by Amy | Sep 8, 2022 | brand strategy, vocal brand
There are a lot of small businesses out there. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses make up 99.7% of all businesses in the United States! So how do you make sure that your small business stands out from the rest? By implementing some simple branding tips that most small businesses don’t do but should!
In this blog post, we will discuss 10 Things Most Small Businesses Don’t Do, But Should — both online and offline:
- 360 Degree Virtual Tours Inside of Your Business. This may seem like a strange place to start, but when you put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer, you realize that they may want to see what your place looks like inside — especially if they’ll be spending more than a few minutes inside your business for say, getting their hair done or working out. Doing a virtual tour can help them see what your business looks like and save them and you time before they come in and do business with you. While Google did, at one time, have a feature you could use to provide such a tour on your business listing, this is no longer provided. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t create your own and host it on your site!
- Selfie Wall. Everyone is out there doing selfies, right? Why not capitalize on the selfie craze and create a selfie wall for your customers to take photos when they come and go from your business location? But don’t stop there!
- Actively Ask for and Reward Reviews. And if you’re smart, combine the review ask with the selfie wall and create an incentive for them to do it often when they do business with you. Have some kind of board up near your selfie wall giving them step by step instructions. 1. Take a selfie, 2. Post it and tag our business on Instagram and 3. Share a review of your experience on Google/Yelp/Facebook Page and get entered for a chance to win a free or discounted product or service! The caveat here is don’t wait for them to remember to do it. Ask them to do it and make it part of their experience with you!
- Host Community Events. This one may need some brainstorming, but it’s really an age-old concept that the pros have used for generations. Plan an event, invite people to the event, provide food and/or beverages and use that time to help your customers 1. get to know you, 2. talk about pain points people are facing 3. offer your solutions to those pain points and 4. have fun!
- Do Instagram & Facebook Stories & Lives. The #1 area most small businesses and big brick and mortar businesses actively avoid — especially if they are a traditional business — is having an active social media presence. But, and I say this ever-so-gently, welcome to 2022 where most of the world is spending hours upon hours of their day on social media platforms! You have to go where your customers ARE, and that is online. Those who shy away from this assignment will not might get left in the dust.
- Educate via a Blog or Vlog While Using Affiliate Links. Again…I know this is asking a lot of you, but if you aren’t blogging about how your business can serve your ideal client and educating them, how do you think they are going to build rapport with you and trust your expertise? And every industry can do this! If you’re a hair stylist, write a short blog post or film a short vlog about some area of styling your hair or the latest trend. If you are a realtor, write a short blog post educating your potential client about new trends in kitchens or mortgage rates. If you are a mechanic, write a short blog post about the top areas you need to have tuned up before winter on your car. And do it WEEKLY! Maybe you say, “But I can’t come up with that much content!” I call B.S. You talk about it. You do it daily in your work. Just tell the general public about it and build rapport. Yes, it takes work. Yes it takes effort. Yes it takes getting home from a long day and doing something other than zoning out with a cold beer in front of Netflix. But is it worth it? Absolutely!
- Use a QR Code. Boy, didn’t QR codes have a come back over the past 2 years? But it also showed us how they can be used effectively and how our businesses need to pivot and utilize them more often! If you are slow to catch the wave of the QR code and how it can benefit your business, let me break it down. Think of the QR code as a special code that leads your customer directly to your subscribe form, your listing, your booking calendar, your product page, your Facebook or Instagram page, where they can leave a review or wherever you want to take them. If you showcase this on your business card, your store front, your packets and anyplace where you want them to take action. This will give them direction and help them not have to work too hard to do business with you — which will, in turn, help them spend more money with you!
- Regular and Meaningful Posting. This is an area where I see people struggle so much, but it’s such an easy problem to remedy. Simply create a content calendar based on your business’s events, upcoming sales, promotions, products, services and take a few hours at the end of every month to create the content for the following month. You can easily schedule engaging posts that will trigger your audience to click the likes, follow you and comment on what you post rather than simply ignoring it because it means nothing to them. Nothing makes me more frustrated than seeing posts from businesses like, “Happy Fall!” or a cat meme. Stay with who you are (your brand voice) and what you know. We want specific content that is aligned with your niche — not the breakfast you had with your wife at a restaurant on Sunday. If you do want to post that kind of content, do it on your personal Facebook profile — not on Instagram or your business page. Pretty please! (trying to be nice…but firm here.)
- Community Engagement. One of the best things you can do for your business is give your customers or potential customers a place to interact with each other while working toward the same goal. In my humble opinion, every business needs an online or offline community where your people can gather together and you can be their guide. This can be a Facebook group, a Mighty Network Community, a forum on your website or a monthly or quarterly in-person event, but it does need to happen to create camaraderie. It places you in a position of expert and allows you to bring all your people together in one place. Example: Professional Photographer hosts a Facebook group where she goes live weekly and talks about the benefits of having your baby photos professionally done. This may also be where she showcases her latest work, provides affiliate links for baby gear sales, baby clothing shops and diaper companies. Do you see where I’m going with this?! Options are ENDLESS!!
