How Feedback Can Help You Shape Your Business & Lead to Business Success as a Solopreneur Ep 96

Discover how the often-overlooked power of feedback can revolutionize your business, a gem of wisdom I've leveraged through my recent coaching, webinars, and online programs. Listen in as I share the ways feedback can influence product success, customer perception, and the delicate art of marketing, ensuring your offerings resonate with the very heart of your target audience.

In an exciting blend of group coaching revelations and the potency of accountability, I share innovative strategies that promise not only to engage clients but to inspire action and measurable progress.

Learn about my online programs, 'Bootcamp with Brenda' and 'The Recipe for Social Selling on LinkedIn'—your pathways to mastering career transitions and the social selling landscape. 

Plus, seize the chance to chat with me and provide feedback on what's holding you back from using LinkedIn as a coach, and in exchange I'll provide you with a complimentary LinkedIn profile mini audit*, an exclusive offer that could redefine your professional presence online. Don't miss out on these actionable insights that could be the catalyst for your next big leap in the professional realm!

Offer details:

• You are currently a coach or consultant, or pivoting into becoming one this year
• You have a LinkedIn account and know your login
• Your primary social media for your coaching / consulting business isn’t LinkedIn. It’s IG or FB or maybe even TikTok or YouTube. But it’s not LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an afterthought. Or it intimidates you. Or it confuses you. 
• Your audience includes people who are business professionals

* Email me at brenda@mellermarketing.com for details. 

LinkedIn "Power Hours" (Single Session, x4, x12)
Each package includes: 

• LinkedIn consulting / coaching, personalized to your needs and focusing on your questions.
• Review of LinkedIn profile / company page to provide guidance / advice / recommendations

https://www.mellermarketing.com/powerhour 

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My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Visit mellermarketing.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
(click MORE to invite me to connect and mention you listened to my podcast)

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:49

On today's episode. I want to encourage you to start thinking about this, asking for feedback to help you to shape your business. Now, this episode was inspired by two things that happened to me recently. One is I had a coaching call with a client this week. We were talking about his LinkedIn profile and he's growing and evolving his business and he has a new name for a product and it caused me to kind of think about some things. I'll tell you more about that in a minute. The second thing is I'm working towards the next phase of my business, which is launching an upcoming webinar and an online course that I'll be doing, and I'm trying to reach new audiences by using different techniques.

Speaker 1: 1:30

So let me break each of these down first. First of all, the coaching call. Now, on this person's LinkedIn profile, he had the name of a product and it was an acronym, and I asked him to explain what the acronym meant and he told me and it was a bit different than what he described he was doing with the route of his business. So I told him my immediate reaction to it and we talked about it a bit, and I also added the caveat that I am not his ideal target audience. I'm not the person who would be interested in buying this product or service. So I said take this with a grain of salt. But here's my immediate reaction to the name and we talked about it a bit and I also shared that. You know, as a marketer, I do like to share feedback and I always ask for permission first when I'm speaking with my clients. Are you open to some feedback and I always like to share feedback. What's my immediate reaction as a marketer? Because that reaction can be similar to somebody from the outside looking in, somebody who's not familiar with you at all. And in this particular case, if you knew this person, if you knew the brand he was shaping, you probably would be familiar with what the end goal of this product is to be and maybe you'd overlook the name of that or you draw your own conclusions based on the description of the service that he's looking to offer. But again, I want you to keep in mind you know audience reactions and this can help to sell your product or service or it might drive them away if it's something that's not quite meeting what they are looking for. So that was the first thing and I'm not going to go into too much detail, but it did make me think about getting feedback before you go too far into the launch of a new product or service.

