Patty Farmer: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Marketing Media & Money Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about a topic that I think everybody struggles with whether they admit it or not, or whether they're using AI or not. Because today we're going to be talking about using your great copy and brand differentiators to connect and resonate with your dream clients without spending hours on fat tactics or dancing reels. Oh, that sounds really good to me. So let me tell you a little bit about our guests. So Christine McShane is a copywriter and content marketer, who understands that good writing, either initially, a good reading is more than just pretty words, it should be compelling and achieve your underlying business objectives. And through her one on one work, and her private memberships, Christine specializes in helping service based entrepreneurs use their brand differentiators to connect and resonate with their dream clients in their copy and content, and to become best friends with their brand. I love that. So thank you so much, Christine, for being here with me today.

Christine McShane: 00:01:06

Thank you, Patti. I'm excited, happy to chat.

Patty Farmer: 00:01:09

I'm excited. I am really excited. Because I find that in the time that I've known you that you are a copywriter. But you're right, you are a content marketer, not just a content writer. And I think there's a huge difference there. And I think that part of that, for me, is because you're such a community builder as well. Right. And so because you're always having conversations, and you have such a great community, which we'll talk about a little bit, I think that because of that, you really have learned how to really resonate. And then because you have a photography background, right, you know how to help people in front of the camera behind the camera, having conversations. And I think that makes you well rounded, and able to resonate, and really be able to walk your talk. So I am so excited to have you here today and have you share your expertise with us. Thanks, fatty.

Christine McShane: 00:02:02

Yeah, it's been it's been fun. It is a good community. But I've built my business around community and connecting with partners and connecting with clients. And a lot of the people that you and I serve, do the same thing. And I think there's a ton of value in there. I think that's where we find our best clients. That's how we find our ideal ideal clients, to be honest.

Patty Farmer: 00:02:24

And while I agree with you, I think that is so important. But one of the things that you said, that really stands out for me, because I love the word, but you put it together with brand, and I like it. So you said using their brand differentiators. Now I have to tell you, you know, I'm in marketing, and everything for me is like, how are you going to differentiate yourself, but when you said brand differentiators. Now, I know what that is. And I don't know if the audience does and maybe even if they do, let's talk with let's talk about that. Can you define that for you? Because I know how important it is. But I think that is it the thing that you really need to start with first because I know that when people hire me, there's certain things that I like to start with that make it so much easier. So are those the things that when you are starting to help someone whether it's to literally write copy to help them with, you know, create some content, because copy content isn't exactly the same thing, too. So maybe that should be the first question for you. How do you define copy versus content? And then how does brand differentiators come into play there? And is that the starting point?

Christine McShane: 00:03:32

Sure. So yeah, to me, it is the starting point. And it's the starting point of either copy, or content. So to define the difference copy, when we refer to copy, we're really talking about sales material. So if you have some new offer that you're trying to put out, you put up a sales page, and you'll have copywriting on that page. Or if you're trying to market through your Eat to your email list, you're going to have some sales emails, those are written very specifically to have sales conversations in the place of this one to one conversation. So a lot of us have discovery calls, maybe you have a sales team that goes out and has those one to one conversations. And those are very, very powerful. But what about when we sell on our webpage? What about when we sell on our in our email, something that's a little more scalable, having those digital conversations 24 hours a day is powerful. And that's what sales copy is. It's literally having a sales conversation on your behalf. And there's a lot that goes into it. So that's that's a whole that's one that's copied. And then content is really like the dating piece. It is the I'm getting to know you right? So like ours, you want to be friends with me. Do we like each other? Here's my vibe, you know, do you want to come hang out with me? And that's really what I think content does is saying, Hey, I'm over here. I'm doing this stuff. I'm inviting you to come hang out with me for a little bit and that at some point, we won't like want to get serious. So a light, a lot of times in marketing, they use that analogy of like, you don't get married on the first date, right. And that's why we don't go busting out with sales ads all the time and expect them to convert, because it's like, trying to get married on the first date. So contents really are dating. It's our friendship. We're becoming friends with our brands, or we're hoping that our prospects are becoming best friends with our brand. And then eventually, we're going to use sales copy to say, hey, let's take this to the next level. I've got this offer, it fills your desire or solves a problem for you. What do you say? Do you have any questions? So that's they're both conversations, to be honest, those really come down to being conversations. One of them's a sales conversation, and one of them's a friendship conversation. Does that make sense?

