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Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

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Hello and welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert and cushy business pioneer.

Today we are talking about how to position yourself as the go to authority in your space. Oh my gosh, I can’t tell you the excitement I had just preparing a few notes for what I want to share with you today. So why does it matter? You know, why would you want to be the go to authority, you might be listening to this and going, I’m okay actually, I don’t need to be a go to authority. All I really care about is you know, regular sales, paying my bills, paying my team. And this is why it matters, you will reach a stage in your business, whether you’re there yet or not, where you will start to recognise that those who are thriving, those who have built a sustainable business, the majority of them show up in some form or another as a kind of thought leader. They are recognised within their industry, they are invited to appear at summits, they are invited to guests on podcasts, they are approached by publishers, a lot of things that many of us deep down would love to have ourselves. Now how have they done this effectively, they’ve done this effectively by positioning themselves as the go to authority. Which by the way, if you are mainly preoccupied by sales right now also results in more of those. So this is why it really, really matters.

Plus, I will say from personal experience, you have a hell of a lot more fun as well, when you allow yourself to embrace who you are as a personal brand, and who you love to play with. So today is going to be super practical, I’m going to be sharing with you some kind of journal prompts, that you can write down the questions and answer them well as and when you desire to. So I’m sharing this so that if you do have a paper and pen nearby, or if you can open the Notes app on your mobile phone. So you can get these down. In fact, to make things easy, what we’ll also do over on Polly level zillow.com forward slash blog, I will also make sure that there is the most recent blog post, which will also be noted below in the notes will have these very same questions. So you can simply copy and paste them across and fill this in in your own time, you will thank yourself for doing this task. And I encourage you to copy and paste them because there are a good number of questions that I came up with. Because when we go deep Boyd we dive deep. So why does it so I’ve already talked a little bit about why it matters. But let’s just dive into this a little bit further. Okay, so why? Why does it matter to be a go to authority? Why do you want to be memorable? Why is it important that you differentiate yourself from the competition? Well, firstly, let’s think of brands like go compare Marmite Tesla. Let’s even throw a Nike car to Tiffany. I imagine that says take Marmite, for example, that it brings up some kind of feeling in you. I bet you’re either thinking, Oh, I hate that stuff.

Or I love it or perhaps laughing in your head chuckling at one of their most recent adverts, in fact, they have proudly positioned themselves as the thing that you either love or hate, which is genius, because it’s the truth. And rather than shying away from it, they just totally owned it and turned it into their unique brand positioning. Now, when people think about brand, they often think about fonts and colours and brand photoshoots and all the kind of like nice surface level stuff. What is really important as a personal brand, is you the person, the person underneath the brand, most brands are trying to turn themselves into personalities so that you will like them. You, My dear have the natural gift already being a person. And so your challenge is to bring more of that to the surface. Because the better people like know and trust you, the more likely they are to buy from you, the better they understand you. Now, that’s all quite simple, right? We’re going to go much deeper than this because here is the biggest problem I see people facing when it comes to them understanding you know, why know what would make them the go to authority. They don’t know. They don’t know what makes them different. They don’t know what makes them special. They don’t know what it is that’s flying through their clients mind when they are desperately booking in that clarity call, keen to get started working with them. They don’t know. And oftentimes they’ll assign it to something external. That’s because my offer was really good.

Oh, it’s because I’m really good at tech or I’m really good at breaking down x y I said, but it’s much more than that. Because the reality is, there are a lot of people in the world doing something similar to you. And so there are a lot of people that unless they’re super lazy, they will be aware that there are other alternatives to working with you to get a similar transformation. Yet they choose you. Why are they choosing you? Because of the unique experience they will have working with you? I have no doubt there may be some people who listen to this podcast and think, oh my god, I can listen to Polly for 20 minutes. The idea of being coached by her for one hour, it sounds exhausting. And there will be others who will listen to this and think, oh my gosh, I could really do with Polly’s PAP and vigour, pep and vigour. Where did that come from? Even if it’s just a lolling at her ridiculous use of old British words that nobody uses anymore. So these things exist, people will have thoughts and opinions about you. And the reality is, many of us live in echo chambers, where we assume that you know, everyone’s super liberal, everyone’s super friendly, everyone’s super, you know, and actually, it’s not the truth, we just tend to surround ourselves by other people who are like us, like, I’m already assuming that you may be like that, because I can, because you’re in my little echo chamber. So let’s get really clear on who you are, why people love you, and why they would come to choose you, the better you know that, the better you can embody it, the better you can communicate it, the sooner you will attract your I don’t want to use the word tribe. And I don’t want to even use raving fans. And I certainly don’t want to use I think someone approached me the other day and said, cultural like fan base that he could help me attract.

