Nicole Laino 

Hello, and welcome to the limitless entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And I’m here with a guest today, and we are going to be talking about a little topic that I’m excited to talk about. Because I do believe that everything kind of comes back to this both in the way that you feel about yourself and the way that you put yourself out there. We’re going to talk about becoming an authority in your industry becoming an authority in the market. And doing that, how do we do that? We do that through our message through our content through what we put out through what we’re showing everybody. And to me, I think that that’s one of the most difficult things. I think it trips a lot of people up at all levels, because we move the goalposts on what success means on this stuff. So but I have an expert here, who’s going to shed a lot of light on this give you a really great overview, and we’re going to dive deep into what it really means to be an authority and how you can create that you can step into that identity for yourself. So Melanie Hirshhorn is here with me today, and she is a she’s now working with authors and with coaches. She’s a content marketing strategist for coaches and speakers worldwide. She’s on a mission to support and empower her clients to create clear messaging and content that shines a light on their individual experience skill set, and their books. With her unique combination of entrepreneurship award winning journalism and PR experience, Melanie guides her clients to attract and nurture leads, and position themselves as industry experts. Melanie, welcome to the show. How are you?

Melanie Herschorn 

Thank you so much the goal, I am so excited to be here today and to see your beautiful face.

Nicole Laino 

I’m excited to have you here. I’m excited to talk about this. What did I miss in that intro? Is there anything that you want to introduce yourself to the audience with that I that I didn’t get in that little that little snippet that I gave?

Melanie Herschorn 

Well, if you want some behind the scenes, I’m a mom too. And when crazy Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dog, dog, but no, I think you’ve pretty much got it. And my mission in life really is to help amplify coaches and speakers who’ve written a book I’m my mission is to amplify their voice online, so that their message can get out there to make this world a better place.

Nicole Laino 

I love it, I love it. Because it is your message is that’s really your calling card. That’s your business that if you don’t have a message, then everything’s going to feel disjointed. And you’re going to feel pretty disempowered, I think as an entrepreneur, because if you just have an offer, but there’s no message behind it, one, your offer probably isn’t terribly aligned with anyone, and no one is going to really understand it and know it. And it’s almost a self fulfilling prophecy. You’re not talking about it, you’re not putting it out there, you’re not doing it in an in an intentional way. So it’s not working. What do you see in with your clients with the people that you work with? What do you see trips people up a lot with just content in general and being an authority?

Melanie Herschorn 

Well, let’s start with the content in general, people see content as this giant beast to be sort of conquered. Right. And and it’s not, it doesn’t have to be at all and and so they think that they can chip away at it by hiring somebody to post online. And they might not know, what is the we know, online. But as long as they check the box. Yes, I posted on Instagram today. Yes, I did. Nobody liked it. But it doesn’t matter because I did it. They think that they are fulfilling that that thing that has to be done this content. But that’s not the case. And I would actually argue that fewer followers, but engaged ones that really understand your message. That’s really the goal. You don’t need to have, you know, millions of people, like your posts, if not one of them is interested in what you really offer and is ever going to take out their credit card to pay.

Nicole Laino 

Okay, agreed. And I think that that’s, that’s the red herring that everybody goes after is that big audiences that feeling that it needs to be more and Truthfully speaking as somebody who teaches, you know, mindset and, and self empowerment is a big part of of what I do. That’s really just your insecurities, talking and you’re trying to fill a void in yourself with lots of followers. But is your goal to get people to love you to get people to like you, that doesn’t translate into money that doesn’t translate into a thriving business. And when you’re chasing that it’s been my experience with the people that I’ve worked with and also with myself because I dealt with that to that feeling of wanting to be liked. And I have a whole podcast episode on How know like and trust is screwing is killing your business? Because we focus on the like.

