The hardest part of creating videos as a spiritual entrepreneur is not the camera setting; it’s our fear.

When I first stepped into public speaking, my nerves nearly got the better of me. I spent years safe behind a keyboard, convinced my words sounded better on paper.

Being seen, really seen, felt like exposure, not opportunity.

But everything changed when I took a few seconds of courage to face my fears and stepped on stage.

 

In part two of this visibility series, I open up about my journey from being a terrified public speaker to becoming one of the top 100 speakers in the world.

You don’t need fancy gear or flawless delivery. You need your voice, your story, and a willingness to show up.

This episode is for every spiritual entrepreneur who wants to share their message on video but finds fear creeping in the moment the camera turns on.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• Why most “camera ready” advice misses the point for a spiritual entrepreneur
• How to get past the fear that being visible online is “unsafe” or risky?
• What’s the real reason you keep playing small (even when I know I need to show up)?
• How small steps can build confidence, even if you’re terrified to start?
• How to reframe visibility so it feels meaningful rather than self-promotion.

 

If you’ve been holding back because of nerves, old scripts, or just not feeling “ready,” this episode is for you.

 

Key Takeaways:

• You don’t show up to be liked; you show up to be of service
• Simple, short videos build intimacy and trust faster than polished productions
• Your message isn’t for everyone, but it is for someone, and they need to hear it

 

Quotes to Remember:

1. Fear should not dominate your life. Fear robs you of free will.
2. People resonate with people, not with a brand or a logo.
3. Visibility will always feel like a risk instead of an opportunity unless you reframe that thinking.

 

Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of this private membership created for solo business owners.

We don’t chase trends. We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

 Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support, and I would love it if you could rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your review would help this podcast reach a wider audience while continuing to provide you with valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 

Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:A lot of people try to help entrepreneurs or personal brands with being camera ready by talking about equipment and lighting and transcripts, but, really, the issue can be often deeper. Coming from someone who was afraid of public speaking, I understand the struggle. Being visible, sharing your opinions, talking about a concept can be scary, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about in this podcast episode so you can become more visible and begin to share your message with the audience that needs to hear it. Stay tuned. Hey there. Thanks for joining me for this podcast episode, embracing Visibility as a Spiritual Entrepreneur. I’m Marisa Shadrick your host. I’m an AI marketing strategist and certified copywriter, and this topic is near and dear to my heart because I had a huge case of fear of public speaking.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:58]:And it wasn’t until, well, some years back that I realized I had to overcome it. Now I was in ministry for many, many years, and it was okay to do some speaking here and there with a small group, because, after all, it was within a church, and so they’re supposed to love you anyway regardless of how bad or how good it was. Right? So you felt safe there. But outside of that, I wanted to be able to communicate better, not just in writing, but in public speaking. And I knew that this was a hindrance for me. So I joined Toastmasters, and it was very agonizing and painful going through all of that, trying to muster up enough nerve to just give my opening speech, which is usually a topic about yourself. Just tell us who you are and where you live and your family. It’s supposed to be very simple, but I struggled with it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:48]:And so I spent quite a number of years in Toastmaster trying to build up my confidence and figure out why do I have this, like, allergic reaction to public speaking. It was so hard for me. And it wasn’t, until a few years in that I realized it really is a skill. It’s a skill that you need to develop. And the more I learned about public speaking, I learned about techniques, it became easier. And the more I found content that I was really passionate about to talk about, it became easier. And I realized that the feedback I was getting was very positive, and so that was very validating as well. But it wasn’t until my club that I was in started really nudging me to compete that everything hit the fan, so to speak.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:38]:They wanted me to compete, and I did little competitions. Like, I did a humorous competition, and I think I won an award for that. I didn’t go very far in it. And then they wanted to be me to do another competition, and I thought, okay. I’ll just do that one. And then they wanted me to enter the international speech competition. I thought they were crazy. So I decided, well, it’s time.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:00]:I’ve been in this group for a long time, and so I need to put everything that I’ve learned into this and just see what happens. You know? If I bomb out, then I don’t have to go to the next level, because there were numerous levels that you had to win before you were in the semi final finals. And I never thought I would be in the semifinals. I just wanted to do it, get it out of the way, get some practice, and I started winning. And lo and behold, you know, I ended up winning the, district championship. I went to the semifinals. I was speaking at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Never thought I would do that, and it was an amazing experience.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:43]:And I discovered something about myself, really. I was becoming the person that I was supposed to be, not this imposter with all these, limiting beliefs. I was evolving and becoming who I was supposed to be. And so even though I didn’t win the entire competition, like the world championship, I was one of the top hundred speakers in the world that year. And it really shows us, all of us, that whatever the obstacle is, we can overcome it, not overnight, of course. But most of the things that we need to develop for having an online business are skill sets, and those you can learn. And oftentimes with journaling and just really reflection, you can see where the bottleneck is, and you could begin to focus on those things. Now, I have a ministry background, so oftentimes I look and I reflect a lot, and I look at things that just shouldn’t be there just because of who I am as a Christian person.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:47]:And I realized fear should not dominate my life. Fear robs me of free will. Fear will take over and make all the decisions for me, and I didn’t want that either. And fear is just ugly. It’s not of God. And I said, I don’t want this. And so I was on this quest to overcome those things that may be very fearful. So in this podcast episode and I kind of give you that to kind of give you context for this episode.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:11]:It’s probably nothing you haven’t heard before. It’s more of a reminder. Because in today, in marketing online, if you’re a personal brand, we really need to show up more. I mean, it’s critical. It’s it’s what it is. Right? It is what it is. I have a friend, Michelle Raymond, that she is just a sweetheart that I really love. She is a LinkedIn expert.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:33]:And I worked with her on my LinkedIn platform, and she said, Marissa, you’re posting all the time. You’re posting every day, except the weekend. Right? You’re posting great content. You’re developing, you know, you’re writing voice, and you’re posting newsletters, and images, and a mixture of things, but I don’t see you anywhere. Where are you? Where is Marissa? She said, you’re hiding. I can’t see you. You need to be visible so people get to know you, and hear you, and are able to see your personality. Why aren’t you on video? And I went, Michelle, really? Do I really need to do this? Still, after all this time and after everything I went through, I had to do some soul searching.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:19]:And I really didn’t want to be on video because I didn’t want, again, the same limiting beliefs. You know, what do people say? I’m not one of these young people on video. I don’t wanna do all that postproduction work on the videos. Even those little minute and a half clips, they have all this post production stuff. I don’t wanna do that. I have to put my makeup on. Ugh. You know? And I gave all these excuses, but it really was fear creeping in.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:45]:And so I accepted that challenge, and I decided I need to be on video more. And it’s interesting that video content just attracts, and I was able to get clients through it. Now I’m not gonna say directly from the video, because oftentimes, I don’t even give a call to action on these videos I’m doing, and they’re just a minute and a half. But I’m starting to realize that people just wanna hear the person. So people wanna hear you. They wanna hear your opinion. They want to see you, and then not in a polished format with all of the mistakes and everything else. They want to see the human being because pea people resonate.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:29]:See, I just made a mistake right there. But that’s okay. I’m gonna leave it in there just to prove to you. People resonate with people, not with a brand, not with a logo. And so when we show up genuinely speaking to our audience, and just sharing what we’ve discovered, what we’ve learned, our challenges, we don’t have to give, you know, our whole personal history. That can be overboard. Right? But if we’re just real with them, and we just share some of our struggles, some of the the things, maybe something that’s working really well, or something that you found really easy to do, that maybe they can do too, that’s valuable content. You don’t have to be the all in all, all knowing person.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:09]:You could just be sharing your journey. And that felt more comfortable, because I didn’t want to show up, like, do as I do. Right? Because everybody’s business is different, and everybody needs a different strategy. I I couldn’t do that to people, because I don’t know what their business is, or how long they’ve been in business, or if they’re startups, or, you know, seasoned. But sharing some insights of what I’m discovering, or what I’m doing, or, you know, some of the things I’m gonna try and test, and maybe it’ll fail, maybe it’ll succeed, those things resonate with people. And so I started doing that, and I’ve noticed some great results. So I’ve got some notes here. I’m gonna cover three tips here.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:50]:Redefining visibility, especially for spiritual entrepreneurs. And the reason I say this is because oftentimes, people that come from a ministry background, there’s some kind of transformative message, mindset, some kind of life change that they’re offering, those intangibles, finding your purpose, that kind of thing. And oftentimes, we can feel more vulnerable being ourselves, because visibility isn’t just about being on camera. It’s about sharing your thoughts and your beliefs and your convictions in public, and that could be super darn scary. And it means letting people hear what you actually think, and knowing that they might disagree or misunderstand or judge you. Now that’s probably one of the things that makes me really nervous that I would be misunderstood. Because sometimes when I speak, I take shortcuts, and I don’t, like, elaborate on something that I’m saying. And so sometimes when I do shortcuts, people can misunderstand what I’m saying.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:54]:And so I have to be really careful that I don’t offend someone, and that’s probably still one of my greatest fears that I don’t offend anyone. But we we have to step forward and develop the skill for the sake of others. And so redefining visibility means visibility isn’t about becoming a performer or creating a persona. It’s just being yourself. And when they begin to hear that authenticity, when they begin to see that you have integrity, then they’re going to realize even if you make an oops, oh, but she would never mean it that way. Right? Because they get to know you. And visibility equals intimacy with your audience. Yes.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:39]:There is a deeper level of intimacy when you’re on video. So it’s really helpful to connect, which is what we’re trying to do online is to connect with our audience. And that’s why we feel so vulnerable, but that’s exactly why it’s so effective. So two edged sword. Right? It’s effective, but we feel vulnerable, and you can’t have one without the other. Number two, why visibility feels unsafe even when it’s a strategic way to market. And remember, marketing is all about building trust. I don’t care what people say.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:13]:Doesn’t matter if it’s a blog post, if it’s a video, any kind of marketing you’re doing. You’re trying to develop some kind of trust. Right? Because if they don’t trust you, know you, like you, they’re not gonna keep following you. They’re not gonna keep listening. So everything that we’re creating as far as quote unquote marketing, is we’re trying to develop that trust with people. And I think video is a great way to do that. So, number two, why visibility feels unsafe. Being seen can activate our nervous system, our responses to freeze, to stop, to retreat, to run, because we’re trying to stay safe.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:48]:So it can trigger that where we start getting cold sweat. I know when I was trying trying to do that speech competition, step on stage, my palms would get all sweaty, and I’d have to just say, you know, I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it for the people that are gonna be listening to this in the audience. I’m doing it for them because someone needs to hear this message. And so I would just step on that stage knowing it wasn’t about me, it was about serving the audience. So just know that being seen can trigger, your body to want to freeze or stop or retreat, but that’s normal. And pretty soon, that will change to more of an excitement. It does take time.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:30]:It doesn’t happen overnight. And again, on top of that, you may be playing those internal scripts, like being visible is dangerous. You know, you have to be careful what it is that you’re saying to yourself. Like, I’m gonna bomb. I’m gonna forget my lines. This is not safe. People are gonna judge me. You got to stop that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:49]:Stop it, because that’s gonna just make things worse. And then when you you do start speaking, you’re not going to be fully present. It’s not gonna be you. It’s gonna be the scared side of you. It’s not gonna be you. And so, all of those things that we keep thinking, we have to stop for a minute, and we have to take whatever it is that we’re thinking about, and change it and align it to truth. And that’s how I got over that is I had to align it to truth. What is the truth? Because that was a lie.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:22]:A lot of the things that were going through my head was a lie. So you have to look at that that way and stop and take captive that thought, and figure out what is the truth about this, and then anchor yourself on that truth. And this is especially true for people who’ve been taught to be quiet. And that could be a result of society, of culture, of upbringing, could be all kinds of reasons where we’re taught to be quiet. So we have to realize, you know, what’s triggering this for me? Is it something in my past? Is it something that I’m just imagining and trying to unpack that and figure that out? And for spiritual entrepreneurs, it could hit even harder because of spiritual upbringing, which I touched on that in part one of this two part episode series. So if you missed part one of this two part series, you might wanna go back and listen to that. We’re often not selling the widgets and the gadgets and the tactics. We’re sharing insights, wisdom, lived experience, which means we’re becoming more vulnerable with our audience, and that could be scary.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:36]:And because it matters so deeply to us, it’s very personal. That’s why showing up on camera or on stage can feel like walking into a spotlight without armor, because it’s so personal. It’s so important to us. Right? It’s important, and we’ve dedicated our life to do this. And so that’s why it feels so risky as well. Okay. Number three. Let me give you some tips on how you can create a safety net when it comes to public speaking, so that you can begin to develop the skill without freaking out.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:12]:Okay? So the first thing is that whenever you’re creating videos, you can always record the video first. And if you don’t like it, you can delete it. Especially, like, the minute and a half videos that I do on LinkedIn, I can record them, and if I totally blunder the thing, because I usually just shoot it off the cuff and I don’t really prepare a full script. I just it’s only a minute and a half, and sometimes it’s a minute. You can record if you don’t like it, and you can delete it. So you can start by just recording. Right? Recording. If you’re doing some type of course, you can record it, you can edit it, you can modify it, you could throw some overlay over it, you know, where you can have some b roll or some kind of image that you show in it, so that you’re not all, you know, face to camera.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:00]:So there’s things that you can do with recorded video. And then, once you have the recorded videos, and you do short videos, you can do maybe a live, and to get used to it. Right? And after you do a live, maybe you can do interviews. Maybe you can go on podcasts and do some interviews. Nowadays, a lot of them are video and audio. You can begin to get used to that. Right? Speaking on your feet and just being able to answer questions. Then maybe you could do a workshop.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:31]:You can host a workshop and begin to notice how each time you’re growing and it’s more content that you’re providing. So from the workshop, then maybe you can create a keynote, and you begin to build on the skills that you’ve already established. But you can start with a really, really short recorded video and then go from there. So visibility will always feel like a risk instead of an opportunity unless you reframe that thinking. I’ll say that again. Visibility will always feel like a risk and not an opportunity until you reframe the thinking. You don’t show up to be liked. I hate to tell you that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:10]:You don’t show up to be liked. You show up to be of service. You don’t show up to be liked. You show up to be of service. Your story isn’t for everyone. So it’s not gonna land for everyone, but it’s for someone. So we need to think about that. The story, the message that we’re sharing, it’s not gonna be for everyone, and that’s okay.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:30]:That’s a good thing. But it is for someone, and that someone deserves to hear what you have to say. And visibility that creates engagement is the result of alignment, not algorithms. So I’ll say that again. Visibility that creates engagement is a result of alignment and not algorithms. So I have some reflection questions for you so that you can consider, you know, if you’re hesitant and you’re not creating videos and you feel a little stuck there, here’s a question you can ask yourself. If I believe that being seen was part of my service, I’d stop blank and begin sharing blank. So what would that be for you? If I believe that being seen was part of my service or my contribution, I’d stop blank and begin sharing blank.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:20]:Here are some examples. If I believe that being seen was part of my service, I’d stop withholding my story and begin sharing those moments to help others. Or I’d stop softening my opinion, and begin sharing what I really believe about healing, about growth, about vision, about goals, whatever the case may be. Or I’d stop filtering my content, and begin sharing my lived experience as a guide. Right? As a mentor. Or I’d stop downplaying my offers, and begin sharing how I can actually help people, and the value that your offers bring. Or I’d stop minimizing the depth of my work, and begin sharing what truly happens when people work with me. And you can confidently begin to share case studies.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:20]:So video is very, very effective. And if you’re not using video right now, just know that it is a skill set that you can develop, and you can start with a safety net and create short recorded videos. And that way, you feel a little more confident, and you’ll begin to grow. Those little videos will help you build those skills that you need. So here are some last thoughts. There’s a reason visibility feels like a stretch, because it’s not about attention. It’s about obedience and vulnerability. That’s why it feels so difficult to do it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:56]:When you choose to show up fully, it’s not to spotlight yourself. You’re making yourself available. You’re thinking beyond your fear and choosing to serve others, and that’s pretty powerful. Being seen is an act of generosity. It says, I’m willing to be known so others can find their way. You’re not waiting to feel safe. You’re being faithful to the message you’ve been entrusted with, and that takes courage. It’s the kind of courage that’s willing to be misunderstood, rejected, or to even be a little bit uncomfortable.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:38]:And finally, when you’re on video, it’s not about self promotion, because I hear that a lot. It’s really about stepping into your leadership, because out there, there’s someone who is waiting to hear your message. So it really is an opportunity to serve and be available to others. So I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode. And if you did, I’d love a rating and review. I’d really appreciate it. And if you haven’t tried videos yet, I would encourage you to do that. It’s very different than just audio, and it’s very different than written.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:12]:Gives people an opportunity to get to know you. And you’re a wonderful person. You’re a beautiful person. Why not? You know? And a minute and a half is nothing. You can even do a minute if you like. If you feel more comfortable with a minute, do a minute, and you can get started. It’s prerecorded, very safe. And unless you like it, it will not go online.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:30]:And if you feel comfortable with it, you can put it online. And I’d love for you to tag me too on LinkedIn. Tag me and let me see your videos. I’d love to share it with my community as well. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.

For spiritual entrepreneurs who want to leave a lasting impact, it might be time to stop playing small and want more.

If you’ve ever found yourself second-guessing your big ideas, shying away from the spotlight, or wondering if you’re really meant to “go big” as a spiritual entrepreneur, you’re not alone. I’ve walked that same uncertain path, grateful for every client and opportunity, but sometimes hesitant to fully step forward and share my message.

In Part 1 of this two-part podcast series, we’ll explore what it really means to “play small” as a faith-led entrepreneur.

I invite you to reflect on how your beliefs, fears, and unspoken desires might be limiting your impact. If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re sharing your message with the conviction and reach it deserves, this episode is for you.

 

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• What “playing small” actually means (hint: it’s not about your revenue)
• How spiritual beliefs and upbringing can create invisible limits for spiritual entrepreneurs
• The emotional cost of holding back your voice and visibility as a spiritual entrepreneur
• Why reframing desire helps entrepreneurs step into purpose without guilt
• Simple reflection questions to help you spot where you’re minimizing your message

 

Key Takeaways:

• Playing small isn’t about your business’s size—it’s about showing up consistently and intentionally.
• Visibility isn’t about ego—it’s about impact and service for those we’re called to lead.
• Reframing desire helps shift your mindset from guilt to alignment.

 

Quotes to Remember:

• “Growth isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming the person you were created to be.”
• “More visibility simply means more people will be served.”
• “When you stop minimizing what you know, what you feel, and what you’re here to say, you don’t just grow, you transform, and you also help others transform.”

 

Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of this private membership created for solo business owners.

