Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Pinterest. Webinars. Blogging. Guest posting. Livestreaming.
These are all the things that internet marketers tell you to do to connect with and build your target audience.
But these are just tactics, they’re not a strategy.
Randomly throwing a bunch of tactics up against the wall and seeing what sticks is a surefire way to have none of them stick.
Ask me how I know 🙂
So instead of just randomly implementing a bunch of audience-building tactics here and there when I can fit them in, I’ve decided that I’m doing a RACE. And not a short one either, but a marathon.
It’s not going to involve any actual running, thank goodness, but it’s probably going to be harder than if I just started to physically train for a marathon and take just as much time.
But at the end of this race, it’s my goal to match my income from my day job.
Yep, you read that right. I, Shannon Mattern, the most conservative, risk averse person I know aside from my mom, put in my 7-month notice (LOL) without meeting my goal of consistently replacing my day job income with side hustle money.
After I hit that first $10,000 month, it was really, really hard to repeat it because I didn’t have the time I needed to make it happen again.
In addition to working full-time on some huge tech projects at my day job, I had attracted several one on one clients which meant all my extra time outside of my 50 hour workweek, I was hammering out websites for clients.
What I wasn’t doing? Interacting on social media. Writing. Creating new content. Connecting with other human beings. Livestreaming. Testing and changing.
Consequently, my side-hustle income took a big hit. Free 5 Day Website Challenge subscriptions dropped which meant my affiliate income took a hit and my email list growth slowed. Sales of my BFF Academy dropped off. I stopped sending emails because I felt like I was only emailing when I had something to sell. Ick.
So I got in my time machine and went back to 2015 to see what I had done when I first started side-hustling. Back when I had just an idea that burned so hot inside of me that I couldn’t not do it, but I had zero cash, zero subscribers and zero content.
I reviewed what had worked well, what hadn’t worked so well and identified some patterns.
When I did X, my list grew and my sales increased. When I didn’t do X, my growth slowed down and my sales slowed down.
I took this list and turned it into a set of specific, repeatable steps, also known as a strategy.
It’s the same strategy I used to go from $0 in a month to $5,000 in a month to $10,000 in a month, and it’s the same one I’ll use to generate $10,000 a month again, but this time, consistently. Then I’ll use it again to level-up from there.
After sharing my strategy with my business coach, she goes, “Did you know that’s an acronym for RACE? That could totally be your theme!!”
Um, nope. Total coincidence.
And at first, I was like, “Ugh, running, I don’t know the first thing about it and it’s totally not me, so I don’t even know how I’m gonna turn this into a theme about running a race.”
I have this thing about authenticity, sometimes it’s crippling… But anyway.
Then my best friend starts running, and then my sister-in-law, and then one of my clients is a running coach, so I feel like the universe is really trying to tell me something.
Close your laptop and get your ass off the couch, Shannon.
Long story longer, that’s why I’m doing a RACE next year. And maybe I’ll take up running too 🙂
The RACE Strategy will work for you whether you’re just getting started or you’re a few years in, whether you’re side-hustling or not and for any niche.
Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to break down the exact RACE Strategy for you so you can implement them in your business too.
The steps I’m going to share with you are not technical steps, but they require time, commitment and a belief that it is possible to have what you want.
They also require that you have a website with an email list. Lucky for you I’ve shown you exactly how to build that in the Free 5 Day Website Challenge, so if you haven’t finished that you have until January 2 to get it done so you can run this race with me!
The RACE Strategy also doesn’t require any money to implement (unless you still need to build your website – that’ll cost you around $100 and I’ll you exactly how in my Free 5 Day Website Challenge.
And it also does not require perfection or knowing what the end will look like.
So before we get started, I wanna know… Are you in? Are you going to run the RACE with me? If you’re in, leave a comment below and tell me that you’re in!
The RACE Strategy
Relationships
A
C
E
If you’re like me, you’re building your business online because of the unparalleled opportunities to connect with people who are just like us and who need our help because we’re just a few steps farther along the path to our goals than they are.
You’re putting in the energy and effort because it’s more fulfilling than sitting in rush hour traffic twice a day and doing work in a beige office that is mentally and physically draining just to pay the bills and maintain the status quo, because until recently you didn’t even know there was another option.
When it comes to creating a business that’s going to bring you freedom, flexibility and fulfillment, the not-so-secret secret to maximizing your time and income potential is reaching as many like-minded people as possible.
And like any good runner, we’re going to start our race by warming up. So put your favorite workout pants on, grab your tennis shoes and get ready to get moving!
RELATIONSHIPS: The Warm Up
It’s easier than ever before to find the people you want to serve online, and the trick is to connect with the people that have already connected with those people that you want to serve.
