BMP193 Amanda C. Watts ~ How to Become a Niche Celebrity

Today’s Guest

Table of Contents

I’m excited to introduce today’s guest, Amanda C. Watts. This episode is full of practical tips on how to become a niche celebrity, including specific strategies that Amanda uses. The idea, of course, is not that you copy her strategies, but that you use them as inspiration to figure out what works for YOU and your business.

About Amanda

Amanda C. Watts helps consultants, creatives and accountants CREATE A POWERFUL PERSONAL & BUSINESS BRAND, Attract Ideal Prospects, Convert Them Elegantly Into Clients, And Be Remembered And Referred

Amanda is a professional speaker, best selling Amazon Author and the creator of hundreds of tools, resources and training for professional experts.

Listen to this episode

What You’ll Learn

What Amanda’s tipping point was after three years of struggle to build her business
Why the niche truly is the key to success
What you need to be able to pivot at any point in your business
What you really need to do in order to be seen in a bigger way
How long it took Amanda to build a reputation as an expert in her niche
Amanda’s successful strategy in building her list and getting new clients through webinars
How you can harness the power of LinkedIn (and other social networks) if you have a clear strategy

Inspiring Women

Connect with Amanda

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Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

How to Become a Niche Celebrity, with Amanda C. Watts

HW: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 193. This is your host Holly Worton and I am here with today’s special guest Amanda C Watts. Amanda is known as the freedom-preneur and has been in business for 9 years. She specialises in helping coaches, creatives, and wellness practitioners, to get more clients, money and freedom. Welcome Amanda!

ACW: Hi thanks every so much for having me.

HW: I am super-excited to talk to you today. So, let’s get started by talking a little bit about your business background, and your business journey, and how you got to where you are today; because it sounds like you started at a major turning point in your life. You started with nothing but two children, and leaving a toxic relationship; so, tell us more about that.

ACW: Okay, so in 2009, as you say I left a very toxic relationship, I was living up in the Lake District at the time, I had moved there, I was there for just under a year; I moved myself and my two kiddies up there. And, yeah, it wasn’t a particularly nice part of my life, I was very glad to leave it; there was like a breaking point where I just woke up one day and said ‘right we’ve got to leave’ so, I packed up my car with two children, took the passports, took some of their clothes, and took Annabel’s bear (she has got a teddy bear that she has to sleep with), and I took my kitchen aide [Both: laughing] because I had a kitchen aid, and I thought if I leave now and I leave with nothing, I will never be able to afford a kitchen aide again.

HW: [laughing] Packing the priorities!

ACW: Absolutely, so I took the kitchen aide. And I came back down south, at the time my parents were living in Salisbury, so I moved down to Salisbury and basically I ended up on housing benefit, and then had to make some decisions: do I go and get a day job? – which will take me away from my children, who were five and eight at the time; do I go back to corporate? – do I move back up to near London and go and get a proper job? – but the problem with getting a proper job as a single mum with two young children in primary school is that you have to still take them to school, and you have responsibilities there. So, I thought: I can’t do either of these, because if I go and get a job where I am earning minimum wage, that’s just a nightmare because by the time I have sorted out childcare I am earning absolutely nothing. And the stress as well, my son was very sick when he was younger, so he was off school a couple of days a week anyway. So, I was like, right I am going to have to start a business, what do I start a business in? I went ‘Oo well, I can kind of write so I am going to become a copywriter’. [Both: laughing] So I launched a copyrighting business – which I had never done before by the way! [HW: laughing]. Having been through what I went through, it was like: “right ok I need to make some decisions’ but actually I couldn’t do any work I had done so far, so let’s just give it a go’. So, I became a copywriter, I did a contract? for a website, so I wrote somebody else’s website and they designed my website for me. And I went out there and I went onto LinkedIn which was just starting, connected with a few web-designers to say: ‘are you looking for copywriters for your clients?’; got a couple of clients through that, one of them actually, my first proper client, came from locally to here, in Caterham actually, which is one of the reasons why we moved back up here. So, it was just by reaching out to people I got a couple of clients and went ’right ok run my own business, and then struggled for years, it was horrendous. Struggled and struggled to be visible, I would go to networking events but all I would do is spend £10 on breakfast, or £10 on lunch; I was networking with people who weren’t my ideal clients and certainly didn’t want to invest in me – I wasn’t sure of who my ideal clients were either at that point. So, I was just wasting lots of time, so I kind of then work up one day and went: ‘I need to learn to do this properly’, so then invested a lot of money, and a lot of time, learning how to build a business properly. And then realised, actually, I was building it around something that wasn’t my expertise, so then I went back to what I was very good at, which when I was in the corporate world was marketing and sales. Which is really interesting. And I missed that! When I said I was going to start a business, I’d didn’t think to do it in something that I had done before.