And I was like, that just sounds really terrifying. But you know what I mean, the people who immediately go, I dig, Ubaid, tell me how I can work with you. That’s what I want more for you. So without further ado, I’m going to be breaking down the things that you need to be asking yourself. Now, I will say this, before we get started. If I say anything that you feel you have already answered in the past, please, please still take the time to answer it. Okay? Because what you will find is that with time, the way we respond to these things evolves and shifts and morphs. And actually, sometimes it’s when we’ve already said something, it’s that next level deeper, that really unveils the gold, the little golden nuggets heading hiding in your whole internal landscape. So please do take the time. The other thing I’d advise to get the most out of this exercise is to please not just answer with one line, please keep on going and going and going. Because I tell you, if you spend, let’s say an hour answering all these journal prompts, so I see journal prompts, I guess they’re kind of questions, whatever you want to call them. If you spend the time doing this, I promise you, you will start to notice better engagement on all your posts, I promise you, you will start seeing opportunities you didn’t see previously to elevate where you position yourself and who and where and how you’re speaking. And I promise you, it will inspire in you how you can be improving your current office suite to kind of make it even more irresistible, and make it even more transformational. This work is powerful. I mean, I should be charging for this podcast. So please pay attention, do not just listen to it and think I’ll come back to it. Make like get to your calendar right now. And scheduling some time to do this. If you are unable to do it now. And I promise you, your future self will thank you. Hey, you may even come over to my DMs and thank me too, and I would welcome it.

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I love to chat to my listeners. So let’s go for it, shall we? Let’s without further ado, let’s get started. So question number one, I’m going to start in the shallow end and go with what do I stand for? And now I’m not going to give an explanation for every single one of these some of these things, it’s best that you learn that for yourself. So sometimes people go what do I stand for? I don’t actually know. What I recommend then. And by the way, this applies to all of these questions. I often say to clients, if something doesn’t kind of come easily start with what’s easy. Then when you’re on that roll, sometimes it’s stuff that seemed challenging before becomes infinitely easier. Okay, so start with what’s easy. So if you find what do I stand for challenging, move immediately on to what do I stand against? Because that tends to come with more ease. And as those roll off your tongue, you’ll start to understand well, what’s the flip side of those things? What are the things therefore that I do stand for? And please take the time to write each of these down because of course, you have values will imbue everything about who and how and why and what you do. And we want to be aware of them, we want to be wearing them on our sleeve. Because there is nothing more frustrating than getting on a discovery call with someone who you’re like, how on earth did you ever think we’d be a good fit, okay? You don’t be having this thoughts, okay?

Don’t want to be having them. I never have those sorts anymore. I remember having them a lot in the early days, as I was establishing myself, I don’t have them anymore. Nowadays, I’m like, Oh my gosh, I want to take this gallop, but dinner and have a fun time this person would be so much fun to play with. And you know, outside of them being a client, like I just love love my clients, like insanely and I know lots of people say this, but it’s the truth. And the reason why I’m able to love on my clients where I do is because I attract people who were I Tony’s, I’m pausing here, because I don’t want to use the word aligned. But we are we’re aligned in our values we think similarly of in the world. And you know, where there’s differences, of course, I welcome welcome those challenges, but it’s, it makes it so much more fun. So, okay, what do I stand for? What do I stand against? Then give me or give yourself five reasons clients choose to work with you. And I’ve put down five, but rules are made to be broken. If you have more than that, please flow. The main reason why I said five is because most people can immediately think of one or two, and then they’re like, but the gold, like I say is very often in the stuff that is immediately below the surface. So please try and come up with at least five different reasons your clients choose to work with you, I almost promise you that reason number five will be the most pertinent one. Now, I would love you to also write down what are the top five things clients say are amazing about working with you. And oftentimes, by the way, it’s stuff again, that we take for granted. People regularly say to me, I like how you’re so direct, you’re not fluffy about how you share things. I like how the word integrity is thrown around a lot, which I don’t ever like to use coming from my own mouth. I like to prefer to hear it. But it’s a word that I heard a lot. And came this is these are the challenges we have right? Like, if for example, a lot of people say you are a high integrity coach, when you say something you follow through, I totally believe you have my back, etc. You can’t say I’m the coach who is totally totally has your back, because whoever says that you already don’t believe them.