- Email and Text Campaigns. One cannot emphasize this enough, but if you haven’t already done so, BUILD. YOUR. LIST. Don’t wait for Facebook to shut down and lose all your contacts. Don’t wait for Instagram to stop showing your posts to your followers. Build your list now and actively communicate with your list on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Talk to them about a new improvement coming up, something you learned this week, a recipe you just wanted to share, a tip you know they need to hear, a sale you’re promoting, a special session you’re about to open up…you get the gist. But do anything but stay silent. Keep them in the loop, let them know you care and they will reward you with coming back again and again.
These are all great tips, but if you really want your small business to stand out, you need to go above and beyond with your branding efforts.
Does all this take work?
You bet it does.
It’s going to require you to rethink and rework your business hours for sure.
But, I believe, like anything good, the hard work will pay off!
If you are struggling to get people in the door, this will bring you more leads.
If you are struggling to keep people coming back, this will create loyal fans.
If you are struggling to know what your ideal customer wants, this will help you find out and give it to them.
One of the benefits about doing this kind of leg work is, you will learn so much that you will want to share your secrets with other businesses who are limping along.
But the best part of it is, it will help you create a strong brand voice for your small business that will stand out amongst your competitors — especially, if you stick to these principles:
– Be authentic: Don’t try to be something that you’re not. Be genuine and honest in your communications with potential customers.
– Be clear: Make sure that your messaging is clear and concise. Avoid using industry jargon or “fluff” words that don’t add anything of value.
– Be consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to branding. Find your voice, your colors, your fonts and overall design of your brand and then use it in all of your marketing materials — both online and offline.
– Be different: Find a way to stand out from your competition. What makes you unique? Why should potential customers do business with you instead of someone else?
By following these tips, you can start to create a strong brand voice for your small business that will help you stand out from the rest!
What other tips do you have for small businesses when it comes to branding?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
by Amy | Aug 31, 2022 | brand strategy, Speaking, vocal brand
Just a little over two years ago, I began working with an incredible coach, Danelle Delgado, who said the words, “Be anything but silent.” over and over again throughout her group coaching. Even though I had run my own voice studio, been a businessperson for a number of years and studied marketing for breakfast, those four words hit me like a ton of bricks when she would say them. Even though I knew what I had to offer, and I was accustomed to creating beautiful graphics and posts and even occasionally, although inconsistently, going live, I realized in that moment that I was prone to being silent about my business and what I truly had to offer the people who needed me.
Over the course of my entire life from as far back as I can remember there has been this very strange dichotomy between being overtly bold and vivacious and shrinking back, withdrawing and being silent. I partially attribute this quirkiness to my late Grandma Madelyne who could equally embody being the life of the party telling jokes and laughing loudly or the biggest curmudgeonly, hermit you’ve ever want to meet — depending on the day or sometimes even the time of day. I also partially blame the fact that I went to a very strict private school that didn’t allow us to talk EVER, was made fun of for being fat by the skinniest stick of a girl in class, lost my sweet Aunt Georga to cancer and developed a condition where I pulled my eyelashes out as a stress response, all within a short timespan of a few months during 4th grade. I’ve since blocked out much of this memory, but what I do remember is that I went from being a normal, sweet, often chatty and extremely confident little girl without any fear to a very sheepish, embarrassed and moody little mess all within just a few short months, and it was very difficult to come out of that and feel brave enough to be who I was before that time for quite some time thereafter — or, if ever.
Regardless of my story, we all have reasons why we have been programmed to pull back and be silent. Perhaps your liveliness was not celebrated or tolerated, but instead, you were always told to be quiet, be less or that you were just too much. Maybe you were always shy as a kid, and breaking out of your natural, reserved state is a challenge for you. Or maybe, you have gone through some kind of trauma that took its toll on you and caused you to question your voice and wonder if what you have to say is really worth hearing, so it’s easier for you to just not say anything at all and hope that you will still be successful without having to talk or share your personality with the world.
Whatever the case may be, I want to remind you of a few key points that have helped me come out of my shell:
- You do have a voice — both figuratively as well as physically — and using it often is THE VERY BEST KNOWN CURE for the silence you’ve subjected your self to.
- If you have a brand/business, the world needs to hear about what you offer from you on a consistent basis.
- Using your voice and discovering your vocal identity go hand in hand.
- You aren’t the only one who has the issue of not feeling confident speaking, but you must heal and overcome it.