Patty Farmer: 00:05:47

It is. And what I really love about that is because I believe that sales is service, right? And it really comes down to an invitation. Right? It's not hard core, I don't like hardcore. So I really love that you're saying that. One of the things that I think is interesting is I remember before 2020, right? Yeah, before 2020, I would have to say we did a lot of things that we were in person. And as a speaker and doing in person things people get to know you very quickly, because you sat next to him while you were having coffee or, or you waiting met them for lunch. And as a speaker, you know, I was able to deliver my content and the value in a way that they got to touch you here and you feel you see with the back of the room and have conversations. And I have to say that like 95% of my sales came that way, like 2020 game and all of a sudden, we weren't able to do that and we went into a virtual world, you need it to be able to transition over to doing that. So even though we did virtual events, it, it's not exactly the same. And you have to learn how to be able to do it. But then I felt like at that time, it was really important for me to update my website copy, because now you had to talk about and you had to be able to share what people would learn about you in a conversation through your copy. Because, you know, people can look up and say, oh, I want to hire, say a website person, and they can look at 10 different websites, you know, their website and go yes, I have decided I do need to build a website. But it's the copy and the content and the vibe and the personality that lets the know whether that person is you. And so it's hard to talk about yourself. It's kind of like when people say, Oh, introduce yourself, and you're like, it's always easier for somebody else introduce you or like because you don't want to really, like self promote or be shameless or no, not be humble and brag on yourself. And we were all taught not to do that. There is the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it. But it's so much easier when you have third party validation. So really having somebody help you that that is what they do, to be able to take what is you sound like their writing and is not you but you know, to be able to take what is authentically you and know what questions to ask you so that they you comes out and then they can translate that into copying that will convert for you and not just convert, but let people know who you are. So they know if you're the right person. So when you do make the invitation, they are leaning in to saying yes. And that is a skill.

Christine McShane: 00:08:31

It is and that kind of leads us to the brand differentiator question that you asked me about. So you're right, Patti. So if I met you in person, we've all had the experience of hiring somebody, whether it's a co worker, maybe it's someone who comes in does work on our house, maybe it's our dog sitter, it could be anybody that we hire, obviously, we want them to be competent in their field. But if we like them, and conversations are easy with them. That's it. Like, we want to do business with them. So I have a I have a repair company that comes and if our appliances got I love the guy. He is so nice. Personally, he comes in chats and he knows what he's doing. He's always going to be the one that I call because I connect with him not just in a competency level, but I like the way he does this. It's easy for me to call him and it's easy for me to have him come and fix things. That's how we make buying decisions. We want to work with people who it feels easy, right in our in our personalities match. So you're right, it's difficult to convey that in copy. Now we're also in a situation where we're in. There has never been a time in history where people have had access to information as much as they do right now. So especially for those of us who are service based professionals, your clients, your potential clients could probably do a lot of this stuff themselves, right so they could read books about it. They could watch YouTube videos about it, they could take online courses about whatever. But what they do is they come to you for a very specific reason they come to you because they don't want to spend hours learning how to do this. They come to you because you are the expert. You've already done the research, you have X number of years experience. And they also want to know, is it easy to do business with you? Does the way you do business align with the way they like to do business? So when I say brand differentiators, and I think this is a little bit different than niching, or finding your niche, your brand differentiator is how are you different from everybody else providing that same service. And it could be anything from I'm a wife, sassy, wisecracker, or I'm very serious, I'm detail oriented, maybe my process is different than everybody else. Maybe I add extra steps that nobody else wants to add. It can be anything about your business that makes you unique to everybody else who is out there offering something very similar to all of your peers, all of your colleagues. So defining those brand differentiators helps you market yourself, just like you said, Patti, in a world where we're not always sitting next to each other. At a conference, at a conference, we're not always sitting next to each other in meetings, we don't always have that opportunity to chat with each other one to one. So now we have to be able to share our brand, and how we're different than somebody else who offers. So I'm a copywriter. How am I going to differentiate myself from another copywriter? And there's a lot of us out there, we're all a little bit different, and bring something to the table.

