Latest / Black Girls Consult TOO! / Episode 78: Boost Your Consulting Business with Strategic Content Creation for Increased Visibility and Growth

Transcript

Episode 78: Boost Your Consulting Business with Strategic Content Creation for Increased Visibility and Growth · Black Girls Consult TOO!

• 0:00
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Do you know what I notice?
• 0:01
  Dr. Angelina Davis: As consultants, we like to be in the background, myself included.
• 0:05
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We're used to putting our heads down, getting all of the work done for everyone else and making sure that our clients shine.
• 0:13
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But here's the thing in order for us to grow our businesses, we have to get visible too.
• 0:17
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So this month, that's what we're going to talk about.
• 0:20
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We're diving into how you can become more visible.
• 0:23
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm going to share my journey to increasing my visibility and we're going to figure this out together.
• 0:30
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So if you're interested and you want to learn more, follow along Episode after episode, subscribe.
• 0:35
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But let's get started.
• 0:40
  Dr. Angelina Davis: There's a misconception that we don't exist, that somehow our ability to excel at the highest level of our industry is limited, that overcoming barriers as a woman of color would be insurmountable.
• 0:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But what would happen if we decided to venture out on our own, despite everything we're up against?
• 0:59
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'll tell you Welcome to the Black Girls Consult To Podcast.
• 1:03
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, a healthcare consultant, consulting coach, high performance fanatic, wife and proud girl mom.
• 1:12
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I help transform female professionals into thriving solo consultants And, just like you, i'm wearing all the hats and doing all the things.
• 1:21
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So this podcast is to empower the busy female professionals to move past fear to start and grow a successful consulting business, despite the obstacles you may encounter.
• 1:31
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We'll dive deep into consulting practice, business strategy, mindset and more.
• 1:37
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So grab your cup of coffee or tea, if that's your thing, and let's get started.
• 1:41
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Hello, hello, hello.
• 1:52
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Welcome to the Black Girls Consult To Podcast.
• 1:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, and this episode is going to be a really laid back one.
• 1:59
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I feel like I haven't recorded one of these in a really long time.
• 2:03
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I just felt like we're headed into summer, we're all kind of out of our typical routine and I wanted to talk about something different.
• 2:14
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You know, and just share what I'm going through right now in my business, and I know many of you are probably in a similar spot or maybe you've been there, done that, maybe you have not gotten to this point yet, but I am trying to improve my visibility, and one of the reasons why I am doing this is because, you know, whenever we think about being online, we think about social media platforms, but we're not necessarily focused on building at least, at all times, focus on building the type of visibility and content that's going to last for decades And the reason why I have been so focused on this is because we have to get off of this hamster wheel of content creation, of trying to do a lot of lead generation via different sites such as LinkedIn.
• 3:09
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We just need to stop doing so many of those things so often because it's eating up our time And although I feel like I do fairly well in that regard, i know a number of my clients struggle with this And when you actually look at some of the other options that are out there, they seemingly take so much time to just develop.
• 3:30
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Whether that is a solid SEO strategy, whether that is building out a YouTube channel.
• 3:37
  Dr. Angelina Davis: There are so many other things that we may want to do or speaking engagements.
• 3:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: They just take time to set up and establish, but when they are established and working well for us, then they can pay off for years and years to come.
• 3:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So we have to do some of this groundwork to get our visibility journey started, and I know because one of the biggest challenges many clients that I have worked with have is just getting on camera.
• 4:07
  Dr. Angelina Davis: They don't like to put themselves out there And I know it feels awkward, it feels weird.
• 4:13
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I was definitely in that same boat because when I first started, i was worried about looking unprofessional.
• 4:21
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We all have high standards for how we feel like we need to show up online And we like to do everything with excellence.
• 4:28
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We don't wanna look like we're in amateur And I'll tell you when you're first starting out, especially if you're doing any aspect of video content or even if you're doing something like podcasting or if you are speaking on a large stage.
• 4:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Whenever we start anything new, we're not gonna be at the top of our game.