Speaker 1: 3:08

The other thing is, I mentioned I have an upcoming webinar and an online course launch and in this case, I'm really pulling you behind the curtain with me. If you think about the Wizard of Oz remember the guy behind the curtain and he pulls behind the curtain you can see everything that's going on and that's what I'm doing in here today. I'm breaking this down a little bit for you because I really want you to learn from me and to get inspiration from me and even maybe gain some insights along the way. So the webinar is called Getting Leads for your Coaching, consulting or Solo Printer in Business Using LinkedIn and, by the way, if you are interested fun fact registration is open. It's kind of in a quiet period right now, but you can go to my website, mellormarketingcom slash gettingleads all one word and you can check out the information.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Now there is definitely an art and a science to marketing webinars and course launches and you know this is something that I've had open for a few weeks just getting ready for it. It's actually been in my weekly event emails on LinkedIn, but I'm not going to start heavily promoting it until after Memorial Day Because part of this is creating scarcity and also giving people a time duration. That is prompting them to take behavior, because if you open it up too far in advance, people may not register. So I've started teasing it, but I'm going to really start promoting it heavily after Memorial Day and the webinars are actually the first. Two webinars are on, I believe, june 5th and 6th, and then I'm doing one more the week after that and at the end of the webinar I'll be introducing my new program, which is called the Recipe for Social Selling on LinkedIn. More on that later. But that's kind of my time frame where I'm at for promoting my webinar and this time going through. You know this is the. I think this will be the third launch I'll be doing for the Recipe and I think this will be the third launch I'll be doing for the recipe and what I'm trying to do is new techniques to reach new audiences and I've certainly been focused on list building over the past year and working on promoting the different lists that I have my checklist, you know, 15 profile tips for coaches and consultants. I have a company pages checklist I've got using LinkedIn as a speaker checklist, using LinkedIn as a podcaster checklist. So I've got different ways that I'm helping to reach people who have needs for LinkedIn and bring them into my email list, essentially so that I can communicate with them on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 5:27

But when I think about this, taking a step back both this coaching call that I had with my client in the past week and also my need to reach new audiences has really made me think about the power of feedback to help us as coaches, as consultants and even as course creators, to reach and to help our audiences. And right now, the feedback I'm getting comes in several ways and maybe you can relate to this. Some feedback I'm getting is just anecdotal feedback, and maybe you can relate to this. Some feedback I'm getting is just anecdotal feedback and it occurs during my coaching calls and you may have had these moments yourself as well. It usually occurs during the session itself. You are providing somebody assistance on something and they kind of repeat back and they say something like, wow, this was super helpful. Or maybe you're providing them some coaching and you're working on certain areas and they say you know what I really need is, and then that's the way you're getting some of this feedback is through those coaching calls. You might also be getting feedback when you're asking for it.

Speaker 1: 6:29

You're actually reaching out to your audience, either on a one-to-one basis or, like I do, through an email, and you're asking people to give you a testimonial or a LinkedIn recommendation or a review. And I actually do this with my one-to-one coaching clients, those that book a power hour or a VIP coaching session with me At the end of our series of coaching sessions working together. My last email to them I say hey, if this was helpful for you, I'd love if you could provide some feedback to me in the form of a testimonial. By doing so, you'll help me to get more visibility for my business and you're sharing your feedback with the public, and there's three ways I do that within an email. At the bottom of the email I say hey, you're going to get an email from Trustpilot in about a week asking you if you've worked with me and if you're satisfied with the service. So I kind of let them know it's coming up from you, from Trustpilot. By the way, that's a free service that Trustpilot offers. I highly recommend checking in.