Patty Farmer: 00:11:35

While you do I know that I mean, marketing has to be the biggest umbrella of all right? You know, so I totally get that. But you are reminds me of a quick story about differentiating once, where I was talking at a into a group, there's probably about 30 of us. And I was talking about how you needed to be able to differentiate yourself. And this realtor said, Patti, I'm a realtor. Everybody knows 110 or 20. Realtors, like how could I differentiate myself? That I don't think that applies to me. I said it applies to everybody. But let me ask you a couple questions. So I asked her a couple questions. And through it, she said something so powerful. She said, Well, before I became a realtor, I worked for a builder. And when I worked for the builder, I was in the negotiation department. I said there's your differentiator, I sort of I was going to buy a new house, I would certainly want to have a realtor who knew everything that they could negotiate on and everything that could, right not every realtor can say that that is your differentiator. And you should lead with that that is a really a good differentiator and stuff. And so it doesn't matter how many other people do it? Or do the same thing that you do I actually find that people who do what I do were my best collaborators for sure. Because we overlap a little bit. But I really like what you're saying because it really is about what is different. What is that vibe? About? And do you do it in a way that feels really good for me kind of like what your about pages, you know, my about page on my website doesn't sell my services. But I have to tell you, that pretty much every person that I speak to will mentioned something to me about the about page, was it oh, how do you have me at shoes or oh, you know, when I'm a cancer survivor too, or, or something like that. Or they'll find something unique that they'll resonate with? Like, because that's personal, because that's something that we might have came up in a conversation if we were sitting next to each other having coffee. But I think the other thing is that when we all started back networking, you know, before we did most of our networking in person, right, you know, there was online ones, but this and here's all these local groups, and now you're seeing a lot of those organizations and communities coming online. Now I have to tell you, after 2020, so really in like 2021, I really started looking for communities that I could be a part of, and I went through a few of them. That didn't work for me because they were local, now going online, but it's still have a local field, it still kind of had that local field, they didn't transition very well. It kind of almost felt like a clique that you didn't get to be a part of. And it was very, very uncomfortable. It was like being back in junior high, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it was really difficult. And so I literally said, You know what, I want to look for an organization that gets that who understands that? A friend of mine said this one time, and I've never forgotten it. And she said that when we network online and offline, right? That we want to be treated equally but not identically, because it's not the same meaning but not identically because it is a little bit different. And that's how we met That's how you and I met. We met through that community. And one of the reasons why I joined your community and actually you upgrade your community was because of how well you did that, which a lot of that was because of what you actually do for a living. But you really transition that so well, that I know that a lot of the people there are from when you were meeting in person, I have to tell you ever, ever felt like oh, I was the stepchild because I wasn't right. You know, and I was really, that was something I was really paying attention to. So when I say that, it's really about finding your communities. I love your community. I love being part of your community. I've hired people from that community. I literally hire somebody from that community, the very first call I had, I was like, Oh my gosh, they were amazing. And I did. And so I love doing all the things. So you have done really a a great job at that. So thinking about community and all the things that you have done, how much of that? Because you really walk your talk, right, you know, and so how much of that came from? I mean, like, let's get a little bit of the backstory. So it sounds like you woke up one day and said, Oh, I think I want to write copy and content, right? You know, so there's always a little aha moment of gets us to doing the things that we know that we were absolutely meant to do. My dad, it is really clear that you are a master community builder and networker, right? It's a skill, and it is a skill people can acquire. But then there are those of us who just naturally kind of are really good at it. And you are one of those people? How has what your aha moment is what has been the catalyst for you that really made you make this shift, so that you're doing copy and your content and community? And like, where is the sweet spot and all of that together? Because you're such a giver, too? Huh?

Christine McShane: 00:17:01

Well, first of all, thank you for your kind words. And I have to say we love having you in your in the community with us, you've been one of the most amazing collaborators and partners, you've given so much to the other members. I was thrilled when you joined because that was you're the exact person that we wanted in the community, a true collaborator, a giver, a sharer. And that's really what we're about in the community. And, you know, yeah, it's not like I woke up one day, it was like, I'm gonna start my own community. To be honest with you, I'm probably more introverted than I am extroverted. So it's not like I dreamt of this. But I've always been a communicator. So I was an English major that was I've always loved to read, I love to always love to write, I've always been fascinated with the mechanics of communicating and the emotions of communicating. And then I went back and got my MBA. And so I've always been fascinated with business. And really copywriting and content marketing are the intersection of those two. And I never intended to start my community. But I found a hole, I found a gap that I really couldn't find a fit for. And I knew that I wanted to be a part of a community, I knew I needed it for my business. I also just wanted co workers, I wanted a community of business besties to bounce ideas off of and share with and people who are running their own business, it can be lonely, or it can, it's just not the same as working at a big company, which I have experienced in doing that in the corporate world. There really is no equivalent when you're in a small business world. So I started it, because I felt something was missing. And with the advent of zoom, and with the pandemic, and everybody meeting online, I was like the wellness I can do because people are creating connection. And, you know, just like we were talking about, that's where the best sales come from. So even in the corporate world, when I watched my sales team go out, and they had been had their pipelines, and they've nurtured their relationships as the same thing. They're building connections throughout their industry. They knew everybody, they talked with each other, they took care of each other. And I wanted to create that for the small business world. And I want to create that for my clients. And my clients. We're using everything at our disposal, including networking, including community, including copy, including content, to nurture relationships with prospects, potential collaborators. And how do you know you I know you feel the same way you just never know, who eventually will be a client or a power partner. It's really nurturing those connections and then see where that goes. So to me it was a natural intersection, although it's unusual for a copywriter and a content marketer to host their own community like I have. So that is one of my differentiators. And it's funny because I just signed To copywriting clients, she had been referred word of mouth referrals. This is a note to your listeners, word of mouth referrals will still looking up online, they will still look at your website, even if their best friend referred you. So I just got this, I just signed this client and she had been referred by her very trusted advisor. And she called me and she said, I was looking at your website, and I loved everything that you said about community and connection. So she was able to, you know, she got referred to me, but she looked me up on my website and liked what she saw. I put out there what my brand differentiators were my philosophy, and that and then a sensitive for her and she was like, I want to work with you. So that's how we can. That's to me is the intersection of copywriting and community