• 4:45
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That's just part of the journey And I think we have to do a better job of embracing that.
• 4:51
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm speaking for myself as well.
• 4:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: At times it may not be comfortable to embrace it, because we have other clients looking at us and we're used to putting out such high work for them that we don't want to see like we don't know what we're doing in anything.
• 5:07
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It makes us feel like we don't look like an expert.
• 5:10
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We don't seem like we are being as professional as we should be, and that's a big thing for many of us in the consulting world.
• 5:20
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We're so consumed with looking professional and polished, but the thing is, whenever we focus on those things, we don't try anything new.
• 5:32
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We don't use our creativity.
• 5:34
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We blend in our business doesn't grow, we don't get opportunities, and then we sit back and we look at other people.
• 5:40
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We're like, how in the world are they doing it?
• 5:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And I'm not, but it's because they were able to show up, as they were at a very early stage, and just navigate the journey, and over time they got better and better and better and better, and then people followed along.
• 5:55
  Dr. Angelina Davis: They embraced the journey, they got to know them because they saw them going through the whole process of building, and that leads to friendships, collaborations, jobs I mean just partnerships.
• 6:12
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It just leads to so much that it's going to grow your business and grow you professionally.
• 6:19
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So I hope I'm starting to convince you that you need to be more visible, as do I, and I heard a statistic is a statistic that I thought was quite shocking, and it's that 91% of businesses, 91% of businesses I'm reading that one more time 91% of businesses use video as their marketing tool, and so, although I have been working on improving video presence and all those things for a little while now, i wanted to step up my game, because there's so much that I want to do as we move forward to just increase overall visibility of my expert brand, and one of the things I've done very recently is to join a membership that's dedicated to building visibility and brand presence on video, and this has been awesome.
• 7:17
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm so excited to have joined that It's actually the Brave on video membership community And this is so awesome because it's an opportunity for someone like me who doesn't feel like I'm a creative per se but have a lot of enjoyment or take a lot of enjoyment in doing those things that are more creative, to kind of dive into this creative entrepreneurial world and learn how to get better on camera.
• 7:44
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And I wanted to do this because I do eventually want to start a YouTube channel for this podcast.
• 7:52
  Dr. Angelina Davis: If you haven't noticed, or if you have been on a rock somewhere, so many podcasts are moving to a video format.
• 7:59
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But the thing is I don't want to do this the same old way.
• 8:02
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I don't want to sit in front of a microphone and just talk to you as a talking head nonstop.
• 8:07
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I want to somehow create in my mind I'm envisioning creating some type of podcast show And I really want to get help in doing that.
• 8:19
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And I know for me it's going to be a longer journey because there's so much I need to learn to get there.
• 8:23
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But you all stay tuned and keep your eyes out, because I'm saying this now in the podcast to hold myself accountable to moving forward with it, just like you should Tell a friend what you're gonna do when you're setting your goals and your plans, because that helps you to actually move forward with it And not pretend like you never thought about the idea or you never considered it.
• 8:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So I want to get more visible in that way, because I feel like we're able to connect better through video and you're able to learn more when you're in tune and focus on whatever the message may be.
• 8:57
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And then, if you don't want to watch the video, you can always listen to it by audio.
• 9:00
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And even if you're thinking, hey, i'm a writer, i don't really care too much about being in front of the camera, well, listen, in order for you to market and pub and sell your book, you're gonna have to be visible too.
• 9:11
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So we just can't really get around this whole aspect of business development in building And instead of dreading this, we're going to embrace it fully And I want you to lean into it, because I think the knee-jerk reaction is to think about how you can outsource, to delegate that aspect of the work.
• 9:31
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But remember, even if you don't want to be the face of your brand, you still want to establish a connection and a presence with others that is going to be authentic and genuine.
• 9:43
  Dr. Angelina Davis: The market is just too sophisticated and too advanced at this point that even when it comes to having your own, for instance, proprietary framework, it's just not going to cut it any longer.
• 9:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: People are aware they are just more intelligent and learned and study about making their buying decisions, and your competition is too.
