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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome to the show, and today I’m talking about the silent killer in your messaging that is costing you sales, costing you clients, and costing you in your business growth, and it is not necessarily what you think. Now I know, if you’ve been listening to this show for a while, you’ll know by now that I put a huge emphasis on the value of developing a strong personal brand as the ultimate insurance policy in your business growth and in your business it enables you to be able to be agile and adapt to the digital marketing landscape, adapt to clients and customer needs and trends as they inevitably will shift and change. And obviously one of those core elements to having a strong personal brand is your messaging and and there’s a really big caveat here, which I really wanted to highlight, because one of the advantages, dear listener of listening to this podcast is if you are interested in growing or scaling your business, not only am I bringing my own experience from having gone from literally being on benefits to having my first just below six figure year, but needing to register as a limited company to then going to multi six figures, and Now having been in this space five years, but more importantly, having supported clients with developing evergreen, scalable group programs now for over three years, being behind the scenes of seven figure businesses, multi six figure businesses, as well as those who are just getting started.

So every time I record any of these episodes, I’m bringing nuggets from all of that experience to hopefully bring something of value to you. And obviously, in the time that I have been supporting my clients, and in this case, I’m talking about my accelerator clients. In the accelerator I’m working with business owners who either want to get off the kind of live launch roller coaster or a fully booked one to one. And for some they are coming in to develop their first ever group program or to audit and refine their group program to create more sales. There’s a variety of reasons. Some people come in who are earning two to 3k per month. Others come in who are earning seven to 8k per month, and the process supports them regardless. It just looks slightly different depending on what people bring to the table when they get started. But I identified in all of my clients across the board, a pattern, and this pattern is particularly prominent in those who have not yet hit six figures, and it is around messaging. So what I tend to find when people come into my world is one of the things I massively emphasize from the get go, is if you want to be seeing sales, you need to be solving a valuable problem, that people are proactively seeking a solution for that way you’re not spending most of your time marketing. Why they need to, like solve the problem, because people already know. So we’re already really closing the gap on somebody discovering you to wanting to buy from you, because you’re meeting them at a stage where they are already aware they have a problem. They’re already aware they need a solution. And you pop up in their ads and and you know, you’ll receive messages like I did the other day, where someone was like, oh my goodness, I’ve been looking, been thinking how I just couldn’t cope with live launching anymore. And there you were. Thank you for showing up in this ad. This was a perfect time.

I mean, How gorgeous is that? So that was, you know, messages like that are lovely to hear. And that happens when you position yourself in a way where you are solving a valuable problem. It’s not a nice to have, it’s a need to have, okay, and everyone, there’s not anyone who’s a service provider that doesn’t have some, you know, client out there who it’s not a luxury for them to work with you. It’s a necessity, and the closer we can work to that, the better. Okay, so they come in, and I make that really clear because it’s mind blowing, quite frankly, the number of people who will get so stuck in their own modality, their own expertise, that they won’t necessarily think about how is that relevant? To your client, to the consumer. Now, obviously, when they get excited about that, people start saying, Oh yes, I’m interested. The next thing they do is they think right messaging. How do I make sure people understand that what I do is different, that what I do is exciting? How do I make sure that I’m not comparable to anyone else. Now, yes, there is a huge value in all of these pieces. And what I find really interesting, and this is a really important piece, guys, get your notebooks out, but we’re all way too close to ourselves to not recognize the many ways that kind of non verbal ways in which we already stand out as being different. We don’t recognize that in many ways, not in many ways, in any way, we are already our own niche. We don’t need to be something shinier or kind of louder. We can actually be ourselves, and the most important piece is to be visible with being yourself. And most importantly, and this, this is the clincher, right? The reason why I get frustrated when I see this pattern emerging where people become all consumed and constrained by their messaging is that, if we’re being entirely honest, it’s its own form of naval gazing. Yes, I’m going to say that again. And yes, I used to go to philosophy classes for a level. So that was a phrase I heard very often. I’m like that naval gazer, but it can be its own form of naval gazing, where we are leading more with ego, more with a desire to ensure that people perceive us as being better, potentially wanting to hide behind some kind of shiny facade, potentially to protect the vulnerability of being visible. I mean, there can be, there can be numerous reasons why it can be very tempting to kind of go down that route. I mean, I am not immune.