Patty Farmer: 00:20:50

It always boils down to really building relationships. And I think people will hire or they'll look to hire, they're looking for the expertise, right? They're looking for that trusted. Yeah, person who gets them. Yeah. Right, and is an expert. And that can that can actually provide the solution for the challenges they are, but what makes them stay, in my opinion, is the community that you built. Right, you know, we hire the coach, we stay for the community, because we love being a part of the community because it's always about the human connection. And you know, we're in a world now where a lot of people are talking about ai ai, like, can't go a day or an hour, even without people talking about AI. And I remember when it really would jack GPT first came out, everybody was like, Oh my gosh, nobody is going to need a coach or a copywriter ever again. And I was like, No, that is not true. It's all in like, how are you? How are you using it? So I am sure that as a copy and content writer, you probably get asked this question all the time. Right is what is the ways that you probably know better than anybody? Right? What are the ways that it makes sense for us to be using AI? And when we should not? I mean, I know I use AI in my business every single day. But people hire me for my marketing expertise. And I don't think they want that content to come from a robot so to speak, right? You know, I like so everything I write from my magazine, or everything I write is me. It's not what I use AI for my AI just like as having an assistant or a VA to do tasks, right, you need to be able to do those type of things for me. And the number one reason for me is because and you mentioned it earlier about how people can read books, and they can you know, they can go on Google, right? You know, before it used to be Oh, Google it, right? Yeah. Yeah. But the fact of the matter is, I'm not in the information, business vehicles in the information business, I'm in the transformation business, right? That's right. And Google can't do that. Who will can give you information. So Can an AI, it can give you information. It's not in the transformation business, either. So if you're somebody that you're just provides information, and you're thinking, oh, I'll just use AI for that, well, you know, being prepared that that's not going to last for very long, because that's not what people are looking for, they go to the library, or who gosh, like, you know, I go on to digital libraries, and I love it. But you know, they would get books, like you said, and do all that kind of stuff. That's not what we're looking, I think more than ever, where we care about that human connection, that building relationships in everything we do. And I have to tell you, that's the number one thing that I would be thinking about it when I'm hiring people, for coffee and chi and, and stuff is like, really somebody who gets that, like, really understands that who's a good listener, active listener, and can really take what I'm feeling what I authentically feel, and can take that and put it in the right words. That's sales.

Christine McShane: 00:24:02

Yeah, Patti, I agree with everything you said, I loved what you said there. It is information, not transformation. So information is almost free. Right now, almost all is free for almost any subject or very low cost, very low barrier. Transformation. People pay big money for. There's a reason why that why that exists. I have a business coach, I could read all the business books, I could read all the coaching books, but I actually pay for someone to work with me individually in my particular situation at any given time. And I'm not going to get that from a book and I'm not going to get that from Ai. We have to remember that these large language models, all they do is figure out what would come next, based on your request. If I asked him to write me a blog on the top five marketing approaches for 2020 for AI is thinking what would that look like? What would that look like if that kind of It's not, it's not a thinking being. So it's really just literally repeating patterns. So it can be very powerful in helping you string together words, break through writer's block, but not and even ideating in terms of like making sure you've covered all your bases, maybe if you're writing a blog post about, I don't know, a sales page copy for a massage therapist online course, maybe they might, you might use that to structure it, maybe you might get some ideas maybe might trigger your creativity. Oh, I missed that spot. I should have talked about that. But remember, in the beginning, when I said, sales copy is a conversation. So all of us go out and have sales conversations, and we have different sales conversations than each other. And AI cannot do that for you. Not Can I do it for you? Well, because you're taking into consideration your individual situation, your individual differentiators, your individual target markets, and phrasing those things in specific orders and very carefully about how you know, talking to your audience in the weight that they want to hear. Talking to them and communicating with them. What what do they need to hear? And how can you satisfy that? So I think that AI certainly is a tool in the same respect that spreadsheets replaced calculators, manual calculators, those we have electric drills, and we have mechanics, right, like, but yeah, so we have spreadsheets, but we don't, but like finance hasn't gone away. And, you know, all

Patty Farmer: 00:26:40

All of the things can go and we still have graphic design.