Speaker 1: 7:22

It involves putting a BCC in the email when you send it out to them and then Trustpilot will email them a week later. I don't know how it works, I just know that it automatically works and it does generate some feedback. So that's one way. Another is through a LinkedIn recommendation, and in the bottom of the email I actually put instructions visit my profile, click on more and then click on recommend, and I put my LinkedIn URL to make it super easy for them. And the third way is by giving me a Google review, and I actually put the link that directs people right to the Google my Business page where they can provide a review. So I'm making it super, super easy. And I also say PS, if you're feeling super generous, you can do the same review in all three places, just copy and paste, and some people actually do it in all three places. Usually they do it in one, if any, but it is a way of soliciting for that.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Now, recently I started using video testimonials as well, and I actually had a friend who sent me an email and he used the very same service and I decided to look into it because it seemed pretty easy to do. It's essentially just clicking on a link and it opens up your video on your laptop and then you record the testimonial, and I'm using the free version right now. The service that I'm using is called Senja S-E-N-J-A. If you want to see it in practice, go to my website, go to mellermarketingcom slash subscribe and you can see. It'll say on here, video reviews wanted, and you can see there's a place to record a testimonial. This is all using the free version of Senja, and after I get a video review, I have the ability to download it or to embed that review on a specific webpage or landing page. So it's a really neat tool. I'm just starting to try this out. So far, I've got two testimonials and, by the way, the only way I remember the name of the service, to be quite candid is I go to Mellormarketingcom slash subscribe, where it's embedded on the page, and I can easily see it from there.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Okay, so again, there's four ways. I'm asking for feedback. You might want to think about doing the same as well Trustpilot, linkedin recommendation, google reviews, video testimonials. Now you might use other sites as well. Maybe you use Yelp reviews or you know different services that are out there, but those are the ones that I use. Okay, so I would suggest looking into those and then also sometimes someone will reach out and offer suggestions for improvement.

Speaker 1: 9:40

So, for example, I recently was asking members of the recipe program for their feedback, for their reviews, and in exchange I'm inviting them to the group coaching calls for the next cohort. And I had one person who said you know, love the program, always, love the feedback from you. I'm not quite getting the results I need for my business, but I'm not sure if it's me or if there's something that needs to change in the course. And this to me was like we need to jump on a phone call or a Zoom even better yet. And I did that. I said, hey, can we jump on a quick phone call or a quick Zoom here? And we ended up doing it on Zoom on video. I think there's something to be said with seeing eyeball to eyeball. Right, we got on camera and we had a 15, 20 minute conversation and come to find out there was actually a few things that are covered in the recipe program that the person wasn't fully doing, all the different areas. So you know I've nudged her to go back to the drawing board there. But she also provided me some feedback on the coaching calls and she said you know, a lot of times she would show up for the coaching calls and she hadn't done all the homework yet for the week and she felt guilty. So sometimes she would skip the coaching calls because she didn't want to admit to me that she hadn't done the work yet.

Speaker 1: 10:46

And I always try to be very understanding of my students, my clients. When they come on the coaching calls I say wherever you are is fine, you know, but do try to make it some time in your calendar every week to work on the course content, because if you want to make progress you've got to do the work right. And she kind of confessed you know, I feel guilty because sometimes I come on these calls and I haven't done the work. And I said what about this as an idea? What if in the next cohort the group coaching call was called group coaching slash accountability call, and that way you could come on at the beginning of the phone call and you could just go into chat and say I'm going to work on the recipe homework for the next 30 minutes an hour, depending on the length of the call, and I'll come back in on the end and I'll report on the progress. That way it's like you're in a classroom and the teacher's monitoring you and you're going to do the work, so you're committed, and I think sometimes we, as adults, we need to have accountability and we need to create accountability for ourselves by announcing to other adults what we're doing Right and she's like, wow, that's a great idea. I would probably take you up on that. So that was some feedback that I had gotten from jumping on a Zoom with one of my members, one of my clients, and it's a way that you can get some feedback from folks as well, and sometimes you know, I'll just reach out and request that people participate in a call with me. Maybe we've had some exchanges back and forth, maybe they have worked with me in the past and I'm looking to evolve my offerings and I will just ask them is there anything that I could do differently, better or improve to make this an even more valuable service for you? And I've gotten some feedback from my clients that way, which this brings me to my idea for today.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Now, I have to admit I follow the Amy Porterfield Digital Course Academy and in her program she suggests that we invite three to five of our ideal target audience members, prior to launching a new course, to hear their feedback, to request their input and to generally gauge needs and problems we are solving through our course and the hurdles to overcome. And we do this on a phone call. I actually do them on Zoom where I can record it and watch the playback again. And I have two courses that are running right now. One is called the Boot Camp with Brenda and it's focused on individuals who are in career transition, using LinkedIn to find a new job, and the last cohort I've launched is focused on individuals who are experience rich meaning age 40 plus, 50 plus, 60 plus and also I've expanded that out to serve not only people who are in career transition but people who are working but looking and I got some really great feedback in my last launch of the program to launch that out.

