44 – Simplify Your Areas of Influence
Note: Click the SECOND player to listen (the top player is defunct).
I’ve never been a “word of the year” person. I try to come up with a word because people tell me “I’m supposed to.” But my heart’s not in it, so I forget what my word is after about two weeks.
But I sense that this year will be different. In today’s episode, I’ll explain how “Simplify” is the way I intend to run my business this year. I’ll also share:
- Practical ways to discover the ideal community of people you want to serve.
- Why knowing who your ideal audience is NOT is just as important as knowing who they are.
- Why you should say “no” to offering products, services, and programs you aren’t feeling passionate about.
Massive Action Challenge
Here’s how to take four massive action steps that’ll help you simplify your business processes:
1. Self-audit your website and blog
Review every page on your website. Remove the products, services, and programs you aren’t actively promoting and replace them with the ones you are feeling most excited about – the ones where you can most help your audience.
Do the same with your blog posts. For example, my blog includes a bunch of outdated tutorials on how to use various aspects of Facebook. Since Facebook updates their interface seemingly every week, these tutorials are defunct. I’m updating the ones I can and deleting the rest.
2. Update your social media bios
Review your bio on every one of your social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, etc.). Every word in your bio must reflect your area(s) of expertise or influence, or the book, program, or service you’re passionate about and are currently offering.
3. Clean up your social media followers
Review the people you follow on the social channels you actively use. Here’s where a lot of authors get things backwards. They primarily follow other authors when they should be following the people most likely to read their books!
When I audited my Instagram following, I discovered I was following the wrong people. I spent a few days unfollowing the people I don’t interact with or whose content no longer interests me, and following people who comprise my ideal target community.
4. Scrub your email list
Don’t focus on the number of subscribers you have; focus on engaged subscribers.
Every three months, create a segment of subscribers who have been on your list X amount of time and who have not opened any of your emails. These people aren’t interested in what you have to offer. Remove them from your list and pour your efforts into connecting with subscribers who are the best fit for your programs, products, and services.
My Core Services
In keeping with my “simplify” theme, here are the core services my company, Blogging Bistro, LLC, is offering:
These episodes from The Professional Writer podcast expand on the topics I address in Episode #44:
- Episode #1: Do You Have to Write Books to be a REAL Writer?
- Episode #2: How to Act Like a Professional Writer (Even When You Don’t Feel Like One)
- Episode #3: Going ALL IN
- Episode #9: Being True to Yourself
- Episode #10: Moving from Self-Focused to Self-Forgetful
- Episode #24: List Cleaning Gets Rid of Deadbeat Subscribers