Christine McShane: 00:26:43

Yeah. Yes. Oh, that's an example. Right? So Canva. So yes, I've used Canva templates. I've been using them for years. And now I just hired a graphic designer to hire me to do some very specific ones for my brand. I don't want to use the same templates that I see everybody else using, I wanted specific to my brand. And I went to a designer that I like their take on things I liked the way they design. And I like working with them personally. And that's where I chose. That's where I chose to spend that, that capital there. So, you know, certainly AI is a tool to make, if I was going to write a thank you note, you know, confirmation page, yes, I would use that maybe I did to generate that and then tinker with that and make it personalized. But, you know, to create copy, or to create content, it's really repurposing what millions of other people have already said. And, you know, we talk about how much noise there is out there. If you're just going to contribute to the noise, and I think I don't want to be harsh, but I think Seth Godin that quote, and he basically said, If you can't say anything better, or different than a computer can, please don't interrupt someone's day. And I sat with that for a long time. And I was like, yes, he's right. Like, if we're going to create something and put something out there, or are you going to drop an email into someone's inbox, they've invited you into their inbox and your email marketing, and you're gonna just drop something in there, that's wasting their time, then you might not be in there for very long. What can you create with time this is valuable

Patty Farmer: 00:28:19

You like in corporate, or when we were working? And you go to a meeting? Like, you know, you go to this meeting? I mean, how many times have you walked out of a meeting? Yeah, Yeah, knock yourself now, they could have just stuck that in an email. Right? You know what I mean? And so yeah, because we're all so busy, right? We're all so busy, right? But you know, what I love about having somebody who is a content marketer, versus somebody who just writes copy, is that because they can think if you build a relationship with someone, human connection, they get to know you, they get to know, like, what's important to you? What's authentic to you? Yep, here's what I'm paying for. I want to pay this is what people hire me for. I know, because they tell me to, to shorten my learning curve, right? Your learning curve, right? That's for me, and what I love most of all, and I've had it happen to me so many times, when I've hired somebody, they've done a great job. And then like, three months later, someday, they would contact me and say, you know, when I did the, this, this and this, you know, when I had this great idea, I saw something and then it fits perfectly with your brand more if somebody's you know, if you were doing something and say you I literally told you all about who I am and all this good stuff and wanted you to write content for me, like a robot soccer to email you back or pick up the phone and call you and say, hey, you know, that thing that I did for you three months ago, and I wrote that sales page for you. You know, what I just saw on social media where you said you were going to do this, you know, we could tie that together and we could do this. Like yeah, only people can do that. You hide because we have a relationship. Right? You know, I I know that when I see people on social media all day long, and I'll see something, I'll think, oh, they said something, I think all the time when I'll drop something on there and say, hey, you know what, I just read this thing that I think might help you here. Here's a link to the blog. I'm not saying how you're me might not even be about me, I just, you know, but people do that when we build relationships. So I just really wanted to touch because we are talking about copy and content, that yes, AI can be really, really great and can do a lot of good things I love. You know, I love some of the things it does, I have literally gone into Chachi Beatty, especially if you season it, and you actually get it, you know, train it to talk about you, I get on in there and said, Oh, I need to do five, you know, YouTube shorts this week. And I want to do them on this this in this, like, what are some topics? And then it'll spit out topics on right now? No, but sometimes it'll spit out something. And what they said isn't what I'm going to do. But it sparks me to go, Oh, why didn't what I just did that. I could talk about that. Exactly. to brainstorm. And for that, it can be really good because a person if they haven't been writing your copy for a long time, they're not gonna remember everything that you've ever done. I saw like, I can just season you. Right? To kya can Where are you like in the gym? But you know what, but you know what I'm saying? So I feel like having that human person that I that you hire that you can say, we actually like last week when I was changing up something and I wrote to you and I said, Christine, I wrote this I I feel like it portrays exactly what I want to say, like, Can I run it by you? You? Yeah, you looked at it and literally wrote back to me and said, shift like these two words and, and maybe use this one word, whatever, then was like, great. That was like so great. It would made it so much more succinct. And stuff, though. And I appreciate that. But building a relationship is what enables you to do that. So that you knew Oh, no, Patti, for you, I would have been used this word. That sense, right? You more right? You know, last night when I say to people, are you open to this? I think the marketing ideas for them and whatever. So building relationships, I think is really important. So because you do that, how are some of the ways that you helped make people respond to the content? Right, you know, so why only being great contents really good. When you are really thinking about conversion, whether it is to join your group or whether you know, it doesn't actually have to be like you're selling a product, like re selling ourselves all the time on a walk, you know, not just on something that's a product or service. But what are some of the things that you take into consideration that are really the most important things? Because I know that you talk about the power of three how to reduce decision fatigue. Right. I know him Yeah, we get decision fatigue, right. Yeah, yeah. And our content marketing using the power of three. Now. Yeah, and I think powers three, when I first heard that, I'm thinking about how I do my assessories and bring my jewelry and my person, my shoes. And now I know, I'll do that. Take one off, you know, whatever. That's what I think what I think power three. Yep. But I'm, I'm a fashion girl. But when you're thinking about content marketing, and you're thinking about this whole decision fatigue, and we do have decision fatigue, right, all day lead time. What are you referring to? And how important is this power of three that you talked about?