So, let’s start with the first key point:
1.You do have a voice and using it often is the best known cure for being silent.
Your voice is literally who you are. The fact that you have been silenced, regardless of how, is sad, but there’s no better time than now to start dipping your toe in the water and breaking your silence by just starting imperfectly and using your voice to talk about what you know, what you’re excited about, what struggles you’ve overcome and how you can help the people who are listening.
It’s true, and I’m here to tell you if I, a sheepish, hermit who struggles with speaking confidently and feeling like I have anything to contribute can get over my lack of confidence and be in front of a camera, on stage or speak on a podcast, you can too. It just takes the willingness to learn how to do it well and the courage to start messy.
2. If you have a brand/business, the world needs to hear about what you offer from you on a consistent basis.
This one may seem obvious to some, but it’s tough isn’t it? Maybe some days you’re totally feeling the boldness to go live or record and post that reel, but on other days, an effort like this may feel more intimidating, scary or like the effort isn’t paying off. I honestly see this issue often with entrepreneurs. On one hand, they really want to come out of their shell and be more vocal and visible, but on the other, they tend to want to retreat and let a few days pass before they get the urge to do it again.
I want to speak very strongly and firmly with you on this one, Friend. You have to be consistent. Period. No matter what. Your would-be customers/clients don’t really care that you just didn’t have it in you today. What they want to see and feel is not only value and predictability, but they want to be able to trust that you do what you say you’re going to do — that you are your word.
Over the course of the last couple of years, this message has really been driven home for me and taken seriously. Even though I have a longggg way to go in terms of consistency and really producing the caliber of content I would ideally love to be producing daily or weekly, I made a commitment in 2020 that there would not be a day that goes by where I wasn’t present in some way, shape or form on the internet. Sometimes, I get comments from people like, “Wow, you’re so consistent with your posting.” And my response is always the same, “I have to be. This is my job.”
Friend, it’s no different for you. If you are in sales, you have a business, you run a studio or you own a brand, then you have to be consistent (and clear about what you’re selling) because it’s your job!
3. Using your voice and discovering your vocal identity (your vocal brand) go hand in hand.
This is my favorite key point to discuss, but it held me back for so many years. How do you discover your vocal identity and find your brand? Do you do it by brainstorming who you are and what you want to be known for? No. Do you discover it by creating graphics with fun fonts? No. Do you discover it by meeting with a brand specialist who can help you pull it all together? Nope, again. You discover your vocal identity by using your voice. That’s right. The motion must be set. The structure must be in place. The action has to happen before the clarity comes. It sounds so counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But it’s true. We don’t set things into motion by thinking about them. I didn’t get my master’s degree in vocal performance by researching degrees. That was just a small step. The bigger, more significant steps were actually applying for the school, doing the audition, meeting with an advisor to determine my schedule, working my normal life around the class schedule, practice time, homework time, attending the classes and passing the tests. In other words, once I put one step into motion, the other steps became clear. And 5+ semesters, a lot of hard work and a few gray hairs later — Voila! I had a master’s degree!
This is the same for you. You may not know your true voice just yet. You may just be starting to put yourself out there and really speaking about what it is you know and how you can help people. But the more you do it, pretty or not, you are widdling down to the core of what you are about and what you want to be known for. But the action has to precede the clarity on how it’s all going to come together. It just doesn’t work any other way.
4. You aren’t the only one who has the issue of not feeling confident speaking, but you must heal and overcome it.
Sometimes, I think we subconsciously believe that our disposition is somehow different than the next person’s, and our situation is special and unique. Sure, you’re special! But you’re special in a good way, because your voice is yours and only yours. No one can duplicate it. No one is exactly like you! But let me reassure you about something and let the cat out of the bag in case you are confused or wondering: Nobody feels completely at ease with who they are, how they speak and what they offer. Nobody. Yes, some people might be more polished at speaking and hide their insecurities better, but I can assure you that no one is exempt from the insecurities you are facing when it comes to your voice and what you have to offer anyone who might hear you speak. We all, including myself, have a great deal of healing and we all, including myself, suffer from anxiety when it comes to going live, speaking and being more visible. Why is that the case? Because it’s our human nature to want to be liked, to want to be approved of and not feel discomfort. It’s our human nature to not want to be judged or in the spotlight and vulnerable. Most of us want to be hidden and safe — away from harsh judgment and naysayers who might pick us apart and criticize who we are and what we are doing. There are very few people in this world who straight up don’t care what others think, and those that are out there probably aren’t running their own business or speaking to people for a living.
But, here’s the deal: you have it in your heart to help people and you can’t be silent and help those who need you. You just can’t. Another quote from my coach is, “Who loses if you don’t win?” And I want to ask you that right now: Who loses if you don’t win? Who loses if you decide to stay silent? Who loses if you are too embarrassed to go live today and talk about what you offer? Who loses if they don’t hear from you, but they hear from someone else who’s just a little louder and get screwed over?