HW: [laughing] Do you know what, I think so many of us (well, I have never had a proper job so I can’t speak for myself) but I think so many women that I have spoken to, who have had that corporate professional life, when they start their own business it is like they go through a period where they kind of want to cut off everything that they have done before, and do something completely new, because they don’t realise they can just take the skills that they have, and do something beautiful, and something that gives them freedom with it, rather than just kind of doing the same thing. So.

ACW: Yeah, that’s right, we don’t see the wood for the trees…

HW: Yes! It is like: ‘I must do something completely new, unlike anything I have done before’. [laughing]

ACW: ‘I want to start my life again, and I will make it as difficult as I can!’ [Both: laughing] Yeah exactly.

HW: So, would you say that was a tipping point for you when you not only learned about how to build a business properly, but realised what your zone of genius was?

ACW: Yeah, absolutely, so, it was kind of that moment when I went ‘urgh’ – I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, and actually what I have got all my experience in is something that I am picking up really easily now. So I learned about marketing, and when I was learning about marketing I used to organise exhibitions, which is no different where I say to people go out and get speaking gigs really, standing in front of a room full of people. But, I used to walk in the exhibition world, and that was a nightmare, and nowadays (it is not so popular nowadays), and that’s not something I wanted to promote or work in. But I knew that there were a lot of things that I learned that I could then use nowadays, but there were a lot of things like social media marketing, and even you know I didn’t even know what a sales funnel was, when I started. So, I had to learn about how to take my clients on a journey and when I learned about that I realised ‘oh my gosh I could talk about this for hours, I love it’. So, I was naturally good at it, I had some experience in it, I really, really, enjoyed it; and people started paying for it, when I asked them to, rather than give it away for free which was what I was doing a lot of the time.

HW: Well I think that is such a common thing, to not value our skills and our zone of genius because it comes so easily to us, it is like: ‘how would anyone pay me for this, it is just common sense.’

ACW: Yeah, that’s right, and I get that a lot with my clients now, and they are like: ‘I will only charge £50 for it’ and it is like ‘no, you know so much more than them, for you it seems simple, but for them they really need you and the value you provide is more than the value you put on yourself.’

HW: Yes, definitely; so, once you realise what your zone of genius was, and that you had experience it, how did your business change from there? Did it just kind of skyrocket, what went on for you?

ACW: So, it actually sky-rocketed, but it wasn’t the end result by the way. So, what happened was: and I am big believer in working in a niche, so having a niche is essential. So, once I started learning about this and realising the key to actually having success is having a niche, that is the first place to start; I chose restaurants. I looked at the exhibitions that I used to work on and they were, I worked on the restaurant show, and organics, which was an organic food exhibition. So, my experience was with the restaurant trade, so I went ‘ooh so what I need to do is help restaurants with marketing’. But – I grew my business to six figures very quickly, as all my marketing was very much about speaking their language, understanding their pains – it was very easy for me to put together websites and write blogs and do all of that. And it took something like seven months for that to happen, it was really, really, fast. But, at the end of it, what happened was, what I realised was that restaurants came to me when they were really stuck and they were at the end of their business cycle. Things had got so bad that they needed help, but the problem was that it had got so bad, probably because their service wasn’t great, their food wasn’t great, lots of in-house stuff, but no matter how much marketing I taught them it didn’t change their business. So, I wasn’t getting the results for my clients, because they weren’t doing what they needed to do, combined with what I was doing. They’d implement being visible and raising their profile but it was the wrong profile they were raising and they were still 50? on TripAdvisor even though lots more people were commenting on it. Does that make sense?

HW: Yeah, it absolutely does. So, how did your business evolve from there?

ACW: So, I pivoted, that lovely word, pivot. [HW: laughing] And I well… before that actually – just so people understand my journey a little bit – I was working with a restaurant down in Salisbury, just outside Salisbury, actually, and it was a restaurant called the Wheatsheaf, it was a gastro pub, and that’s where I met my husband now, so, he was one of my clients. And then just as I was pivoting out of the restaurant we got married, so that was great.