Christine McShane: 00:33:32

Sure, sure. So the thing about content marketing is it's like it's wide open. There's just unlimited amount of things you can do. And then you start following people in the marketing industry. And they're like, well, could you learn Instagram tactics? Right could What about trending audios? And then what about tick tock and people want to know how to do this on each platform, and honestly, you could drive yourself crazy, trying to keep up with every last button and tactic and on the platforms and they change constantly. So we will never win that battle, you will always have to keep up with the tactics in the individual platforms that that will always happen. And so I think what happens is people get a little overwhelmed myself included, like I have shiny object syndrome, just like every other entrepreneur like Oh, isn't, oh,

Patty Farmer: 00:34:21

I have brilliant ideas. And I call my brilliant ideas.

Christine McShane: 00:34:25

I do sugar, we're creators. And just a little sidebar. I know a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners don't consider themselves creative. But my humble opinion if you've created something out of nothing, you created a business entity where there wasn't one. If you are a creator, you have created your own vision. So we're creators, we have ideas, and we have passions, but you could go crazy and then what I find happens is that it's almost too much. And then people get too overwhelmed. There's analysis paralysis again, I also fall victim to that. And then the instinct is was like, well shut down, I don't know where to go, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to start, this feels willy nilly. And so they either don't do anything, you or they just throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. And so you're not everybody's in a position to hire someone to write their own plan. And to resource it out, I've created the power three, and it's very, very simple. And it just kind of like eliminates some of that clutter and just gets you focused. Until one

Patty Farmer: 00:35:33

Or other you're gonna share, I will share it. Here it is proving secrets behind the scenes, here's the framework, here's the

Christine McShane: 00:35:40

Here's the beginning of the phases, the high level high level framework, I like to pick three channels to focus on. Alright. And by channels. I mean, you could say email marketing is a big thing for me, maybe podcasting is a big thing for me, maybe Instagram, or LinkedIn, or YouTube or Pinterest, or tick tock just pick three, or humanities. In fact,

Patty Farmer: 00:36:07

He's not doing so you're not saying pick three social media channels, you're saying No, three, channel

Christine McShane: 00:36:12

Pick three channels. So for my business, it's primarily community. And it's LinkedIn. And it's email. All right, so those are really the three channels that I focus on. But not everybody should choose those channels, people should choose a channel that works for their business. And when I and I will say this, I don't want to give too much away go too into the weeds. But when you pick your channels, I have two criteria. Number one, are my prospects there? Number two, do I like it? Do I like that channel? Because I think a lot of people will force themselves so well, I think everybody, my audience is on Instagram. So I better be there. They'll come to me last because I do this privately, I create these plans for people as my private work. And so they'll say to me, all right, can you help me I need to plan for Instagram and come to find out, they hate Instagram. They don't even want to be on the platform. And so I'm like, maybe we need to rethink this. Because now you're just you're creating friction where there doesn't need to be. So let's ask Reese, right? Let's read that you're not going to want to do it. We don't want like, would you rely on your heart, which means you won't, which means you won't, you won't. You won't. So if you really want to be an Instagram and you're convinced that that's where people are at, then hire somebody to represent you on Instagram, that's another solution. But if you're going to do it and every fight, like if you just get that gut feeling of like, I hate this platform, and nothing is Instagram, I'm just saying maybe it's Pinterest, maybe it's YouTube,

Patty Farmer: 00:37:47

That's all about Tiktok

Christine McShane: 00:37:50

Tiktok Some people love it. Some people hate if you have a gut reaction that says, then don't then please either outsource it or just find a new way. So pick three channels that meet those two criteria. Are your people on it? And do you somewhat enjoy it? Or do can I add to that, please? And I

Patty Farmer: 00:38:10

answered it, hopefully. So I I agree with you 100%. But I saw a mark in front of you, I'm going to stretch the one oops. So yes, are your people there. I also like to say are my people there, and people who have proximity to my people, I like to explain that a little bit. Because that's great. It's like it is my people. But sometimes, for example, you know, I don't have a lot of I'll just give an example, I only have a lot of bas that are my clients. However, I love doing things with these because they do serve my clients. So I like to be so I actually belong to one whole group of Bas, my main demand, and I teach them how to market and that they have proximity to all my clients. Right? Absolutely. To most of my clients. So I have built a relationship, but you know what? I have to get to right, you know, so I always go in and, and so they love being able to ask me questions about what do you want to add to clients? Just like what would that look like right now. And I help them to do that, too. So we have formed our relationship, too. So I have to tell you, I think narrowing those two things that you're saying maybe are very, very important. And then of course, you know building that that community because the community that you have built, I love that you have a free version and a paid version. Right You know, that's fanned right away, I saw the value in the papers and I hear I've kind of that girl. Literally it it's amazing to me the value of it for the for the money, to be honest. And so I love that and all the ways, but because like what you said that it's not very often that somebody who does what you does has a community right but in a way I think it is real They true for you, though, because you serve communities and you are like, it's kind of like how I have a mastermind. I feel like I've been to a whole bunch of masterminds. I've spent literally hundreds of 1000s of dollars. Some I really, really loved, not some not so much. Yeah, I believe that in anything if you can't find exactly what you're looking for created, you know, create Yeah. And so it's really clear like you have created this community. What's really nice, though, is I when I was having earlier in the conversation, when I was telling you that I was struggling finding that right community. Yeah, I sat there thought to myself, Oh, should I create it? And I just didn't want to I need to, like I had the capacity for it. I had done it before. Many times. At that point, I just didn't want it. I was like, No, I just want to find a community of my people. Right? Yeah. But most importantly, I wanted to find a community of my people who was run by somebody who had integrity, who was a community builder, and who really liked to serve and wasn't just using it as a platform for them. Right, you know, and stuff. And you fit that bill so, so perfectly. So first of all, I just want to say everybody should join her community, whether you joined the free version, or whether you joined the you upgrade to the version. But what is it? I know what the name of it is? But go ahead and tell us a little bit about that?