Melanie Herschorn 

Really? Yes, absolutely. Because being liked, that exactly is not going to translate into, you know, growing your bank account. It’s really about being trusted. And that’s that authority piece. So how does somebody become an authority online? If I might ask myself that question. Yeah. It is by showing people that you are the real deal, and you know what you’re talking about. And that’s why there’s three kinds of content you should be putting out. And that’s the engaging content, where people want to respond, they feel compelled to respond to you. So you can start up a real, live conversation, real, you know, relationship. There’s the value stuff, where you give them tips, how to do this, how to do effective book marketing, for example. And then the third one is really about copy building. And maybe it’s a testimony, maybe it’s telling a story about a client, literal client transformation, whatever that is, that shows your audience, hey, she totally knows what she’s talking about.

Nicole Laino 

And I, since you brought up book, since you brought up being an author, because I think that that’s, so you’re telling people, first of all, just to kind of recap that you’re really saying, get a conversation going, you’re talking about building a relationship with your audience, you get a conversation going, tell them about who you are, and then show them the results that you get, show them, give them some social proof that what you do works that what you do that people actually hire you that people like working with you that you get people results, and that trips a lot of people up, particularly in the beginning, and where they have, they they’ve they feel like what my testimonials aren’t good enough, I haven’t gotten people to, because we’re all we’re bombarded with the Facebook ads and the people that are like, I took someone from 100,000 to a million dollars in three months, you know, and, and that’s just we don’t have the full context of that story around that. And we get, we end up comparing ourselves against these people who have massive programs and testimonials that, frankly, we don’t know where they come from.

Melanie Herschorn 

That’s true. And you really don’t know what’s true online and what isn’t. And honestly, Nicole, those Facebook posts are the bane of my existence that I made $14,000 In three weeks, drop your drop and below. So I’ll give you my exact blueprint of how it works. Guess what friends, blueprints like this, you can’t repeat this stuff, your content has to be individually created for you and your business. You can’t just cookie cutter, your way to stardom. It doesn’t work like that.

Nicole Laino 

well. And don’t take our word for it, I want you to take a moment listener and think about all the times you’ve downloaded one of those blueprints, one of those PDFs, one of those strategies, one of those things that someone said, you know, grab it before I make it paid. And, and you gave them your you DM them and they sent you this thing. I want you to count how many times you’ve you’ve done that, and how many times you’ve actually used or found useful what they sent you. Because I’m not saying that they don’t exist, that they’re not useful. But usually they’re missing quite a bit. And that’s intentional. It’s not, they’re not really giving away their entire strategy. And if you I always say this, the strategy is not actually what matters, this the you’re the operating system. You can’t run a brand new app on iOS three, it won’t work, you’re not going to be able it’s not going to handle it’s going to crash. It’s not going to work, you have to upgrade your operating system. And that really comes with to me it’s been my experience and I’d love to know your your your take on this being a content strategist, that the more you open up. And you it’s a soul searching mission of uncovering what your message is having the courage to put it out there having the courage to say I’m worth hearing from. So I’m curious what what what your response is to that and if you’ve seen that at all.