We don’t chase trends. We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

 Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support, and I would love it if you could rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your review would help this podcast reach a wider audience while continuing to provide you with valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 

Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:Let me ask you a question. Are you playing it small as a spiritual entrepreneur? Now when I say playing it small, I don’t mean the size of your business or the revenue that you bring. I mean, are you showing up fully? In this episode, we’re going to examine whether or not you’re playing small or whether you’re reclaiming your space to be able to share the message your audience needs to hear. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I’m Marissa Shadrach, your host.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:33]:I am an AI marketing strategist and certified copywriter. But today, we have a first of a two part series on this podcast, and it’s really about our position as spiritual entrepreneurs. And the reason why I chose this topic, I reviewed some analytics in the podcast, and I saw out of the top 10 podcasts, the ones where I shared a lot about mindset, overcoming some of the the limiting beliefs that we often face, those were the ones that seemed to resonate with you. So this two part series is dedicated to you, and we’re gonna answer the question whether you’re playing it small or if you’re fully visible sharing your message, your mission without guilt, without fear, and without apology. So let’s get started. So first of all, if you’re feeling a little bit stuck, if you’re feeling a little stagnant, or something is just off and you’re not seeing the growth that you’re expecting, it might not be that you’re doing anything wrong. It might be something else that I know I struggled with for a long time, and that’s just being comfortable being visible. We have to be visible so people can hear our message, our point of view, so that we can promote our products and services.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:46]:And sometimes as spiritual entrepreneurs, there’s things we need to rewire because we have some limiting beliefs that can spill into our business. And again, when I mean playing small, I don’t mean about revenue or the size of your business. I’m talking about how you show up. If you’re taking advantage of opportunities where you can be visible, if you’re engaging in speaking opportunities, those type of things that sometimes we try to avoid because we don’t like to be visible. So in this podcast episode, it’s not like I’m going to go over something new. It’s really gonna serve as a reminder, especially as spiritual entrepreneurs. We know that we need to overcome fear. That’s a given, but it’s often easier said than done.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:30]:When we start an online business, all of a sudden, fears that we never thought we had appear, and we have to overcome that. And it takes time. Often, it feels very risky to step out and give an opinion or give a talk because we know people are listening and people are judging, and they really are. People are always judging. Maybe not intentionally, but they’re forming an opinion about what you’re saying. They’re either accepting or rejecting or questioning. It’s just human nature. And so we have to realize that we even do it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:01]:We’re even critiquing things and listening to things and trying to compare it to some beliefs that we already have or to change our point of view by the evidence that’s given. And it’s not always easy to admit that we judge, and we do. And we don’t do it in a way to condemn people. We’re assessing. We’re evaluating. We’re trying to see what portion of what we’re listening to or watching is something that we can adopt or something that perhaps we still don’t understand and we need more information or something that maybe shifts our point of view. So let’s redefine playing small so we’re all on the same page. Again, it’s not about revenue.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:39]:It’s not about followers. It’s not even about the niche you’ve chosen. It’s about whether or not you’re fully expressing the message, the vision, the purpose, the reason why you created your business. Are you showing up, and do you have a conviction to share this with others because you know it would help them? It’s whether or not you’re creating filters and you’re limiting yourself, or you’re hesitating or holding back. That’s what I mean about playing small. So I’m gonna cover three simple points that you can contemplate and some reflection questions that you can consider. So number one is the real cost of playing small. First of all, the message is not going to reach the people who really need it, who need to hear it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:20]:They’re not going to be able to embrace the hope that it brings. The impact is minimized even when the effort is maximized. It’s going to reach only so far because people do business with people, not necessarily with a brand or a name or a logo for that matter. You stay in the safe loop, repeating the same things you did yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, never really challenging the edge, never really going beyond that. This was something that I struggled with. I wanted to stay within a certain parameter and not exceed that because that meant I had to be more vulnerable. It’s going to limit you from growing and being the person that you were meant to be. I remember a prayer that I had years ago, and I had it as a signature on the bottom of my email.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:06]:God, change me today so I can become the person you intended tomorrow. It takes change. It takes transforming. It takes facing those fears to be able to come become that person that you were intended to be. And so when we play small, the emotional result is stagnation. We stay the same and we don’t grow. And we were meant to grow. We were meant to live an abundant life.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:33]:And this can make us feel invisible, and it has kind of a slippery slope to that. Number two is common reasons that we hold back. Now I can’t presume why this is the case for you if you struggle to be more visible, But I can share what were some of the struggles for me. And part of it was my upbringing and also my spiritual upbringing. Oftentimes I felt that in order to be humble, I needed to be quiet. I needed to just stay grateful, I needed to not talk about myself, and there were certain things that were false beliefs about what humility really was. And so a lot of this had an effect on me as far as how I would show up. I thought if I showed up and I talked about what I can do or how I can help people, I was being boastful.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:26]:And so that would create more tension for the daily things I needed to do. And also, I remember being told to always be content and not really want for more. And that was something that kind of messed with my head too, because I thought for people that are ambitious, for people that are competitive, for people that are trailblazers, this can be crippling. Right? But I remember, you know, thinking, well, I need to be content, and it was all the way I interpreted it. It wasn’t that people were telling me not to excel. It was the way I perceived it. And so that could be a limiting belief too. But part of my upbringing meant that if you were ambitious, or if you talked about yourself, or if you, you know, wanted to earn revenue, or you were had certain goals that it was greedy, or it was too ambitious, and that you should be content.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:20]:I know for me also, fear of judgment was also a big thing, that if I started sharing my opinions, maybe someone would judge me, not like me, not, say things behind my back. So this was always something that I had feared, or that I would be too much, or not enough, or too young, or too old, all of those things that many people struggle with. I struggle with the same thing too. So that causes us to hold back. And the other was also the fear of success. What if this did grow? How would I handle it? Trying to see the future, which none of us can do, and trying to create all these scenarios, you know, if it goes wrong, if it goes well, if this happens, if that happens, and I I would just, you know, create havoc for myself. And all of those things can cause us to hold back and not take that step forward. And so these were some of the struggles that I went through, but lots of people go through different, different struggles for different reasons.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:17]:And it causes them to hold back and not really step forward and play it small and play it safe. So the third point I wanna make is reframing desire. I truly believe now that when we have a desire, it’s truly God given. When we have a desire to help, to serve, to see change, to, contribute something to this world, that is something that’s selfless. And I think that desire needs to be nurtured. And for everyone, it could be something different. But wanting more is a signal of alignment. It isn’t really a signal of greed.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:59]:It’s really aligning yourself to your purpose and the goals and the vision that you have for your life. So wanting more is more about alignment, not about ego. Also, more visibility simply means more people will be served. When you show up more, it’s amazing the impact of one person, what it could have for another person. So being more visible means more people you can serve. Now some of those people may never be a client. They may just be people that hear something that you produced on social media, or it could be something that they read. Right? Maybe they’ll never become a client.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:38]:That doesn’t mean that your message didn’t have impact and value. The other is reframing desire, more income. There’s nothing wrong with money and desiring more income. In fact, if we have more, we can give more. There’s more freedom. There’s more generosity. And you can even create a larger reach because you have resources to be able to do some type of outbound or inbound marketing. So you can do more.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:06]:So there’s nothing wrong with more income either. More confidence. Right? Reframing desire. Confidence is not being boastful. And so, if you have a desire to be more confident, that means there’s gonna be more transformation for others. And again, confidence is not pride. One of the things that I realized that I when I tried to just stay in the shadows of everything, and I was trying to, in my mind, stay humble, I was really prideful then, because I was thinking of myself so much. I was thinking about what others would would say.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:44]:I was thinking about how it would look. I was thinking about the pros and cons. Everything was so focused toward me, and that is pride. When we think about ourselves more than others, it’s really a sign of pride. So all of those things, even though when I was trying to hide behind the shadows, I was still being prideful. And sometimes we think people that are outspoken are prideful, and they’re not. Maybe they’re very, very humble realizing the gifts that God has given them, and they’re using those gifts in all humility. And so we can get messed up with that as well.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:17]:But I realized at that point that I was being very prideful. And so in order to overcome that fear, I had to reframe things and stop thinking about myself, start thinking about others, the impact I could have on others, and that helped me to step forward and not play it small, at least in the way I’ve defined it in this podcast. To show up more and be more for others. So here are some reflection questions that you can ask yourself just to see and test. So this is a fill in the blank. If I believed my desire was a calling, I’d stop denying blank and begin honoring blank. So I’ll say it again, and I’ll give you some examples so you can fill in the blanks. If I believed my desire was a calling, I’d stop denying blank and begin honoring blank.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:12]:Now let me give you some examples. I’d stop denying how much I want to lead and begin honoring my ability to guide others with clarity and heart. Here’s another one. I’d stop denying that I want to earn well and begin honoring the value my work truly brings. Here’s another. I’d stop denying my fear of judgment and begin honoring the message that’s inside of me. Or I’d stop denying my dream of creating a full time practice and begin honoring the steps it takes to build it. And the last one, I’d stop denying that my old identity no longer fits and begin honoring the version of me that’s emerging.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:03]:We’re all transforming. We’re all growing. I don’t care how old you are. We’re all growing. There’s always room to learn and to grow and to excel. So you can ask yourselves these questions. So again, the question to fill in the blanks, if I believed my desire was a calling, I’d stop denying blank and begin honoring blank. So I wanna leave you with this thought.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:25]:Growth isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming the person you were created to be. When you stop minimizing what you know, what you feel, and what you’re here to say, you don’t just grow, you transform, and you also help others transform. You tell your story so that others can live their story. This isn’t about chasing validation. It’s about becoming fully available to the people you are meant to serve. So let’s stop rehearsing the small version of yourself because the work you are here to do deserves all of you. So if you enjoyed this podcast episode, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:11]:And remember, this is part one of a two part series, and we’re gonna continue the conversation of visibility and not playing it small. And we’re gonna talk about being visible via video or stage. So I hope you join me for that one. And again, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review. I’d really appreciate it. Until next time, take care.

I know how tempting it is to serve everyone instead of one target audience.

When I first started, I wanted to be all things to all people. But I quickly learned that speaking to everyone meant speaking to no one. Sound familiar?

In this episode, I share some target-audience insights from an unexpected place: the four Gospels in the Bible.

Whether you’re religious or not, stick with me.

The Gospels, while part of a global message, were written to a specific audience with language, stories, and details that resonated uniquely with that group.

It’s a powerful metaphor for how we should approach our messaging as business owners.

Clarity creates connection and traction.

So if you’ve ever said, “But my message is for everyone,” this episode is for you.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Podcast Episode

• Why trying to reach everyone can quietly stall your business growth
  • It sounds generous, but it may be the very thing keeping you stuck and unseen.
• A surprising metaphor from the four Gospels that simplifies audience clarity
  • One target audience. You’ll never look at your marketing the same way again.
• How to shift from “helping everyone” to making a real impact with one audience
  • It’s not about excluding, it’s about connecting in a way that finally gets traction.
• A simple shift that makes choosing a target audience feel freeing, not limiting
  • This reframe will help you let go of the guilt and own your lane with confidence.
• How to build momentum without changing your message, just your focus
  • You don’t need to start over. You just need to aim with intention.

 Key Target Audience Takeaways

• Clarity builds traction: When you know exactly who you’re speaking to, your message lands and moves people to act.
• A focused message doesn’t limit you: Serving one audience deeply creates the momentum and visibility you’ve been missing.
• Effective messaging isn’t about reaching more folks, but attracting the right ones: The deeper the connection, the greater the impact.
• How using AI tools like ChatGPT can help modify your message: Segmentation, without losing clarity.

 

Quotes to Remember:

“Even a timeless truth can be positioned differently for different hearts, for different audiences.”

“Your message structure should match the needs of your audience.”

“A clear, specific message begins to build trust because people can self identify, and they can resonate with what you are writing and what you’re saying, what you’re producing.”

“Meet your target audience where they are. Write the story that’s already in their head so that they can begin that journey with you.”

 

Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of this private membership created for solo business owners.

We don’t chase trends. We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

 Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support, and I would love it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your review would help this podcast reach a wider audience while continuing to provide you with valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

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 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:One audience, one transformation, one premise, one offer. This is one of the hardest things for solo business owners to wrap their arms around. It’s so difficult because we want our offers. We want our services to be for everyone, But it’s something we all have to understand very clearly if we want to grow our business. And I finally found a way that I think will help you understand why one is so powerful. I’m gonna show you what the Bible teaches about choosing one target audience. Stay tuned. Hello.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:41]:Hello. And welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I’m your host, Marisa Shadrick, AI marketing strategist and certified copywriter. And today we’re gonna talk about target audience and also a little bit about segmenting. And this is an important topic. No matter what program you buy, no matter what course you buy, whether you’re growing a business or writing a book, it all comes down to that first question, who is your target audience? And the problem is many of us want to say it’s for everyone. But we’ve all heard the cliche, when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one. There’s a lot of truth in that and I have tried in past episodes and in articles to explain target audience.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:24]:Now it wasn’t until recently when I was listening to a sermon that all of a sudden out of the blue, I finally knew how I can communicate target audience to my audience. See, the Bible, whether you believe in it or not, is for everyone. However, the gospels, there are four letters in the New Testament that are written by different authors and they are very different for different audiences even though the Bible’s for everyone. So I titled this what the Bible teaches about choosing a target audience. Now again, this is a a metaphor. It’s not anything alike. These are two separate things, the Bible and marketing. But I wanna illustrate something to you because we often say that the message in the bible is for everyone.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:08]:It’s for everyone. Jesus is one of the the primary people that believed in inclusion more than anybody else. And so the Bible shows us that even a timeless truth can be positioned differently for different hearts, for different audiences. And so your work deserves the same type of clarity. So here’s where I’m going to unpack this. The Bible is a universal message, but each of the four gospels was strategically written for a distinct audience with specific culture, historical, and theological background and needs. So the audiences were different in these four gospels in the New Testament. A single audience, a single transformation, and a single offer.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:54]:The offer in all four cases is the same, but the way they’re presenting it is different. So let’s take a quick look at one of the gospels, Matthew. Matthew was specifically written for the Jewish community. Jewish believers and seekers, especially those familiar with Hebrew scriptures. It was written in a way that they would understand based on their culture, their background, their history, their religion. It emphasized Jesus as the Messiah. You couldn’t talk to a another group like the Greeks or the Romans that way because they wouldn’t understand Messiah. But in the gospel of Matthew, you could.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:34]:And that that Jesus as the Messiah was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. So it’s the way it was written. I don’t wanna distract from this isn’t a a podcast about religion. It’s about target audience. So frequently, it references Jewish law. In this particular book, it references Jewish customs and prophetic texts, which is what we know as the Old Testament. It includes detailed genealogies tracing Jesus to Abraham and David. It uses phrases like the kingdom of heaven instead of the kingdom of God to respect Jewish tradition.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:10]:Matthew is seeking to prove that Jesus Christ is king and the son of David. So in this particular book, in the book of Matthew, it is written for the Jewish community. So in the book of Mark, it wasn’t written to the Jewish community. It was written to the Gentiles, specifically the Romans. So there were many believers in Rome possibly going through persecution, so it was written differently. It didn’t have the genealogy that was included in the first book in Matthew. It was a little different. It was very action oriented.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:42]:If you know anything about Roman culture, they were very advanced. They had advanced military. This was very action oriented and records achievements such as the miracles. So it recorded this because it knew that this community, this type of group, this target audience would resonate with that. It betrayed the personality of Jesus so that when trials came, they could remain faithful. It explained Jewish customs. It didn’t assume that they knew. It explained some of them, and it explained some of the phrases assuming that the reader wasn’t familiar with these terms.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:19]:It portrays Jesus as a suffering servant, aligning with Roman ideal of heroic endurance. So it was totally written different. Now the overall message, yeah, the Bible’s for everyone, but you can see how each gospel was strategically written for a different audience. Now when we look at the book of Luke, it was also written to the Gentiles. These are the non Jews, but not to the Romans. It was written to the Greeks. So for the Greeks, it was a very simple and clear approach and highlighted Jesus as the compassionate son of man, a universal savior for all people. It included parables and stories not found in some of the other gospels.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:03]:And in this particular gospel, it paid special attention to those that at that time were undeserving, like women and children and the outcasts. There was a lot of social justice themes in this particular book, and it presents a detailed and orderly account, Probably because Luke was a physician and probably because he was probably Greek as well. So he knew how to write to this audience. He was a companion of Paul, so he was able to give an account of Jesus’ life in a clear way, in a succinct way, but it was very different. So we see so far that Matthew was written for the Jews. Mark was written for the Romans. Luke was written for the Greek. And then we look at the book of John, which was written for a broader audience for those that were spiritually seeking.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:54]:And oftentimes it’s used in various denominations as the training manual for Christianity. Kinda gives you an overview, a playbook, so to speak, of what the Christian faith is all about. So the audience is mixed. It has both Jews and Gentiles, and it has less narrative. It’s more theological with an emphasis of Jesus’ divinity as well. It contains, like, a lot of symbolic language, like light and dark, life and death. And this particular book could be summarized with verse thirty and thirty one. It says here, the disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:35]:But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name. So you can see that each one of these gospels, even though the Bible is for everyone, when it came to the gospels, it was very specific about the audience, who they were writing to. And the authors were very, very conscious about making sure that the content in the gospels would resonate with their audience. So here are three takeaways. Even though the Bible is for everyone, the gospel was written for a specific audience, and we need to do the same thing. We need to identify who our audience is. It’s one of the things I had to do as I started writing my book. The first question was, who is your audience? And we all wanna say it’s for everyone, but we have to dial it in and be super clear who that audience is.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:31]:Tip number two. Your message structure should match the needs of your audience. So each audience and say you have a group that wants the transformation that you offer, but they’re in a different stage. Maybe they’re beginners and then you have others who are advanced. You might want to segment those groups and begin segmentation so that you can write content that would resonate with a person in a beginning stage and then write content for people that are in a more advanced stage. Now you can see how that will double up on your work. Right? So we wanna make sure that we start with one audience, and as we survey, as we ask questions, as we interact, we can see where everybody’s at, and we can see if there’s a need to begin to segment the group. But then we wanna be very careful how we communicate with them because it’s gonna be different.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:26]:We can’t just copy and paste the same content for one and give it to the other. We have to modify it, and ChatGPT is a great way to do that. The third takeaway is that a clear, specific message begins to build trust because people can self identify, and they can resonate with what you are writing and what you’re saying, what you’re producing. They can resonate with that, and that drives engagement. Each gospel offered a specific message. So the message was in Matthew that Jesus was the promised king. The message for Mark was that Jesus is a powerful servant leader. The message in Luke was that Jesus brings healing and inclusion.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:07]:The message in John was that Jesus is divine and deeply personal. But you see, that doesn’t take away from the overall transformation, the overall goal, why the Bible was even put together. It’s just segmenting and bringing people in from different cultures in a way that they understand, and then taking them from there on a journey so they can know more. This is really key because you might see what they need, but they’re not ready to hear it. They’re not ready to experience that yet or even buy it yet because there’s something else on their mind. So meet them where they are. Write the copy of the story that’s already in their head so that they can begin that journey with you, and that will help. You can always take them to the next step later, but people resonate with specific message.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:02]:So I hope this helped you to understand target audience a little better. Again, I use the Bible as a metaphor because I thought it was a perfect example of the Bible being for everyone, yet the gospels were written for different audiences. So that you can understand that it didn’t dilute the final message, the final takeaway, but each one of those gospels had a specific transformation or a specific goal. And we can do the same thing. We can begin to really dial in with our target audience and then expand from there need be. But just know it’s gonna be a little bit more work as you start adding segments. So if you enjoyed this podcast, podcast I would really appreciate it. And if you wanna learn more about target audience, how to use AI marketing, I do have a private membership.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:02]:That’s only $35, and I provide a lot. It’s not just go in and you just kinda navigate on your own. You can, but the bonus of it is that I present everything live, and I also provide custom GPTs for lead generation. And so you have, right out of the box, custom GPTs you can use to ideate your lead magnet, to create your opt in, your thank you page, your email sequences, your quizzes, so many things that you need for lead generation. But we do a lot of live calls, but you can always just consume the content as it’s released inside the platform. If you’d like to know more about it, you can go to https://marisashadrick.com/community. So until next time, take care.