Christine McShane: 00:41:19

Sure. Well thank you for that. Yeah. So we invite you all to join us. It's called the busy people network. And it's really a unique combination of the two ways that I built my business. That is, one is networking. So there's a networking huge networking component to it. But that's not just what it is. It's not just a networking community. It is a content marketing community. That's the second piece. And that's where I come in, I created templates, I have weekly content prompts that go out to the paid members, I have sessions where you come and do your marketing, with me and with the group. So there's a lot of support there. I also invite curated experts to come and speak to the group privately, and conduct some private training. So really, Patti, what I did was everything that I do to make my business successful, I created a community to give that to everybody else. I just created a platform for everybody else to do what I do. And

Patty Farmer: 00:42:18

I think that is just really fabulous. We will have the links for that below. So if you're listening to this or watching it either way that you will have the buttons to that. And I invite you to go ahead and join that. That would be something that we super glad that you did. Yeah. But to get back also to really wrapping up the content marketing. Yes. Could you share with us? Now I know who the demographic is of who watches the show, Kenya who watches and listens to the show? Yeah. So could you share a story? You share a story or an example? I think story is so much nicer than example, know somebody who kinked it I'm gonna give you I'm gonna make this up on the fly even. All right? Oh, boy. Okay, so somebody who is, we'll say, a woman, she's been in business for a few years, all these new things are coming out. She's kind of thinking to herself, oh, you know, I used to just do one on one. Now I need to be coming up with, you know, a launch and sales page and a landing page. And oh, my goodness, I'm on podcast now. And now I need to, you know, have a lead magnet insurance. You know, it's a little bit harder to get the word out now. So if somebody like that came to you, I'm sure you've had clients that were just that person. Yeah. What are? What are a few things that you like have helped them with? And what are some of the results that they have been able to see for really being able to work with you to dial in on really that content? Because, you know, first of all, you can only make so much money doing one on one, right? That's writing, you know, time for dollars, Family Sharing so far. But with everything that's changing, if there's anything we know that things are changing all the time. So if you were to work with somebody like that, I think everybody that's listening, eager, is that person know, somebody's that person that is they're applying to or whatever, or at least can can resonate with the story. Give us an example of somebody that has kind of been there and that you have been able to help them? Sure.

Christine McShane: 00:44:23

Yes. So actually, I'm helping somebody with very similar situation this week. This person does a lot of soul leap, one to one work. And part of their mission was to serve more more people. But as you know, like there's only so many hours in the day, we can't just we do not have unlimited time slots to help people. And so this professional had created this program. That would be a good entry point for people so they people could she could serve people at a group level. And then if they felt like they needed some more individualized approach, she could certainly take them on As individual clients, but that this would be a nice way to serve multiple people. And so she came to me and she said, I need help marketing. And so initially, she had just said, Can you help me write the sales page? And, of course, and I already was familiar with her brand, because it helped her with her website copy. And I said, of course, but what we need to do, we really also need to look at the whole picture, right? How are you inviting people to that page? And then what happens once they've signed up? And how are we keeping them in your world? So I think sometimes we get when it comes to marketing, we get very involved in the actual sale, like that becomes the focal point, how am I going to make this actual sale? And that, of course, is very important. Your sales page, like I said, that copy is written very specifically, in a way to have those conversations. But what we talked about was, how are we going to invite people to your sales page? And how are you warming people up before that sales page? How are you already building those relationships so that I, so here's an example, Patti, so I'm very familiar with your brand. So Patti, if you put out a new offer, like I'm, I'm, I'm like an interested already, right? I already know you I already trust you. I love the way I love your perspective. So I'm like, I'm interested. And I'm looking at I'll go straight to that sales page. And like, evaluate, do I need this? What's the details? Can I make the time, blah, blah. Someone who might be a little bit colder, doesn't really know you, Paddy? Maybe they've heard the name paddy farmer, they're not totally sure what you're about? How are you going to nurture that person in order to fill this spot? And so we look at the whole thing, how many people do already have in your world? And remember how I said those three channels? Everybody has multiple channels? Whether they think about it in that way or not? Right? So some people have a list, email list, some people have a following. Some people have their own communities. Some people have podcast followers, some people just network locally. And so they will have this beautiful community of previous clients that they've served. Right? So you've got all these channels? And how are you going to reach out to each individual one in a personalized way. So reaching out to your private clients who can work with in the past is going to be different than when she shows up? In a new, like, she shows up when maybe somebody else's podcast. And so she's being introduced to an entirely different audience? How are we going to position each of those entry points into and I hate the word sales, the term sales funnel, but the journey, how are we going to introduce them into her universe?