Melanie Herschorn 

Well, I would love to tell my personal story. Sure. Okay, so when I started on this journey as a content strategist, this is not my first rodeo here, but this is not the first thing I you know, when I when I was a kid I didn’t you know, I’m going to be a content strategist when I grow up. It’s I don’t think that existed. But I, my is this experience went from PR to journalism. And then after I was laid off from my job as a reporter, because they had massive layoffs, and I was of course five months pregnant at the time. The timing Yeah, it was great timing. And I my entire identity was wrapped up in I’m a journalist, you know, people know my name, Pennsylvania, I’m famous in central Pennsylvania, which is like being I don’t know, a TED, you know, when they say like, you’re, well, you’re a five in California, but you’re a 10 in Pennsylvania. So, so all of a sudden, I thought, oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do with my life. And then I have this, I had a new baby. And I thought, I want to design and manufacture breastfeeding clothing. I want to be an entrepreneur, I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer, I’m gonna do this. And I did it. I made a lot of mistakes. But I did it. And I sold my clothes on nordstrom.com For several years, and like, I was doing it. And then I made a mistake. And I hired somebody to help me. And she was emotionally and verbally abusive to me. She took my money. And she helped me grow my Instagram following with people that were never going to make a purchase. And she also made me feel very, very selfish. And you could say the little people can’t make you anything. There was a lot of abuse that made me feel like I was nothing. Eventually, I couldn’t even open my office door anymore. And it was in my house. I would avoid them no go in there. Yeah, don’t go in there, you know, hazmat suit necessary. So when I finally got the courage to close the business, and that was not easy for many reasons, including having to sever ties with this woman who I was sure was going to somehow take me down. And then I thought, what can I do now? Why don’t I try empowering people with their content with their marketing, because clearly, it actually took me a long time to get there, though. And I still sometimes have like inklings of like PTSD. But this I tell you the story to say that it took me a really long time to be able to tell that story. Even though it really truly informs what I do and why I am Why do I link arms with every client, why I am their cheerleader and their support system and we become best friends. Because I want to be there for them. Because I know what it’s like to be on the side of being beaten down and feeling like what am I going to do? How do I make this work? And I also know what it’s like, when your content marketing works, know, people that I’ve never met or heard of on LinkedIn, booking sales calls with me. Because of all the things I’m living there, so I tell you all this, you know, to say that, when you are honest about your story, can you accept it? Yeah, you’re gonna get haters. I’ve gotten some like, really mean like responses to emails telling the story like, Well, you shouldn’t be in business. You’re just an idiot. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. Right? So yeah, thank you. That’s proof that you’re not not everybody’s gonna like, I love when

Nicole Laino 

people do that. And then they don’t unsubscribe. It’s very interesting to me. Some people are just really into saying nasty, replying with nasty things. And then I look and I’m like, why didn’t you hit the unsubscribe button? If I’m so offensive to you?

Melanie Herschorn 

Oh, how dare my story offend you? So great. I really like to hear more. What else can I troll you on? Right? And yeah, so so you’re gonna get told right? But what your messaging and the mission behind what why you do what you do. So that’s vital. And sometimes people don’t want to tell their story. And that’s okay. But I say whatever you do feel comfortable sharing, that’s gonna help you seem human. And if one of the trends that we’re seeing, not that I love trends in clothing, one of the trends that we’re seeing is that people want authenticity, much more so than a beautifully made up face. Not such as myself. They want you know, they don’t want you to be perfect. They want you to be real, you know, years of being cooped up in your house and spinning. I mean, we’ve probably logged more hours on zoom in the past two years and we’ve driven then we’ve slept so good. We both want humanity. And so remembering that when you that, when ever you say things online, whenever you put things out there online, remembering to be truly do, I think that that’s going to make a difference and make the difference for you. So where do they

Nicole Laino 

start with that? Where does somebody who feels like they’re because I definitely know, there’s someone’s listening to this. And they’re like, Yeah, I have that person that just writes like, really fluffy, nonsense on my Instagram, and I check the box for having done it that day. I know that I post things and it can, and I’m afraid of being revealing, or I’m afraid of it making me look unsuccessful. I’m afraid of posting about vulnerability and sharing about vulnerability. And people thinking that I’m looking for pity, or people thinking that I’m not as successful and not wanting to hire me, because I’m downplaying myself. What do you say to that person? And what how does that person go about getting people to know them? And trust them?