Years ago, I believed that posting daily on social media and cranking out blogs meant I was executing a business strategy. 

Most of us have been there faithfully ticking all the boxes: Instagram posts, networking events, blog posts, and waiting for results that never seem to arrive.

It’s frustrating, especially when you’re working solo. I realized I was chasing tactics without a clear strategy, leading the way.

In this episode of Amplify Your Authority, I explain the critical difference between strategy and tactics.

You’ll know how to self-audit your marketing, avoid common mistakes, and align your efforts so that every action supports your long-term vision.

 

Here’s What You’ll Discover in This Podcast Episode!

• The difference between strategy and tactics—and why mistaking the two can stall your progress.
• Nine strategy examples every business should consider (not just more social posts!).
• Common mistakes business owners make with tactics (and how to avoid spinning your wheels).
• Understanding how to connect your tactics to your big picture goals so every action counts.
• How AI can become your tactical sidekick without letting it drive your strategy.

 Episode Key Takeaways

• Without a strategy, your tactics lack focus, and without tactics, your strategy never gets executed.
• Your strategy doesn’t change, but your tactics should
• Real growth comes from adjusting your methods while staying anchored to your purpose and plan..

 Episode Quotes to Remember

“A common mistake is to think that the tactic is a strategy.”

“Strategy is stable. It’s foundational. Tactics are flexible and adjustable.“

“Set your strategy once, then check your tactics often.“

“Keep your plan simple, measurable, and human-centered.”

 

Your Next Step

Want help turning your business strategy into focused, consistent action?

Join Momentum Lab—my private community where you’ll enjoy:

• A monthly productivity masterclass to help you stay on track
• Access to the SMARTER Goals Custom GPT to map out your annual, quarterly, and daily milestones without decision fatigue

Whether working toward bold achievements or building better habits, this ready-to-use Custom GPT will help you stay aligned and take the right step daily.

 Join for free at MarisaShadrick.com/productivity

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support, and I would love it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your review would help this podcast reach a wider audience while continuing to provide you with valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