Right? So it’s always working out later on. Now I know these things, how do I infer it? How do I demonstrate it? How do I act in alignment with that, I mean, maybe it is that you don’t really need to do anything, because this is why people are reflecting it already. But it’s helpful to know that because when you think about the language you’re using in your marketing, when you think about how you name your offers, for example, one of the things I recognise, because I attract high integrity coaches, because I myself am someone of integrity and likes to stand by my word. It then made me look at some of my previous marketing that I’ve used in the earlier days where I was a little bit more guilty of kind of leaning into templates and what I saw everyone else doing and recognised. Bearing in mind, this is the kind of brand I desire to be, is all my marketing in alignment with that, you know, do I feel really like? Am I making sure that how I sell what my contract does, like all the things is it all aligned in alignment with a vision of being what I want all coaches and business mentors to aspire to, in terms of what it means to be within integrity. So it’s a beautiful lens to look at my entire business through not just on a marketing level, but on every single level to ensure that that is the consistent experience my clients have when they work with me.

And again, I mean, like I said, when we’re doing like being becoming the go to authority, this is obviously a slight deviation from there. But it’s all still part of the same thing. Because when clients have that consistency, that congruency in their experience, from the moment they come into your world to the moment they work with you to the moment they leave, they are the very same people who will be raving about you to all of their friends. And believe me, the ripple effect of that long term as a business owner is immense. Okay. So we’ve got the five reasons why to clients choose to work with you. We’ve got the five top things clients say is amazing about working with you. And what three areas of work don’t feel like work. Where do you flow in terms of when you’re supporting your clients? Like I say, when you get to the stage where like, oh my gosh, this doesn’t even feel like work. Where is that? Where is that? Oftentimes when I asked more direct questions like where’s your zone of genius? People are like, Oh, well, I am really good at this. I’m really good at that. So yeah, that can be a messy way to answer it. So instead when you think about the areas where oh my god, you almost feel like if I wasn’t paid for this, and all my needs were covered and I was living the life I was designed to live I would still do this for free because it feels so good. Where are those areas? I want to know about them. And then, of course, who do you love to work with, there’s no denying that areas that we tend to flow in. It’s also because we are working in alignment with someone who is a perfect match. For example, in my own business, one of the things I recognise is that the clients who achieved the most success working with me, were the ones who were deeper into their business, were the ones who had experience under the belt. This is where questions like this created an even bigger outcome, and even bigger our house because we had a good stockpile to work through in terms of all their experiences, or their clients or the feedback they’ve received.

And it allows us to create so much more on the other side of that so much more. And that’s why all my offers now are speaking to established business owners. Because while yes, I could still help business owners who are just starting out, I recognise that you know, where it’s really flowing, where it’s really joyous, is in the space where I’m supporting established business owners, because they also come with a level of emotional resiliency and awareness as to what online business is. So it means we can really roll up our sleeves and get into the good stuff. Yeah, so that’s that. So do think about who you love to work with. And then similarly, in the same vein, along the same thread of if you found it hard to say, we know what you what you do stand for versus what you don’t stand for. Similarly, when it comes to your ideal client, what are the red flags, which makes certain prospects a big fat? No, write it down, write as many as you can. And with all of these things, I really encourage gargantuan levels of specificity. Okay, I don’t want to just hear you saying I like working with women who are 30 to 45, who’ve had children who are online business owners. That’s boring. And there’s so many of us out there, if you want to be my friend, I don’t want you looking at me that way. I’m more than all of those things.

There’s lots more things going on here. And those are the things that get me excited. Those are the things that create conversation. So as a business, you want to be the same if you’re looking at someone on that big, broad, slightly bland level, you’re going to affect you’re going to attract occasionally, the odd bland person in your direction, and allow your personality to come through allow the kind of people you love to work with, to come through and who it is that you’re like as in like be honest about who you love to work with. Sometimes I find myself not myself, sometimes I find my clients writing down actually, no, let’s be honest, probably myself as well. I think this is something we all have to practice self awareness around, find ourselves writing down what we think we can attract who we think will want to work with us in, you know, who do we love to work with, rather than truly embracing and being honest about who you actually get lit the hell up to work with the kind of person that almost gives you borderline impostor syndrome, like, she wants to come work with me. But that energy, okay, like, speak to it, speak to it. Let’s be a little bit stretchy here. Okay. You don’t need to have experienced a lot of this. I often say nearly every client ever whatever worked with has had at least one super duper dreamy client, who they were like, This was breaking the norm. I do not normally attract people like this, but she was a total dreamboat. I’m like, well, let’s change that to the norm.