Melanie Herschorn 

That’s a beautiful question. Well, let’s start with your topic of expertise. Well, one of your topics of expertise, which is mindset. Let’s figure out what it is that’s stopping you. I had a client who we work together for a few months, and she was adamant she was not going to post a picture of herself on Instagram, she was only going to do graphics. I said, people need to see you. They need to see who you are. They need to lock eyes with your picture. She said, Well, it feels narcissistic to me. And I said, let’s talk about that. And we sort of worked through why there were much more benefits to her showing her her beautiful self, then hiding behind random graphics made in Canva. And she did it. And now she posts pictures of herself all the time, proudly. And so that was a big mindset shift that we were able to make for her. So when you ask, you know, where does somebody start, when they’re feeling nervous, I would say start with your mission. Write it down, oh, homework, okay, get out a piece of paper, when you when you can, if you’re driving right now, don’t don’t do that. But if you are, you know, you have access to writing, write down your mission. And then write down why that’s your mission. And then write down who you hope to help. And then I want you to look back at that regularly. And every time you do write about it, that’s authentically you. And that is going to get people excited. Every single time. When you give people you know, you tell them, I do this? And you say, because because that because is going to make a difference. They’re going to it’s going to resonate with them. So that’s where to start. And no, you don’t have to show your breakfast. You don’t have to take off your shirt and show how much weight you’ve lost. If that is not within your brand. You don’t have to reveal everything, but at least reveal why you do what you do.

Nicole Laino 

Yeah, I mean, I feel like the story I mean, the why part. For me, my experience has been my own personal experience has been that when I talk about the why it kind of makes all the other fear go away. Because if I think about it, from a mindset standpoint, where’s the fear coming from? Where am I really where’s this really coming from my afraid like, what’s the worst thing is gonna happen? Nobody likes it. Nobody comments happens all the time. You know, that’s the nature of it. So what the worst thing that happens is nothing happens. But I can guarantee nothing will happen if I don’t put anything up. So if I’d like the potential if I want to live in potential, then I put it up, I put it up. But when I put up the why when I talk about the why, then the fear of where a lot of my fears started, was I was afraid of being misunderstood. I was afraid of people misunderstanding why I was doing what I was doing. Well, the quickest way to rule that out is to tell them why. Tell them why you’re doing it. Give them a peek into why you keep talking about the same thing and why it means so much to you. So when when I look at it, I’m like I I’m passionate about helping women step into their into their power into really owning their gifts. Because I had a hard time admitting I had any of them for most of my life. Why Why did I have a hard time doing that? Well, I had a father that made me feel like I did more wrong than right. I don’t think he intentionally meant to make me feel that way. But that was how I felt as a child. And I took a lot of that in when I was a kid. And it stayed with me. And I did not have a lot of friends growing up. So I didn’t feel like I had. Deep down, I believe that there are two things that drive all of us to inaction that keep us in gridlock. And they are the fundamental feeling that we are unlovable, and that we are unsupported and the people around us won’t come through for us. So what do we do, we stay quiet, we stay hidden, we stay alone. And then we wonder why nothing’s working. And we wish upon every star that we could just be seen, we could just be heard. And that was my wish for a long time. And I remember I had a mentor tell me, he said, he said, You’re amazing. Like you can literally he’s like you can do kind of anything, anything I throw at you. You’re You’re incredible. It doesn’t matter unless you show the world. That doesn’t mean a damn thing. And you’ll regret. Someday, you will look back and say, I didn’t show anyone what I could do. I didn’t take this car out for a spin. And I think about that, probably every day, at some point that pops into my head, he pops into my head, and I hear his voice telling me that like, it doesn’t mean anything unless you show the world.

Melanie Herschorn 

Beautiful. That’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And that mission and that message. That means everything. Because people see

Nicole Laino 

themselves in a story. We’re giving them the ability to see their struggle, and then not feel so alone. Because I think that we do feel that way. We think that we’re the only ones that feels the things that we’re feeling

Melanie Herschorn 

lonely and being stuck in an office by yourself as an entrepreneur that just exacerbates everything, because it’s not like we’re in an office where we get to chat with other people. You’re alone. Exactly.

Nicole Laino 

It’s it’s an isolating profession. And if if you let it be, right, which is why having groups which is why having people around you that are supporting you, like cultivate those friendships. But to get back to content to get back to, to diving in and being an authority that tell us a little bit about I know you work with authors, and I know that there are a lot of people that think like, well, I want to write a book, one write a book. And they have all they pour everything they have into the book, they they put it out, and they think that that’s going to do the work for them. What is your experience with that? Because you work with authors? What is the work that you do with them? Mainly? Do you help them write the book or you help them with other things?