• 10:04
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So everybody is trying to do the same thing and be the same places, and one of the ways that you can show up differently is to show who you are, because that's one thing that nobody, no matter how hard they try, no matter what they do, they can't replicate it.
• 10:20
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So this is how you're gonna use this aspect of visibility as your secret weapon, and we're gonna talk about in this episode just some things to consider when you're beginning to map out a visibility strategy And I'm not gonna focus solely on just video, but just thinking about in general how can you be seen more regularly, how can people get to know you, get to know your brand, get to know your name and have the desire to work with you.
• 10:50
  Dr. Angelina Davis: If you wanna get very technical about it, this is an aspect of demand generation.
• 10:56
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We rarely talk about that, but the aspect of building demand comes before we even get to the point of trying to find leads.
• 11:01
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So, yes, this too is a revenue generating activity.
• 11:06
  Dr. Angelina Davis: A thriving consulting business is built on a solid business foundation and a consulting code that leads you toward your ideal business and your ideal lifestyle.
• 11:17
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And the great thing about this code is that it works for any type of consulting practice, whether you help clients with professional development, business management, grant writing, it or something entirely different.
• 11:29
  Dr. Angelina Davis: This consulting code is not rocket science and is not beyond your reach, and when you crack the code, it can jumpstart the growth of your solo consulting practice and is what you need to know to get started and lend your first clients, and nothing more.
• 11:44
  Dr. Angelina Davis: This is a step-by-step process I wish I had so many years ago, and that's why I wanted to share this with you and how you can do this too.
• 11:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So if you're interested in starting your consulting business and creating a desirable offer to generate leads for your offer and to make sales, then the consulting code is your solution.
• 12:04
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Visit wwwexceletconsultingcom for more information.
• 12:13
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So one of the first things that we have to do before we even embark on this journey is to have a strategy.
• 12:19
  Dr. Angelina Davis: The reason being is because you can quickly find yourself doing a lot of things that don't lead to the outcomes that you truly desire or that you want.
• 12:30
  Dr. Angelina Davis: For instance, you may try to gain more visibility and go on various podcasts, or maybe you're doing videos with other individuals within your industry, trying to do more collaborations, but if you are collaborating and sharing with audiences that don't align with your offer and your services, then that really is I hate to say it just a waste of time.
• 12:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You wanna make sure that all of the opportunities that you're taking and the things that you are building, that they do align with your offer in the future that you want to lead your business too.
• 13:09
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So if we keep that at the top of our minds, this is one of the reasons why always focusing on and returning to our vision is so important, because we can see when we're about to get off track.
• 13:22
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And I think this is one of the hardest things, because as you become better and better at what you do and people get to know your business and your services, they're gonna ask you to participate.
• 13:34
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You may be asked to join in on summits, you may be asked to do various podcasts, episodes, and all of those things can be very enjoyable if you just have the extra time you want to do them.
• 13:46
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But if you're focused on visibility for the growth of your business, then we do have to be very strategic in what we accept and how we're utilizing our time.
• 13:57
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I was watching an interview with Michael B Jordan very recently and I know this is jumping into the Hollywood world, but stay with me for a moment But he was talking about how he became very, very selective about the parts that he would take And, if you haven't noticed, he has become pretty much the face of Hollywood, at least for a strong black male character.
• 14:22
  Dr. Angelina Davis: There are some others John the Majors and they are both friends, but they have come to the limelight very recently and kind of taking on this new era of acting in Hollywood.
• 14:35
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And what I thought about when I was listening to this interview was you know, this is very true for all of us.
• 14:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We have to be very mindful of the opportunities that we're saying yes to.
• 14:46
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Every yes is not a good yes for your business, for your growth, and there are some opportunities that you typically will look at and say you know what that's not going to benefit me, or maybe you think the audience is too small or the opportunity is not as big as you would like it.
• 15:02
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Those particular opportunities can be some of the biggest that you could ever take.
• 15:08
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It is all about alignment, and when we're focused on aligning our decisions with the path and the journey that we want to navigate, things become more and more beneficial to us.