I’m here to say that a LOT of people lose if you don’t get brave and start the journey of discovering your vocal identity right now. And there’s no better place to be than right here with me, Friend. Whether you are a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 and have never put yourself out there, but you know you have something to say and need to or you are a 9 and you have spoken quite a bit but just don’t like the way you sound and feel like something is missing or keeping you from connecting to your audience, The Vocalpreneur can help you!
This September, in just a couple of short weeks, we’ll be releasing our monthly membership community where you can learn and grow with likeminded Vocalpreneurs who recognize their need for showing up consistently and using their voices to offer value to their clients and generate neverending leads to their business! Will you be joining us? Let me know in the comments and I’ll get you some information!
Remember the phrase, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil?” Well, I’m here to tell you that the louder business owner gets the customer.
Decide. Commit. Take action. The rest will come once you do those three things in order.
by Amy | Aug 25, 2022 | brand strategy, vocal brand
It’s like clockwork. Every time I walk into a small business or do business with someone, I instinctively anticipate what separates this business/this person from another one down the street. I may not actively and consciously think about it, but my mind immediately goes to the same questions: What exactly do they offer? How do they stand out in the community as the “go-to” place that people rave about? What is their “wow factor” and what’s going to make me tell my friends and neighbors about them? If I can’t find the answers to those questions pretty quickly, or I can’t quite wrap my head around the point of their business and why I should choose them over their competitors, I quickly lose interest and either forget about them or actively move on. There are few exceptions to how this plays out in my mind. And while I can’t speak for most consumers and their thought-process, I would estimate that, whether they are consciously thinking about it or not, they are processing the businesses they patronize in the same way.
These questions we ask ourselves when we step into a brick and mortar or go online to buy or set up an appointment influence our buying behavior. Will we gladly trust this person…this business and give our hard-earned money to them? Or will we shy away and hesitate before we open up our wallets?
Unfortunately, and more often than not, I am completely underwhelmed as a consumer by part or all of my experience when I walk into a business for the first time. Perhaps, this comes from living all over the world and experiencing the very best, cohesive brands that make me want to come back again and again (typically in large, thriving cities where there’s more competition as well as up and coming consumers who dictate behavior), and many times, the very worst unbranded businesses (in smaller, less robust communities) that make you wonder how they are still even open. Usually, however, the differences I experience are fairly minimal from one brand to the next, and the necessary improvements that would help a business stand out and thrive are straightforward, simple ones that can be learned and implemented rather easily.
So, what are the wow factors every single business (from big to small, from sole proprietors to LLCs and corporations) should be implementing to help them stand out from the rest? While those may vary slightly from one type of business to another depending on the needs of the consumer, and there are many facets of business to consider, I want to address the marketing side of things since it’s my favorite part — and in my humble opinion, just as every movement from the stage before you sing is part of the performance — EVERYTHING customer facing IS marketing!! That said, I have found some common threads that make really successful businesses outperform their competitors by a long shot, and I’d love to share them with you here. You may agree or disagree, and that’s OK, but this is my opinion as a small business brand strategist and educator.
So, let’s get this list underway, shall we?
- EDUCATION. This is a big one. The businesses that are way ahead of the game in terms of what to offer and how to set up shop can no longer rely on success of their predecessors or base their SOP (standard operating procedure) on what others in their industry are doing. While this may be true for how to make pasta or pastries like my grandmother used to do back in Italy, this is no longer the case for how you operate your business and market it to the world if you truly want to do more than just survive. As we know, things are constantly changing, and the way you present your business, gain visibility, acquire and retain customers should be changing as well. If you’re not educating yourself and your staff about the changes needed to uplevel your business, you may maintain status for a while, but you will eventually fall behind and become obsolete and archaic.
- CLARITY. What do you offer? Who is your ideal customer? Where does your ideal customer currently go for the same service you offer? How can you serve them better than your competitor? All of these factors are crucial as you brainstorm your brand strategy and clarify your brand voice. Some old school folks might think a lot of this is mumbo jumbo or even redundant when it comes to their business and won’t take the time to do it. “Well, it’s clear what I do — I cut hair…I sell insurance…I’m a realtor…why do I need to think about all this?” But in this day and age, people need to distinguish your business from the rest and the clearer you can get about who you serve and how you serve them, the better. Think of it as a light in the fog. You are pulling back the curtains to your business and unveiling it like Apple unveils it’s new and improved iPhone every few months. Your ultimate goal is that you want them to see all your benefits and have complete assurance that your business is THE ONE they will come to. It’s that simple.
- SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY. You may love it or hate it, but the brands that are currently thriving in communities all over the world are doing so with a clear social media strategy to attract more clients and guide them to their business over others in their community. Instead of resisting this change to the climate of advertising and marketing with print ads, business cards, mailers, flyers and brochures that were and are costly for the business and unwanted clutter for the consumer, they are embracing their free visibility and brand identity on social media as a positive, inexpensive way to communicate their business and understand their customer needs and profiles in a more intimate, insightful way. Do you think understanding this gives them a leg up? I sure do!
- INTIMACY. Speaking of which, the next and final way I see high producing brands and businesses stand out from their competitors is by taking the time to get to know their potential clients/customers and understand what they are needing. Now, before you get the wrong idea about what I’m saying, let me clarify: the word intimacy simply means “close familiarity or friendship; closeness.” And through the channels of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, NextDoor, etc…) as well as email and text, we can accomplish that closeness by forming bonds with our potential clients in a way that traditional advertising and promoting our corporate labels all over the place can’t do. We can take surveys, do polls, ask questions, give answers, provide insight, take requests, say thank you, provide valuable, informative content and help our clients in a way that no other form of marketing has ever been able to do before — and we can do it en masse and reach thousands of would-be customers in one click of a button!
If you are reading this and thinking, “Oh, I love all this and need it, but I’m so far IN my business that I just don’t have time to implement any of it!” I want you to take a step back and breathe. By no means, am I suggesting you have to do all this immediately…or on your own! But I do want you to take it seriously and understand how your brand voice needs to stand out and be set apart from your competitors in order for you to 1. have a FULL client roster and neverending leads, 2. scale your business beyond your wildest imagination and 3. (optional, but highly suggested) teach others in your field how to do the same!
Wouldn’t it be great if your marketing SOP was just as set in stone and solid as your daily, monthly, quarterly operating procedure for your actual business is? Do you see even a glimpse of how this could help you long term?
If so (and I hope so!), I want to invite you to come along with me and learn how to develop your brand strategy that can quite literally SET YOU APART from the rest. My goal for you is neverending leads that not only continually do business with you again and again, but they are raving fans who tell the world (or at least your local community) about how great you are! Wouldn’t that be something? It’s possible. And it’s possible for you THIS YEAR in 2022!
If this post provided you value or if you have any questions about how you can work with me, I’d love to hear from you in the comments as well as have you share this content out with those in your industry who may need this as well.
Remember: the more you PROVIDE value, the more you BECOME invaluable to those who do business with you!
xo,
Amy
by Amy | Aug 9, 2022 | vocal brand
You know it to be true, don’t you? You can’t just throw spaghetti on a wall and hope it sticks when it comes to your content. But more often than not, we get in a rut of not knowing what to post, and instead of digging our heels in and creating signature content that would consistently draw people to our brand’s voice, we keep putting off THE VERY ACTIVITY that helps us chorale all the moving pieces of our brand together and systematically deliver, not only effective content, but content that establishes our voice, our experience and our perspective every single week!
For the purpose of this post, I’m going to assume you have your brand somewhat nailed down. If not, no worries! We can explore all that in another post, because knowing who you are, who your customer is, what their pain points are and what you deliver to serve them is crucial when it comes to your brand and what you talk about the majority of the time. But also, doing this exercise might further shed light on what your brand should be about and help you go back and reconfigure your brand a bit, if need be.
So, assuming you are familiarized with that or at least have a good idea where you land, let’s skip to the good part, shall we?
creating your signature piece of content (SPC)
First of all, we want to ask the question: what will my signature piece of content be about? Let’s start by brainstorming a list of 52 things you can post about that specifically pertains to your brand, what your ideal client’s pain points are and how you can solve them. Why 52? Because there are 52 weeks in a year and you want to produce one piece of signature content every single week. If you are into baking, that content would be comprised of different recipes you can bake, baking tips, types of baking equipment, why you love baking, etc… If you are a fitness trainer, that content would be 52 areas of fitness you can home in on like exercises for lower body, how to schedule your weekly fitness, what to look for in a fitness coach and foods you should avoid before or after working out. If you are a beauty consultant, the list would be comprised of beauty tips, product recommendations or resources you can share. If you are a realtor, it would be 52 different areas of home buying, home selling, financial tips and things to look for in a kitchen, bathroom or neighborhood you can share. You get the gist!
Write your list out as soon as possible. Don’t overthink it. We’ll put the list in order on the next step. Just get as specific as you can about things your ideal client might want to know about.