Melanie Herschorn 

So let me let me say, to answer your second question first. So I help authors, once the book has been written, whether it’s published or not, it doesn’t matter to me, as long as there’s a book to leverage we can. And so I help them take that book and weave it into their marketing, their brand marketing and their book marketing, they kind of go hand in hand. And so we take that and we create online magic. We take that book, and we grow their social media and their emails, and we help them create a lead magnet, which is that freebie that you give people in exchange for your email. So and we help them sort of create this online platform of this is me, I am the authority in my space. And guess what I wrote the book on it to your earlier point about, you know, writing the book doesn’t make you an authority. Right? A lot of people think that they think, Okay, I got the book now. So look at me, I’m an authority. Here’s me with my book. Oh, fantastic. No, it’s the same thing. You wouldn’t plan a party and then not send out the invitations. So if you don’t invite people to know about your book, they’re not going to know. And then if they don’t know, you can’t be considered an authority or a thought leader because you’re just hiding behind your computer, or you’re just hiding in your office. You have to tell people about it, which goes back to content. What do we say? Because you can’t keep saying, I wrote a book, I wrote a book. Nobody’s going to care at one point at some point. So it’s how you weave the messages in the book into your content marketing, because when you write a book, you’ve got 1000s of words to repurpose. into fantastic content online. But I don’t want to discourage people who haven’t written a book from from making, you have all these wonderful ideas, maybe you’ve written a blog post that you can repurpose them to several social media posts, maybe you’ve written the whole series of emails that would make great blog posts. So you don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel, you can read the wheel for your content.

Nicole Laino 

Well, and so kind of what I get the visual I get in my head is that the book becomes like the content map, it’s, it’s, you’ve already come up with the thesis, and now we’re going to pick it apart. And we’re gonna say, well, what’s the what’s the general themes here? What are we talking about? What are the pillars of this book? And how are we going to use those we can we can break them up where we’re at now? Are you taking things straight from the book? Or are you Is there a format that you’re taking things through that, that turns it into from just being a piece of content to being an authority piece?

Melanie Herschorn 

I love that. So it’s sort of this all encompassing, I like to say that all the puzzle pieces are there, and then I’m putting the puzzle together. So definitely the things that somebody has written in a book are Authority building pieces, you know, there’s paragraphs full of great content. But the way a book reads, and the way post on Instagram reads, I mean, it’s all you know, to a non native English speaker, it might as well be two different languages. I mean, three syllable words, no bueno. So there’s a lot of re tooling, what is in a book to make it more appropriate for blog posts for emails for social media posts. And the reason is, when somebody is reading a book, they are reading the book, they are not doing 17 Other things, they might be listening on audio, that’s a whole other animal, because that’s, I can’t read something there. But from a physical book, or a Kindle book, it’s that you have to be reading it. And whereas when somebody is scrolling LinkedIn, on the toilet, they’re doing other things at the same time. So you are up against so much noise, when you are posting things on social media or sending out emails, you’re up against more competition than when you have their undivided attention. And so that’s got to be sure, it’s got to be easier to understand. And it’s not to say that the people on social media are not intelligent. Of course they are. They’re busy. And our minds are not 100%. I mean, we might be scrolling Facebook, but we’re also watching bridgerton.

Nicole Laino 

Yeah, well, and they also they didn’t choose it, they choose your book, you I chose to download it, if whether it was free or paid, or I bought it, whatever I did, I made a choice. And I said that sounds good. I’m gonna buy that I’m gonna make make it a point to read this, listen to it, whatever. Whereas like, versus an algorithm just serving it up in the stream of 1000s of others of other posts. Can I ask you a question? Because you brought up LinkedIn, you brought up Instagram? What’s the difference between the two content wise? Do you change the tone? Do you change the format? Do you change the graphics? What are you changing for those those two platforms? Or are you saying no, we have a consistent message and we feel like that works?

