How to Keep Up & Stand Out as an Online Creative Business in 2024 (Solopreneur Pep Talk Ep. #002)

Consultants. Freelancers. Artists. Coaches. Practitioners.

Let me ask you something.

Do you simply feel..overwhelmed?

I NEED to tell you that if you do, it couldn't be more normal. You are constantly, and inadvertently competing amongst a million other individuals in the online space. This work is NOT easy, and nor is it easy to grow WITHOUT playing the game.

Today I want to talk very candidly about the down and dirty truth about the online space as an online creator, brand or business owner. As much as many creators I see on YouTube and podcasts relate to this concept, I genuinely feel like it goes much deeper. There's more to this ever-growing era of online opportunity and I want to provide us the space to talk about it.

By the end of this episode, my hope is that you feel MORE empowered to continue your dream with utmost confidence. This conversation is going to revolve around 3 major learnings I've experienced when it comes to keeping up with the pace of the online space while simultaneously standing out with authenticity in my 3 years of running a part-time digital and in-person media production & content marketing business.

To give a little background on myself, I started my career in the experiential marketing world producing nationwide tours working with brands like Ben & Jerry's and Stonyfield Organic. When 2020 came around, I dove headfirst into digital marketing, social media, and leveraged my college degree in media production and life-long hobby turned life-long passion of photography and videography to direct my next steps toward my heart's true calling. Fast forward to now, Essence Presents is my media production and content marketing business where I work with primarily wellness businesses, craft artisans, and creative solopreneurs to capture and convey their authenticity (their essence) to the world.

I went totally remote last year and have been operating on a temporarily remote basis for 8 months now, and BOY have I learned a lot about COMMUNITY. It is definitely NOT what I imagined, but I have learned alot. So let's get into these learnings.

Having a social media presence does not mean that you have community. Community building takes genuine effort for engagement.

This has been a tough one guys.

So I have to be candid here– social media has NOT been easy for me. It's kind of wild to say this but I have succeeded in growing client accounts organically. Nothing insane, but we're talking steady growth for years, 10,000 views on a reel in 1 week, 800% increase in engagement over 1 year are just a few metrics from my time as a social media manager. I can honestly say managing other client accounts is NOT the same as managing your own account.

When we have an outside perspective on how a business or brand is portrayed, it is really easy to define a voice, an identity, and content outline for their mission, and I think it's because it's completely separate from us. There is objectivity, there are boundaries we have to stay within. But it becomes a different ball game when you are the one not only writing and defining your brand voice and identity from scratch, but also designing visuals, researching keywords, researching trends, finding new ways to capture the attention of your audience with endless marketing strategies ALL while you're supposed to not compare yourself.

Doing all of these things and not seeing a return on any efforts (for a while– which we hear is normal), can be more than extremely frustrating and de-motivating. It's easy in these moments to forget why you do what you do because you are constantly absorbing information. BUT this is not where your story should end...

I want you to think about the last time you had a genuine encounter with someone online. If you're anything like me (an introvert) it's probably far and few between. Now I want you to think about the platform you were on the last time you engaged with someone. Typically the times that we engage with people through genuine conversation, we're utilizing the platforms that our ideal customer and clients are hanging out.

And this is what I encourage you to LEAN INTO. For me, Instagram has kind of lost it's spark to me, but what I genuinely LOVE is YouTube and being a part of the community here. So I really encourage you to find the place that does not steal your joy of actually engaging because this is where the true magic happens.

The more specific you can get about what you do and who you serve in particular, the better.

If you're a health & wellness coach, what specifically is the transformation you provide? Is it transformation through nutrition, mental health practices or exercise tactics? And if you're a health & wellness coach who say focuses on nutrition, who specifically do you serve and why. Do you serve moms because you're a mom and you want their journey to feel easier when it comes to the food they eat? Or do you serve women over 50 who start to lack certain body-producing minerals needed for optimal health and you want them to know exactly how to combat that?

THIS is where your superpower lies in the online space in 2024. Everyone can serve everyone, but you rarely hear about them because it's not personal enough to actually reach you.

In a sea of creators, you need to try your best to stand out through either your unique experience, or the unique segment of people that you serve. If you don't think your experience is unique enough, it is. To help you with this, think about the moments you felt like you were making a difference on someone's experience with something, or the moments you deeply thought to yourself- WOW I can't believe I'm doing this, or that this happened and I was a part of it. All of these moments are experiences that other people will most likely think are downright as impressive, if not WAY MORE impressive than you think they are.