But like anything else, you gotta give before you get.
Chances are that if you’re building an online business, you also consume information online from other people that are serving the same space you want to serve, and if those people have been serving that space longer than you have, they’ve attracted an audience.
You’re a part of that audience, and you interact with their content online at four levels:
How we start our relationships with most people online is that we consume their content.
We see an image, read a blog post or a book or watch a video and we’re entertained. Or distracted from boredom or something else we don’t want to think about. We don’t put much thought into what we just saw, read or watched, before we’re scrolling on to the next thing.
But with some content we consume, we feel like we can totally identify with those people and their story – and we start to feel like we know, like and trust the person. Some of us begin SHARING that content with our own networks and friends because it feels like an extension of us.
And makes us LOOK GOOD. So we share things that are funny, inspiring, motivating, make us look credible or solve a problem that we know our peers are trying to solve.
After we’ve consumed and shared, some of us move on to engaging with the person who created the content, and the other people who are consuming the content. We let the person know how inspired we are by the content, and we want to connect with others who are similarly inspired.
We find ourselves replying to an e-newsletter with a note of thanks, or sending a direct message or tweet telling them what epiphany we had from their latest blog post. We begin engaging in their Facebook group or take the time to leave a review on Amazon for their book or on iTunes for their podcast. We want them to know that we are grateful for what they do!
Some of us get so inspired and compelled to action that we begin to implement what we’ve learned from that person. We know, like and trust them so much that we’ve put our reputation on the line by sharing their content, we’ve engaged with them to tell them how grateful we are, and that their content is starting to get the wheels in our brain turning in a new direction, and then we begin to take action on the information we’ve learned.
We go from a consumer to a creator, and now WE have something to give back.
Most people never move from Consumer to Sharer let alone to Engager and all the way to Implementer. If you’re an implementer, you stand out – even to a person with an audience of hundreds of thousands of people. You’re like a unicorn. Seriously.
But do you know what you are to the person whose content you’ve consumed, shared, engaged with and implemented?
You’re a TESTIMONIAL.
Do you know what testimonials do for online business? They’re online business gold. They help build the credibility of the person you’re following and learning from. And they also take you all the way from consumer of content to one-on-one relationship with a person who has built a big following. And that opens the door to collaborating with that person to provide value to their audience and make them look good. Remember, people like to share what makes them look good!
So what I’ve just outlined for you is twofold.
One, It’s the path you follow to connect with people that have a bigger audience than you, and two, it’s also the path you design for the people whom you want to attract as your audience.
Totally meta, right?
So here’s how to put RELATIONSHIPS into action.
Grab a notebook and a pen. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
- Write down 4 people in your niche whose content you’re already consuming. You’re reading their blog, listening to their podcast, watching their live-streams, bought their book.
- Follow them on all of their social medias, subscribe to their newsletter and their blog.
- Set aside 30 minutes every morning for the next 30 days to review their latest blog posts, livestreams and social posts. Yes, I said 30 days.
- Each day, like, share and leave a thoughtful comment on the ones that really resonate with you. Reply to e-newsletters. Take the time to look at all the content they’ve produced, but don’t feel like you have to reply or respond to everything. We’re going for authenticity here, not being a robot stalker. What you’re doing by engaging is helping them reach more people like you – not only through social algorithms but also by connecting them with more people.
- Take advantage of any calls to action they put out. If it’s a call to purchase something, you don’t have to buy it if you don’t want or need it obviously, but if someone says “Reply to this email and tell me your top takeaways from this post” then take 5 minutes to reply!
- If the person offers a free or paid program, sign up or purchase and take action and follow through!
- Once you’ve completed their program or taken their advice and gotten results, reach out to that person and share them! Offer to write a testimonial for their product or service. You’re likely on their radar because you’ve put the energy and effort into engaging with them already, so your name will stand out! Reach out to them directly first in the place you’ve noticed that they are the most responsive – whether it’s email or even SnapChat.
- If you don’t get a response from a busy entrepreneurs don’t give up. Write a blog post about your experience with them and tag them in it on social media. Share it out on your networks. It’s all about GIVING. That’s your focus. You’ll see the fruits of your labor soon enough.
And to get you used to moving from Consumer to Engager, get out your phone, take a picture of your list, post it to your Instagram and tag me @shannonlmattern with the hashtag #sidehustlegoneserious (If you don’t have Instagram, set one up!! Your people are hanging out there!!)
Now that you’re warmed up, you’re ready to start moving. Next week, I’m going to share with you not only how building RELATIONSHIPS has worked for me, I’m also going to share the next step in the RACE Strategy.