12:04:01 Yeah. Well, thanks. Thanks for the pre-banter. Dog therapy.12:04:03 Thought dog therapy.12:04:04 Dog therapy. All right. All right. Well, welcome back. We are now, I had my calendar out may it’s almost half the year.12:04:14 Is almost up. So you might be thinking of a jump start for the second half of the year at this point because June is around the corner, but this is an opportunity to ask anything and even the work that you’re doing right now, if you don’t even have a question, sometimes you don’t know what question to ask.12:04:33 Share what you’re doing and let us ask you questions. Remember, we can always reverse things. In the mastermind, you can ask questions or you can have us ask you questions.12:04:46 If you’re feeling like you need a little boost, we can have you turn off your camera And then we can share some of the things, the insights that we see about you and that we value and love about you. If you just need a little boost. So there’s different ways to do this. It’s not always just12:05:01 What question do you have? Because sometimes we don’t know what questions to ask. But I did want to, as a form of announcement.12:05:08 I’m going to be… I’m going to be here. What’s today? Today’s the eighth.12:05:13 Okay, next week I’m going to be here in Tennessee. And the following week, I’ll be here in Tennessee.12:05:19 But I’m flying out the 23rd. I will still meet with you guys from California.12:05:26 On the 29th. So nothing’s really changed. I’m just letting you know in case something happens in California where I don’t have internet connection or something giving you a heads up. So the last Thursday of this month, I’ll be in California.12:05:37 Okay.12:05:38 Okay.12:05:41 And then the first Thursday of June. I’ll be in California. So there’s two weeks there, I’ll be in California. So I’ll be coming in from California. So if there’s a little delay or something.12:05:52 You know, just know I’m not in my own environment. So if there’s some Something, something. Just letting you know, just in case to hang in there or I’ll email you and let you know that I’m not getting internet connection or something.12:06:03 So that’s with that. And I’m going to… help my daughter pack because she’s officially moving to Tennessee with my granddaughter.12:06:12 So yeah, I’m excited about that. So my granddaughter and I are going to fly back on June 6th and my daughter and my husband are going to bring the truck over from Tennessee with her car in a trailer type thing.12:06:29 So yeah, we’re taking the The coward’s way out. I already did that trip. Oh, it was fun. No, I’m flying back with my granddaughter. So, um.12:06:38 Yay.12:06:39 So yeah, so I’m excited. That’s kind of my win. And I’m moving right along with the migration, some of the things I’ve been doing. So things are moving right along, just kind of planning out for the time I’m going to be gone.12:06:52 What absolutely needs to be done, you know, that kind of thing. So I’m prioritizing things, looking at things.12:06:59 Even with some of the the things I’m doing you know helping out My husband with a few things, just even setting that up. He’s kind of like a client right now.12:07:12 I’ll get my pay when he gets… cells so so yeah. So anyway, what are some of the wins that you guys have, let’s start with that first.12:07:30 Go ahead, Krista. Marla?12:07:32 I hope you’re writing down all your wins every day, like the things that you accomplished somewhere. I hope you’re jotting them down because it really is encouraging to look back and see because we always look back and think, what did I do yesterday? I have no idea. I did nothing and you did. You did.12:07:45 Not through the day.12:07:48 Yeah, I know. It’s hard to remember, huh? So what’s a win? What’s something good? What comes top of mind?12:07:56 Something…12:07:54 I think for me is letting go of the business, not constantly thinking about the business, stressing about the business. I’m actually taking care of my mom’s place a lot and we’re doing a ton of work out there.12:08:13 Yeah.12:08:07 It’s that physically gratifying that you can see the field mode You can see the weeds knocked down. You can see the edge and you can see the borders. There’s just something about that instant I got something and it’s big and it’s done.12:08:22 Yeah. Yeah.12:08:21 And because I’m doing that, I’m getting built up. Emotionally seeing things instead of that Nothing’s happening, not putting work in them. Nothing’s happening, putting work in, nothing’s happening. I’m putting the work in and something’s happening.12:08:34 Yeah.12:08:33 So I think that’s helping rejuvenate me to where I could start to step back and look and get excited about the business again.12:08:41 Yeah, for sure. Because we don’t see results right away, right? We’re playing the long game.12:08:45 And so that’s something that it’s a muscle we have to build, but it’s really good to get some wins in and we have to be careful because sometimes I want to get a win in and I’m doing the wrong things in my business. That’s not exactly the things that are going to12:09:03 Move the needle. But yeah, that’s a good point. Sometimes we just need to work on some other things just to Reset, recharge. And really, even though we’re not thinking about business Because we’ve freed our mind about thinking, you never know, some ideas can pop in12:09:20 When we’re not working on it and we’re working on something else, at least that happens to me.12:09:21 Mm-hmm.12:09:25 Some ideas pop up. And so that is great when that happens because we’re not in the stress of making it happen.12:09:32 And what’s interesting, I’ve pulled back on editing podcasts and I’ve got several backed up in the queue.12:09:33 So that’s cool.12:09:38 And our numbers have doubled. So the last couple of weeks, I’m like.12:09:40 Oh, well, that’s good.12:09:42 I’m not putting in the work, you know, the work get it done, get it edited. I’m like.12:09:42 Awesome.12:09:47 I just put one out that we recorded like, you know, six weeks ago and then I put another one out and i’m like.12:09:51 The best numbers we’ve had. I’m like, okay. All right, so stop stressing. Stop stressing.12:09:54 That’s great. Plus, those get ongoing listenership.12:10:01 So that’s the thing too it’s not like, especially, and YouTube videos are like that too. They get ongoing views ongoing listening, you know, new people find you and they listen And they kind of binge listen. So that’s good. That’s good to have that. So the businesses.12:10:19 Is producing something. That is good. That’s something you can you can celebrate. All right. Who else?12:10:31 Oh, congratulations.12:10:33 Awesome.12:10:27 I added 955 words to my book yesterday. And AI is to not blame, but it helped you know i had my chat GPT assistant i asked it some questions and asked for some historical stories and And, you know, just had some prompts and12:10:48 Yeah.12:10:53 You know, it would say, do you want me to add a little bit more here? And it was like there were seven questions. And I finally said.12:10:59 Just go three through seven and give me what you got, you know?12:11:03 Yeah, exactly.12:11:24 Yeah, I love that. You’re using it in a way that’s helping to stimulate creativity.12:11:05 So it really helped. And asking for timeless truths along with that so um So that’s really helping me to get through and get a little more information and Kind of getting out of my head as well. So…12:11:30 Yes.12:11:29 And not let you get stuck and think a little broader Then where we’re at, because all of us have certain scope.12:11:37 Yes, yes.12:11:37 But I like when it starts asking questions and it expands my perspective. Oh, I didn’t think about that.12:11:44 Yeah.12:11:49 Yeah.12:11:53 Thank you. Yeah, yeah.12:11:43 Or yeah, I’ve got a perfect story about that. Or I have an experience about that. And so when it starts asking questions, that’s so helpful. So congratulations on that because it just That’s one of those we don’t see the results right away. And Kristen knows that. She’s working on a book for Cal. So that’s one of those that12:12:02 We just have to celebrate the milestones. That’s what we talked about yesterday in Momentum Lab.12:12:02 Yeah.12:12:07 On the call, we talked about celebrating those milestones because that’s what’s going to get us there.12:12:14 So congratulations on that. That’s good. That’s a lot more than I’ve done this week with the With the book.12:12:26 Yeah.12:12:15 Thank you. Well, I mean, it was, I’ve got everything written in But it’s just going through and saying, does this make sense? Does this flow and what are some stories that can go with this and all that. So that’s been very helpful.12:12:31 Yeah. Good. That’s great. Fantastic. How about you, Pam?12:12:34 So.12:12:37 I was excited to have finished my 22 to 24 taxes and the CPA got those yesterday.12:12:45 And within that, then I am working putting things in order then because I’m in tax mode is putting in the organizing from January till through May so far of 2025 taxes. So then when the year ends then Everything is just done and the guy can have it in the portal at the beginning of the year after you get your W-2s and all those little forms.12:13:14 Good.12:13:10 So I feel like I’m ahead for 2026. And then because of that too, what I’ve learned was with the physical papers.12:13:21 Is that on the online space with like chat GBT and everything that that needing to know, okay.12:13:27 Thinking ahead and going, okay, what folder does this need to be in or like the projects rather than just randomly making threads like you’ve taught us.12:13:36 And so I’ve been trying to really think before I do something on there to how Am I going to keep it or not or what? And then how to go back And then just working on, so I played with chat GPT and then actually with my dog asking it different questions, dealing with my dog, which helped because12:13:58 It was practicing with practicing the ins and outs of chat gbt just with something that wasn’t business wise12:14:06 Yeah.12:14:20 Yeah.12:14:09 And then realizing, okay, I have my business profile, but I still haven’t nailed the the audience. So just playing with those um templates, the prompt you’ve given us. And so just trying to, so by doing the physical with the paper, it’s helping with the online stuff of not being able to touch and feel because I feel like, okay, if I can touch and feel that, then it would be12:14:35 Yeah.12:14:32 A different story because I’m more kinesthetic and visual So I’ve learned that to give myself grace and go, okay, maybe like what Krista was saying about her being outside and different things.12:14:41 Is to go do something physical first and then that maybe has that same application and then going and applying it online, kind of priming the pump.12:14:52 Yeah, absolutely. That helps. So congratulations on the tax. Are all the taxes done now?12:14:58 All of it’s done now. So congratulations on that. Did they recommend like some type of bookkeeping tool for you to use that would make it easy for them? Did they recommend the things that they want to want you to track.12:15:12 They gave me a, they did give me a checklist. So those are the physical folders I’m making. But what I noticed was when I was finding other taxes that I had done in the past.12:15:23 The checklists were different from year to year, but there are some things that are consistent. So since I’m in tax mode, I’m just trying to like think ahead of, okay, what would those other things be?12:15:33 And just putting them in a So what I did was I bought decorative files for the things that I know for sure. And then the regular plain manila folders.12:15:44 Is to use those as if I’m not sure, but still keep them, but it’s in an organized fashion. And then I can color code the topics that I know, like for each folder those they can yield I can still use the sticky notes that are color coded, but then I’ll know the difference between for sure what I know is definitely on the checklist in the past, being in the decorative folders versus12:16:10 What I may or may not have to save. In Manila.12:16:13 Okay. You’re talking about receipts in the folders or12:16:16 Just like the list that they gave me, like contributions um And then they just had like a whole list. There’s medical section, there’s a contribution section, there’s a household.12:16:27 Section on the checklist that they gave me, there’s different categories. So just having those.12:16:32 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s it.12:16:30 Yeah, your expenses. Yeah, yeah, your expenses. Yeah. And that’s something too. I don’t know, do any of you use Do you use like physical ways to track your accounting. I just want to sit in this for just a second, see if we can help Pam since she went through such a12:16:48 I use Quicken.12:16:49 I use Quicken too. So I don’t know if anybody else uses anything. Do you use anything, Krista, to track?12:16:52 Do you?12:16:55 I don’t want to pay for Quicken because it can be expensive. I use a free system online called Wave Apps.12:16:56 Expenses.12:17:02 Okay. Good.12:17:02 Okay. There’s one that you’ve been advertising a lot lately too that lately is able to check and see how many subscriptions you have. I forget what that is.12:17:11 Because that would be super helpful because what I did was the old fashioned way.12:17:14 Yeah, I’ve seen that one. I’ll have to write down what that is.12:17:16 I did it.12:17:17 Yeah. Have you seen that commercial, Marla? There’s a commercial Um.12:17:19 I have. I have, but I don’t remember what it is.12:17:19 Yeah, I think it’s rocket money I think it’s rocket money12:17:26 Because I did it the old fashioned way because I was getting bogged down with trying to figure things out.12:17:24 Yeah, I think so. I think so. Rocket money yeah12:17:31 So I was like, you know what, I’m going to go with what I know. And so it took me a month longer than anticipated. Well, a month and a half, a month and a half longer.12:17:40 But I was like, you know what, I’ll take the month and a half to have it done.12:17:44 Even though it was the long old fashioned way and then try and figure it out going forward.12:17:50 Yeah, it is. It just popped up again. So it’s rocket money.12:17:55 Rocket Money? Okay.12:18:00 Okay.12:17:56 So, yeah. And I don’t use it. So I don’t know if it’s good or not. I’ve just heard a lot about, I’m trying to see if I can find the pricing on this. I have to, you know what? This is where AI would be beautiful to use.12:18:11 Okay.12:18:12 This is, for example, you can, since you have a paid chat gpt you can upload the checklist.12:18:20 And explain that you want a way to track your expenses, a way that’s easy and simple.12:18:27 Because you’re a very visual person. Tell them that you’re very visual.12:18:32 It’s something that you’ve struggled with in the past and you want a simple way to track Would it be better to do this With physical folders or is there an app or some type of digital tracking system that would help me do this. I need some ideas. And if they say, okay, there’s12:18:52 There’s rocket money, there’s Quicken. Can you give me a comparison, a side-by-side comparison?12:18:59 The pros and cons and include the price as well. It’ll give you a comparison.12:19:04 So this is where you can use AI to help you think through how you want to manage your expenses. It’s a perfect use case for it.12:19:12 So basically, I’m a visual person in need of tracking my finances Could you give me…12:19:19 Yeah, just like if you were asking me for help and you were saying, Marissa, I need help so that I think I know what I’m going to do.12:19:25 But I want to make sure I never have to go through this again. So what’s the best way for me to do this? And just ask ChatGPT the question as if you were asking it to me or Marla or Krista.12:19:35 And just say, I’m very visual. It’s not something I enjoy doing. I probably can spend and tell it, I could probably spend one day a week updating everything, you know, give it an idea of your routine or have it suggest a routine to keep things up to date.12:19:53 Do you want something that’s digital or just physical? If it’s digital.12:19:56 Do you want to use it on your phone? I don’t recommend using it on the phone. I just, I don’t do anything.12:20:01 I can’t do, yeah, I can’t do12:20:03 I just do it and everything is saved on my hard drive. It’s not in the cloud anywhere either. So you can just say, and I want it secure. So, and you can add whatever the criteria is.12:20:14 But you can always, if you think of something later, you can always go back to that.12:20:18 Particular chat and add it. And it might help you figure out, because I don’t know anything about rocket money. So I would do that if I was looking at Rocket Money for my daughter, I would say, hey, Rocket Money is one. Are there any others like it?12:20:32 And what’s the difference and which is more reputable and which one has better customer service? Because I’m always about customer service.12:20:42 You could do that. You could start with ChatGPT and just start a conversation if you wanted to get a system, a rhythm.12:20:49 You know, so that you’re… you have a, you know, just a natural flow every week of how you update things.12:20:56 That works for you. If you’ve got a system already, then you don’t have to. But I’m just saying if you’re looking to really fine tune this so that it’s easy for you, I know that Rocket Money does Check subscriptions, which is why I thought of it because I know you were concerned about subscriptions in the past.12:21:14 Yeah.12:21:13 That’s why I thought of that one, not because I know anything about it, but I saw it advertised. So you could run a quick question in ChatGPT and have it research that for you.12:21:29 Yeah, yeah, yeah.12:21:25 Similarly, Pam, to the password Excel spreadsheet I sent you. I do the same thing with my budget. I literally, I have a spreadsheet page And I have the due date and I have the company and I have the amount that comes out every single month.12:21:39 And I constantly update it. You know, sometimes you got those and then I’ve got a little thing at the bottom that says, okay, annual, I’ve got Canva coming out annually. I’ve got Adobe coming out annually, things like that. So that I constantly know12:21:51 What I have available. So that kind of runs in tandem with the account spreadsheet.12:21:56 Oh.12:21:55 Yeah. And I do that in quicken And I already have like i already have the reoccurring already scheduled. So every month I just say add this to the register.12:22:08 But for personal expenses, I have a spreadsheet just like Krista said and the spreadsheet just has the very minimum of the bills, the utilities, and the spreadsheet goes by quarter because I like threes.12:22:22 And it’ll have the quarter and the amount that’s due. It seems like it’s becoming more obsolete because there’s so much that is now automated.12:22:31 But at least it’s one place where I can see everything and it can total the bottom as far as the monthly personal expenses.12:22:37 And it’ll have the utility. It’ll have the phone. It’ll have, you know.12:22:39 Mm-hmm.12:22:42 There’s a credit card or something will have that in there. It’s just a quick at a glance.12:22:48 And it’ll have usually the typical due date, which is usually around the same time.12:22:57 Yeah, me too.12:22:53 So I still use, I’ve used that one for decades, that spreadsheet And yeah, and it’s real easy to do and that way Another thing I do a lot of them now they do now don’t want to send you paper. They just want to send you a digital email.12:23:09 So when I get that, I just schedule it in B of A to go out.12:23:09 Mm-hmm.12:23:13 As soon as I get the email, I go to B of A and I schedule the payment.12:23:16 And I don’t have to schedule it for today. I can schedule it before the payment due date as done.12:23:29 Yeah.12:23:22 And then I make sure that that’s recorded in Quicken, but that way I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t want to think about it. Are you doing something similar, Marla? I’d love to hear what you’re doing because you are so organized.12:23:35 I know, right?12:23:38 All of mine is just automatically comes out of my bank. I check my bank and then it goes into Quicken.12:23:44 Yeah, pretty simple. Yeah.12:23:43 So, yeah. Yeah, Fridays are normally my quickened day, you know, to update and balance and all that so That is hard. Yeah.12:23:50 Yeah. Yeah, usually Saturday is mine and I’ll do that and It’s pretty simple. Once you set up your utility and stuff with the account number and like B of A, for example.12:24:05 You can just go there to that page and you see the listing of all your bills and you just tell it the amount and the due date and that’s it.12:24:06 Yeah.12:24:12 Right.12:24:12 And off it. Bye-bye. Off it goes. So then I don’t have to worry about it.12:24:17 Yeah.12:24:18 So just some ideas for you so you don’t have to go through that pain again.12:24:23 I mean, that’s great because as you were talking, I entered some of the things and it’s telling me that Rocket Money is good, but… If I didn’t want it to be online, it’s not a con is not ideal. So the first one is Rocket Money. Then the second one is YNAB.12:24:45 Y in A, B. I don’t know what that is. I’ll have to look that up. And then the third option, it says spreadsheets Google Sheets, Excel numbers, etc.12:24:54 It didn’t even give you Quicken? That’s weird. Oh, it’s giving you something like Rocket Money?12:24:56 Uh-uh, no, it didn’t give me Quicken.12:25:04 What was the question you asked it?12:25:01 It said option one rocket money Awesome. I just said I’m a visual person, so I need a visual help in tracking my finances. Could you give me some help with what is the best way to keep track of finances?12:25:16 I could probably spend at least an hour a week to maintain this routine. I would like to keep it on my hard drive, not in the cloud. I’m in need of a system to have a natural flow.12:25:26 I am talking with some friends and they are suggesting Rocket Money. Is this a good way? Is there any others you can advise?12:25:33 Oh, okay. Yeah, they got different ones. They’ve got, is it monarch money? Was that the other one that suggested?12:25:44 Oh, no, this one suggested…12:25:43 Ynab? It’s yeah it’s capital it’s all in capital letters and it’s capital Y in A, B. Oh, you need a budget.12:25:53 In parentheses. Oh, you need a budget. I don’t know what that is, but it just, that’s what it’s called.12:25:59 Why now? You need a budget.12:25:59 Oh, yeah, that’s somebody specific. That’s yeah kind of like yeah kind of What’s see.12:26:07 Best for hands-on budgeting with a proactive mindset type app cloud-based.12:26:13 But can be manually used offline via spreadsheets. Visuals, very clear, categories and reports pros based on proven method to give you every dollar a job.12:26:24 Highly visual and habit forming, teaches long-term financial health And then the cons are monthly fee, mostly cloud-based, and maybe more complex to learn initially.12:26:38 Interesting. Yeah, there’s different. I just Googled it too and it gave… It gave some ratings too.12:26:48 And… The difference is minor. It just depends what you want. Rocket Money, their thing is will automatically cancel your subscriptions for you that you don’t want.12:27:04 Check those out then.12:26:59 But you can always go in and cancel it yourself. So yeah, you can just always verify everything and run multiple checks. Like I just went into Google and they had monarch money rocket money and empower Which are three different ones. So you can just search google12:27:18 And then you can also use chat GPT and say, I found these on Google. What’s the differences? Security is a big deal for me. So I want to make sure my information is secure and private.12:27:30 And then it’ll give you the rundown on it. But you’re on your way. See, that’s how we begin to do research. I use the only other thing I use is perplexity, but you can go into Google and Google it as well.12:27:43 To find some things and ChatGBT has a great little research button takes a little while because it’s researching. So you have to be patient. It takes a little bit to research and then it gives you some information so So that’s…12:27:56 Yeah, because I was going to look into perplexity and then I also was doing a little bit with the things that you suggested with I was looking into mainly three things, watching the other videos was the that I have pulled up is the12:28:13 The Daily Journal, the day one, and then Rosebud and then Perplexity. So those are the three things I’ve been…12:28:20 Yeah, if you’re going to do a lot of research. That’s why I like perplexity.12:28:26 But, you know, if you’re not yet, then you probably don’t need it yet.12:28:32 But…12:28:31 I like doing research. I just didn’t feel, I just didn’t feel, I just didn’t know of a safe place to do it. So I kept hearing You know, you and others talk about within the group talk about perplexity.12:28:45 Yeah. So I would wait on that until you’re you get a little bit more comfortable with chat GBT and do some research there because that’s pretty, pretty good.12:28:53 And you’ve already got that account. And then if you feel like you need a little extra.12:28:58 Then you can take a look at perplexity. So you keep your tools to a limit.12:29:02 Yeah, there’s a free, there’s the free version though right with perplexity just to play with it.12:29:07 I think there is a free version. I think there is. It’s got limitations, but I think there is a free version.12:29:15 Yeah. Yeah.12:29:12 Right. Yeah. That’s all I was going to do was just kind of play just to see what it was, but not pay for it and just use mainly GPT, like you said.12:29:20 Pick your pick your best question to ask perplexity. Yeah, awesome.12:29:22 Exactly. There you go. So thank you.12:29:25 Well, it sounds like you’re making progress, Pam. That’s good.12:29:29 Yeah, it feels good just to make that, you know, we feel like I’m making progress rather than in the quicksand and trying to pull myself out.12:29:37 Yeah, we don’t like quicksand. So what are you guys working on? What questions do you have?12:29:44 How can we help and assist? Do you want to spotlight?12:29:47 Do you want to reverse spotlight?12:29:52 Want to talk about, we’re coming up thinking about canceling the radio show and just doing just podcast because we record the radio show and in the past we’ve had 1400 listeners I don’t know where we’re at currently. I’ve got to get current stats.12:30:09 But one of our sponsors is dropping out so it’s like Is it really worth it?12:30:15 Oh, got you. Can you get another sponsor?12:30:16 So. We could possibly, if we really worked at it.12:30:23 Mm-hmm.12:30:23 But Cal’s looking at taking a summer job, running a camp and we’re kind of thinking maybe we should just go into just doing the podcast, just recording it and posting it instead of going through all the rigmarole. I mean, the great thing about the radio has been the discipline.12:30:34 Mm-hmm.12:30:39 Because we’re paying money, so we got to show up every week at five o’clock on Wednesday.12:30:40 Yeah.12:30:49 Yeah, yeah.12:30:44 And it’s helped push me into editing, really getting really good at editing a lot. So there’s a lot of experience in it. And I think it’s just gotten me comfortable with being talking into the microphone again.12:30:57 I mean, I’ve never had a problem talking microphone. It’s different.12:30:59 Yeah.12:31:00 I was on stage and I would just, you know, go before 2,000 people at the auditorium. But for some reason being on a mic at home alone is a different animal.12:31:11 Mm-hmm.12:31:11 And I think I had to somehow grapple with that. And I’m feeling more comfortable with it because now I’m doing voiceovers and stuff like that to where a year ago I’m like.12:31:16 Yeah.12:31:20 Why am I afraid of this? I’m a stage person. I have no problem talking to 2,000 people. But on a mic alone is just Different.12:31:29 Yeah, yeah. Have you been able to um get the outcome you wanted from the podcast, either subscribers or whatever the outcome was that you guys were hoping for.12:31:43 Right now, we’re just getting downloads. People are picking up on it. I mean, I’m not pushing it.12:31:48 But it’s picking up speed. So there’s some general traction without even pushing it.12:31:53 So what What is the strategy behind continuing the podcast, even if it’s not part of the radio?12:32:01 It would be to provide people with information, hopefully looking for more.12:32:06 Information to do like a one-on-one or something like that.12:32:07 Yeah. Yeah, because the podcast and the radio station is a tactic that helps execute the strategy.12:32:17 So this is a podcast that I have to edit. It’s going to be released.12:32:21 Today or tomorrow. I don’t know. Maybe Saturday. Who knows? I’ve been kind of wishy-washy with my deadlines because all this other stuff keeps coming up. So anyway, but I can give you a quick… just a comparison.12:32:36 That and look at my podcast notes here. The tactic is the day-to-day stuff that we do or week to week.12:32:43 And a lot of times the tactic gets confused with strategy because it’s often used and And interchangeably, but they’re very, very different and distinct so you’ll recognize tactics as the short-term actions and The strategy is the why.12:33:04 Or what you’re doing for the purpose, the intention. But the tactic is the how. So the tactic can change, but the strategy stays the same. So if the strategy is to grow your email list.12:33:17 Grow your listenership so that you own that list. Then the podcast is going to be the tactic to be able to do that. Where some people might use articles or blogs to do that.12:33:32 Or some people might use YouTube to do that. That’s a tactic. So tactics can change, but there’s got to be an overall strategy behind it So that we’re leveraging the efforts that we’re putting in to the podcast. Does that make sense?12:33:49 Yeah.12:33:48 I think, you know, the most Probably the first thing would be to when the cookbook comes out people know us, know him would want to buy the cookbook because they’ve got a relationship built.12:34:01 If they are on your email list. If they’re still on social media.12:34:08 Brand exposure is great. But when we’re trying to get people to buy It would be really helpful if they were on your email list and not just followers on social media.12:34:20 So that is, and there’s numbers in it. The conversion is much higher when they come from your email list.12:34:27 Than cold audience on social media, even if they’re following. Because just because they’re following or they clicked, it’s like.12:34:33 All those followers I have on LinkedIn, none of them actually see everything I post. One, because the algorithms don’t allow you that.12:34:41 That’s the problem with Facebook when we had pages and things like that, that was kind of like.12:34:46 Upsetting is that even though you grew these pages, those people didn’t see in the newsfeed your posts.12:34:54 And so a way for a strategy is to make sure that we capture those people and make them warm leads by bringing them into our email list.12:35:04 And then we can continue to nurture them with new episodes. We can write a more personal type of email so that when we’re ready to sell, we can promote Oh, we’re looking for a launch team or we’re going to have this event and it’s free for you guys to come and hear all about this new book. And maybe you can introduce that as how you’re going to get launch team people. You know, it’s a way to be able to12:35:29 Use the email list as a way for higher conversion. And statistically, you can look it up.12:35:35 Look it up and everyone will agree that conversion is much much higher from an email list than from just social media. So strategy is the big picture. It’s the long-term vision.12:35:49 Strategy defines a why. It’s the unique brand voice. The strategy is set on the destination. What is the destination? What is it ultimately we want to sell the cookbook?12:36:01 Or maybe the destination is the cookbook is the first step. There’s something beyond the cookbook.12:36:06 And that’s the destination. What is the destination? And then it creates the strategy creates the foundation It’s driven by purpose. The tactic is the day-to-day. It’s a short-term action. It executes the how we’re going to do this. Tactics can change. They’re very pliable.12:36:24 It’s easy to replicate anybody Lots of people use the same tactics, right? It chooses the route.12:36:33 So when you have a destination with strategy The tactic decides what road are we going to take to get there?12:36:40 It’s no different than when you’re driving. And say you’re going to a certain place and you use a GPS and they say you can get there.12:36:48 Five minutes sooner if you go this route or you can go this route, those routes are the tactic on how we’re going to get to that destination.12:36:55 It’s flexible, it’s adjustable, and it’s driven by performance so you can track the performance. You can track engagement, you can track conversion, you can track those things so you can tweak the tactic.12:37:07 So anyway, something to consider and to think about Because a podcast is a great idea.12:37:14 Just make sure you think, okay. What is our intent with this podcast? What are we trying to do?12:37:20 Beyond brand awareness. So that we can sell the book.12:37:25 And then maybe even put that into chat GPT. We’re going to create a podcast and we’re going to continue a podcast that we had a radio program and it’s done really, really well. Here’s all the stats on it.12:37:38 We are going to be selling a book probably by the end of the year next year.12:37:43 Help me understand what I can do to be able to have a higher conversion rate when the book comes out.12:37:51 Give me an idea of what maybe I should offer at the end of every podcast.12:37:56 What goes beyond the book? Is it just book sales or there’s something that goes beyond the book?12:38:01 Is the book maybe the first book low offer that leads to something else beyond that.12:38:08 So thinking through that, that’s the strategy. The podcast, the social media posting, the reels, all that is tactic.12:38:15 But it’s not strategy. So does that make sense? Okay. Any questions about that?12:38:25 Are you talking about your book? In your podcast?12:38:19 Yeah, it does. No, we just…12:38:29 He does on the radio, yeah.12:38:30 Great point.12:38:32 Okay. Would you consider giving away like chapter one? To build your email list.12:38:42 Very possibly. Yeah, because I mean, our email list is literally only from people that have seen us at farmers markets.12:38:50 Okay. Okay.12:38:50 Digitally, we have no traction, none. I mean, I had to purge my list. So we went from 100 down to like 50 people.12:38:55 Yeah. But in the podcast, and that’s a great point, Marla, thank you for mentioning that.12:38:58 Yeah, I understand that.12:39:04 The book, you know, you have to be talking about it, as Marla said And it could be very, it could be soft, very soft. It just kind of weaves in that people don’t even realize you’re talking about it. But all of a sudden.12:39:17 They know you’re writing a book, right? And they say it’s never too early to start Promoting the book in the sense of getting people on board for a wait list, so to speak. It’s not called a wait list, but we offer something. Maybe one of the recipes in the book or maybe the first chapter that you have to figure out.12:39:39 Because that is part of that is part of of the overall Well, it’s part of the tactic because the overall strategy is you want to sell the book. Is the book going to be the end?12:39:49 Endenol, or is there something beyond the book that you’re going to sell? Because the book is going to be what, 20 bucks or something?12:39:55 Yeah, probably something like that.12:39:57 Yeah. Is there something beyond the book? That will bring in more revenue.12:40:03 So be thinking about that. Is it speaking opportunities get booked to speak? What is it you know because the book can be one thing, but what’s beyond the book?12:40:15 So if somebody has Cal on an interview about the book.12:40:19 What would he offer the listeners as the next step toward what?12:40:24 Because even after he writes the book. When he’s talking about it or if he gets to do some kind of interview in a local news, which is probably possible in Reading.12:40:35 To go on the local news and have an interview what would he say?12:40:40 To have people, I mean, they may not just buy the book, but if you say, if you buy the book, you also get these bonuses on top of it Or you can offer something free And we’ll let you know as soon as the book comes out so that you can get the book with all these bonuses in it.12:40:57 So, you know, that’s part of the strategy is thinking through You know, the method to the madness, so to speak.12:41:05 And then the tactic, then the podcast becomes super clear as far as, you know, even the content. It has more clarity. Does that make sense?12:41:15 Martha, you’re shaking your head. So you’ve written a book and you kind of you kind of understand. Can you explain it maybe a little?12:41:22 Clearer than I’m doing marlo12:41:25 Oh, um… Well, yeah, I think that as you’re talking about the book and creating that awareness around your book.12:41:36 And offering, hey, do you want a little sneak peek of the book?12:41:40 You know just click here and we’ll send you You know, chapter one Or we’ll send you our top three recipes or Something like that, just to create awareness of the book because that book may take over and over all of a sudden, and you are going to be asked to come speak.12:42:05 At different like we have home shows here shows shows here So, you know, y’all could easily be chosen to host a home show.12:42:17 Who knows? You know, like maybe you know some company that has you know good pots and pans may ask you to use their stuff and And it could just mushroom into different different ways of doing business.12:42:34 Yeah. I’ve even bought books before they’re published, like months before they’re published.12:42:35 So.12:42:40 Yeah.12:42:41 And usually they don’t charge you for the book until the book is actually released.12:42:53 Yeah.12:42:46 But I can’t even tell you how many times I have bought, but as soon as I heard about it, I said, well, I don’t want to forget or miss this. So I’m just going to pay, you know, do it now because I know they’re going to charge later when the book comes out. But I want the book and I want it done. I want to put my order in. So I’ll go ahead and order it. And usually there might be a little bonus or something to do it early.12:43:09 Yeah.12:43:04 But that’s why these authors have all these pre-sales. Ready to go. So I’ve done it so often that it’s not a big deal for me to buy something that’s not even ready yet. And sometimes I’ve waited like three months.12:43:17 I’ve done the same thing with Pat Flynn’s book. It’s not out yet.12:43:21 So I already bought it. I bought the hard copy and the audio.12:43:22 Yeah.12:43:25 Two. It’s not done yet. And I haven’t gotten anything yet from him, but he just sent something out recently. So that was like a month later after I did it.12:43:36 But it doesn’t have to necessarily be ready because as people are talking about it.12:43:41 You get excited, get them while the iron’s hot. Get them while they’re interested and excited.12:43:48 Not six months later or next year. Get them now if they’re excited about it.12:43:54 And then they’re going, yeah, I want this whenever it’s ready, even if it’s the end of this year or next year, I want to be on this list because I want to get that book.12:44:02 So you want to get them. And statistically, you can look it up all day long. It’s higher conversion when it’s from an email list.12:44:10 Than any other place because social media followers are not really warm leads. They’re followers, but they’re different, very different than an email subscriber is very different.12:44:22 And that’s what we call a warm lead when they’re an email subscriber because they’ve raised their hand saying, yes, I’m very interested.12:44:28 And then you keep nurturing them. You send them something and you’ll have a podcast to send them.12:44:34 You already have that taken care of. Make sense?12:44:39 Okay.12:44:40 Okay. She’s like, okay, one more thing.12:44:43 Well, as you were talking and I was listening, I was even thinking, you know, as one of the things of you’re saying, you know, get one of the recipes. I thought it would be really cool if One of them was, hey, we’ll even show you how to do this recipe you know?12:44:58 A demonstration of a demonstration of walkthrough of how to do it.12:45:02 Because I know from what things that you’ve said, for instance.12:45:15 Yeah.12:45:06 Honey, I still remember this. It’s like putting a towel under the cutting board. I never even knew to put a towel under a cutting board. Something so simple. And so I’m like, just seeing you do a demonstration Of going, okay, oh, I didn’t know that or I didn’t know that.12:45:21 And just be able to implement some of those things.12:45:21 Yeah. That would be a great little bonus that for people that buy the book that they’ll get a video you know showing how to make one of the recipes. And that could be a bonus. I don’t know what you plan on, even if you’re planning on having bonuses.12:45:42 But typically we try to incentivize a sale Because some people just need a little nudge.12:45:48 Even if it’s 20 bucks so you need a little nudge to go into that, you know.12:45:53 Shopping cart and put in their credit card information. So that would be excellent. That’s a great idea, Pam.12:46:00 Because us visual people. Like to see what do you do?12:46:04 How do you do it? How do you cut cilantro?12:46:02 Yeah, totally. Totally. I just need to see it, you know, and then especially You were like in the lower left hand corner of my screen where you’re like, yeah, most people don’t even know to put a towel underneath the cutting board. And I’m like.12:46:20 I didn’t know that, you know. Yeah, yeah.12:46:20 I know. Or how to cut cilantro? My husband uses a pizza cutter and I hate it because he does stems and all.12:46:28 I don’t like the stems. I like to pick off the cilantro and get rid of the stems and then just chop it up with a knife. But he just takes a pizza cutter and the stem and all and I’m like.12:46:36 Uh-huh.12:46:38 I’m getting the stems out of my teeth. So even stuff like that, I mean, don’t we sound stupid, Krista? You’re probably going, oh, these people, man.12:46:43 Right, yeah, exactly.12:46:47 I don’t think my audience is that stupid, Marissa.12:46:51 It’s funny that you bring up the cilantro because I love cilantro and I would do the same thing. Take the leaves off and stuff and people are like, why don’t you just cut it all up?12:47:00 So I’ll do that if I put it in a salad, but it’s like, oh, I still like, you know, I thought, well, what is the right? Yeah.12:47:05 I still, I pick off the little leaves one at a time.12:47:11 That’s actually what we do is actually for years because that’s the best part And then we actually just a few years ago, we discovered, so we break them apart.12:47:16 Yes.12:47:21 Stems have an application. Leaves have an application.12:47:25 Ooh.12:47:25 So we’ll use, no, it is. So the leaves are kind of the finishing garnish on top. The stems you can actually actually cut up small and actually use them to cook with.12:47:37 Oh.12:47:37 Oh, I’m wasting ingredients.12:47:38 Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a wasted ingredient. A lot of people will get rid of so we We’ll take it and we will just cut all of the leaves off and then have them in their own box.12:47:48 Slightly hydrated and then the stems are in their own separate packaging. So they’re used separately.12:47:54 Ooh, I love that. No.12:47:56 Marked.12:47:59 Yeah.12:47:55 See? I didn’t know that. But case in point, there’s so much up there, Krista that just simple little bonus videos.12:48:05 Mm-hmm.12:48:09 And it could even be little shortcuts or little tips on how to use some of the ingredients that you’ll find in the cookbook.12:48:15 You know, like cutting cilantro you know It could be how to, you know, how to cut ingredients because all of us, we don’t know. I don’t know how to cut a chicken.12:48:25 I don’t. So… I know. I know.12:48:27 It’s been years since I’ve cut up a chicken. My mother was a home economics major, so I had to learn how to do that but i I just, yeah.12:48:34 Oh. But that was we did it more, Marlon. You probably remember this, where chickens, a whole chicken was 99 cents.12:48:44 Yeah. Yeah.12:48:43 Yeah. No.12:48:49 Hamburger is more expensive than chicken now too. I mean, come on.12:48:44 It’s not 99 cents anymore. I might as well buy it all cut up because it’s not nine…12:48:52 Yeah, yeah.12:48:52 It’s crazy. It’s crazy the prices because I remember we would buy that was poor man food, chicken.12:48:58 You’d buy a whole chicken for 99 cents. So.12:49:00 Yeah. That’s why we had chicken on Sunday because it had to feed a whole lot of people.12:49:06 Yeah. Yeah. So, and it’s not, I looked at a chicken the other day and I thought, oh my gosh, it was cheaper to go to Costco and buy it already cooked.12:49:15 Yeah.12:49:15 And I said, well, the heck with the cooking. I’ll just buy it already cooked. And so, but yeah, it’s crazy the prices, but.12:49:22 Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes.12:49:23 Anyway, so who else?12:49:24 Okay, my mind’s going. Mine’s going. Oh, and I upgraded. Chatgpt.12:49:30 Oh, look at her. Okay. Hello, projects. Hello, custom GPTs.12:49:31 I went for it. Well, I was… Yeah, well, I was working. I was going through the business profile one and because Cal was looking at a job with a school. And so I was looking at, you know, building out the program and I just started going through it.12:49:52 Oh.12:49:48 And using it and it goes, well, you’re out of time And I went, no, I gotta keep going. I can’t stop. Okay, where’s my credit card?12:49:58 Yeah, yeah.12:49:58 So yeah, I was like, I find it just in just the few days that I’ve had it. I’m like, wow.12:50:05 It knows me so well.12:50:05 And you’re going to it’s going to help you. Even a project would be helpful too.12:50:10 But it’s going to help you so much with the editing process for Cal 2.12:50:17 You give it your knowledge, your information, how you’re doing it and give a sample of what you’ve already done if you have a like the draft and your finished product so it can analyze it first to see what did she do. And then you’ll be able to then12:50:29 Okay.12:50:33 Use, and I would start with a project and we get that fine tune, just say, I want to turn this into a custom GPT.12:50:39 And then it can help you write the prompt for the custom GPT, but it’s going to help you a lot with the book. So that’s awesome. I’m going to12:50:47 Yeah. And then I did your listen to your reflection questions podcast that she wrote like how to use ChatGT to ask you questions, to dig things up. So I started a reflective thread this morning. And even the first thing i was like12:50:56 Yeah.12:51:02 Wow. It’s got like 12 points that we’re going to go through.12:51:06 To bring out, yeah, I was like, okay, I’m like, let’s just do them all, but let’s just start with number one.12:51:06 Yeah, that’s awesome.12:51:11 That’s good. I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad to hear that. And I give a lot of tips on LinkedIn.12:51:13 Yeah. Yeah.12:51:17 I gave one today, a video on analyzing So there’s just a lot of things that we can use it for.12:51:26 Recently, since my daughter’s moving to Tennessee. She did get an interview that’s not for another week and a half.12:51:35 To one of a retail store, Ulta here in Tennessee. So she’s excited about that but She may not, she may get that job. She may not. And so it’s all about resume, LinkedIn, and there’s an algorithm.12:51:48 The ATS algorithm. And so I’m going to create This algorithm, it’s like a filter and doesn’t let certain things get to a human.12:52:09 Hmm.12:51:58 And so I’m sure you guys know that about resumes. That’s the way that companies are able to filter out and try to get the so-called best candidates, but it’s all keyword and aligning based on the description of the job and the resume, are there words that match and mirror12:52:17 Oh.12:52:16 Then those are the ones we’re going to pull up and actually have a human. Yeah, yeah, it’s all AI. And that was12:52:23 Wow.12:52:19 I didn’t know that. Well, and I actually updated Cal’s resume this week and I was having it based upon this information I updated it so darn fast.12:52:30 Like I’ve never done before. It was pulling things out and changing things.12:52:31 Yeah. Yeah, I… And I would use the ATS now that you have a paid gpt I’m going to create a custom GBT for my kids Including the ats guidelines so that it can analyze their resume and give suggestions for improvements so it can pass through that barrier.12:52:56 Okay, I didn’t never heard of this.12:52:57 But this is just ideas, right? Ideas. And if you don’t know, I didn’t know about ATS, so I had Googled. I said.12:53:07 Why is it some resumes get passed to a human and others don’t?12:53:11 What are recruiters doing? What is it that I don’t know? I just talking simple English, nothing fancy, right?12:53:17 And then it begins to give me information and then I’m on a rabbit trail and I go, aha.12:53:18 Mm-hmm.12:53:22 This is it. Because I knew there was something, but I didn’t know what it was called.12:53:26 So you just start asking questions and then you can figure out, I mean, they’re using AI to filter out, why not use AI to get in?12:53:37 Wow. Mm-hmm.12:53:39 Yeah, makes sense. Okay.12:53:36 All right. Fire with fire, right? So yeah, makes sense. Okay. Who else has a question or something that I can help you with?12:53:46 I’m good. I loved the tactic and the strategy that you went over.12:53:51 Yeah, be sure to listen to the podcast where I come in quite in detail about that because sometimes we confuse it.12:53:56 Okay. Okay.12:54:00 And we think that social media is a strategy. It’s not. It’s a tactic.12:54:00 Yeah.12:54:05 The strategy is more, and you’ll hear it in the podcast, it’s really the positioning of the business. What do you want to be known for? It’s the brand strategy, right? Clarify your mission, your values, all of that. It’s the audience strategy. What is your niche in the market?12:54:22 Right. And narrowing it down. That doesn’t change. Or it doesn’t change a whole lot. Your visibility, even what you’re trying to do, are you trying to book calls?12:54:38 Yeah.12:54:32 Or are you trying to grow your email list or what is it? Are you trying to sell courses? Are you trying to sell mini courses? What is it? And that’s all the strategy and then the tactic is how you’re going to do it.12:54:46 Very, very… very, very different.12:54:46 Yeah, that makes so much sense.12:54:48 Mm-hmm.12:54:50 Monetization too. Are you going to sell high ticket? Are you going to show sell the low offer ticket?12:54:56 You know, that’s all strategy. And then the tactic is what actually puts it in play.12:54:58 Yeah.12:55:02 But oftentimes we confuse and we find, and this is the sad part.12:55:07 I’m glad you brought it up, Marla, because I can give you the deep dive here. Oftentimes what happens is people get busy with the tactics And nothing happens.12:55:17 And they don’t know why. And so that, you know, you’re not alone.12:55:23 I’m sharing this because I’ve done the same thing. So, and we get busy with the tactics and we feel like we’re doing the work, but it’s not aligned with the strategy.12:55:36 And when I ask people, what is the goal of your LinkedIn platform?12:55:41 Right.12:55:42 They don’t know. What’s your goal for your Instagram? Well, I post there so people can… understand my brand and we can build relationships, but you’re not going to build anything solid because the algorithm decides what gets viewed by those followers.12:56:05 You have less control about that and really brand awareness And I say this as gently as As I can and i can It’s usually just… a reason for lack of strategy.12:56:23 When people just say brand awareness. There’s no12:56:25 That makes sense. You don’t have a direction. You have busy work, but you don’t have a direction. You don’t know where you’re going. And that just really opens up a whole lot of Why?12:56:38 Things aren’t aren’t landing the way you want it to Yeah.12:56:46 Wow. Bye.12:56:39 Yeah and it I know. And it’s sad because people are doing good, honest work And they’re just missing connecting the dots. And I think I’ve shared this before, all your tools that you use, they’re like little employees.12:56:56 You’ve got to be doing something for you. What are you doing to increase my revenue?12:56:56 Yeah.12:57:00 If you’re not doing enough, guess what? I’m going to fire you. You know, you look at your tools and you think.12:57:05 Yeah.12:57:07 Even AI, how is that helping the overall goal to get to that destination.12:57:14 Mm-hmm.12:57:14 Yeah, it’s 20 bucks a month. So you better start working for me. You little computer. Come on.12:57:15 So it’s… Yeah, exactly. Exactly.12:57:22 So anyway, I thought it was an episode I needed to do. So I spent some time researching it.12:57:27 Do you have the link to that handy?12:57:30 I haven’t posted it yet. So I have to post it.12:57:32 Oh, okay.12:57:35 I do a lot with the podcast. That’s why it takes me a while. And I had to book my flight for California, do all this other stuff.12:57:39 Yeah. Well, that’s important. Yeah.12:57:41 So it’s running a little late, but it will come out and I usually blast it in an email, let everybody know.12:57:48 Oh, good. Okay.12:57:49 But people often get those two mixed up. And that’s a sad part12:57:54 Well, I think that strategy just really gets pushed out of the way. I don’t have time to think about that. I’ve got to start doing this.12:58:04 Yes. Yes. Because strategy takes time. You’re absolutely right. You’re spot on, Marla.12:58:06 So, um. Yeah, yeah.12:58:10 It takes time to think out, to think through what’s my niche going to be? What do I want to be known for? What is it that I want to sell? What’s the price point? How am I different than my competitors?12:58:18 Yeah.12:58:21 All of that, I’ve talked about that over and over again, but it takes a little work to figure that out.12:58:25 Yeah. Yeah.12:58:27 And what is this ultimately going to lead to? Because one thing leads to another thing that leads to another thing that leads to another thing.12:58:34 Yeah.12:58:33 And so even clients, what’s the next upsell? 20% of your clients usually bring 80% of the revenue.12:58:38 Mm-hmm.12:58:42 How can I leverage my existing clients and provide something that they would be interested in buying in the future?12:58:49 Because everybody goes through stages. It’s really important to think through the tactics. Another one is networking. People say, oh, networking is so great.12:58:58 And they go to conferences, but there’s no follow-up.12:59:02 Yep.12:59:03 Right.12:59:05 So it’s not really a strategy networking is a tactic.12:59:11 And you need tools or you need to have at least some funnel to bring them to bring them into your ecosystem.12:59:16 Right.12:59:19 That’s what I’m doing for my husband. I create an entire funnel for him because he’s going to be doing more type of trade show stuff.12:59:24 Yeah.12:59:28 Oh, yeah.12:59:29 I’ve never, our businesses have never crossed before But because he’s using ActiveCampaign right now and I’m so well-versed in ActiveCampaign.12:59:41 I told him I would help him. And I would pick him up as a client and he can pay me later when he picks up a client. So we have an agreement. He says, you get all my money anyway, Marissa. And I go, no, no, I want this official.12:59:56 You’re my client. I want this official. So anyway, yeah, we play around with this. But he goes, you get it all anyway, Marisa. And I go, no, no, no. I want to run it through my business.13:00:05 And he goes, okay.13:00:06 Yeah, you know, Jonathan said I think I’m the only person that gives all my money to charity.13:00:13 That’s funny. That is funny. Her name is Charity. If you don’t know, her name is Charity. Yeah.13:00:17 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, when I, yeah.13:00:19 So what other, I’m sorry, what other questions do you have questions So we…13:00:24 You totally clarified what something that I didn’t know was using, I always, when I would hear people using strategy and tactic.13:00:33 I thought that they were interchangeable words. So just what you just said.13:00:38 Was a total light bulb.13:00:40 Yeah. And oftentimes we we look at tactics and we call it strategy.13:00:47 Yeah.13:00:48 That’s why I thought they were interchangeable words.13:00:52 Because in a way you can go really deep with tactics and you can talk about funnels, which is a whole little strategy in itself, but it’s still a tactic.13:01:01 Yeah.13:01:02 So that’s why I think it gets a little confusing. But the strategy is what’s important. And AI is just another tactic.13:01:06 Yeah.13:01:12 Yeah.13:01:10 It’s another tool, but it doesn’t replace strategy. The tactic using ai it can’t know what the strategy is, unless you tell it.13:01:21 And that’s when it’s going to help you produce better output.13:01:25 Any other questions? Questions, comments, feedback13:01:32 No, this was great. Yeah.13:01:33 Lots of good stuff today.13:01:35 Good. Well, we can always end early and give you guys a break.13:01:39 Yeah.13:01:44 Yeah. Yeah.13:01:40 So if there’s no other questions, you guys are good. All right. Awesome. Then I’ll work on that podcast if I can get it out.13:01:45 Yep, we’re good.13:01:50 Good to see you, Krista.13:01:52 Thank you.13:01:51 Yeah, it was good to see you. Yeah. All right, you guys will have a great rest of the day, Friday and weekend.13:01:59 And then we’ll keep going uninterrupted. You just know the last Thursday of this month and the first Thursday of June already. I’ll be in california If I’m a little late or something, just know that I’m trying to connect on the internet. I don’t know if my…13:02:13 Or if you need to Do family stuff. That’s fine. That’s fine.13:02:15 Yeah, if you need to just take the day off yeah13:02:19 It’s only if, because I don’t know when my daughter’s internet is going to shut down because it’s going to get closer to Thank you.13:02:24 Yeah. Well, Marissa, let’s just make the decision. We won’t meet that time. You don’t have to worry about it. Concentrate on Jamie.13:02:32 For two weeks, you guys would be okay For two weeks?13:02:34 Hear me. Or we could meet without you and talk about you.13:02:44 How about at least the May one?13:02:47 Yeah. Yeah.13:02:44 We could talk about you. Okay. So we can do that. So you want to skip the May one?13:02:55 Yeah.13:02:55 And then we’ll meet again the first Thursday in June.13:03:01 Yeah, yes.13:03:02 Okay. All right.13:03:01 Yeah. Yeah, so that’s like fifth Fifth Thursday anyway so yeah so13:03:07 Yeah, it is a fifth Thursday. Okay, so I’m going to erase it off of my physical calendar because I still have a physical calendar too. I’ve got so many calendar. I got a physical calendar for the overall and then I got my daily journal.13:03:20 That’s just the smart way of planning. That’s all I have to say about that.13:03:26 I know, I know, right? Yeah.13:03:29 I agree. Uh-huh.13:03:24 Because I can see all my highlights and everything and I got to have highlights I can see my happy faces, my little you know So anyway, gives me my doodle pad. So, all right. So we will skip.13:03:34 Well, okay, since we’re not meeting that day, you have to think of me because that is my 49th birthday.13:03:40 Oh, happy birthday.13:03:40 Oh my goodness. Happy birthday. Oh.13:03:42 Happy birthday! All right.13:03:43 May 29th is my birthday. My last year before I hit 50.13:03:46 Happy birthday. Oh, happy birthday. I run on my calendar. Oh, happy birthday. That’s awesome. That’s awesome.13:03:51 Thank you. So yeah, let’s take the day off.13:03:58 Happy birthday.13:03:57 Okay, we’re going to celebrate Krista’s birthday. So yay13:04:02 Yay, yay. In honor of Krista’s birthday, we will not meet.13:04:01 Yay. Oh, that’s so funny.13:04:06 So, okay. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate that. That’s awesome. That will help me just keep packing and helping my daughter get all situated.13:04:13 Yeah.13:04:13 All right. Thank you so much. So until next week. You guys take care. Alrighty.