• 15:22
  Dr. Angelina Davis: In the end, it begins to snowball, it begins to grow, and I want us to think about our visibility journey like this.
• 15:29
  Dr. Angelina Davis: This is how I'm currently thinking about my visibility journey and focusing on those things that are truly going to help in the long run.
• 15:37
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So not just saying yes and adding more things to my plate for protecting my time, setting boundaries, and focusing on what are the key opportunities that I need to say yes to.
• 15:48
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That will help me grow, and it's not being selfish.
• 15:52
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You're not being selfish because you're still willing to give your best and to give more of you when you're involved in those activities And if you have time doing things that you truly just want to do out of the kindness of your heart.
• 16:06
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But you're running a business and it's okay.
• 16:08
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I want you to feel guilty about protecting your time.
• 16:13
  Dr. Angelina Davis: In order for you to grow, you have to have boundaries set and you have to be able to not only be visible but then also save your energy and your mental capacity to do the work, to land more clients, to serve more clients at higher capacity and just grow above and beyond others.
• 16:33
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So that's going to require boundaries.
• 16:34
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So don't feel guilty about that piece.
• 16:36
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But when you make sure that those things are in alignment, the yeses that you say are going to move you closer and closer to your end goal.
• 16:44
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So one of the things just understanding that we need to create boundaries and focus on that alignment with our journey.
• 16:52
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Now, the next thing is that I learned this a long time ago, but I feel like this is something that's rarely discussed.
• 17:04
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Whenever you're creating content, you are creating content with a purpose, and part of you having this strategy and being purposeful with that strategy is the fact that you know that each piece of content that you may create whether it's a blog post, a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a LinkedIn post, whatever it may be it serves a specific purpose, and that purpose is either going to be to introduce your expert brand to new people, to nurture the current audience, that you have to gain more visibility to convert into help with sales.
• 17:45
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But each piece of content has a purpose And you have to diversify the type of content that you're putting out.
• 17:52
  Dr. Angelina Davis: If you're constantly putting out nurture content, which many of us, as experts in our industry, can fall in the habit of doing I have definitely been guilty You have to step back and say wait, i am nurturing the same group over and over again, but I'm not doing anything that is going to draw more people into my ecosystem.
• 18:10
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So there has to be this aspect of visibility there that may not necessarily look like the type of content that we want to put out and focus on, because typically when we're thinking about visibility, this is going to be very general, right, it's often about your life experiences, your life story, maybe just common themes that other people can resonate with.
• 18:35
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But those are necessary because that's what's going to help people take a look and stop in their tracks and realize, hey, she has something in common with me And because of that they're going to be attracted and drawn to you for that reason.
• 18:50
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But when we're not focused on doing that more often and I'm not talking about catering to algorithms, i'm just saying when we're not putting out more general content or general information and knowledge that speaks to a larger group, it's going to be hard for us to grow.
• 19:07
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So we want to be able to speak on stages and share our story, to go into more depth about those things that we find troubling and problematic in our industry, to speak out when we have a different perspective, to be able to share some insight.
• 19:24
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That may be very foundational, but it's always something that we have to revisit over time, because, in order for us to grow, we have to remember and practice those foundational principles.
• 19:34
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Those are the things that increase your visibility and draw in new people.
• 19:38
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So, as we're going through this process of creation and ideation, we have to remain focused in about what each piece of content is doing, how we're using various platforms and what their purpose actually is.
• 19:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Everything that you do, every piece of content, every engagement, every collaboration, everything just doesn't have the same purpose, and remembering that, being mindful of that and having that aspect of diversity and heterogeneity built into your strategy is going to pay off tremendously.
• 20:20
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And I want to end with this reminder, in order for you to be a thought leader in your space, you have to be visible.
• 20:29
  Dr. Angelina Davis: People need to know who you are.
• 20:31
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You cannot afford to be the well-kept secret.
• 20:36
  Dr. Angelina Davis: In order for you to be seen as an expert in your space and to build your thought leadership in your expert brand, people need to know who you are.
