindset. Whatever, the more the merrier. But
36:45
anyway, like usually, especially if you're pitching this to people that you don't
36:52
have a super great connection to yet, then yeah, you kind of want
36:58
to make sure that there's like no any competitive spirit there. I don't know,
37:02
just feel into it. But we're looking for that person that has a
37:07
type of audience that we want to cross market with. I used to say
37:12
too when I used to teach growth strategies for Instagram. One of the things
37:15
that I used to teach too was to make sure that if you're pitching yourself
37:21
for a collaboration with somebody, that you guys have a similar audience size so
37:27
that it's mutually beneficial. So if you have a couple thousand followers and you're
37:34
pitching yourself for a collaboration with somebody with a few million followers, then it's
37:39
kind of like, uh, what's in it for me? But it also
37:43
depends on what you guys are doing together anyway. So, like one growth
37:51
strategy that I used to teach years ago were Instagram story takeovers, which is
37:57
where let's say, like you and I were doing this together and we would
38:02
pick a day and like one day, you would come onto my stories,
38:07
and that same day I would go onto yours and we'd take over each other's
38:10
stories. So I'd be like, hey, yeah, I'd come on to
38:13
your stories and be like, hey, Ali Reeves here, this is what
38:17
I do, and today I'm going to teach you blah blah blah. I'm
38:20
gonna share you with you three ways to do blank. You know, you
38:22
don't really see a lot of these anymore, but hey, we could bring
38:25
them back. I feel like, if they're well done, it could work
38:28
really well. But with something like that, where two people are participating for
38:34
the purpose of cross marketing with each other, then yeah, usually you want
38:38
to make sure that there's like an equal ish playing ground so that again it's
38:45
mutually beneficial. But if you don't want to go that route, then what
38:51
I recommend doing is going the route of pitching yourself as like somebody who can
38:57
bring a topic to somebody else's audience that that other person wouldn't normally talk about,
39:04
right, like, pitch yourself as an expert for that person. So,
39:09
for example, let's say I was wanting to do this myself, and
39:14
I was wanting to collaborate with a few people so that I could get in
39:16
front of their audience maybe bring some of them over to my world because we
39:21
weren't competitors. So obviously what I bring to the table are online business tips
39:28
and you know, mindset and the things that I talk about. So I
39:30
would think of a few people that don't talk about those things, but who
39:36
have audiences that would be interested in learning those things. So the first person
39:42
that comes to mind is Colleen Nichols. Okay, we she kind of or
39:46
we kind of did this together because she has DSGC, which is this huge
39:52
group of people and she was looking for experts in different areas to help train
39:58
her people. So while she knows a ton about business and she talks a
40:01
lot about business, I do it in my own way. So like so
40:07
I would come into her group and I would share tips and ways to utilize
40:12
Instagram and how to grow on Instagram and grow your business in different ways on
40:16
social media platforms. And it served her people right, they got that expertise.
40:22
She was able to set that up and make them happy because I'm giving
40:27
them something that she normally wouldn't talk about, and at the same time,
40:30
I'm putting myself in front of a brand new set of people. So how
40:35
could you do that yourself? Like, if there was something that you could
40:39
riff on or that you could teach, what would those things be and how
40:44
would you present this or can who would you present this to? Who would
40:49
be these people? And that's what I recommend doing. I recommend making a
40:52
list of start with three people, right, let's start small. Who are
40:58
three people that you're like, like, Okay, I would love like I
41:04
feel like they would love for me to come and talk on this specific thing
41:08
or share how to do this really cool thing that I know how to do.
41:13
So you can as far as like how you present this to their audience,
41:17
there's a few ways so you could pitch this as like you guys could
41:23
go live together on Instagram or on Facebook or wherever, and you could,
41:30
you know, teach or whatever. You guys could do it that way.
41:35
You could take over their stories. You could if the person has a podcast,
41:39
obviously you could come on their podcast and talk about it in that way.
41:43
Another way that this works really well is if you know somebody who has
41:49
maybe a Facebook group of people or some sort of mastermind or some sort of
41:54
group that regularly has people come in the experts come in and share different things
42:01
that the owner or the creator or the founder of that group normally wouldn't share.