But, I then went ‘who do I enjoy helping?’. And I went back to being a generalist for a while, to find my feet, and what then I started to do was naturally attract people who were business coaches, marketing coaches, web designers. I was working with a lot of people who were attracted by my personality, but also, may have had huge experience with regards to their skills and talents, but didn’t also understand modern marketing. I found a lot of people who were coming to me were those in their 40s and hadn’t learned about social media at the time, and hadn’t learned about the sales funnels and how modern marketing worked. So, I naturally attracted coaches and consultants and health and wellness people and then I went actually this is my niche, my niche has chosen me, because they are the people that a) get the results, and b) I enjoy working with.

HW: And I think that’s interesting, because I think for a lot of people it does take quite some time to find your natural niche, or the niche of people that you work well with, and can help get results the best, but so many people feel pressured, as soon as they do their coaching training, or whatever it is that they do, to pick a niche right off the bat and people can be so resistant to it because they feel that they have to pick one niche that is going to last their entire lives.

ACW: Ah yeah, and that’s the thing, it doesn’t last your entire life.

HW: No!

ACW: And when I talk about pivoting, and this is something that is so key, that you can pivot at any point. You can decide to change your business at any point. So, you need to build your profile, and that’s why I am such a big believer off building your profile, your personal profile. Because as long as you build your personal profile; you will be well-known, you will build your contacts and you will attract opportunities. And, you can pivot your offering, so you can say ‘I have a product for restaurants’, ‘I have a product for coaches’ but you don’t have to pivot what your expertise is, you can be the expert at branding and marketing but you can help different people with that. And that’s the bit that you pivot, not what your service is. I would say: choose your niche through a service, and then pivot your offering, sorry, pivot the person that you help. Does that make sense?

HW: Yes, that makes absolute sense; absolute sense. So, we are here today to talk about how to become a niche celebrity, so I think that’s kind of everyone’s dream, to be the celebrity in your field of expertise. So, how can someone make that happen? Because I think so many people see the big-name business celebrities and think ‘wow I want to be like them’, but it can be a long journey to get to that point. How do you do it? How do you accelerate that process?

ACW: Okay, so, actually, they need someone like you to start with who works on mindset.

HW: [laughing] yes.

ACW: Because you have to get over the fear of being seen, so the only way to be seen as a niche celebrity is to be super visible. And I have alluded to having a personal and a business brand already. But you need to be brand famous and if you raise your personal profile, you will get well known. So, to be a niche celebrity that is about: a) being consistent; consistent with your message that you are putting out to the world; so, what are the pains your ideal clients have, and what is the solution to that? it is about creating content, and unfortunately where writing one blog a month was acceptable three of four years ago, now, there is so much noise out there you need to create more content, but even more importantly than that, you need to create good content. You can’t just create noise, so what is great is that everybody can be famous by Facebook lives nowadays, you can go on a Facebook live, the problem with that, the negative thing about that is that everybody can be famous on Facebook live. [HW: laughing]. So it is like, how do you stand out? And that’s very much about making sure that you craft a brand, making sure that your Facebook live doesn’t look like everybody else’s; making sure that your message is really strong; making sure that you are consistent; making sure you are persistent; and also, aligning yourself with other people in the industry that have really strong brands. So, you are associating yourself with the right people and of course contact podcasts like this. You know, if you land on my website, there are lots of places where I have been interviewed, and that then shows that you are well known and that you are regarded as an expert. Same for you, you have positioned yourself by hosting a podcast, so you find yourself with lots of people, that’s great because you are sharing valuable content, and showing that you are an expert, but more importantly you are already saying: ‘I’m Oprah’. [Both: laughing] I have compared you to Oprah!

HW: Thank you!

ACW: You are very welcome, but that’s the kind of thing that people need to realise, and they need to get into that mindset, that actually it is really difficult to have a business. And, I am the first to say that actually it doesn’t have to be hard actually, but it is simple actions that you repeatedly do, but if you don’t repeatedly do them it becomes hard because nothing happens. Does that make sense?

HW: Yes, I think that is so, so, so important. And I think, talking about content, and being consistent in content, I think it can take time for people to find what their best way of being consistent is. Because when I think about all the things that I have done in my business over the years, like, I kind of come and go in waves with my newsletter, I come and go in waves with my YouTube Channel, I come and go in waves with blogging; but the one thing I have done consistently for the past, almost, four years, is this podcast. I have not missed a single week in releasing this podcast and it is because I love it, it is easy for me, it is fun. So, it is about finding what works for you in terms of content, and not just copying someone else.