- 3 Things You Need to Look for When Thinking About Buying a Home
- 5 Ways to Raise Your Credit Score
- Top 10 Areas to Buy a Home in the Midwest
I want to encourage you to set aside time to get these ideas down very quickly. Why? Because you don’t want to keep posting haphazardly and miss ONE MORE MOMENT not reaching your ideal client and becoming an expert in their eyes. If you don’t have time right now, set aside an hour or two this week and make this list your top priority.
give your list a date
Once you’ve brainstormed an exhaustive list, organize the list in a way that it makes sense to you and put it on the calendar. Once you have this anchor of 52 content ideas, you can then get to work sliding those ideas into each week of the year. If you’re starting that list right now, in August, for instance, you can and should curtail the list to the seasons, life events, the holidays, current news and all things that might pertain to that time of year and have an impact on what you are talking about. This step is crucial because, then, it’s relevant to your viewers, readers and listeners. You might be able to move it around a little bit once you’ve made the decision where it should go, but I find it easier to just put it on the calendar and stick with it. Now you can start to build out your content and quit worrying about it. Again, don’t overthink it. You’ll get better at this by doing it!
- Week 1 (8/14) – Back to School Tips for New Home Buyers
- Week 2 (8/21) – Making Your New Home Holiday Ready
- Week 3 (8/28) – Staying Sane While House Hunting Around the Holidays
I love this so much, because no matter what your brand is about, you can easily have 52 topics to choose from and expand upon!
choose a day of the week to create your content
Do you see how we’re widdling down your obstacles one at a time? By now, you have explored what you can post about, you’ve written your list and you’ve given each signature piece of content (SPC) a date. But none of that matters if you don’t commit to a day and time where you can consistently create the content. Maybe you create your content every Sunday evening at 6pm or maybe it’s Tuesdays at 6am. Maybe you set aside the first Wednesday of every month to batch your content for the following month or you book a hotel room for a weekend once every quarter to batch for 12 weeks at a time. How and when you do it doesn’t matter. It only matters THAT you do it.
Disclaimer: The first couple of times that you set time aside to work on your content will be hard. You will second-guess yourself. You may even wonder if what you’re doing is really worthwhile or this content topic you’ve chosen for this week is even relative to your potential client. Do it anyway. Second guessing is natural. We all do it. The distractions and frustration are part of the process. We’ll talk about that in other post, but here’s what I want to remind you: If it were easy, everyone would do it. You’re not everyone.
weaving your SPC into your weekly posts
Once you’ve created your SPC (signature piece of content) in a place like a blog, a vlog on YouTube or a podcast, now you can use that content to branch out and sprinkle across all your social media channels in various forms. The challenge is not where you should post, but more: where are your ideal clients hanging out? If you don’t know, test it and see!
So how does this play out?
Let’s say your blog post this week is about Getting Kids Back to School Ready since, as I write this, we’re in the dog days of summer staring down the barrel at the first day of school. Once you write that content or do a video or a podcast episode about it or all 3, you’re going to then create snippets of that content on reels over on Instagram. You’re going to talk about it in your stories, you’re going to share ideas on Facebook throughout the week (including a Facebook Live with a Call to Action and Lead Magnet) and if you’re super fancy, you’re going to weave it into a Pinterest post people can save or a LinkedIn post that pertains to working parents.
See how this works?
becoming the authority in your space
I hope, by now, this is making sense to you and you are understanding how you can become an authority in your space and develop your vocal brand by planning ahead and creating engaging content that your specific audience needs. I also hope, by now, you realize what the disconnect might be with the content you are currently posting and your audience’s response to it. And I hope that, by now, you can clearly see the importance of offering themed, value-driven and regularly delivered content that you can pull from in order to draw people into a storyline and help them see the clear value of what you offer and why they need it.
where do you begin?
Whether you already own a domain name or you’ve never started a blog, I would definitely suggest having a blog or a place where you can share your ideas and bring together all your content in one place! You can start fairly basic and inexpensive and build upon it, but I would suggest you have something that is yours. If you know you aren’t a writer and a blog just isn’t for you, but you enjoy speaking, training or sharing, you can always start a YouTube channel, a Clubhouse room or even host your own podcast. Nowadays, there are so many options and ways people can find you, so don’t get caught up in what or where, just start producing content and putting it out there. I highly suggest figuring it out as you go!
final thoughts
The take away I really want you to have with this is to just say no to posting random content and once and for all, get really really clear on what you have to offer. Don’t just show up and post things that get likes or comments! That’s OK sometimes, but I want to encourage you to become the expert, go-to person in your field or space! Chances are, if you are reading this and in my circle, you already know your calling is higher than where you currently are. There’s no shame in beginnings, my friend. And there’s certainly no shame in starting small and building. But I want to urge you to GO NOW and build your vocal brand by creating your signature piece of content every week and sharing that content out to the world! And we at The Vocalpreneur are here to help you do that!