Patty Farmer: 00:47:46

I mean, nurturing is what it is about, like, you know, it is about really nurturing them. So when you do all that, and you and you're not going to talk to all of them people the same, right? You know, nobody that's a past client versus somebody brand new in their community versus somebody that you're on somebody's podcast that may have asked you on the podcast, you don't even really know them all that Well, nevermind, the chairman says, although you should have asked, but you know, with that and stuff, like, of course, you're not going to be able to, and maybe somebody can do some of that, you know, maybe somebody's like, oh, well, I can talk to my past clients, and I am on Facebook all the time. I can talk to people on Facebook. Yeah, you know, whatever. But that's not where all your potential clients are on just those places.

Christine McShane: 00:48:27

I mean, that's right. That's right. And you're right, we talk to different audiences. So I'm a copywriter. And if I got into a podcast that was geared towards new entrepreneurs, I would I would speak to them differently than if I got on a podcast that was for six figure seven figure businesses already. Because the people that they already know, half the stuff that I would say, you know, they're, you know, what I would say to the, to the beginners, they're looking at a much more nuanced and sophisticated level. Same person, I would bet I would deliver different content, because my audiences are different. They want to hear different things. They want to learn different things.

Patty Farmer: 00:49:07

And a lot of times they don't want to do it, because I have to tell you that most of the dollars that I spend these days, wow, the dollars that I spend these days, yeah, are I mean, that's why I always have like, two or three coaches. You know, coaches have coaches, and I always have several, and that usually even though I have a business coach, I always have a couple coaches for something that I'm working on that an expert so I have to tell you, I probably write the biggest checks for me for people that know how to do something specialized that I actually do know how to do, but don't want to, I don't want to do that. Right. You know, I don't want to do it. I can tell them enough to make them be able to do it for me fabulously because it is their area of expertise. Yeah, I'm gonna give them the information that they need. Right, you know, so, to me, that's what I want. Like that's not what Have I gone into business to and are so funny because one of those is copy, like, I have to tell you, for me, whenever I'm going to do anything like whenever I do my events, if I'm having a speaker, I can pretty much tell you one of my speakers will always be somebody who does. And if I'm collaborating in any ad, copy is always something that I want. Because now that I actually publish a magazine, I actually can write, copy. And everybody keeps telling me that I'm good at it. I don't really feel like I'm as good at it as everybody else thinks that I am. But I speak from my heart authentically. And hopefully that resonates right. But I have to say, if I was trying to do something brand new or whatever, right, I don't want to just hope that I'm speaking to them. I want somebody who's gonna say yes, I'll speak to them from my heart here, I'll make a video, we're gonna speak to them from my heart. I'll give you the content. I'll do it in the ways that I know how but I need you to take that. And I have to tell you, even from my own magazine, you would not believe as soon as the magazine comes out, it takes me three months to write that article to the next one comes out. Because I don't love to write. People say you don't love to read. I'm like, No, I do not love to write. I love to talk.

Christine McShane: 00:51:13

You know. But anyway, yes.

Patty Farmer: 00:51:17

So I just want to be able to say thank you so much. Now if we need a real I appreciate it so much. Tell me how people can connect with you.

Christine McShane: 00:51:24

Sure. Well, you're all welcome to come check us out at the busy people network. I know Patti will drop all the links here below. You can always check me out on my website, which is Christine mcshane.com. I know Patti will put that in the show notes, as well. And I have a couple of free gifts that Patti can put in the show notes. I do have a worksheet we were talking about key differentiators. I wasn't going to share this. But I do have a worksheet that helps people identify their key differentiators that you can also find on my website as well. But I think come into the community. Come see

Patty Farmer: 00:51:57

I would be awesome. I think that's awesome. That's what they need to do. They need to come into the community. Go to your website. Everything is there. So I think that's wonderful. Yeah. Thank you so much, Christine. I appreciate you being here with me today

Christine McShane: 00:52:09

Patty, this was so much fun. Thank you so much.

Patty Farmer: 00:52:13

It was fun. And to my audience. Thank you so much for spending another week with us. We look forward to seeing you again next week. If you love this x this episode, and I'm sure you did, please leave us a review. Like and share it. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week.