ACW: Absolutely, and that’s the thing as well; if I say to my clients: ‘right, I want you to write four blogs a week’ and they are not writers, they are like: ‘that’s horrendous Amanda, don’t do that to me’. So, we have to find ways where we can make them super visible but it is in their sweet spot where they are comfortable. So, some people like speaking, some people like doing the audio. So, I tried a podcast, maybe two or three years ago, I did like ten of the recordings and I gave up. So, I’m the opposite of you, and I was like: ‘oh a podcast, that’s way too regimented for me I’ve got to do that every week.’ I like to create content on the flight, I like to create a lot, but I don’t want to be told that I’ve got to sit down and speak to this person at this time. So, I found it really, really, hard to do a podcast. So, it is about your personality isn’t it, and making sure that you do something that you enjoy otherwise you will give it up straightaway.

HW: Yes, definitely; so, what’s your favourite type of content to create?

ACW: My favourite type of content is video, um, and it never used to be. So, I would like your listeners to understand how important you are as well, because my mindset was ‘oh my gosh, I speak funny, I have an accent that most people don’t like, and I kind of scowl when I record videos’ [HW: laughing]. All these things. And it is like, therefore I can’t do it, so I would, to record like a two-minute video on my homepage would take me three days, and I would fall out with my husband, and I would be really angry and the world was falling in. And then what I did was I got out of my own way, and started to create videos but concentrated on the value I was providing, rather than worrying about what I looked like. And I can tell you today, I never listen back to my own videos.

HW: Me neither! Laughing

ACW: And, I don’t want to listen back to my own videos. But I really enjoy creating them because I know they provide that value for people, but I don’t want to look at them myself. So, fear is something, I have overcome my fear of doing it just by taking action and I can write blogs, I can write really easily, but I don’t think that people want to read masses and masses of blogs, because I think that the way we are consuming is slightly different.

HW: And I think that’s another important thing: things are changing, the way we are consuming content, the way we learn is changing. So, while a blog post, as you said earlier, was the way of connecting with people five-ten years ago, it is not that way anymore. People are watching much more video. And I think another important point is content that you create doesn’t necessarily have to be the same as the type of content you consume. Because, I love videos, I find that videos are really powerful, I get a lot of clients through videos, but I hate watching videos. I would never watch someone else’s video, I would so much rather learn by reading, than by listening to someone. But videos are a great way for me to connect with clients and I get clients through my YouTube channel, so.

ACW: There you go! That’s right. I think you and I are the same because I want to consume fast and I don’t have time for the video to speak slowly to me, it is like: ‘give me the info, I want to skim read the juicy bits’. And the thing that I really am a big advocate of, and I hold them almost weekly, is webinars. So, webinars are absolutely key to positioning yourself in the industry, they’re a great list builder; so, every week I add another 100-odd people to my list just by saying ‘I am holding a webinar on branding’ or ‘I am holding a webinar on how to grow a business’. All these different things, and I get new people onto my list every week, as I am positioning myself as an expert without having to leave my house. It is like a speaking gig on steroids.

HW: Yes. So, this is an excellent topic, I am so glad you brought this up. Webinars have been around for several years, and again that’s the kind of thing that’s kind of changed over time, and when I say time, I mean the last five years – I think things have changed greatly in terms of the technology that we use to do webinars and what our style is when we deliver webinars. If you are delivering a webinar every week, and you are getting 100+ people on your list every week, that means that you are drawing new people into your community; how are you promoting these webinars? How are you getting the word out there to draw these new people into your community?

ACW: So, I actually do it organically; we have yet to make Facebook advertising work, which is why I don’t teach Facebook advertising, because we have yet to make it work. But we do it organically, we have got a Facebook group where we nurture our tribe, there’s just under a 1000 people in the Facebook group and that has built up over the past nine months or so I would say. And I advertise the webinars in there, I put it on my personal business page, my personal Facebook page, and my business page; people share it; so, because they know that my webinars are jam packed full of value. So, the selling part of my webinar is like 30 seconds at the end, the rest of the webinar is actually content that I am creating for my clients, to save me having to create two lots of content. So, what happens is, I have got a programme where I teach people to start and grow a business. Every single week I like to add new content into that, so I create a webinar, that becomes my content, and then I just invite people to join it so they get to experience my teaching. And it is really good, because it is doubling up on time. So, people know that my webinars are not about sales, they are about actionable content, and they are learning stuff that they would learn in my programme anyway, and people share it for me; I put it up on LinkedIn, I put it up on Twitter, I grow my LinkedIn every week, I grow my Facebook every week. Freedom Tribe is slowly growing but I am really picky about who I let in there, because I like it to be the right people in the group. And it is all organic. And the reason why I get so many people sign up to my webinars is, because I now have a reputation of ‘it is going to be good value content, and she is not going to pitch me for 90 minutes.’