42:07
That would be a great way to do it too, Like, Hey,
42:10
I know you have a mastermind. If you're looking for experts, I
42:16
would love to come in and teach your people this or talk to your people
42:20
about that. Okay. So this is such a great way not only to
42:27
demonstrate what it is that you do, but to get yourself in front of
42:30
new people and bring them over to your side. Because if you do this,
42:36
you always want to lead or end with a call to action. Hey
42:40
I'm Ali Reeves. If you enjoy this, come follow me over at Ali
42:45
I Reeves on Instagram, or I have a freebee for you. If you
42:49
want the freebie, go to this link and blah blah blah. That's like
42:52
the smartest thing that you can do because then they go get the freebie,
42:55
and now they're opted into your email list and you can market to them and
42:59
you can get them one or Instagram and they're already you know, in a
43:01
funnel or whatever. So that is a really really smart way to grow right
43:09
now. On it, Well, it's been a really smart way to grow
43:14
and again, there's so many different ways that you can do that, Like
43:16
I said, through a live or through a story takeover or you know,
43:22
a zoom call or let's see podcast interview summits. You could even maybe,
43:30
like I don't know, partner on like an email or something. There are
43:37
so many different ways to do this, so you can you can definitely have
43:39
fun with it. But that's a great way to grow is through those collaborations,
43:47
and then of course getting on podcasts. That would kind of be like
43:51
a next level way, kind of like a step up from your average collaboration,
43:57
would be to get yourself and to put yourself on a podcast. We'll
44:00
talk about pitching in just a second, but again, like obviously, if
44:05
you're gonna get on somebody's podcast, you need to have your stuff ready,
44:07
probably to even get a yes from them, but also to capitalize on the
44:13
potential attention that's going to come your way. And then past those organic strategies,
44:20
then we would feel into ads. And I'm not saying you have to
44:24
go the organic route. I'm not saying like before you can do ads,
44:29
you gotta exhaust all other avenues first. Not what I'm saying at all.
44:35
We just we need, you know, to cover our bases first, like
44:37
we talked about, and then do what you want. But I would say
44:40
past those very simple collaboration ideas and then you know, of course using your
44:46
content to attract new people. After that, the real only safe way to
44:53
grow that's non organic would be through running ads and bringing in hold leads that
45:00
way, which is great, a great idea if that's your thing. Okay,
45:06
so let's talk about and let's end this with tips on how to pitch
45:10
yourself. So, if you are pitching yourself for a collaboration right like Instagram,
45:19
takeover live, something that's pretty chill, and you know the person,
45:24
I see nothing wrong than shooting the person a DM on Instagram or obviously if
45:30
you have their number, shooting them a text. Hey girl, had this
45:34
idea. I know you have blah blah blah mastermind. I don't know if
45:36
you ever have experts in there, but I know, as you know,
45:39
I teach on blah blah blah, and I've really been loving talking about this
45:45
specific topic and if your people would be interested in learning about it, I'd
45:49
be more than willing to offer a free training to your group. Let me
45:52
know when or if that's a good fit for you, boom, keep it
45:55
short, keep it sweet, and keep it framed around and what is in
46:00
it for them? Okay, don't come at it like hey girl. As
46:06
you know, since the age of three, I've just been like madly passionate
46:13
about it's like, okay, what are we doing here? Stay focused and
46:17
position it with Hey, I know you have blank or I know one of
46:21
your goals is blank. Here's how I can support you. In my opinion,
46:25
you're way more than likely to get a yes. You're asking them a
46:28
favor. Okay, keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it cute.
46:32
If you do not know the person, if you guys, have never
46:37
DMed before, or if this is somebody who maybe is a bit more established,
46:44
maybe it's more of like a professional approach that you're going for a professional
46:50
experience that you're going for, then I would recommend finding on their team like
46:55
the person to email. Maybe they have an email on their Instagram, or
47:00
you can like do some googling, figure it out who on their team do
47:06
you need to reach out to to make this happen and send an email and
47:10
just start with Like I was listening to a podcast today and they said this,
47:15
and I would agree with it so much like when you're pitching yourself to
47:19
somebody, just get to the point. Don't start with a backstory, okay,
47:23
just get to the point of like, hey, this is what I
47:28
do, This is what I can bring to you. You know, if
47:30
you want to know any more background than be happy to send it. But
47:35
this something you're interested in. In my opinion, I would really appreciate that
47:39
approach versus like a super long winded situation. Now for podcasts, this is
47:46
going to be a little bit different. Oh oh, and let me say
47:51
one more thing. For the collaborations, when you reach out to them,
47:55
I personally recommend giving a couple of super specific ideas on things that you want
48:01
to talk about. But I don't just mean like I could talk about self
48:09
love and mindset and confidence. It's like how the you know, like,
48:20
how how do you plan to talk about self love? How do you whatever?