Okay. I used to work in an advertising agency, or, well, it was a marketing agency. It was more than advertising, and I was very much involved in the creative department. I that’s where I started copywriting, and that’s how things kind of evolved. That’s where it all started to me, like, over, oh my goodness, 13 years ago. So I love creativity. I’m obsessed. I love doing things slightly differently. And there’s a really important thing you need to know, like, really important. Because if you’re listening to this and going, shut up, Polly, I love messaging. I love creativity. It does really matter having a strong brand. I will tell you something for nothing, having looked behind the scenes of many, many businesses, a lot of those brands who are trying so hard to be different, who are trying so hard to just attract and not invite sales, who don’t create sales funnels and focus on whatever it is that they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t making a lot of money. And let me tell you another and this bit is in disputable. Okay, look at Amy Porterfield. Look at James Webb more. Look at Stephen Bartlett and his social media captions. You know he’s interviewing geniuses, but look at his promotional content. Look at any of the big marketers out there, Marie Forleo, go along to facebook.com, forward slash ads library. It might be ads forward slash library, one at one of the two. And then take that copy and put it through one of those scanners that tell you what reading level it’s at, and you will find that nearly all of that messaging is aimed at no higher than what an eight year old can read an eight year old.

And yet, there are so many of us out there spinning our wheels over how to say something slightly differently, so that people get excited, and if you are looking to create a scalable business, so this doesn’t apply, you know, if you want to keep boutique niche and small, then knock yourself out, have all the fun you want to have. You know, if you only need a handful of clients paying you a pretty penny, then that’s fine. But if you are supporting, you know, if you are either a business who wants to scale, or you’re supporting business owners who want to scale, there is a time and a place for clever copy, and it is not in your funnels. And when I say clever copy, that’s not entirely true. Of course you want to be clever with your copy, but saying anything that somebody has to pause and think, what is that is going to slow down your sales?

So let me give you an example of that from my own business. As you know, I’m deeply passionate about cushy business. I’m deeply passionate about being a cushy CEO when my clients come into my mastermind days, I’ve got my cushy CEO merch out on. Table. And you know, I really it’s something I’m still working on, developing as a movement. I know what comes prior to that is developing more of a community, which I haven’t prioritized up until now. But cushy match is coming. Guys, if you want to go around with the cushy CEO cap, it’s coming. But the main point to say here is that, do I have that in my ads? Do I talk about it a lot in my social content? It’s not something I put at the very beginning of the journey of somebody discovering me and what I do. I lead with them. I lead with the problem I solve for them. I lead with how I solve that problem for them, I lead with, are they the kind of person I help, or is it somebody else I help? It’s all about my client in those early stages. It’s all about leading with, here is where you are. Here is where you want to be. Here is what you’ve tried. Here is why it hasn’t worked.

Here is why this is different, but laid out in proper, layman’s terms, with just a few little flourishes, a few little personalizations that are true to me. And you know, if I reference a beverage, it’s going to be, I don’t know, like a matcha oat latte rather than a coffee, because that’s me. And someone will read that and go, Hey, I like matcha lattes too. Oh, you’re that kind of matcha latte drinking type. I don’t like you, whatever. It doesn’t matter. But there are little flourishes in there to connect people to me. But here’s the thing, when you know so I’ve been behind the scenes of seven figure evergreen funnels, and I’ll tell you what they all have in common. It’s just all about the client when they get on there. And obviously there’s a bit where they state their authority. There’s a bit where they say, I’ve helped this many people get these kind of results. Here’s why I’m freaking awesome. But the majority of the messaging is all about helping that person feel seen in your messaging. So if you are looking to improve your messaging right now, don’t let your ego call the shots. Don’t let comparison it is. Get a grip on your brain and have you focusing on what makes you special. Because Darling, you already are special. There are things you’re doing already that make you different, and the most important thing you can do for yourself as a personal brand, is to be as unapologetic as you can be about who you are and how you do life, so you can make it easy for others to either identify with your values and go, she’s my kind of girl, or go disappear, which is what you want. You don’t want to be kind of having people in your world who have no interest in you and have no desire to work with you. The other piece about all of this as well is I sometimes see people in the messaging space kind of saying because it’s disingenuous to have a funnel where you sell, where you sell to people. Well, when you’re leading with messaging, speaking to the person who is proactively seeking a solution to a problem, and you’re helping them recognize through your funnel.