HW: Yes, okay, and so this is an excellent, excellent point; you have had such great success with organic growth. I think that is another kind of thing that people strive for. How long do you think it took you to build that trust with people, and build that reputation, so that you made organic growth easy?

ACW: I would say it has taken me three years to build my reputation, but, with regards to the webinars, we only started doing those in November of last year, and it didn’t take long. Once someone had come to two or three of them, they are like: ‘she is not selling me anything really, she is inviting me at the end to take things further, but she is not giving me the great big sell, she is not stretching my pain and making me feel horrible at the end of it, she is giving me stuff that I can actually go and grow my business with.’ So, this quickly spread like wildfire: ‘Amanda’s webinars are worthwhile attending’ and the sales point is like ‘thank you Amanda for the webinar’ and they put a link up saying thank you to me, and then other people were like: ‘ooh can you remind me when you have got your next one’. And that’s all it is, providing huge value, and having an initial tribe that, you know, know like and trust me, so my clients; and then they just spread the word for me. And, now, I hold one, and after four days, I have got 100 people signed up for it: maybe 50 or 60 people will turn up live, and the rest will watch it on replay. But it works! It really works! And it is all about value. So, you asked me about how to become a niche celebrity: provide huge value consistently and be known for your expertise, I would say.

HW: Excellent. And I think one thing that a lot of people are afraid of is: giving too much away for free, and then you train people because you have given so much for free, because you have given so much value, and they will never buy from you. So, what would you say to people who say that?

ACW: I know for a fact that if you come to four webinars and you are in pain, and I can help you overcome that pain, you will then buy from me; I have measured it. So, it is four webinars and then they buy. If they are in the right path: so, if the time is right and the pain is right and you know they feel affinity with me, they feel I am their person. So that is how I have grown it, so I just you know consistently do it, give away huge value because the biggest thing that people are scared of nowadays, is that (using the term ‘it is all fur coat and no knickers’) [HW: laughing] Everyone is saying ‘this is how you do it’. And they buy a programme, and actually it doesn’t go deep enough, and they are buying – the higher up the food chain you go with regards to business coaches, the less substance you get, because, you are paying money to work with a very well-known brand so that’s why it is great to be a niche celebrity, because you are known in that niche, but you are not so high up that you are the Grant xx of the world, who costs £5000 for a 15 minute phone call. So, I think that it is very much about provide as much value as you can, give your best stuff away for free, show that you are the real deal, because people are fed up with, especially in the business coaching world, people are fed up with being sold ‘this is how you have a £10k month’ and all they are taught is how to do Facebook advertising. Which I have yet to master so I am not teaching anybody that.

HW: [Laughing] I know what you mean! I have tried it in so many ways, so many different things, and I have not cracked the secret yet.

ACW: Exactly; exactly – I think you have to have millions to crack that secret.

HW: [laughing] So, Amanda, how can our listeners learn more about you? And how can they work with you? Where is the best place to start?

ACW: So, the best place to start is to download my book – for free!

HW: Yay!

ACW: From my Website. Again, it is about providing value for people. If you are at the beginning of your journey, then read my book which is Escape and it basically is the guide to leaving your day job and starting a business. In it it tells you clearly the steps you need to take from trying to find your niche, through to branding yourself, how to create your first product, how to do your marketing; all of that is in there and if you have read my book and followed it step-by-step, you could create a successful business. So, that’s the free way.

The other thing on my website: http://amandacwatts.com/ there are webinars that you can join. So, Matthew, actually is just today putting up a list of all the events on my website. So, join the events, come to my webinars, come and learn. And that would be the best way for people to get involved, if they feel some kind of way that I can help them, then they can reach out and I have a select number of 1:1 clients and I also have a 90-days to freedom programme, which is my online group programme.

HW: Excellent and Amanda do you have any new business mentors, or are there any women entrepreneurs who inspire you?

ACW: Yes actually, I do. I actually will just say, my coach is a man, but he is Australian, so he is super, super chilled. He is a gentleman called Taki Moore and I have been working with him for nearly a year now, he is absolutely amazing. Women mentors, I really, really love a lady called Linzi Boyd and she is a branding expert she runs a PR agency called Synergy PR; and I love watching her, she has got a young family, she is very successful; I think she started being an entrepreneur when she was 18 years old. She has built big, big, businesses and done very well from that. She has not just built a business through selling business coaching. And I have a lot of respect for her. Who else do I really like, that is an interesting question. I really like to watch Oprah, who is amazing, she is inspirational as well, but everybody knows her. And Sháá Wasmund is a lovely lady as well; she doesn’t know me but I know her. And that’s a great way of building yourself as a niche celebrity, what you will find is that people know you, even if you don’t know them.