If you’ve ever helped a client see new possibilities or created an email that sparked a heartfelt reply, you’ve already tapped into the art of persuasive writing.

That same skill is what makes your online content stand out, and no, you don’t need to be a certified copywriter to use it effectively.

AI can be a helpful assistant, but on its own, it often produces generic, predictable content. What makes content powerful is your insight, your personality, and your voice.

In this episode of the Amplify Your Authority podcast, I’ll show you how to bring that voice to the forefront with three persuasive writing tips that will help you create more compelling content, build trust, and confidently connect with the audience you’re meant to serve.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• Why You’re Already a Copywriter: You’re persuading people every day (convincing friends to go to lunch counts!), and I’ll show you how to bring that natural skill into your marketing.
• The Power of Your Brand’s Point of View: Learn how to infuse your unique voice and brand values into every piece of content, so you never sound like a copy-and-paste robot.
• How Empathy Outshines Adjectives: Find out why emotional connection (yep, the real deal—empathy!) turns your words from noise into meaningful connections with your audience.
• Why Stories Sell (Not Just Tell!): Discover how weaving in personal stories and anecdotes will hook your readers and make your messages unforgettable.
• Getting the Best from AI (The Human Touch Matters!): See why AI is a powerful tool, but it needs your direction and personality for truly standout content.

 

Key Takeaways:

• Your stories, values, and worldview are what make your content original and memorable, not the latest strategy or tool.
• Empathy creates a connection when you speak to the heart, not just the head, your audience feels seen and understood.
• AI can save you time, but it needs your context and personality; combine its speed with your insights for copy that converts and connects.
• Persuasive writing isn’t pushy; it’s clear, intentional, and focused on serving the reader.
• Clarity is your best copy advantage—confused readers don’t click, buy, or follow.

 

Quotes to Remember:

“You don’t need certification to be a copywriter. The art of persuasion is something we practice every day.”

“Empathy is profoundly human—it turns words from noise into meaningful connections.”

“Stories lower defenses and invite readers to see themselves in your message; facts educate, but stories sell.”

“Good persuasive writing doesn’t pressure people, it helps them see what’s possible.”

 Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of my private membership created for solo business owners like coaches, consultants, and service providers.