For example, my mine is an everyday sales guide. If you’re looking to learn how to implement an everyday sales system into your business, then it would be obscene for me to not follow up with an invitation to come and join me inside the 90 day accelerator that supports you to implement those systems in your own business. So marketing gets to be clean. It gets to feel good. Sales get to come in more easily. And if you’re thinking about, how do I make my messaging better? Stop making it about you. Start making it about them, believe me, when you make it about them, when you start seeing more sales, you can then hire a shit hot copyright if you want to to come in and see those things that you potentially struggle to see yourself. Because I will also say that is the truth. That’s one of the values of having a mentor like me. I will often reflect back to my clients, I’m like but you’re a best selling author, or you’re a published author, or you stood on that stage with that person over there, like these are things that you can be bringing to the forefront in your messaging. You know, you can toot your own horn around about that, because people need to hear that. But I will say, if there’s one thing my clients are surprised about time and time again, is when it comes to sales funnels, when it comes to making sales with ease. It’s not about being something that is entirely hot, fresh and unique. It’s about allowing your kind of ideal client to connect with your marketing, connect with your messaging, and see themselves in it.

And it doesn’t need to be overly complicated. And I will also say I tried to get ahead with my messaging by hiring copywriters. And yes, it helped in some ways. It was good, it was powerful, to take a moment to just allow it to be my focus. But I will also say I. Only did that after I had established a demand, after I had enough consistent sales coming in that I had the freedom and flexibility to pause and think about, let’s have fun here. How do I make my brand a truly stand out, memorable brand? And that was really, really worth doing, but I led with demand first. And I think there is a false belief a lot of entrepreneurs carry that you need to have the shiny sexy brand, the shiny sexy messaging, before people will buy from you. And that is just not true, and that is slowing down your sales, and it’s also potentially putting you in knots, and kind of twisting you in cartwheels, because you are so kind of fixated on the belief that messaging is the thing that will be the thing that breaks through to the sales and you establishing yourself as this unique personal brand is the thing that’s going to elevate absolutely everything that you’re not you’re de prioritizing getting visible, making invitations, having conversations, hosting workshops and doing all the things that will actually feed you with The data, with the knowledge, with the direct feedback that enables you to write that messaging that really allows people to feel seen.

So this is my way of saying, again, a common theme in this podcast, do not put the cart in front of the horse. Generate the demand in sales. And yes, you can do that without being a messaging queen. The only thing, and I know this isn’t necessarily always easy, the only thing you need to nail. And this is what I help people do inside my accelerator, btw, but I also help people do it inside 10 days to speedy sales. To a certain extent as well. We set some really solid groundwork there. Get clear on the valuable problem you’re solving, and get clear on communicating why it matters. Just thinking about whether to add an example here. Yeah, so for example, and I want, because I know it really helps to kind of think about it in practice when I’m saying, you know, be like, for example I’ve used in the past relationships, you know, rather than saying up level your offer suites, talk about helping them reconnect like they did when they first met each other. Or, you know, think about, you know, what have they tried? They’ve tried marriage counseling. Why did marriage counseling didn’t Why did that not work? They’ve tried downloading Kindle books and reading them together, but he won’t read the book. They’ve tried watching Netflix, but he just switches off and looks at his phone. Like, use those really, like, illustrative examples that someone’s like, oh my goodness, have you been watching me and my husband? Um, similarly with business, you know, like, don’t talk about helping someone have their next Business Breakthrough. Think about, what does that person actually want, and what have they tried so far?