HW: [laughing] Sadly! So, Amanda, where can people find you online?

ACW: They can find me everywhere, because that’s very important. [HW: laughing] So the best way is website is: http://amandacwatts.com/. I have a Facebook group where I would love to invite people who are very passionate about changing the world and bringing… you know making a difference in this world, I would love to invite them into the group which is: The Freedom Tribe. And you can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn: Amanda C Watts.

HW: Excellent and what’s your favourite social network right now?

ACW: Mm LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn.

HW: Really? Tell me more, because I used to love LinkedIn, and now I don’t so much, and I find that a lot of women in the industry that we are in, really hate LinkedIn So tell me about why you love it so much?

ACW: I love it because nobody else is on there, and most people hate it, which is why I really like it; because, it gives me an advantage. So as long as I am consistent, and connecting with people on LinkedIn, I am filling my webinars, I am driving people to download my free gifts which takes them onto my newsletter. The problem with Facebook is that it is super-crowded and messages are very, very, similar. Facebook chooses who they show you to, Twitter, unfortunately, I still love it, and I still post on it, but it is dying a death I think. people aren’t so engaged. And, Instagram would be my second, so it would go: LinkedIn, Instagram and then Facebook. But Facebook is flooded in my opinion.

HW: Yeah I think a lot of people are on Facebook, and I think it is really interesting what you say about LinkedIn not being so saturated with people. I have one friend who is not in the coaching industry, she is more of a tech person, but she gets 100% of her clients from LinkedIn. So, it is definitely powerful.

ACW: It is brilliant, if people can just stop worrying about the fact that they might not like it and it is a bit formal, it will change your business if you go at it with a strategy. It really will.

HW: And what is the strategy that you use are you just kind of posting things about offerings; your webinar and your free gifts or are you really…?

ACW: Ooh no, I have a strategy, I have a strategy for everything; so, my LinkedIn strategy is: post every single day just with a normal update; so not an article or anything. Then I do two or three articles a week, I have just literally, this is interesting too, I took down – two weeks ago, I took down: 130 blogs off LinkedIn and the reason why I did it, was I felt like I had moved so much in the past three or four years, that they didn’t represent my brand anymore, ok? So I took them down, the writing wasn’t good enough, the message wasn’t strong enough, and I felt that they were doing me more harm than good and they certainly weren’t enhancing my brand, so I started again. So now I think I have got something like 13 blogs that I have written in the past three weeks. So, I blog two to three times a week on LinkedIn, I post every single day with what I call a ‘Brand Boost Tip of the Day’ and then I make sure that I connect with 50 people every single day: add them to my list, send them a message saying ‘great to connect’, and then my next thing is: let’s jump on a call and see how we can support each other. And it is all about the conversations.

HW: I love that! And you have a very clear plan into how you use LinkedIn, and I think that’s what a lot of people lack, they just kind of go on there they connect with people and are they are like ‘ah it’s not very exciting’ so they leave.

ACW: Strategy is key, it is a very difficult word to say, but strategy is key. [laughing] It makes my tongue contract. It is, it is really important, if you approach these things with a strategy you will get results if you are consistent. And I was actually making a list of all my clients that have done really well, and they have been consistent for six to eighteen months, every week blogging, every week connecting with people, every week doing videos, every week with their message; every week being visible. They haven’t had a break and they now have a flood of clients coming to them. But, it didn’t happen in two weeks, it happened in six to eighteen months.

HW: Yes, and I think that it is again so important that you are very clear on just how consistent you need to be, because a lot of people give up.

ACW: That’s right, I’ve done it, I do sometimes. So, you know for three weeks a couple of weeks ago I went quite quiet, I wasn’t very well, so I had to take some time off and it affected me. People were like ‘Amanda we miss your, where are you?’ If I had made it much longer, they would have forgotten about me. [HW: yeah, yeah] Yep, it is interesting.

HW: Well thank you very much for joining us today, and sharing your very specific and very useful and helpful tips.

ACW: You are very welcome Holly, thanks for having me.

HW: Thank you. And thank you for listening and remember to visit hollyworton.com/193 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.