48:23
So I would I would recommend getting way more specific. So I would
48:29
recommend coming to them and saying, hey, I'm a self love expert and
48:34
here are a few topic ideas that I feel like your audience might be super
48:37
interested in. Let me know. And I'm also open to your ideas.
48:42
I could talk about three ways to increase self love for to expand your business.
48:52
The number one self love practice that will ruin your life, you know,
48:57
like get specific here, because that like one of those or maybe even
49:01
all of them are going to peauk their interests and they're going to know really
49:05
quickly whether it's a yes or no, and you're probably more likely to get
49:09
a response at that point too. Now, for podcasts, this is very
49:16
similar, but I'm going to give you a very specific approach because this is
49:22
the only thing that has ever worked for me in pitching a podcast, Okay,
49:27
and I'm going to give it to you. So when you pitch a
49:31
podcast again, I would follow the rule of them that if you know the
49:37
person, if you've had a conversation with the person, you guys have a
49:40
rapport, and it's appropriate just to send a quick message or a text.
49:46
Cool. Now, if this person has a team that supports them with their
49:51
podcasts and you know that they're you know, maybe they have like a manager
49:53
or an agent, like if they have a really big podcast with like the
49:57
whole shebang, then you probably need to go more formal and reach out to
50:00
the team and go that angle. But if you have a report, try
50:06
the text, try the message, and the same approach. Hey, I
50:08
know you have a podcast, you serve these type of people. If you're
50:15
ever looking for guests or ever looking for topic ideas, I would love to
50:19
join you and bring X conversation to the table. Here are a few angles
50:23
we could talk about it. But I'm also open to your ideas. Thank
50:29
you for your time, you know, easy, easy, pasy. Now,
50:32
if you don't know this person or again, it's the team thing and
50:35
you need to send an email, send an email. But I will say
50:40
this, and this is this is just me, okay, And I'm a
50:45
unique person because I'm weird about emails and I'm just weird about communication in general.
50:54
Okay, So this is certainly not everybody's experience and how everybody feels about
51:00
what I feel about. But I will say I get somewhere between five and
51:07
ten podcast topic pitches a week, okay, a week from people that I
51:14
do not know, people that I've never heard of or maybe have like kind
51:17
of heard about them, or you know, they're being shopped around the podcast
51:22
circuit. And it's the same approach, right, and it's usually from their
51:29
team, Hey, Allie, are you interested in Da Da Da Da?
51:32
And it's like, I don't even read it at this point. If I
51:37
don't know the person, I'm not hurting for guests, Like I have an
51:40
incredible network of women and people that cover pretty much all the bases of the
51:46
things that I plan and that I want to talk about. So if I
51:50
need somebody who wants to talk about ayahuasca, if I need somebody to talk
51:53
about blowing up a business, I've got plenty of people to do that.
51:59
So I'm not really jones in to hook up with Brad Anderson who lives in
52:05
Milwaukee who grew a gym and sold it for a billion dollars, Like that's
52:10
I'm happy for Brad Johnson, but I don't care. So anyway, all
52:16
of that to say, like I'm I'm not reading these emails because the approach
52:21
is all the same, and I don't know the person, and I'm just
52:24
not hurting for guests. So this approach probably works really well for podcasts that
52:30
are churning out guest episodes like it's their job and they're trying to pre record
52:36
a million months in advance and they're just looking for any Tom Dick or Harry
52:39
to come on because they need the episodes. In that case, you're probably
52:44
going to get a response. Maybe maybe if you have a good enough pitch.
52:47
But I will say this, this is the one type of pitch that
52:52
I opened and that I responded to in the affirmative to get this person and
53:00
on my show, because this was the approach they took, and I highly
53:04
recommend you adopt it. And it may not work every time, but I
53:07
can guarantee you it will get your email opened. Okay, so this is
53:12
what this genius did. I got an email and the subject line of the
53:19
email was I just left you a review for your podcast. So instantly I'm
53:23
like, oh what did you say? Like my heart drops, Oh god,
53:29
what did you say? So I opened the email and right there at
53:32
the top is a screenshot of this gorgeous review that the person did SMIT.