Okay, so you’ve got your podcast, great, but the idea of standing on a stage absolutely terrifies you. But you know, it’s your next level of growth and visibility and brand authority. I over the next 90 days, I’m going to help you understand. A, what your blocks are. B, the perfect talk to deliver, to have people go from not knowing you to wanting to buy from you. Terrible phrase, this is what I would refine elsewhere afterwards. And finally, the follow up blah de blah that nobody else does, which is leaving all the money on the table. Like, can you imagine, 90 days to go from being terrified to being supported in that 360 holistic way of getting over the block? So you know that’s not going to stand in your way. That meets that objection of like, oh, but I’m just not that type of person getting clear on what to do that meets the objection of like, what’s the strategy? What do I actually say? And then the final piece where, like, Okay, this doesn’t sound like any other kind of public talking thing, because I want to know what’s the thing that I haven’t been doing that’s leaving money on the table. Can you see how I just said wish? Wished off something that immediately is way more appealing than come and learn from me and learn how to do deliver public speeches, because even that’s kind of specific, but it’s not, you know, it’s not painting a picture. It’s not clear enough. You know, you could even say there are however many conferences and blah de blah every single year, and this is the percentage of female women who are putting themselves forward right now. It’s my mission to elevate that percentage to another 25% over the next five years, and I want you to come and work with me so we can make that happen, because I believe more female voices in more important places results in bigger, better things. Can you see what I’m doing here?

So I’m hoping you’ve listened to this today and recognize like did, that person who’s just made that promise around public speaking also needed to say, Oh, and by the way, I’m a dopamine dresser, and my hashtag motto is live, love life. It wouldn’t mean diddly squat to you. It would. It would give you a kind of incline inclination as to the kind of person you’ll be working with and whether you’re going to have fun or not. But one of the things I will say finally, is, you know, actually. Shared that with a client recently, where I was like, stop worrying so much about your messaging. Think more about the mission you are leading with. Because when you lead, when you lead with that, the words drop in naturally. They will be authentic when you actually have a mission and a vision you are truly committed to and really care about lead with that. And the other thing I said was, when it comes to my content, I’d look at it through the lens of pleasure, purpose and play, and when I share anything, my stories, or if I’m thinking about sharing something my content, and it doesn’t have that feeling, then I know it’s not something I want to share, because that’s the feeling I want people to have when they engage with my brand. I want them to recognize that being in momentum, taking action, growing businesses, gets to be joyful. That’s very much who I am, that’s very much how I lead. That’s very much the kind of spaces I create for my clients. And I want people to get that from the moment they come into my world. And so that’s the lens I do it through.

So leading with a mission and having, you know, a kind of three words that you allow to inform how you show up on social media, while combining that with being really clear on the valuable problem you solve and really understanding where your ideal client’s at, that is where it all begins. Now, this was a bit of a messy, borderline kind of rant type podcast episode. I didn’t do the typical thing of 123, but I’ve kept it short, and I really hope this has dropped in for you, if you have been navel gazing, if you have allowed your ego to call the shots, or maybe not even your ego, maybe your insecurities, to call the shots, and forgotten about who this is for the people you’re here to serve, and if you have disconnected with the big mission and vision behind why you are doing this. This is my invitation for you to sit down, pull out a blank sheet of paper, or get your notes app open and write a manifesto for your people. Write down who you’re here to help how you’re here to help them, why you’re excited to help them, what difference this will make to them, what difference this will make to their family, what difference this will make to the world, and sit and bask in that for a while, and then come back to Instagram, or come back to LinkedIn or whatever platform you’re using and see how you feel. All right, I will be in your ears next week on the subject of joy, talking with Sophie cliff, she has just created recently, at the beginning of this year, released a book called The Hustle cure. It is a fabulous book, and we’ll be diving more into that. It is the first productivity book I’ve ever heard of that centers around joy. So of course, you knew, you know, and had to invite her on the podcast. We’ll be in your ears then you