Melanie Herschorn 

In a nutshell, the ladder because your message is your message right? Now I’m not going to go suggest that what you let’s let’s go back to Facebook is more family friendly, and fun. And you’re on Facebook after hours, blah, blah. LinkedIn is 24/7 networking for business. Right? So would I recommend posting a picture of your plate of spaghetti on LinkedIn echo? Because people are gonna be like, Why are you putting this year? Yeah, I

Nicole Laino 

don’t want to see your food.

Melanie Herschorn 

And then that’s going to be like, not good. Right? It’s getting noticed for the wrong reasons. But the messaging No, I copy paste across all all platforms because I’m always writing short. And to the point. That doesn’t mean like, like short, I mean, short sentences, you’re gonna have paragraphs long, that’s fine until Instagram cuts you off on the number of words you can put but right But ideally, every post is going to have some it’s going to have this basically fall into the the anatomy of a post which which if I may tell you is a hook. Maybe then you talk about the problem. You give reasons why you’re the authority, you provide a solution, and then you give a call to action. And that’s universal. Maybe that won’t work on tick tock, but that’s a whole lot. Right? But, you know, if you’re, if you’re saying, you know, can I post across platforms, you know, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook and post the same words, I would endorse that, especially since we don’t have time re working things across platforms and spread so thin, I would even say, pick your one, your one platform and really hone in on that and learn all the great things about that one platform.

Nicole Laino 

Well, and I feel like this is what stops a lot of people from creating content consistently and doing it in a bigger way, is that they think they need to be everywhere, they think that they need to be doing it every day, they and they build it up to be bigger. One because it’s, it’s safer to do that. If you make it so big that you can’t do it, and you don’t have time that you don’t do it. And then you’ve you’ve successfully made it seem plausible for you to like, like a good reason for you to not do the thing that scares you. But, but I think that people tend to overcomplicate it, tend to make it where it’s like, well, I have to have the right schedule, I have to have all of this, I have to, I have to do this kind of post this day. And then this day, I have to do this type of posts and has to lead to this. How do you see that? When you’re I mean, obviously, in a perfect world, we love all of that we love to have things laid out? Well, how important is that? What do you prioritize the most when you’re working through a content strategy with someone, whether it’s an author or just just a regular coach?

Melanie Herschorn 

I think the first thing we have to do is start. I like to make it out. You know, people are like, well, what are you really good at? And I’ll say, boiling things down. I really like big concepts and just like say, oh, so what you’re saying is this. So in that sense, it’s the same thing. Let’s start. And I never want to overwhelm people, because like you said, you overwhelm people, that’s sure bet they’re not going to start. So I’d say, Let’s try once or twice a week, let’s try posting once or twice a week, I actually did this with a client this week, she wrote her first post. And she was so nervous. And now she’s so excited, because it actually posted and people are responding to it. And that kind of feedback is going to give her the courage and the confidence to do it again. Right? But if you’re if you start just, you know, spraying content, and nobody’s doing anything in response, you’re gonna feel like, Oh, what am I doing, I’m wasting my time, I should stop, oh, I’m embarrassed and you know, all the all the head trash so that we don’t, that we don’t need. So I say try once or twice a day with a plan to build up to three times a week. And then you got to figure out where do you need to be? Where are where’s your ideal client, or your ideal reader or your oil, ideal customer hanging out? Like, if they’re not on Instagram, you don’t need to be there doing, you know, dancing and pointing on reels. You don’t need to be doing that if your people aren’t even there. That’s just silly. So do you remember when everybody like dropped everything to join clubhouse, and people with Android phones, were buying Apple iPads just so they could get on clubhouse? And I kept saying, I don’t like this platform like this, I think we create just disappears. And I’m such a visual learner that I can’t even go on Zoom calls. If the person shuts their video off. I don’t know what they’re saying, because I need help moving in order for me to really like, take in what they’re saying. I was like, this is miserable listening to two hours of I don’t even know what because I can’t tell you what somebody said five seconds ago. And then what happened everybody, you know, it was like, they went running this way. And they’re like, oh, wait a second. Maybe this isn’t such a great platform. And then they went running back. And you know, of course, they’re they’re going to be devotees to that platform. But you don’t have to keep jumping from one to the next. Right?