• 20:47
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So that's why this whole conversation about increasing visibility is so important.
• 20:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: For far too long, we've been hiding in the shadows.
• 20:56
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We've been sitting back and doing all of the real work behind the scenes and not been given the credit for the work that we have done, the brilliance that you have shared, the impact that you have made And listen.
• 21:09
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It's time for you to be on that stage.
• 21:11
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It's time for you to be heard.
• 21:14
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It's time for your voice to be the one recorded.
• 21:17
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It's time for you to be quoted in major journals and articles and other publications.
• 21:23
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It's time for you to shine.
• 21:26
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I know you've been doing that work.
• 21:27
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I know you've been doing all of it behind the scenes, but we need to see your face and we need to know your name.
• 21:33
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That's one of the reasons why we're having this whole conversation this month.
• 21:38
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I, too, am trying to increase my visibility.
• 21:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm trying to embrace this journey as well.
• 21:44
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So I get it.
• 21:45
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I understand how difficult it can be to put yourself out there, to be vulnerable, to be worried about someone judging you.
• 21:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I mean, think about it.
• 21:54
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You already have so many people judging you on a daily basis.
• 21:58
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That's already frustrating enough to deal with day after day, but that's something that typically only you see or recognize.
• 22:05
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But now you're putting yourself out there for other people to be able to recognize it, for other people to possibly leave a mean comment Although I will tell you that that hasn't happened to me, at least not yet.
• 22:16
  Dr. Angelina Davis: You don't have to have a negative journey.
• 22:20
  Dr. Angelina Davis: It doesn't have to be a bad experience, and I want to encourage you to lean into that, because actually it may mean that you're saying something that's even more powerful, because it's a matter of disrupting the status quo, disrupting the norm, not for the sake of disruption, but to allow change to be made.
• 22:42
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We can't continue to sit in our comfort zone.
• 22:46
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So I want you to think about how you're going to embrace this aspect of increasing your visibility, and what we're going to do this month is walk through different ways in which you can do that, and it won't just be me.
• 23:00
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I'm bringing some friends along too.
• 23:02
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So I want you to stay tuned and keep listening, because we're going to figure this visibility thing out And I'm going to tell you how I'm doing, how the journey is going, and so far it's been going well.
• 23:15
  Dr. Angelina Davis: So you know, right now I'm starting to increase and improve my ability to create video.
• 23:23
  Dr. Angelina Davis: That's going to be what I lean into.
• 23:26
  Dr. Angelina Davis: But what are you going to lean into?
• 23:27
  Dr. Angelina Davis: What are you going to choose to do moving forward this month that's going to increase your visibility?
• 23:35
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Are you going to lean into social media LinkedIn, instagram, facebook?
• 23:39
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Are you going to lean into speaking engagements and get your name out there, get on more stages, get on more webcasts, or are you going to do your share of podcast interviews and make your rounds and allow your voice to be heard?
• 23:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Whatever it is that you choose to do and your approach that you're going to take to gain more visibility, even as this media PR, whatever it may be, i want you to claim that today And then we're going to see over this next month what progress we can make together.
• 24:12
  Dr. Angelina Davis: All right, guys, i hope this episode has been helpful.
• 24:14
  Dr. Angelina Davis: I want you to reach out to me on LinkedIn or on Instagram and let me know.
• 24:19
  Dr. Angelina Davis: What are you choosing as your focus for visibility this month?
• 24:25
  Dr. Angelina Davis: And don't forget, make sure you subscribe so you will not miss an episode, and I will talk to you again next week.
• 24:31
  Dr. Angelina Davis: See you later.
• 24:32
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Bye.
• 24:33
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast.
• 24:38
  Dr. Angelina Davis: If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcast, subscribe and share it with a friend.
• 24:46
  Dr. Angelina Davis: We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting, and you can help us do that.
• 24:53
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Also, i'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn, and don't forget to visit excelatconsultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey.
• 25:05
  Dr. Angelina Davis: Until next time, take care.