Speaker 1: 13:23

My second course, as I've mentioned repeatedly on this session, is called the Recipe for Social Selling on LinkedIn and it's designed for those individuals like you who are solopreneurs, coaches, consultants, small business owners and how to really use and leverage LinkedIn for social selling, meaning how to develop those relationships and your online brand presence to sell to people. So it's selling through social media is essentially what social selling means. So those are the two courses that I have and the bootcamp program I have is now open for ongoing enrollment. You can roll anytime, but the group coaching I'm offering ends in June. Now the recipe typically. I'm opening this once or twice a year and I do offer in both of these programs both the bootcamp and the recipe live virtual group coaching, and lately I've been thinking about some of my current recipe members and how several of them weren't very active at all on LinkedIn prior to enrolling, and I also know that social selling is a concept that might not be as well understood as it could be Like. I know what it means, but you may not know what it means, right, and I really truly believe it's one of the keys to unlocking the power of LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 14:30

So I'm announcing it to you all for your first. Aren't you lucky? I'm going to be going out on Instagram and Facebook through my accounts Mellor Marketing and I'm going to be looking for coaches and consultants who meet the following criteria to invite them to a 30-minute Zoom call. In the first 15 minutes, I'm going to be asking you questions and in the second 15 minutes, you will get a free LinkedIn profile mini audit, which will be recorded and published on YouTube and on my podcast. So it's some great visibility for you with that. The questions the first 15 minutes that will not be made public. It will be recorded for my own purposes, but I'm not going to be publishing that on YouTube or on the podcast. All right.

Speaker 1: 15:10

So the criteria again if you are currently a coach or consultant or pivoting into becoming one this year. The second criteria you have to have a LinkedIn account and know your login. Third criteria your primary social media for your coaching, consulting, business, in terms of branding and selling, et cetera, isn't LinkedIn. It's Instagram or Facebook, or maybe even TikTok or YouTube, but it's not LinkedIn. That's not your primary platform. Linkedin might be an afterthought for you. Maybe LinkedIn intimidates you, maybe it confuses you, it scares you, for whatever reason, something's holding you back. It's not top of mind for you, okay. So that needs to be a criteria. You can't be a heavy user of LinkedIn. And finally, your audience has to include people that are business professionals. So think about your makeup the people that you're looking to reach. It does need to include people who are business professionals.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Now, as a podcast listener, I'm here to educate you about what I'm doing, to grow and evolve my business, to help you to do the same right, and that was the goal of the episode.

Speaker 1: 16:14

This episode was really just designed to inspire you, but if you are interested and meet the above criteria, let me know. I'm going to be scheduling these calls in the next few weeks prior to the launch of my recipe program, which will be in early June. If you're interested, just email me at brenda at mellermarketingcom, or if you're on Instagram or on Facebook, just send me a direct message through my page. Remember that's at Mellormarketing. All right, my friends, what do you think? Did this episode inspire you to start thinking about using feedback to shape your business? In terms of the conversation, the topics I've prepared for you here today, I hope this prompts you to at least start thinking about it and as a former corporate marketer, I have to say that I know the importance of your marketing message matching your customers' goals, but I also know the importance of evolving over time. With that said, I look forward to hearing from you if you're interested in participating in those discovery calls and getting a mini audit from me. And other than that, I will see you again next time.