Nicole Laino 

Well, and I think that like with clubhouse, the people were jumping because you got reach, you could get known pretty quickly. There was a way for you to I think it was people felt like I could position myself as an authority here. I can. There was such a there was there was such a generous nature to it. In the beginning of people like let’s host rooms together. Let’s do this together. And connections and alliances were formed and people were like, oh my god, I found my people. And people are coming to hear us talk and I think it was very exciting. But then after a while if you didn’t get the growth if you didn’t get it people just kind of trickled away because the truth was, if I’m not getting what I need out of this, then I’m going to go elsewhere. The people who have been people are still on And that people are still using it, and doing really well with it. It’s a great platform for the right person. For me, and I think like in analyzing that statement of go where your people are, go where your ideal client is, you know, where are you building relationships? And where are you driving people back to, and make sure that like, I send everybody to Instagram from this show, from the podcasts that I do. And from speaking events, people just naturally look for me there. So I do feel like there’s, it’s, it’s beneficial and necessary for me to have a presence there that I consider strong. So I make it a point. But I’ve also let go of it having to be perfect. It having to look perfect, it having to be like, Oh, reels are big, or this is happening, I do it if I feel connected to it. And I don’t if I don’t, if I don’t feel like creating a real. I’ve been through that feeling like going scrolling through what sound am I going to use? What am I going to do? How am I going to make this fit me? And it’s like, well, if I really want to do just get the algorithm juice out of the fact that it’s a real, I’ll just talk to it, like a video. And I’ll make it 17 seconds, and hope for the best and see what happens, right and

Melanie Herschorn 

you stopped shooting all over yourself. I should, I should do that. And we have to stop doing that. And that’s I mean, that’s the I love social media because of the connections you can make. But I also wish social media didn’t make people feel all that pressure of having to do what the other person is doing. Which brings us back to the point of cookie cutter, you can’t do what other people are doing and expect to get the same result. So to your question of, you know, what should you do, I would say, try going on your ideal platform three times a week and doing something and figure out whether you like writing, or whether you like going live for me it’s video all day, every day, I go live three times a week on LinkedIn, and Facebook and YouTube because they’re all connected through my stream yard account. Nice. And I can talk at my face. And I’m just looking at my face thinking wow, I did my hair so well today. No. And you know, I just I love chatting at people and with people who who comment so but maybe like live video terrifies you and you don’t want to have to put on clothes. Fine, write something fantastic. The thing that is really going to move the needle though, is consistency. And I call that the granny panties of marketing. Because it’s necessary, but at eight six unsexy

Nicole Laino 

Yes, for sure.

Melanie Herschorn 

And we think of marketing guru marketing. So excited. Yeah. But if you are showing up consistently, you are gonna see that people start to expect to have you there. And they really start to resonate with what you’re putting out. And that’s gonna make a difference for you.

Nicole Laino 

And I know people say this all the time, but it is the truth. People are watching that you don’t know or watching people are people. Everybody that buys from me is a lurker, like I don’t know that they’re I don’t I have no idea. Usually, that people are in my sphere. I’ll see people watching my stories, but there are a lot of people that watch them. But like never comment, never make any sort of don’t Don’t, don’t make their presence known at all. And then suddenly I get a so I’ve been following you for a long time. And I was wondering if you could tell me about that, about that, that offer. That’s why I love putting up at least a couple of offers that just say message me for details. Because it’s like, you’ve got to show me who you are. And that’s kind of my first call to them to is just being like, be brave. Ask, if you’re interested, ask step out, see what see what’s here for you, rather than just clicking a link, and then making a judgement and clicking away.

Melanie Herschorn 

fills my heart. Nicole, I love this. I love that you do that. And yeah, letting people know what you have to offer. That’s something that that entrepreneurs are sometimes afraid to do. But it’s okay.