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our vocal newsletter and jump in and join us inside the vocal lounge over on Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
by Amy | Jul 31, 2022 | Singing
This may seem out of the blue for some of you who follow me and read my content about speaking, but I have worked with singers, choirs and worship teams for over 20 years, and the topic of being an effective worship leader/team is near and dear to my heart and something I feel like I can speak about and add a bit of value to. After all, a vocalpreneur is not only someone who speaks for a living, but one who sings for a living as well.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to not only gain insight to worship teams through the lens of the congregation, but also from the perspective of fellow team member, and I have some thoughts I’d love to share. I suppose I haven’t shared these views openly over the years, because I was entrenched within a congregation and felt that they wouldn’t be received well or they would be taken as a personal attack. However, now I’m in the great disposition of having just moved and not a current member of a church congregation, but visiting various churches and witnessing the EXACT SAME issues I’ve been privy to over a long career of church attendance and music ministry — both professionally and as a lay church member.
Before I dig in, I want to state, first and foremost, that this comes from a place of love and a humble realization that I have not worn and lived in the shoes of a worship leader. I have a great deal of respect for what they do and how much pressure is put on them by 1. the congregation and 2. the leaders of the church to do their job well. Not only that, but many times, if not most of the time, worship leaders wear many hats and are also in charge of other responsibilities and roles within a church that prevent them from doing any one role to the fullest. This is definitely the case in newer churches and churches that are running on a lean staff where each person has many many responsibilites and roles within a role.
That said, I wanted to share some thoughts I have had throughout the years that might help worship leaders and their teams, but also work to perhaps even equip people within a congregation to spot issues that may not be working and have more of a leg to stand on when they go to speak to leadership about them. And notice I said “speak” and not complain. I believe we can productively address issues without being a Karen, and I want you, the reader of this post, to think very carefully about how you want to present your challenges with the current situation in a way that is humble and results-driven rather than making assumptions and portraying any thoughts you may have as simple and easy to resolve. Because none of them are.
Without further adieu, here is a condensed list of best practices for the worship leader/team I’ve had on my heart to share, and I hope and pray they are received as I mean them: in love and utmost respect.
- INCLUDE THE CONGREGATION: I can’t express this enough. Far too many times, as I go and visit different churches, I see the worship team up there on stage doing their thing and I see the congregation standing and observing like it’s a rock concert. They aren’t participants. They aren’t worshipping. They are merely observing others worship – or appear to. This drives me UP A WALL, not only as a Christian who wants to be an active participant in worship, but also as a fellow singer. When I’m not included in worship, I look at my family and we get up and leave. Period. There is no excuse for this. And it can be remedied fairly easily. (see below)
- HIRE A 3RD PARTY TO HEAR YOU: All too often, the sound man is a volunteer who knows nothing about balance or one of the team members goes out into the audience to give feedback. The problem with either of these methods of feedback is they are either uninformed or biased. The unpaid “sound guy” might think it’s great compared to live venue concerts he enjoys going to or the worship team member might think it sounds great because it’s what she’s used to hearing. However, a hired 3rd party can have tough conversations and address imbalances in instruments, out of tuned voices and room acoustics. They can also be an invaluable, unbiased resource to help mitigate potential issues before they spiral out of control. And they will if not addressed.
- STOP INTRODUCING SO MANY NEW SONGS!! Just because you might be tired of a song as a worship team doesn’t mean your audience is. And I’d be willing to bet that JUST when you start feeling like a song is overdone, the congregation is just starting to catch on and feel at ease with it. I’m not saying don’t ever introduce new songs, but sprinkle them in gradually, repetitively over a few weeks or months. Don’t just spring a whole new set on a congregation and expect them to love the new songs as much as you do! We (the congregation) need familiarity so we can worship without having to think about the words and the melody. If you have some great songs in your set, rotate them out, and allow for memorization and meditation on them.
- STOP WITH THE ONE MAN/ONE WOMAN SHOW: I’ve never understood this phenomenon of the “one man show” — especially with regard to church and worship. We are all worshipping together as a congregation. You are just leading us to do that in harmony and rhythm with one another. Your responsibility should consist of pointing us upward — not to you. The one man show is overdone and it not only causes the audience to focus on you instead of the Holy Spirit, but it’s also a lot of pressure and responsibility — especially when you’d like to step away for a week or two and may need someone else to fill your shoes. Trust me when I say you do not want to become indispensable or irreplaceable. Have the whole team be on stage or better, disperse yourselves throughout the congregation in vertical worship. And if you must be center stage, you have to do that much more to point people’s eyes and ears to Jesus — not to you and your talent.
- CHOOSE MUSIC WISELY AND FILTER IT THROUGH A FINE-TOOTHED COMB. I understand that there are so many new songs out that you’d love to sing. Maybe they fit so well in your vocal range or you like how they segue seamlessly into the pastor’s message. But I want to warn you not to choose music based solely on public appeal, but upon the lyrics speaking the Word of God and glorifying Him rather than our experience of Him. This is a tough one to explain in a short post, but if you want more information on this, I’m happy to have a conversation and point you to some incredible resources on the subject of lyric validity within the church.