53:37
I ended up seeing it on Apple a couple days later, and it was
53:43
just a beautiful review and it was it wasn't super long, but I could
53:46
tell like it wasn't super fluffy and generic. The person listened to an episode
53:54
and gave me really nice, thoughtful feedback and it was a great review and
54:00
then they said, Hey, I really like what you're doing. I really
54:05
love how you care about these things. And because of that, I see
54:10
how I could fit in as a potential guest for you. This is who
54:15
I am, very short, like, this is what I do, Here's
54:20
what I love to talk about, what I'm an expert at. Here are
54:23
you know? He gave me like bullet points of topic ideas. They were
54:27
super super specific, so I could like really see if one would work for
54:31
y'all or if we could work with one. And then he said, you
54:36
know my bios below. If I'm a good fit, I would be honored
54:40
to be on your show. If not, no worries. I still love
54:44
what you're doing. Have a great day. And I'm like, are you
54:46
freaking kidding me? What a genius? What a genius? Okay, so
54:53
you bet your butt? I responded immediately, thanked him for the review,
54:59
and I said, hey, I don't know who you are, but get
55:02
your butt on the show. I'd love to have you. I love this
55:06
topic idea. My people would love that topic idea. Let's go And then
55:12
do you know what happened? He ghosted me. I never heard from him
55:17
again. He must have said, but that was probably his strategy, right.
55:22
He probably spent a few hours doing that with a podcast that made the
55:27
most sense for him. It definitely took him more time than creating just like
55:31
one flat copy paste email that you send out to a million different podcasters hoping
55:38
for a couple of yeses. He took the time and then something got lost,
55:45
or maybe he decided he didn't want to be on my show anymore.
55:46
I don't know, but either way, the approach was beautiful. And I
55:51
tell this to people anytime people come to me and ask me about podcast pitches.
55:55
I share this every single time because it was Chef's kiss stunning, and
56:01
again, not everybody operates like me, but it got my attention and it
56:06
was an instant yes, and I just appreciated it. So anyway, highly
56:12
recommend you try something like that. And another thing too. Another thing I'll
56:20
like when it comes to pitches is I do like I do, like a
56:25
gentle consistency or a gentle push, like a gentle like if you don't get
56:35
a response from me, I appreciate somebody who's like, hey, popping back
56:39
in, would still love to be on your show. I know you're busy,
56:43
whatever, like it doesn't work all the time. But if it's the
56:46
right person, you catch me on the right day, I appreciate that.
56:51
Hey, I admire your level of commitment to wanting to be on the show.
56:57
Let's get you on the show. So I think have a strategy in
57:00
place to follow up, especially if it's a show that you're like, oh
57:04
my god, it would do anything to be on there, you really love
57:07
the creator of it. Keep shooting your shot. Why not be a pest,
57:12
but in a nice way, be a nice pest, a gentle pest.
57:15
Okay. So all of those things when combined, good content, some
57:23
light strategic collaborations, whether it's on Instagram, whether it's a podcast, whether
57:32
it's even like a magazine or some sort of partnership or ads. These are
57:39
all things that you can do to grow your audience with the right people at
57:45
the rate that's going to make sense for you and your business. But first
57:49
and foremost, if you do not have a brand that you are proud of
57:55
and you're ready to display to people that don't know you yet, and you
57:59
don't have your business ready for an influx of leads and customers, and you
58:04
don't have a system in place to be consistent and to keep engaging consistently with
58:08
the people that are there and the new people that are coming in. Then
58:12
your problem is not growth. Your problem is your business in the state of
58:16
your business, or level of consistency or long gay mentality. Okay, but
58:23
the cool thing is all is fixable. So I hope this episode was helpful
58:30
for you. If it was, I would be honored if you would leave
58:32
me a five star review on iTunes so that we can continue to support other
58:37
women with this type of information. Take a screenshot, tug me in your
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story so I can share it however you decide to share this. I'm just
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greatly appreciative. Okay, So thank you for your time. I love you,
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and I will see you here next week. Bye.