Nicole Laino 

And make it an exercise I did. I did a challenge back in January. That was awesome. Where it was really just about putting stuff out there every day. Like it’s about you stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s about you getting into the energy of things can work and acting from that place and allowing whatever happens to happen. And people made so much money during this challenge because they were they were just going after it. They’re like oh my god, I can’t believe it. Someone wrote back and I’m like it happens. You made an offer. I want you to realize how many times you don’t that you just put things up there and you say like well they’ll reach out if they’re interested. Nobody you didn’t even ask them to reach out to you. You’re just like you know, you can’t every call to action can’t be dropping emoji. Like, sometimes you’ve got to, you’ve got to ask for a bit more, you got to let people know you’ve got something, something to offer. And you know, you touched on it before about, about being an authority and showing up as an authority, like I’m piecing this together. But that being like everybody else does not make you an authority, it makes you forgettable.

Melanie Herschorn 

I agree it does. Because there’s, let me say this, you as a person knew the listener, you are unique. There’s no one in the world, like you who’s had your exact experience, who has your exact skill set, and who has your exact mission. And you don’t have to have had some horrible traumatic thing happened to to make a business. I used to think that I used to think that it had like a fiery car crash in order to have a mission. Oh, you too.

Nicole Laino 

Me too. I thought that too. I was like, my life hasn’t been bad enough. Like I haven’t, I wasn’t, I wasn’t like physically abused. I wasn’t like I had bad things happen, but they’re not compared to this person. So I don’t have this, like rising from the ashes story

Melanie Herschorn 

to share. We’re not, we might not all be the Phoenix. But that’s so interesting that you had the exact experience, because this is our first time ever having a conversation. And, and yet, we had the exact same experience, which pushed us both down. And so let’s make this end here today. It doesn’t have to be, you know, a phoenix rising from the ashes for your story to matter. Because you have amazing things that you can talk about. And you have a mission, and you have the authority in your space, but you have to let people know, and always come from a place of service.

Nicole Laino 

And a and a place of strength, own your shit. Yeah, then the bad, the good and the bad, own at all. Own the ugliness own the fear, the minute you do, you’re free to embrace your gift. You can’t until then, because that voice is just going to be so loud pointing. It’s distracting you from the gift, because it’s pointing to all the things that you don’t like about yourself. This is how the self love thing works. When you start loving all the pieces of yourself and you say screw it, this is who I am. And, and this is my story, no matter what happened. And I’m going to I’m going to own all of it. The fear, it’s like you just silenced that negative voice. You made it smaller than you. And every time you do it, you make it a little bit smaller and you grow a little bit bigger. It’s beautiful. I love it. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing everything that you shared with the audience. I am so excited. I love this conversation. And I love talking about this because I do believe that your voice is the most important tool in your business. Like there’s there’s all of these other things that we put stress on, but it stems from your voice, it stems from owning your message. And so I love this conversation. And I thank you for coming here and having it with us. Can you tell everybody where they can stay in touch with you? I know we have some links and things to give out. We’ll link all of it up in the show notes. But where can they find you?

Melanie Herschorn 

Absolutely. Well, of course, I’m on all the platforms, because of course, you know, you got companies called VIP digital content. But I do have a couple of gifts for your listeners. Yes. So I have a free content calendar that you can grab. So you can start planning that content, even if it’s one day a week, no pressure. And that’s you can grab that at VIP digital dot live slash content calendar. And for those who are authors or aspiring authors, I have your ultimate Book Marketing Checklist available for you. And that’s at VIP digital dot live slash checklist.

Nicole Laino 

Awesome. And you can find her on Instagram, LinkedIn will link up all of those links in the show notes so you can go and find her. I am thank you so much. I’m so grateful to you for being here, Melanie. And I’m grateful to you listener for making it all the way to the end of this episode being part of this conversation. We love you. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. But I want you to remember as I always want you to remember that you are only limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations. That is when you become limitless. So go out there and be limitless people. I’ll see you next time.