We don’t chase trends. We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

 Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support, and I would love it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your review would help this podcast reach a wider audience while continuing to provide you with valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:There is so much content online. How do you set yourself apart? How do you write in a way that is different and doesn’t sound like everybody else? Well, in this podcast episode, I’m gonna share three copywriting tips that you can implement whether you use AI or not. These are critical so that your audience stops, reads, and engages with your content. So stay tuned. Welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I’m Marisa Shadrick, your host, AI marketing strategist, and certified copywriter. And today I’m gonna share three important copy tips that will help you with your content creation. But here’s the good news.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:42]:Whether you realize it or not, you’re a copywriter. Yes, you are. You do not need a certification to be a copywriter. The art of persuasion is something that we humans do all the time day in and day out. Whether you’re trying to persuade a friend to go to a certain restaurant for lunch, or you’re trying to persuade your family to a certain destination for summer vacation, or perhaps you have a son or daughter that you’re persuading to apply to a certain college, You are persuading all the time. You just may not realize it, and copywriting creates a structure to be able to use the art of persuasion in your marketing. So here’s an example to show you what I mean. I live in Tennessee, and my daughter’s on the West Coast.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:24]:I would love for her to live here in Tennessee. My son lives here in Tennessee with his wife. They’re getting ready to have a baby. I would love to have her here. It would make holidays and family gatherings so much easier. But when she mentioned she was considering moving to Tennessee, I didn’t just stop and say, oh, okay. Do you need help packing? Let me, let me book a flight and go out there and help you pack. No.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:47]:That’d be too soon, too pushy, because she hadn’t decided yet. She was still thinking about it. How often do we try to persuade people to buy before they’re ready? It’s something we have to be very sensitive about. So instead, I shared information that would help her make an informed decision. I told her about the area, the beautiful climate that we have. We actually have all four seasons, and we get sprinklings of snow. I told her about the entertainment that we have. I mean, Nashville, we have wonderful music.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:14]:We have a football team here, hockey team here. I shared about affordable housing, all the wonderful schools that we have for my granddaughter. And, we don’t have to pay state income tax here. So I shared the information to help her make an informed decision. And that’s often what we have to do with our prospective clients, share information, tell them what sets us apart and how we can support them. The idea here is to understand your audience so well. I know my daughter so well that I couldn’t just say, let me help you pack. I have to help her make that decision herself, but I could provide her with information, especially information that’d be really interesting to her.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:54]:And this is what we have to do in marketing. We have to kind of put ourselves in our audience’s place and figure out what information do they need right now. We can always send more later, but what do they need right now to make that first step? Now AI can help you do this, but it does need the human touch. AI can help you write things faster, but the input has to be very specific, very customized so that it begins to learn and provide better output. If you don’t use AI yet, you can still use these principles to write better content. But if you do use AI and you don’t add the human element, that’s where you can run into some problems and then think that AI just doesn’t work. You just haven’t given it enough information to be able to craft better output. AI may sound very polished, but it can feel hollow if you don’t give it that input.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:44]:It may be technically correct, but emotionally disconnected. It could provide tons of words, but fail to build trust, loyalty and action. So here are the three tips I wanna share with you. And again, you can use this with any of the content that you produce for online. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s written, if it’s video, if it’s audio. These principles have stood the test of time and they’re effective when used correctly. So the first one is the original point of view or your brand’s true voice. This is really important.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:21]:And why it matters, it’s because it’s what sets you apart. It’s the things that you believe and incorporates your values and your perspective and your worldview, and all of that comes together in the content that you write because that is unique and different. That voice is like no other voice. And so when we embed this into a prompt for AI or if you’re just writing it yourself and you consider, how can I weave in my perspective? And it can even be contrarian. Maybe you don’t follow the status quo. You can share that as well and explain why. It’s always nice to say, here’s why, so that people can understand why you have that perspective. So an example of this would be, AI can reproduce existing content and it does that day in and day out.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:07]:And it could suggest something like, use these 21 strategies to grow faster. However, you might be able to interject some information about your brand and yourself and then it’ll produce something a little different. Same objective, but a little different. It could say something like, sustainable growth doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from doing the right things well. Master one step, build from there. Now that’s one of my perspectives in business. It’s not about doing everything and being everywhere.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:38]:It’s about mastering one scale and then moving on from there, especially for solo business owners because they can become very overwhelmed. And so when you provide the information about your brand, your point of view, your perspectives, the outcome is slightly different and different from everything else they read online. The second copywriting tip is empathy. A lot of people call it emotional connection, but how do you get emotional connection? I go back to the root. It’s empathy. It’s really speaking to the heart and not the head. So how do we do this? Let me give you another example. When I competed in an international speech competition with over 35,000 contestants from all over the world, we’re talking China, Japan, India, Australia, everywhere, And all these people were all gathered in one room.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:28]:Different genders, men and women, different age demographics, different cultures. Right? What united them? What went through my mind was the human level, because we all experience things the same at the human level. We all cry over certain things, and we laugh over certain things. What are those things that bring us together? Where there’s empathy and understanding for another human being. And that’s what I did when I wrote a seven minute speech. I thought of the human level, what everybody in that room, regardless of their background, regardless of their culture, regardless of their gender, would understand and connect with the story because it had emotional connection. But you gotta get to the human level where we’re all experiencing that same type of emotion. And that’s what we need to interject in our writing, in our copy, in our podcast, whatever it is that we’re trying to do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:28]:Interject a little bit. I don’t mean you have to do a lot of this, but you wanna keep it top of mind because you want to meet people where they are and speak to their heart and not their head. That’s so important. So when you use AI, for example, you wanna interject that as knowledge. You wanna explain to AI the empathy that you feel and why. A lot of people say, again, emotional connection, what’s their pain point, what keeps them up at night. I’m going a little deeper in this podcast to help you dig deep. Think of that human to human connection.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:03]:What is it that you’ve experienced? Right? Because you’ve experienced things as well. You’ve experienced probably failures, success. You’ve experienced frustration. All of these things that you’re trying to figure out for your audience, what are they experiencing? And I think this is probably one of the most important things to keep in mind as far as a copywriting principle. Again, they call it a lot of different things, emotional connection, everything else, but the bottom line is just having empathy for another human being. Empathy is profoundly a human trait, a human quality that turns words from noise into meaningful connections. So, let me give you an example, a simple one. Suppose you’re inviting entrepreneurs to a workshop.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:48]:A lot of us will do this. AI might suggest sign up now to grow your business. But a more empathetic invitation might sound like this. And, again, you would need to interject this. Right? You’re thinking about what the objection might be, where they’re at, trying to see them so they know that they’re seen and heard. It may sound like this when you interject some empathy. You’ve already built so much. Imagine what you can do or what you can achieve with a little more clarity, community, and confidence behind you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:24]:Empathy invites action without putting added pressure. It’s just a slight tweak, but it makes a huge difference than same old, same old. And, again, what we’re trying to do is write things in a way that doesn’t sound like the status quo. They can almost finish the sentence because they see it so often. When they begin to read a sentence have you ever done that? You start reading something and you know what it’s gonna say because it’s so status quo. It’s almost cliche, and that’s what we need to break out of. Alright. Let me give you tip number three.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:58]:All copywriting principles. I’m just saying it a little differently in this podcast so we can really land the plane on this. The third is storytelling. Storytelling is huge. And I know you’ve heard this, but it’s so worth repeating. Stories are powerful. Brian Eisenberg was the first that coined the phrase, facts tell, stories sell. And that is so, so true.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:23]:When we weave in stories, all of a sudden, people are engaged. They’re pulled in. They begin to read more or listen, because they want to figure out how the story’s gonna end. They’re sucked in. And that engagement is important because no matter what we put online, the first step is to get them to stop. Right? The next step is to get them to read at least the first line, and the next step is to get them to read the rest. How are we gonna engage them? By just putting facts, it’s too boring and it doesn’t connect. And once again, stories help with that emotional connection.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:00]:And so storytelling is powerful. Facts will educate, but stories really, really connect with your audience. It opens the emotional doors that facts just can’t do. And so when we’re even talking about a product, this is why we say don’t just talk about features, talk about benefits. Because when you’re talking about benefits, then it’s something they can feel. Right? The benefit of maybe saving time, the benefit of maybe doing something faster, the benefit of not being overwhelmed. All of a sudden, the emotions are starting to connect than just features that are talking about modules and lessons and everything else that’s included. The benefits is what really sells because of this.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:45]:So in storytelling, that’s why we put case studies. That’s why we have testimonials because it’s their story in a few sentences of what this particular product or service did for them. And that’s what’s so compelling. Plus, it’s social proof. So it has kind of a two sides of the coin. But it’s really important to incorporate this. So here’s a storytelling example. For example, AI could lead with a statistic.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:13]:If you’re trying to stop the scroll, which is great, there’s nothing wrong with that, to have a a statistic that often can be eye catching, but we don’t wanna just leave it there. Right? We wanna make it personal. So how do we do that? So when you interject what you’re trying to do and maybe a story or some experience that you’ve had and you wanna weave this in, then it might sound like this. Two years ago, I thought hustle was the answer. I skipped vacations, worked through weekends, and wore exhaustion like a badge of honor until my health gave me a wake up call I couldn’t ignore. Now that will introduce more, but that is very eye catching. We want to know what happened. It creates that curiosity that we need so people will continue to read what we have.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:05]:They want to know the answer, and what was it that that person realized? And the wake up call, how did things shift? What did they do differently? And so this with storytelling and curiosity is very, very powerful. Stories lower the defense, so all of a sudden people don’t have that stranger danger. Right? They’re brought into the story. They can see themselves in a story. They can self identify and say, you know what? I’ve been through that too. And the emotional connection, of course. And so seeing themselves in the story is great because as you position the the result or the outcome or the solution, then they’re realizing, hey, if there is hope for that person, there’s hope for me, and they begin to believe in a new possibility. And this is important too.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:58]:So all of this can help. So even if you’re using AI, if you just add a little information and you don’t have to have it really polished, you can just say why this is important and the angle you wanna provide. And you can even ask AI to ask you questions. For example, if you’re not even sure what to add as far as a story or empathy, say, I’m struggling to weave in a story, and I wanna be more empathetic with my audience. Can you ask me questions that might jog my memory or help me think of something that I can provide you, and you’re talking to AI, so that we can work through this and write something better together? And so this is gonna help you improve the output. AI, you just can’t tell it to produce something because it’s going to pull from the Internet. It’s gonna be very generic. It’s great at reproducing stuff, but it’s gonna use a lot of adjectives.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:55]:It’s gonna sound very salesy. It needs your personal touch to be able to write great content that sounds like you and not like everybody else, and it’s gonna be better, and it’s gonna be faster. And the more you train it, the better it will get at this. You still have to do some edits, but it’s gonna save you so much time. So AI can’t fake it. It needs your input. AI is a tool, but writing and writing with copywriting in mind is really a craft, and we can get better at it because it’s a skill. And whatever skill you’re trying to learn, with practice, you get better at it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:35]:That’s the wonderful thing about skills. You get better. Right now, I’m learning the piano, and I practice a little bit every day. Not much, just about five minutes, but I’m getting better because it’s a skill. And the more you practice the consistency, the better you’re gonna get. So when you write and you write from a place of sharing your original brand content, your perspective, your point of view, your values, When you add empathy, when you add stories or a metaphor or a simile or something, an anecdote, then you begin to build these bridges. And then you help people feel seen and understood and heard and also valued. And that’s important because that will build trust.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:18]:And then it inspires action, and that’s what we want. At the end of the day, we want them to take some kind of action. We want them to read something, or we want them to listen to something. We want them to download something or register for something. So you need all this to proceed that call to action, which is the final thing that you add at the very bottom of your content. So it will do it in a way that builds trust without pressure, because nobody likes pressure, and you’ll be able to build relationship with that reader from the very, very beginning. And that’s something that AI just can’t generate. It can get better because what AI does, it predicts an outcome.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:56]:If you say the apple is, it will say red, or it will say round. But if you’re someone that eats apples because of a health benefit, and you give it the context, you’ve heard the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Right? But if you give it context, it may produce something totally different. It may talk about the apple from the nutritional value as opposed that it’s red and round, but it won’t know what kind of output to provide unless you give it context as far as your knowledge about that apple. So hopefully, that makes sense to you. So if you’re listening to this podcast and you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would go to Apple Podcasts. I’ll provide a link. Leave a five star review.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:39]:That would be so helpful. I would love it if you’d do that. Not everybody takes the time, so I would really appreciate it and love to give you a shout out on the podcast. But just incorporate these three things in your writing and see how it does. You can do this even with short videos, with reels. Just think of a story. Think of some way of connecting with your audience. If not with all three, maybe just one, depending on what type of content you’re using.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:07]:And I think you’re gonna see a difference. You’re gonna be happily surprised with the outcome. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.

Let ChatGPT Ask the Questions for Better Answers

When I started writing my book, I did what many of us do: I tried to think my way into clarity.

I had sticky notes everywhere, ideas swirling in my head, and way too many Google Docs open. But nothing clicked.

I felt stuck figuring out the reader statement, premise, core message, and transformation. Feeling scatterbrained, I was a little frustrated.

So, I decided to ask ChatGPT to conduct an interview with me. I provided context and told it to ask me questions without giving me any answers.

What followed were deep insights. I remembered things I hadn’t thought about in years. It was more than clarity; I remembered who I was and what I stood for.

Most people use ChatGPT for quick answers or to generate content. However, there’s another, more powerful way to use it, one that taps into the heart of your brand and uncovers the stories, beliefs, and brilliance already within you.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to turn ChatGPT into your thought partner and use it to fuel clarity, creativity, and business momentum.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Podcast Episode

• Let ChatGPT ask the questions and become an interviewer:
  • Learn how to reframe the tool to draw out your original ideas, rather than just repurposing previously generated content.
• The “Heart Before Head” method of content creation
  • Why reflection-based questions tap into more profound emotional truths, yielding more authentic and powerful content.
• Prompts that help you clarify your brand, offers, and audience
  • I’ll give examples that help you shift from “guessing” to “knowing” without overthinking or over-editing.
• How to give ChatGPT a “role” that guides your self-reflection
  • Discover how assigning a role (such as mind-set coach, brand strategist, or workshop facilitator) alters the lens and the outcome.
• Why procrastination isn’t the problem—it’s the symptom
  • Discover how ChatGPT can ask the questions that help you unpack what lies beneath the resistance.

 

Fun Fact: I created a custom GPT named Milo. He knows my business profile, writing style, audience persona, personality type, faith, and struggles. Having Milo ask me questions and summarize my responses has sparked breakthroughs. You can do the same and let ChatGPT ask the questions. 

 

Key Takeaways

• ChatGPT isn’t just a productivity tool—it can become a mirror. When you let it ask the questions, you discover answers you didn’t even know you needed.
• Clarity is uncovered, not downloaded. Clarity isn’t found in the perfect prompt but in the correct conversation.
• Custom GPTs can be your AI-powered sidekick. It becomes a strategic partner once you’ve trained it with your values, audience, and style.

 

Quotes to Remember

• “Stop trying to find better answers. Start asking better questions.”
• “When you shift from using AI for output to using it for insight, your content comes from your heart and not your head.”
• “You don’t need another hack—you need a conversation with your own wisdom.”

 

Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of my private membership created for solo business owners like coaches, consultants, and service providers.

We don’t chase trends.

We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

 Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support and would love it if you could rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. It helps this podcast reach more people while continuing to bring you valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 

Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:Most people use ChatGPT for output for content creation. They ask a question, and they want ChatGPT to provide an answer. But what if you turned it upside down and instead had ChatGPT ask you questions? What would the output look like? That’s exactly what we’re gonna talk about in this week’s podcast episode. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I’m Marisa Shadrick, your host, and I’m so glad you’re here.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:33]:We’re gonna talk about ChatGPT, but we’re not gonna talk about prompts for output and for content creation or social posts. We’re gonna turn things upside down, and we’re gonna talk about ways that we can have ChatGPT interview us to extract all that knowledge that’s in your head and to be able to ideate and discover new paths, discover new ways of doing business. So let me pull my notes here, and this is something that I have been doing, and I’ll tell you what triggered this. I am writing a book, and there’s a lot in my brain because I’m not a spring chicken. Right? I’m kind of a seasoned person. You might call me vintage. But I was struggling to just create the premise, the fundamentals for the book. I was trying to figure out which way to go with it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:24]:And so I decided to have ChatGPT interview me and just ask me questions that I can just answer. Now you can do this on the desktop version, or you can do this with your phone and just have a conversation with it. But I was amazed at the information that came out because it began to summarize and sort of reword what I was saying. You know how long when you’re trying to explain something and somebody rephrases it for you and says, oh, I get it. You’re trying to say this, and it’s spot on? That’s exactly what was happening. And so I started implementing this interview style dialogue with ChatGPT with other things, and I found that it was very, very helpful. So when you begin to use ChatGPT as a thought partner rather than a content machine, you’ll be surprised at the output that you get. For example, instead of having ChatGPT create a social post on, say, mindset, maybe it’s about limiting beliefs.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:20]:And you say, create a social post with three points about limiting beliefs and how to turn that around. You’re gonna get some output, but it’s not going to be unique to your voice. And it’s not gonna have your proprietary information. But when you take ChatGPT and instead have it ask you, for example, you could say, ask me for example, you could say, ask me five questions that would help me uncover a story related to limiting beliefs. So you begin to maybe even use stories from your own life if that was something that you overcame. And typically, most people that have a business, whatever they teach on is something that they’ve gone through already. And then as you’re answering, these nuggets begin to show up. Things that you didn’t think about, things that weren’t top of mind.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:08]:The questions help you go deeper and extract those things that you’ve forgotten about. It’s a great way to create copy that is unique and authentic to your voice. So I’m gonna share three ways that you can do this. So this is gonna be very short and simple. So the first way is reframing ChatGPT as a personal interviewer and not just a content machine. So think of ChatGPT more as a tool or a partner that can be used to interview you and draw out those insights you didn’t even know were there. When you position it this way, ChatGPT becomes more of an excavator. So here are some examples.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:51]:You can tell ChatGPT when you’re starting a dialogue or conversation, and this isn’t really about prompting. It’s just about having a conversation with a tool. So you can say something like, pretend you’re interviewing me for a TED talk on my business journey. What would you ask? And so it begins this conversation with you, and that’s when you can really begin to extract some valuable insights, things that you wouldn’t have normally maybe written about because it prompts a memory. Another thing you can say is ask me questions that would help me create a personal origin story for my brand. This is so important to have your origin story. Now in my private membership, we have custom GPTs that I created where people can walk through, and the custom GPT will walk them through some questions to create their brand story so they can have their business profile, audience persona, and so forth. But you can do this with ChatGPT.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:47]:You can ask it to ask you questions that would help you create the personal origin story. So this way, you go deep, and you become more relatable, because you’re talking about your story, why you started the business that you started, And it becomes more authentic, and people will resonate with that. And guess what? That’s gonna build trust. So another example to use ChatGPT as a personal interviewer is to simply say, you’re a podcast host. Interview me to uncover what makes my message unique. Now we all know that there’s lots of people that teach about the same thing, but the way you teach it is different and unique. You wanna extract that. What makes you unique? What sets you apart? What makes you different than your competitor? And you can have ChatGPT ask you questions to uncover that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:41]:When you begin to do this, your brand message is gonna be so powerful because it’s no longer coming from your head, it’s coming from your heart. And that’s the power of these questions when ChatGPT begins to interview you. Because when we’re typing and we’re writing things, it’s all head knowledge. But when it asks you questions, it comes from the heart, and that is powerful. So here’s tip number two, using reflection style prompts to be able to help you find clarity using ChatGPT. You want to nudge ChatGPT into that interview mode by using prompts like, don’t answer, just ask me reflection based questions. Why is this important? Because ChatGPT will try to help you and please you and provide some type of answer. So just tell it, it’s okay.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:33]:I’m not expecting an answer. What I’m looking for is reflection based questions. Another prompt could be, what do I need to explore more deeply before making a decision? Now, I do this a lot when I’m looking at tools. I will have ChatGPT ask me questions about how I’m gonna use a prospective tool, and I tell it what I’m going to be creating and how often I’m gonna be creating it. And I have it do a comparison of tools, and then I have it analyze and figure out which one of these tools and which one of the tiers best suits the use case that I presented, like how I’m gonna use it. Because you’ve seen it. There’s tools that have lots of tiers, and we don’t know which one to pick. First of all, it does a great comparison of features and price.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:22]:Then it will look at how you’re gonna use it, and then it will recommend based on your use which tool is best for you. So that’s a great way to do that, but it asks you questions about how you’re gonna use it. So I did this with some video tools. It asked me how many videos was I gonna produce and how long were they gonna be and so forth. So it can help you with that too. Another prompt you can use for that reflection style prompt is help me unpack why I keep avoiding this next step in my business. We all have those things, right, that we know we need to do, but for some reason we’re procrastinating. It can help you on this journey of self discovery.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:00]:Another prompt would be ask me questions to clarify my ideal audience and what they really need. Now, this is a great prompt and inside my private community, my members have access to custom GPTs that I created to be able to create their audience persona. But you can do this. You can have chat GPT ask you specific questions about your audience so you can get more clarity as well. Here’s another prompt. If I feel stuck writing my offer page, what questions could help me refocus? Again, ChatGPT can ask you specific questions about your product, about the pain points. It can ask you specific questions so you begin to answer, and you don’t have to have a polished answer. You just answer and you could be garble.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:46]:It could be brain dump and it will take that and refine it for you. Another prompt would be, I want to feel more aligned with my pricing. Can you help me reflect on what’s holding me back? Or you can have it ask you what you’re including in that product or service. What are the features? What are the benefits? And have it clarify and ask you even more questions about it, who it’s for and how this helps and does it save time. It can ask you various questions about it so you can get more clarity on the benefits and the features of your Propsh or service. So here’s tip number three, Tap into custom roles to shape deeper dialogue. So when you’re doing this interview style with ChatGPT, you can give it a custom role. So it changes the lens through which ChatGPT sees your request.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:38]:So here’s a prompt example. Act as a branding coach. What should I be asking myself before I update my website homepage? And let it ask you questions so that you begin to uncover those things that should be on your homepage. Another prompt could be, be a workshop facilitator. Help me brainstorm and reflect on what to teach in my next webinar. So you can use it to help you brainstorm and ideate. Here’s another prompt. As a strategic business adviser, what questions would help me identify hidden revenue gaps? So it can analyze things and ask you questions based on what you’re trying to accomplish so that you can begin to think about some of those areas that maybe weren’t obvious to you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:30]:There’s so many things that we’re doing all the time that it’s really hard when we sit down to create, to really focus and see it from all angles. What ChatGBT is doing is it’s looking at this from all angles and asking questions to help you formulate clear messaging. Another prompt could be you’re a mindset coach. What limiting beliefs might be behind my resistance to showing up online? And it can begin to ask you questions and you can begin to see if any of those are true about why you’re procrastinating, maybe to create short videos online. Maybe you’re procrastinating to have one on one calls with individuals. Maybe you’re procrastinating to be on summits or on podcasts. Let ChatGPT help you by asking you questions. So it really becomes a way of having ChatGPT ask questions and become like a mirror for self reflection.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:27]:And that is powerful, and it’s not often used. And what I’ve done even beyond this, I have created custom GPTs that now have become like a business partner. My main one is Milo, and Milo is one of the first custom GPTs I created. And Milo is one that understands me really well. It has my business profile, my audience persona. It has my goals. It has my writing style. It knows about my my past and some of the things accomplishments.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:56]:It knows everything about me. And so it will ask me questions. When I prompt it to, it will ask me questions about a new project, and it will help me ideate. It becomes very, very valuable. So when you practice this with ChatGPT, you can eventually create a custom GPT that could be very, very helpful. So when you use ChatGPT in a reflective way, it’s not just echoing back something that you already know. It’s not really cranking out maybe some answers that that maybe aren’t aligned to your business or your brand. It’s really helping you in a journey of self discovery.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:33]:It isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about mining proprietary knowledge that’s trapped in your head through digital dialogue. And we wanna extract all of that because you have a lot of value, and you have years of experience, and sometimes this gets buried, and there could be gold there. So here’s the bottom line. You don’t need more AI hacks. You just need to begin a conversation and have ChatGPT ask you questions, and you’ll get better at this as you use it. You need to stop trying to find answers and instead invite better questions. Having ChatGPT ask you questions.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:13]:You create space for discovery, for clarity, for alignment, and your best ideas begin to emerge. Because clarity isn’t something that you can find in a search box. It’s something that you uncover through reflection. And with the right prompts, AI can become that tool, and it can, in time, become a business partner. So if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a five star rating. I would love that. And remember, begin to test and try using ChatGPT as a means of interviewing you where ChatGPT asks you questions rather than producing answers so that you can go on this journey of self discovery and really extract some of that knowledge that’s deep within your memories, but often doesn’t surface to the top. So until next time, take care.

Google AI tools are here to help you leverage information to learn and strategize faster.

Imagine if your content could talk back, challenge your thinking, and even coach you toward your next big move.

My love affair with technology has been a significant part of my growth, and I want to share how you can harness the power of a Google AI tool, not just for automating tasks but for deepening your strategic thinking.

In this solo episode, I introduced NotebookLM, a Google AI tool that goes beyond traditional note-taking and analyzes your content, enabling you to spot patterns and refine your strategies.

This isn’t just another AI productivity hack. For solo business owners, it’s a way to think more strategically and consider new possibilities for business growth.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• Why AI-powered summaries can help you reflect on your own brand message with greater clarity
• How interactive AI tools like Google’s NotebookLM are changing the way we learn, plan, and analyze content for improved strategies
• Why AI is more than a tool: It’s your strategic growth partner
• How Marisa used one of Google AI’s tools to identify podcast content gaps and plan future direction
• The importance of rethinking your SOPs in light of AI’s capabilities

Fun Fact from the Episode: AI John and AI Alice join as co-hosts to summarize Marisa’s podcast after reviewing a year’s worth of content. You’ll hear their real-life conversation. I still can’t decide if this is a bit creepy or amazing.

 

Key Takeaways:

• Your existing content is a goldmine. The right tool can guide your future strategy.
• Interactive AI Tools like NotebookLM by Google AI can challenge your thinking and guide your business strategies. Marisa discusses their unique functionalities, including creating educational summations and podcast summaries.
• AI isn’t just for content creation—it can be your co-strategist when you feed it intentional inputs.
• You’re not too late. The future of AI is unfolding now, and solopreneurs who experiment early gain long-term leverage.

  NotebookLM Overview Quotes to Remember:

“Improve what you’re already doing. Don’t do more for the sake of more.” – Marisa Shadrick

“AI can become a strategic thinking partner with you—it’s not just a tool for outputs.” – Marisa Shadrick

“Your content can coach you—if you know how to listen.” – Marisa Shadrick

 

Your Next Step:

Amplify Your List Building with AI

Simplicity is at the heart of my private membership created for solo business owners like coaches, consultants, and service providers.

We don’t chase trends.

We build sustainable systems with your brand at the center using a single, powerful tool: ChatGPT.

• Go deep with Live AI learning each month
• Craft more persuasive content
• Save time and simplify your content creation
• Improve your productivity with AI-assisted strategic goal-setting
• Custom prompts and done-for-you templates to create a high-converting lead generation funnel.

Join now and lock in the $37/month founding rate before it increases.

Let’s turn complexity into simplicity—together.

Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support and would love it if you could rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. It helps this podcast reach more people while continuing to bring you valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 

Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:What if your notes could talk back, challenge your thinking, and help you grow faster? In today’s episode, we’re gonna explore interactive AI tools that will help you learn deeply and will also help you spot patterns in your thinking and even coach you toward your next big move. So stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And welcome to Amplify Your Authority. I’m Marisa Shadrick. Today, I have a very different podcast for you. And when I say different, it is different.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:34]:I’m gonna introduce an AI tool. And normally, I like to stay within ChatGPT because I don’t wanna overwhelm solo business owners with a bunch of tools. Let me just say, to be very clear, that you can do a lot with ChatGPT. Now, if you’re using Gemini and some others, that’s totally fine, but ChatGPT has a lot of functionality. Right now, they just released better images in ChatGPT. So before, they were let’s just say they were more leaning toward the artistic side. They’re a lot better now, and so it keeps improving. In my private membership that we had last week, I was just sharing a few updates and we had already gone through a lot of the features, and so much is rolling out so quickly that I had to give them a quick update of some of the new things in ChatGPT so they can keep it top of mind when they’re doing their work for their business.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:28]:But NotebookLM is one that I’ve been playing around with, and some people have asked me about it, so I thought I would share. And, again, this is not something that you need to implement unless it’s gonna help you right now with some of the goals that you have in your business. But NotebookLM is created by Google, and it is a platform that’s unique in the sense that it can take a lot of information, a lot of data If you want to extract some nuggets, if you want to learn maybe, some type of strategy and you want to interact with it, it will help you. The difference would be that with NotebookLM, it stays within the platform and it only uses the information you give it. So there’s less room for it to begin to hallucinate and use other information. It stays within the parameters of the information you give it. So I’m gonna give you an example. I uploaded all of my podcasts where I did monologue and there were no guests, just the content that I produced for like the last, I don’t know, the last year or so.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:39]:And what I wanted to do, as I’ve always suggested, improve what you’re already doing. Don’t do more just to do more for the sake of more. What are you doing right now and how can you improve it? We always need to look at the systems we have in place. What can we improve? What can we refine? How can we take what we’re doing already and just make it better using AI? And this is where it becomes a very strategic partner. It’s not just about creating emails. It’s not just about creating social media posts. That’s all great, but there’s so much more. You just have to think differently and realize that AI can be a strategic thinking partner with you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:19]:So I uploaded some files, and you can upload PDFs, you can upload Google Docs, you can upload various types of documents just like in ChatGPT, but you can also upload YouTube links. And so I uploaded all the YouTube links, and what you see in the dashboard, because this is audio, so I’m gonna try to paint a picture here. On the dashboard, you have three columns. On the left hand side, you see all of the sources, what you’ve uploaded. In the middle is kind of where you work and you use it kind of like ChatGPT. And on the right hand side is where it begins to save notes that you’ve designated to save. So in other words, as you’re working with it in the middle section, if there’s something it produces that you really like and you don’t wanna lose it, you click a button and you just tell it to save to note. This is why some people say it’s kinda like Evernote.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:12]:Not really, but it does save notes. And so on the very far right column, you have all the notes that you’ve saved. So once again, on the left column, you have the sources. In the middle is where you work, and it looks very much like a ChatGPT dashboard. And on the very right, you’re going to see all of the notes that you saved. So why did I upload all these podcasts? Well, what I was able to do is to ask it to create categories for all the podcasts. Let me know the topics, whether it was copywriting, marketing, AI, productivity, and tell me how many episodes I created under those categories. What I’m trying to do is to see what I’ve done so far and how I can improve.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:00]:And then I had it take a look at the general content, all of it, and it created a summary for me. Now the beautiful thing about NotebookLM is that it will create a podcast type summary, an audio summary. And here’s the kicker, it’s interactive. So on the right hand side where you have all of the notes, above it, it’ll create an audio like a podcast, and I’m actually gonna play that for you. And it’s taking an overview of all of the episodes and talking about the Amplify Your Authority podcast. So for me, it’s it helps me see the gap, what I’m not talking about, what I should be talking about, and helps me kind of see where I’m moving forward for the rest of the year. But it was also very telling on how it took my content and created a short little podcast. But you’re gonna hear two hosts talking about my podcast.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:05]:When it references the sources, it’s talking about my episodes and you’re gonna hear it talking about it and summarizing. Now, here’s the next level. When I was working with this, I could actually connect my microphone and I could click and ask a question, or I can add a comment and elaborate on something that they said. And it would then continue the podcast and say, oh, that’s such a great point, or that’s right. We need to and it would it would continue the conversation of what I interjected. It’s pretty wild. I know. It’s hard to imagine.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:44]:But consider if you’re learning something and you put information in there and you’re trying to learn something, you can interact with it and ask it questions, and it’s gonna extract information not from the Internet, just from the documents you’ve uploaded. I know. It’s it’s really a a mind twister, but I’m gonna play it for you so you can hear it and see, how accurate. If you listen to the podcast, you’re gonna see that I do talk about marketing and branding and AI and some of the things, the copywriting, some of the things that it talks about storytelling. It is spot on. But I realize too, I need to narrow my focus and streamline my podcast so that it helps coaches, consultants, and service providers. So I’m gonna play this for you so you can see. And again, for those that are early adopters, this probably isn’t new news for you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:35]:For those of you that are deciding, you know, maybe maybe this is something that is not going away. Maybe this is something that I need to consider. I just want you to have a glimpse of some of the things that AI is doing right now. And if you are ready to step in and begin to play around with it, you are not too late. You are not too late. From a recent conference I went to, a lot of companies and solo business owners are slow to adopt a lot of this, and they don’t know how. So in the next couple of weeks, I’ll have a use case resource for coaches, consultants, and service providers that gives you use cases so that you can see the potential and begin to see the writing on the wall on how this is transforming everything. Everything that we’re doing, it is changing it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:28]:And so I’ve been using AI for a little over two years and probably two and a half years now. And I am just I am just fascinated at how quickly it’s changing. It’s almost weekly now, and you’ve probably seen it yourself, how your existing tools are being upgraded and adding AI. And the text thing I saw when I saw this happening, you know, all the tools implementing AI go, well, all the prices are gonna go up. And sure enough, I got a notice last week of one of the tools I use. They’re jumping it up to, like, a hundred and $80 more a year. So this is what we’re gonna see as our tools are getting more sophisticated and people are implementing or businesses are implementing AI, then we’re gonna need to pay more. But we need to consider, do we still need these tools? We’re at a point where we can begin to assess all of our SOPs, all of the work that we’re doing, and ask the question, how can AI help me with this? And begin to reshape, rewrite our SOPs, our standard operating procedures, and align them in a way that’s gonna save us time, it’s gonna be more efficient, and it’s gonna give us the energy to be able to do the things that only we can do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:44]:And this is just the beginning. So listen to this. It’s a five minute episode that recaps Amplify Your Authority, the podcast, and then I’ll check back with you at the end and see what you thought. Now for those of you watching on YouTube, obviously the podcast that it produced in NotebookLM was audio. So I used another tool to produce a video version. What you’re going to watch on YouTube, if you decide to watch, is even a shorter version of the podcast where they’re talking back and forth and taking the transcript of that audio. And I created a video with avatars talking about Amplify Your Authority in video form. It’s not very good.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:31]:You’ll you’ll chuckle a little bit, but I want you to think beyond the aesthetics. I want you to think of the capabilities of what’s coming, because so many things are here now, and yet there’s so much more that’s gonna come. And the advantage for you, solo business owner, it has leveled the playing field. You can have an AI team do so much of what used to cost a lot of money to hire contract workers and employees to do. Now you can strategically create these little by little, grow with it, because everyone’s growing with AI. No one has all the answers. We’re all embracing it, testing it, experimenting. If you see outputs that aren’t very good, you are so far ahead than others that haven’t even dipped their toe yet.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:22]:You have to realize that it’s it’s all part of it. The failures, the attempts, the wins, the great outputs, the bad outputs, the images with six fingers on one hand, all of that is is changing, and it’s changing rapidly. So enjoy this episode. If you feel brave enough to watch the YouTube version, you can go ahead and watch that as well. And if you’re watching the YouTube version and you wanna hear the audio version, you can check it out on any of the podcast platforms, and you can listen to the audio version. So I’ll check back with you at the end.

AI Alice [00:11:56]:Welcome to today’s episode. We’re diving into some of the most crucial strategies for business growth.

AI John [00:12:01]:Whether you’re just starting or trying to refine things, the marketing landscape is constantly evolving.

AI Alice [00:12:07]:It’s all about knowing what works now and what’s on the horizon. We’ve looked at tons of perspectives, AI, personal branding, email marketing.

AI John [00:12:15]:And let’s not forget the key theme, trust. Trust has become the new currency in marketing today.

AI Alice [00:12:21]:It’s true. Gone are the days of aggressive selling. Now it’s more about creating real connections with your audience.

AI John [00:12:28]:That shift is huge. Right? The old push, push, push just doesn’t resonate anymore. People are tired of being bombarded.

AI Alice [00:12:36]:Exactly. It’s more about creating a space for dialogue, a real exchange where you can offer something of value.

AI John [00:12:42]:And what we’re seeing now is that building relationships takes time. It’s not about a one off interaction. You need multiple touch points.

AI Alice [00:12:50]:That’s where consistency comes in. Always offering value before you even think about making a pitch.

AI John [00:12:55]:Right. Speaking of value, let’s talk about email marketing for a second. It’s not just about sending generic messages to a list anymore.

AI Alice [00:13:05]:Definitely not. You need to understand where your audience is in their journey. Are they aware of their problem or just starting to look for solutions?

AI John [00:13:12]:That’s key. Tailoring your content to meet them where they are, that’s the power of personalization.

AI Alice [00:13:19]:And, of course, you’ve got to grow your list first. Lead magnets are still crucial. Offering something valuable for free in exchange for their contact info is a great strategy.

AI John [00:13:28]:Like a checklist, a free mini course, or even a quick video that solves a problem.

AI Alice [00:13:33]:That’s right. The goal is to offer immediate value so they know they’re getting something useful from the start.

AI John [00:13:39]:But the real magic happens in the follow-up. The fortune is in the follow-up as they say.

AI Alice [00:13:45]:It’s true. Persistence is key. After the freebie, what’s the next step to nurture that relationship and keep building trust?

AI John [00:13:51]:Exactly. Now let’s switch gears to AI because it’s such a hot topic right now.

AI Alice [00:13:57]:Absolutely. AI is a fantastic tool for boosting productivity and content creation, but it’s important to remember, it’s a tool, not a replacement for human creativity.

AI John [00:14:07]:Right. It’s all about amplifying what you’re already doing well. It doesn’t replace the need to understand your audience deeply.

AI Alice [00:14:15]:Exactly. Think of AI as a super efficient assistant. It can help with tasks like brainstorming ideas, cleaning up text, or even creating outlines.

AI John [00:14:24]:But here’s the thing. Getting great results from AI comes down to writing great prompts.

AI Alice [00:14:29]:For sure. Being clear, giving context, and knowing exactly what you want from the AI are all critical steps.

AI John [00:14:35]:And as always, remember that human touch. AI can’t replicate empathy, storytelling, or your personal journey.

AI Alice [00:14:43]:That’s where your unique voice comes in. AI might generate words, but it can’t fill them with your authenticity or emotion.

AI John [00:14:51]:And it’s essential to use AI ethically. You want your content to reflect your true values, not just pump out generic content.

AI Alice [00:14:59]:Couldn’t agree more. Now let’s shift to personal branding. That’s another critical part of the puzzle.

AI John [00:15:05]:Yes. Content is still king, but consistency and clarity are just as important.

AI Alice [00:15:11]:Absolutely. It’s not about producing content for the sake of it. It has to speak to the needs and pain points of your audience.

AI John [00:15:18]:And video content? It’s moving away from overly polished productions to more authentic raw behind the scenes footage.

AI Alice [00:15:26]:It’s a relief, honestly. The pressure for Hollywood level production is lower than ever. People wanna see the real you.