- SING IN VARIED KEYS (NOT JUST ONE). Far too often, I hear worship sets in one key. Maybe this is because of limited abilities of instrumentalists or perhaps and more often, it has to do with the vocal range of the lead. Whatever the case, let me just emphasize that neither of these issues should ever dictate the key, but rather, what is the comfortable range of the congregation. Remember, we are leading worship so that the congregation can be active participants — we are not showcasing our amazing talents. Within this same point, varying up keys within a set is more interesting audibly appealing to the listener.
- VARY UP THE STYLES. Ohhhhhh, this is a big pet peeve of mine!! We are all coming from different cultures, different backgrounds, different tastes in music, different generations (see guideline 10), so it should stand to reason that each and every piece of music sung should be selected with our differences in mind. Whether your congregation is made up of predominantly white families between the ages of 30-45 or your church is a melting pot of different cultures and generations, you need to be pulling songs in from all over the world and all periods of composition in order to speak to the awesomeness of God across borders and age groups. Suffice it to say, I am DONE with modern-day church “branding” and song selections taken from the same, overdone contemporary Christian bands. Take time out of your week or month to peruse what people are doing in other parts of the world or in other church services in your same church, and vary it up!
- TURN DOWN THE DARN VOLUME! I almost cussed here. Forgive me, Jesus. But OH MY HEAVENS, turn the volume down!!! This is especially necessary if you are meeting in a non-traditional church building or a school gymnasium. The acoustics in such places aren’t built for electric guitars and amped drums. They are built for basketball games. But even if you are in a traditional church, the volume can be almost deafening. Why????? I ask this question with the same amount of frustration as I ask why movie theaters have to be so cold. Why do we need the music to be so loud? I should write an addendum regarding how many times we’ve had to get up and leave because my kids couldn’t handle how loud the volume was. I can’t even imagine those wearing hearing aids. Playing and singing music loudly is NOT necessary, and again, you are supposed to be leading the congregation to worship upward — not look and listen to you! So, please, for the love of all that is holy, turn it down…a little further…not quite there yet…OK, now it’s better!
- REMEMBER THAT LESS IS MORE. When it comes to true, meaningful, heartfelt worship, less is more. I have attended anything and everything from small churches who meet in youth hostels in Europe to mega churches meeting in mega buildings in Texas, churches who meet at the YMCA and churches who have met in the same old building for over 60 years. What I have personally noticed and felt is this: less is always always always more. The ones that have challenged me and prompted me to a heart of worship the most are always, hands down, the simple, low budget teams that have nothing more than a few Kingdom-minded believers with sufficient talent, a feeble stage, a few instruments, some well-chosen songs and a heart to lead. All the other productions with laser lights, surfers on stage and smoke machines left me wanting for a more Christ-centered, meaningful moment, and I always felt like I needed to come home and have my own worship time thereafter.
- MAKE MULTIGENERATIONAL WORSHIP A PRIORITY. This goes without saying, however, the people who are choosing the music for worship are not in the two categories of people who need guided worship the most: the older generation and the children/youth. I know this is a tricky task, but it is not impossible to include all generations and be focused on making sure the 88 year old and the 18 year old can be worshipping simultaneously together in the same service and still come away from the service moved by the worship. We need not separate the older generation from the young to accommodate this. We need to, instead, be more focused on educating our congregation on historical worship and finding creative ways to integrate hymns of old with present-day, biblically-based modern hymns and leave the loud, hollowed out, sensational music that serves no one to the concert halls.
SIDENOTE:
In case you’re wondering, I do tend to get hot under the collar on these topics. ha ha! I have personally walked out of numerous churches, because there were too many obvious dysfunctional issues at play, and I have witnessed other God-fearing Christians walking away from the faith or unable to find a congregation to worship in because these issues weren’t addressed well or at all. If your leadership team isn’t addressing these issues, check yourself before you wreck yourself!
On the other hand, I have been so incredibly blessed to be amongst some truly anointed worship pastors who held high the grand responsibility of leading their congregation in spirit-led worship that points their congregation upward. Most recently, our church at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, TX, upheld this weighty task so well. I deeply miss our family’s church home, and still love attending their worship service from our living room on many a Sunday.
That stated, I will take this moment to reemphasize my deep respect for all worship leaders. But I would also love to encourage those reading to take great care to look at this more closely, really pull back from your current perspective and take a moment to address these common issues one step at a time.
As always…much much love to you if you are in this position. Please comment or like this post if it resonated with you!
xo,
Amy