My last piece of advice with this is DO NOT be scared to be so specific that some people are no longer a part of who you serve– even if you've served them in the past. Obviously, we don't want to be so specific that nobody can relate, but getting about 2 layers down (into what you do and who you serve) can really help you hone in on your messaging to make it feel to the other side of the screen like you're speaking directly to someone and their specific experience.

The more you can systemize your processes, the more confident you will feel keeping up and standing out in your business.

This is that thing that if you get it right, it can be unbreakable.

We all started our businesses and brands from a dream. And you may genuinely feel like you can't go wrong from riding out that dream as long as you stay passionate and committed.

If there is one thing I've learned, it's that no matter how committed and passionate someone is, there are always going to be times where additional support is needed. We actually can't simply just ride off of our firey passion, we will most certainly experience burn out every single time. Trust me, I have been the victim of this.

The same way when our immune systems become weakened when we consume poorer quality nutrients, the same is going to inevitably happen to us when we don't pay attention to the quality of our life and the quality of balance we're experiencing in that. This is especially true for those of us who are starting out on our own and don't have a set boundary in the beginning for ourselves.

My best advice for combatting this is to organize for yourself a system that you can regularly check in with that has EVERYTHING that you need to do in order to keep your business running in one simply view and showcase. I'm somebody who really hates overcomplicated systems and having to go through a million hoops just to gain clarity on something, so I've actually created this amazing task plan template in Google Sheets that does exactly this. I'm actually going to be creating a video/blog about setting up the ultimate task plan for your small business and utilizing this very tool as a walk-through style video next week so stay tuned for that!

Our dreams can be so complex, and it becomes harder to know exactly what we can do "today" to step forward into that dream when we don't even know the first thing about XYZ – which happen to be critical for starting your business.

There really is a give and take that needs to take place. On one hand, you should be able to follow your creative urges and inspirations because that is where pure life energy lives and thrives. People resonate with genuine excitement and that is exactly what happens when we follow this spark and stay true to that authentic spark.

But, then comes the give. When it comes to giving ourselves what we need in order to make our dreams a reality, we do have to give ourselves first and foremost the patience to get there. This is not easy. Secondly, we need to actually GIVE ourselves TIME. This sounds so broad and generic but this is all really what it comes down to. Lastly, we do have to give ourselves the tools we need (whether it's a CRM tool, a marketing tool, a virtual assistant, etc) in order to allow our dream to grow into itself.

There is a divine reason you have this dream, and that reason is because this dream reality is a part of your human experience. It is in your mind's eye and therefore, that is a part of your reality. Maybe not yet a tangible reality, but nevertheless, a reality that is your calling and your duty to allow it to happen through equal amounts effort and faith. So do yourself a favor and help yourself within this process of keeping up and standing out as the amazing, unique creative that you are. You can do this.

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Hi, I'm Liz! I'm so BEYOND grateful to be serving you - wellness business leaders, creative solopreneurs and artisan crafters- in streamlining the content creation process off of your plate so that you can get back to doing more of what you love. If you're interested in learning more about what we do at Essence Presents, or your really looking to get your content creation process under control in your business, take your pick below:

• Access our FREE Resource Vault + Subscribe to The Latest Newsletter! Gain immediate access to free content marketing tools that I use every day for my clients + stay in the know on all things happening at Essence through monthly roundups of our latest shoots, blogs, shop additions, + be the first to receive exclusive offers for up-leveling your business's digital presence.

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• Join my private, free Facebook group, Seasons & Sessions! Created to provide you support in connecting to your authentic root, the origins of your business, and the journey of being an entrepreneur- the ebbs and flows that create our evolutionary experience. As someone who values health, wellness and spirituality, Seasons & Sessions stands for the fusion of my two loves; photography & seasonal wellness (the study of cyclical nature, seasonal harmony and astrology). What you can expect:

  • Monthly videos on the upcoming month/ micro-season: what it naturally brings and how to implement seasonal flow into your daily routine and business

  • Exclusive season-themed photography mini-sessions

  • Opportunity to connect and network with other entrepreneurs, creatives and small businesses

  • Discounts on service offerings, and being the first-to-know about all Essence offerings

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