Okay, so if you have anyone in your world like that, think about them and write down what was particularly special about working with them? And what qualities values experience that you know, they had that made that they bought the experience that made it all the more fun working with them, this stuff is important. Okay. So speaking of that, you know, what is it about your experience as well, your life story, your approach that makes you different from the rest, okay? So think about this, this bits really, really big. Like, for example, because I was a single mum, because I have children with additional needs. Because I did build everything up over the last few years into multi SIG world now three years into a multi six figure business. Things like stories like that resonate with various I have like single moms who are business owners reaching out to me at least weekly, and to connect and share their own experience with me because it inspires them. And it’s relevant, you know, and similarly, I’m very much lit up by supporting women because I know what it felt like to really have all my choices removed from me and really question what was possible for me moving forward because I had so many obligations that I now had to manage entirely by myself. And I know that most women regardless as to whether they have partner or not feel very similar particularly when they become a mum. So I am hugely lit up by supporting women in general. I feel like it’s almost a feminist act to help women genuinely build Life and career by their own design, it makes me feel so cheeky and excited, and a bit rebellious. When I think about all the women I’m supporting to make good money while still taking time out to go for those manicures, have those massages, it feels like we’re putting the world back in order.

So like, again, suddenly think about what’s the stuff from your experience your life story that really lights you up and really impacts how you show up for your clients. Because people will feel that energy coming from you, people will feel that genuine sense of investment that you have in them. And I bet somewhere in your story that impacts how and why you show up as you do. Like, I don’t think I know one nutritional therapist friend, who hasn’t had some challenge of their own that didn’t influence their journey into nutritional therapy. I don’t think I have one therapist friend that didn’t have some situation of their own, which again, led them into wanting to help others. That’s what makes them the miraculous miracle workers makers, there was too many things going on there that they are, okay. So don’t like put that on the sidelines. It’s important. I know, there’s a lot of emphasis when we talk about marketing to think about your ideal client. But ultimately, you need to understand it’s a relationship, it’s a two way relationship, baby takes two to tango. And what that means is, it’s not enough to solely focus on your ideal client. And actually, when we do that, we actually already are creating a very unhealthy dynamic, when it comes to attracting new clients into our world. They want to know about you as well. There’s obviously certain strategies you need to think about, well, let’s not go into that. That’s a whole other conversation. Like, they want to know about you as well. But don’t make it all about you either. Okay.

But anyway, back to the questions. How long have you been doing what you’ve been doing? And how does that impact your work? What makes you the best in the business? And then finally, what are the three to four commonalities in how you support all of your clients. So when I say commonalities, what I’m referring to is what I tend to support most of my clients to do to help them express how they help their clients is to get clear on their process or framework. Because that is a neat and tidy way for them to regularly explain how it is well how their offers are constructed. How it is that you work with them. You know, essentially, if someone decides to either work with you one to one, or in a group programme context, or within a short consultation, they will have a very clear idea as to who and how and why they’re working with you. Because you have a really clear process or framework, it also makes how you work your own intellectual property and makes it different to everybody else. This is like the kind of the final icing on the cake, I guess. Now this is like deserves its own podcast episode, which I probably will dedicate an episode to soon getting clear on your framework, because it is is a big, hefty one. But a really simple way to start thinking about it right now is to just get really clear on like, what are the common things like what are the awareness pieces that all my clients need to have, before we can even do anything? What are the foundational elements they need to thrive? Before we can even start looking at the kind of growth stage. And this applies across the board, right? Like I’m using this this terminology, because whether you’re a therapist, or whether you’re a business coach, this still applies.

Every client that comes to work with you needs a certain level of awareness, they’ll probably need some foundational habits, behaviours, skills, tools, something in place to be able to get to the next stage in this transformation with you. Then there’s the kind of either the embedding or the growth stage, it’s either embedding those habits and and how they’re supported with that, or how they grow from those embedded habits. Those are the general phases, awareness, foundations, that kind of habits, the kind of embedding of the habits, and then the growth on the other side of that. So this is often how I kind of support people to think about what their process is, what is the primary point? What is the middle point? What is the end point? Okay, today has been a long episode. And we’ve covered a lot of things. So I hope I haven’t entirely like blown up your brain. But I’m really glad that you have these prompts. I’m really glad you have these kinds of questions to sit with. And I’m really excited to hear from you how you get along with them. So please do pop into my DMs and let me know about the aha moments that have come up for you because I love to hear them or simply just pop them underneath one of my social posts promoting the podcast, I don’t mind you can do them. Anyway, send them to my inbox is all welcome. I just love to hear from you. So enjoy. Enjoy this exercise. Enjoy everything that comes out the other side. I’m so grateful to be in in your ears today. I’m going to be coming back to you next week talking about well you know what, let’s do it. Let’s talk about designing your unique process. So if your brain is slightly blown by that last last question, know that I am here to scoop you up in a week’s time and support you with going even deeper on that. And as always, if you found this episode helpful, enlightening, inspiring. Please do share it with your friends over Love for this reach even more business owners so I can support an impact even more women and men I mean they’re all welcome and that’s it I’ll be in yours next week