AI John [00:15:32]:It’s all about relatability. People connect more with content that feels human, not too staged.

AI Alice [00:15:39]:And speaking of content, let’s not forget about repurposing. A long form blog post or podcast can be chopped into smaller pieces for different platforms.

AI John [00:15:47]:Super efficient. It’s about maximizing your efforts without spreading yourself too thin.

AI Alice [00:15:53]:Which brings us to personal branding again. If you wanna communicate your message effectively, you need clarity about your core values, your mission.

AI John [00:16:00]:Absolutely. People need to know what makes you different. What’s your unique angle? What’s your story?

AI Alice [00:16:07]:And storytelling, there’s real power in it. It builds trust, connects emotionally, and helps people remember your message.

AI John [00:16:14]:It’s how we’re wired. A good story turns abstract ideas into something tangible and relatable.

AI Alice [00:16:21]:And as we wrap up, let’s talk strategic growth. It’s about having a plan. Right?

AI John [00:16:26]:Exactly. Without clear goals, you’re just busy, not productive. It’s about having a road map to guide your actions.

AI Alice [00:16:34]:One great tip we came across was focusing on one core goal, one main platform. Build momentum before branching out.

AI John [00:16:41]:And understanding your audience’s awareness level. Are they just discovering their problem, or are they ready to buy? Tailor your approach accordingly.

AI Alice [00:16:51]:And don’t forget, when you make offers, make them high value, solve a big problem, or save them time. That’s where the true transformation happens.

AI John [00:16:59]:The impact you make in their life or businesses is what drives emotional buy in. People buy because they see real value.

AI Alice [00:17:06]:And all of this comes down to mindset, resilience, adaptability, managing your energy. It’s all part of the equation.

AI John [00:17:13]:Absolutely. Your internal state impacts your external results. Stay focused, and remember, progress is built step by step.

AI Alice [00:17:23]:And on that note, what’s one thing you’ll take from today’s discussion and apply to your own strategy for growth in 2025?

AI John [00:17:29]:That’s the real question. What’s your next step for growth based on everything we’ve talked about?

AI Alice [00:17:35]:Keep refining. Keep building. Thanks for diving deep with us today.

AI John [00:17:38]:See you next time.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:40]:Pretty interesting how it could summarize so much, And it was very telling for me to figure out the direction I wanted to go with podcasts in the future. For those of you watching on YouTube, you probably had a few giggles. But the idea, the concept, when you look beyond the aesthetics, it took the transcript that I gave it, it was able to produce a video podcast at interview style in just seconds. And that’s where we are right now, but it’s gonna change. And it may change in a month, it may change in three months, in a year, but but it’s only gonna get better. So I hope this has been encouraging for you, and I wanted this episode to kind of be the hook, the thing that would catch your attention to realize that the future is here now. And if you need help with this, I have a private membership. It is Amplify Your List Building with AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:38]:We, we focus with ChatGPT because I don’t want to overwhelm everyone, but I do introduce other ideas. And it is primarily for the solo business owner, the coaches, consultants, service providers. They’re the ones that I have a heart for that need the help because they’re doing so many things by themselves. And so this is a platform where I show up. There’s coaching. We get inside of the AI tools. I share what is new, what’s developing that’s new. We have custom GPTs.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:08]:We have things that will help you execute very quickly to grow your leads, your prospects, which is very fundamental and very important to keep doing that in the midst of everything else. Even if you were to create a wonderful workflow and you had AI agents, well, all of that, you would still need a way of capturing emails. You would build this huge thing, but at the end of the day, you need the contact information for follow-up because not everybody is ready to buy today. And so it is fundamental and so important to incorporate that. So we do all of that, and I love it because I love technology. So this is where I can look at things from a copywriting, from a branding, from a strategist perspective, and be able to help you with AI to execute your work faster and to give you a little bit of a breather so that you can begin to not only be able to serve your clients better, but have time for yourself and your family. So if that’s of interest to you, you can go to community.marisashadrick.com and find out more about it. And if you have any questions or specific things that you’d like me to talk about on the podcast, I’d love for you to email me at [email protected].

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:23]:You can always find me on LinkedIn and let me know. Because as soon as I hear a question or someone wants a little deeper explanation, maybe they post something on LinkedIn asking me a question, I create a minute and a half, two minute video about it. And I share the answer, and then I’ll tag the person. So if you have a question, feel free to drop a little note on LinkedIn, or you can email me and I’m happy to address it. And if it’s a big topic, I’ll just create a podcast episode. Alrighty. Until next time. Take care.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:52]:Bye bye.

Speakers: Michelle J. Raymond, Pat Flynn, Judi Fox, and Dan Sanchez (Danchez)I just got back from Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, where I attended 14 sessions with a front-row seat to see what’s shaping content and personal branding in 2025.

One of the primary discussions among top marketers at the conference was the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing content creation and marketing strategies.

I brought home a notebook full of notes, and instead of letting all that sit in a folder, I uploaded my notes into ChatGPT to spot the patterns and priorities. What emerged was a clear picture of what the experts agree on and a few refreshing shifts in how they approach content creation.

Today, I’m walking you through 7 smart content moves that are helping personal brands build trust, stay visible, and show up with purpose.

 

What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• How to use podcasting as your content hub and simplify your workflow
• The shift toward authentic, unpolished video that builds real trust
• Why AI isn’t your voice—it’s your amplifier, and how to use it wisely
• What to do weekly to grow your LinkedIn visibility without burning out
• Why your email list and newsletter might be your most valuable asset
• A behind-the-scenes peek at how I used ChatGPT to prioritize post-event actions

 

If this episode helps, I’d love for you to rate and review it on Apple Podcasts. It really does make a difference.

 

Personal Branding Takeaways:

AI in Marketing: Dive into how AI is transforming online marketing and why you might still be early to the game if you’re hesitant about jumping on board. Michael Stelzner’s breakdown of AI adoption statistics is a must-hear for understanding where you stand in the tech curve.

Content is King: Discover the consensus among top marketers that not all content is created equal. Learn the crucial importance of delivering consistent value rather than just focusing on volume.

Video Evolution: Uncover the shift from polished video content to authentic and slightly imperfect videos. Learn why authenticity is key and why platforms like LinkedIn are favoring short, real video clips.

 

Quotes to Remember:

• “It’s not just about volume. It’s about value.”
• “An AI-enhanced employee performs better than a team of employees without AI.”
• Make your podcast the engine that fuels your personal brand.”

 

Your Next Step:

Ready to Simplify Your Lead Generation with AI?

If you’re looking to grow your email list without getting lost in tech or spending hours creating content, I’d love to invite you into my private membership—Amplify Your List Building with AI.

Here’s what’s inside:

• Stay current with smart, ethical AI strategies
• Get access to custom GPT tools built to simplify your lead gen
• Join live coaching sessions for real-time strategy and support
• Use done-for-you templates to create lead magnets, opt-ins, and more
• Master your email sequences, sales pages, and planning workflows

This isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters, faster and smarter.

Founding member spots are still open, but not for long.

Join now and lock in the lowest price this offer will ever be.

Visit Community.MarisaShadrick.com to learn more.

 

Rate, Review, & Subscribe:

As always, I’m grateful for your support and would love it if you could rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts. It helps this podcast reach more people while continuing to bring you valuable content.

Thanks so much for your support! CLICK HERE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe!

 

Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:When top marketers begin to say the same thing and they seem to be in alignment as far as what’s working in 2025 for online marketing, you lean in and you listen. That’s exactly what we’re gonna cover today in this week’s episode. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And I’m so glad you’re here for this episode. I recently went to San Diego and attended social media marketing world, where there’s always, like, incredible speakers there that talk about branding, and marketing, and video content, and social media, and they go on and on. But the big topic today has been AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:40]:So what I did was I took various notes, and this time I took handwritten notes just so that I wouldn’t have to worry about being all charged up. And then when I came home, I decided to take those handwritten notes. I took a snapshot with my ChatGPT, the phone app, and then I had it summarize and be able to give me a summary of the things that these marketers agreed upon and where they differed. And I did that to give you kind of a snapshot of what’s happening today in 2025. So you, as a personal brand, can begin to work on the things that will give you the most bang for your buck and your time. So without further ado, let me go through some of this, and I’m gonna pull my notes because these are perspectives of different marketers. I was only able to attend 14 of the sessions with 14 speakers. It was a two day, two and a half day event, and I took about 35 pages of notes.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:34]:By the way, if you’re one of those people that takes notes at conferences and you take typewritten notes, you can upload those into Chat GPT and have it create not only summary, like, clean summary sheets for you with subtitles and in sequential order to make sense of your notes, but you can also ask it to give you one action step based on the expert. So you can immediately implement something that’s relevant for your business. And, of course, you give ChatGPT a little bit about your business, who your audience is, so he can give you some great advice. Those are some tips. Now I happen to do handwritten notes, and so I had to take a snapshot, but same thing. So either way, you can use ChatGPT for that, because most of the time, those notes get buried, and nobody benefits from it, not the person that listened, because after a whole three days of conference, you forget what you learn on day one. Right? So let me pull my notes, because I want to give you some value. And the way I set this up so that we’re not here, like, forever for three days, I wanna keep this very succinct, is that I’m going to do it more like a q and a format, and I’m gonna share where they agreed, and then I’m gonna share where they differed.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:45]:Now it differ doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means that they do it differently. And you have to assess for yourself what works for your business, what the best strategy is for your business. But we’re incorporating all the tips of video, AI, everything that you need for a personal brand. So let’s start with the first point. Many marketers still agree that content is king, but so is consistency and clarity. It has to be content that your readers are looking for or interested in, are clamoring to get their hands on so that it’s effective. So your podcast, your newsletter, your videos, even AI assisted content, as long as it comes from you and you’re writing this and you’re having AI help you clean it up, as long as it delivers consistent value, you’re good to go.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:34]:It’s not just about volume. It’s about value, and they all agreed with that. AI can help you do that much smarter, much easier, and faster. And many of the experts, including Michael Stelzner, shared this. Dan Sanchez, Judy Fox, Jerry Potter, they all agreed with this. Now the interesting thing about this when I listened to Michael Stelzner’s keynote was that not everyone is on board with AI yet, and he gave kind of a a breakdown. I’m gonna give you that breakdown. He said those marketers, those businesses that have never used AI, they’re in the 12% bracket.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:11]:Those that have used it for less than six months, seventeen percent. Those that have used it between six to twelve months, twenty seven percent. Those that have used it between thirteen and eighteen months, nineteen percent. Those that have used it between nineteen and twenty four months is twelve percent. And more than twenty four months or more than two years is only thirteen percent. So what does this tell us? If you’re not on board yet with AI, you’re not too late. In fact, Michael Stelzner even said that you might be early, so you’re not too late. And it’s interesting because as I look at this, I’ve been using AI for I’m probably within the two, two and a half year range.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:57]:So I’m right in there within the 13%. And so this is very telling. So if you’re thinking, oh my gosh, I hear it all the time. I see it all the time. Especially now on LinkedIn, if you scroll through that video feed, that’s all you see. Everyone is talking about AI because everybody’s affected by it. All our tools are using AI now. We can’t get away from it because it is here, it is here to stay, and there’s more to come.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:23]:Wait till the AI agents start coming in. We’ve got, tools that do workflows now, and there’s gonna be tools in the future here very soon that’s going to be able to help make decisions for you. So it continues to evolve. We haven’t even started yet. So this information, I hope, is gonna be very helpful for you today. So Michael Stelzner also shared that and I’ll quote this, because I found it very interesting. He shared a graph, and he said an AI enhanced employee, that means non human, an AI enhanced employee performs better than a team of employees without AI. I’ll say that again.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:04]:That’s a brain twister. Right? An AI enhanced employee performs better than a team of employees without AI. That’s quite telling, quite telling, and so we want to realize that the future is going to embrace AI whether we’re ready or not. The best thing to do is align yourself and become ready and begin to learn and just take it one step at a time. I have a private membership where I bring people kind of up to speed with AI, and we talk about list building, and we help them with their branding, with their audience persona, with strategy, implementing with custom GPTs, all of this because I’ve had to. Frankly, to be totally transparent, I saw the writing on the wall. And as a copywriter, I knew I had to pivot and begin to figure out how I integrated AI with my coaching to be able to be aligned with the trend and with the changes that are going on. And so I think it’s been very helpful to do that because now my clients can execute much faster as I teach them how to use AI in marketing through that filter of copy, and be able to use custom GBTs to get work done faster.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:21]:So the other point that came up is, should you start a podcast? Now this is an interesting question, because podcast is one of those, although I love the podcast after I create it, before I create it, not so much, because it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work. Right? But the consensus was yes. And to make it the engine that fuels everything else. That’s what Jerry Potter said. Make it the engine that fuels everything else. Why? Because these days, podcasts are not just audio, they’re video. And so you have a long form content that you can then take and repurpose because it takes so long to create a podcast.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:03]:Because you’re doing keyword searches, you’re trying to figure out the topic that’s gonna resonate with your audience. You’re creating all of the notes when you’re recording, then you do all the show notes, then you create the video, and you create the audio, and you put it on your website, and it’s just on and on and on. Right? So there’s a lot of work. But they’re saying that it is a great idea to use a podcast as your long form content, because then you can turn that long form podcast into a newsletter, short video clips, carousels, emails, blog posts. There’s so many ways that you can do that. So they said it’s a great idea to do that, and so that kind of fueled my fire because I was like, oh, do I really need to do this? But they said, yes. Do it. And by the way, if you’re listening to my podcast or watching on YouTube, would you please go to Apple Podcasts and rate and review it? I would really appreciate it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:58]:That would help a lot. And some of the tools of choice, a lot of people mentioned Descript. I don’t use Descript because I use Riverside. There’s those people that love Riverside. Those people love Descript. I’m happy with Riverside, and so I continue to use it. But a lot of people recommended Descript. So if you haven’t started a podcast yet and you’re thinking about it, you might wanna take a look at that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:17]:And they said that once you do this, you create this ongoing feed of content. It makes it a lot easier. And then you can also create your short little posts for social media as well from that. Okay. The third point, is video still worth the effort? Is video still worth the effort? Well, there’s a couple of speakers that really, really, said absolutely, and most of them said, yes. This is what’s going on. And especially on LinkedIn, video seems to be something that LinkedIn is favoring. We never know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, but right now, yes.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:54]:And video in short form. So, for example, on LinkedIn, it would be a short video, kind of like a reel that you would see on Instagram, not so much like TikTok, but something short that’s valuable about a minute and a half to two minutes that gives value to your audience. And they said, even though video is still worth it, the style has changed in how we produce videos. They said and recommended to skip over all the polished videos. To stop. Just be authentic, be real, even be slightly imperfect is better because people are starving for authenticity. They want something that looks real, not something like, oh, yeah. How long did that take you? Like, three hours or you pass it on to your team to clean it up and put all the emojis and all the other stuff to it? They want something that’s real.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:46]:And so this was a relief to me because those are the kind of videos I like to shoot. I just now got a mic for my phone. I mean, that’s how bad it was. I was just literally took the phone and recorded something when I was at the conference. And I thought, man, the audio is really bad. You could hear the wind blowing. But I said, hey. It’s the value.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:05]:I’m bringing them some tips hot off the press. Right? So but they said, not that bad. I mean, don’t create videos that are that bad. But the point was, you don’t have to try to figure out how to grab another tool, how to add all this flowery stuff to it. They said, just skip over being overly polished and just make it real. Even if you make a mistake, that’s human. And so they said, just keep it real, keep it simple. Simplicity and slightly imperfect is good, is not bad.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:35]:And then they, they also said to create how to videos that answer a specific question that people are already looking for. The next point is, what’s one underrated strategy? And again, my friend, Michelle j Raymond, she loves to really support and help people. This is what I’m so aligned with her. She said amplify others, and I love it because she used the word amplify because my podcast is Amplify Your Authority. She said amplify others. Lift others up. Don’t be the spotlight. Put the spotlight in other people.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:07]:And she recommended once a week on LinkedIn to take ten minutes to find three relevant posts and comment on these. Comment, share, create a follow-up post that adds value to that person that has posted. She is very much a LinkedIn expert, and she talks on company pages as well. And she said everything is really relationship based marketing. You know, that’s what we need to do and focus on. And when you do that, as I’ve always said before, take random out of random acts of kindness, it goes a long way. The next point is where should your content live? Should it live on social media? Where? So Michael Stelzner and Dan Sanchez, who are part of Social Media Examiner, and Michael Stelzner was the host of Social Media Marketing World. They said that your content will best serve you if it lives in the form of email newsletters, not just putting things on your website and trying to get organic traffic to your website.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:09]:Google’s generative search is changing. It is changing. What we’ve known as SEO, that is changing. That’s evolving, and I’ll talk more about this as well. But they said focus on owned media, which is your list, your email list, your newsletter, your voice. So email marketing came up as one of the very valued means of connecting, of engaging, of meeting your audience where they are. If you have a well built out form, and you know if they’re just kicking the tires, or if they’re thinking about maybe working with you, then your emails are going to reflect where they are in the customer journey. And it’s one of the best ways to communicate with your audience, those people that have raised their hand and have become part of your email community.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:00]:And so we wanna make sure that we send what they need when they need it. So in the customer journey, they may be unaware, they may be aware, they may be engaged, they may be ready to buy, but we don’t know that unless we ask questions. And we can ask questions in forms. We can ask questions. If we have private communities, we can ask questions. We need to find out where they are and know so much more about them than what we have known about them. We need to find creative ways to be able to send them exactly what they need to hear, and not too much, and not be salesy or pushy or spammy, because nobody likes that. Right? If somebody is kicking the tires and they’re looking at something and they download some information just because they wanna learn and they wanna understand, and all of a sudden they get blasted with all these opportunities to buy and, you know, this is a last minute thing, a last call.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:53]:You’re gonna have to pay twice if you don’t get it now. I mean, nobody likes that. Right? And so they said that your best content lives in the form of email newsletters, not just what you put on the website. It’s really nurturing that email list, and email came up a number of times. So moral of the story, grow your email list. The next point is what’s a smarter way to use AI? Now, there’s lots of ways to use AI, but one of the things that came up, and I think we’re preparing for what’s to come, is to systematize. Create systems with AI. Now this is something that some people are using Make to do this.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:32]:They are using Zapier or Zapier, whatever you wanna call it. I I call it Zapier. You can do that, but those tools are still, you’re setting the parameters. You’re telling it what you want it to do. After very strategically thinking through, and you probably have some custom GPTs that it goes through the GPT process, there’s something already set and created they go through, so that by the time it goes through the system and you receive whatever the output is via email or some other form, everything has already gone through its checks. It’s already started. It’s already checked keywords. It’s already gone through AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:10]:It’s already been delivered to you to review. But what’s coming with these agents that are coming is that it’s going to start making decisions. It’s going to predict the next action, and so it’s taking it one step further than just you creating a workflow. So the systemization of what we have right now is important, and we need to kind of realize, or at least get our feet wet a little bit on what’s happening, so that we can understand what’s to come. So she suggested, Nicole Leifer, she suggested to build custom GBTs for tasks that you repeatedly do, like for email writing or content strategy or research. She suggested to create those prompts either in a chat g b t or a prompt library. Some people like a library, some people don’t. If you begin to give a lot of input and knowledge to the AI tool, you may not even need to create a library anymore, because you’ll have these PDF files.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:13]:And a lot of the even in projects in ChatGPT, you can give it files. And even though the project is, for example, producing a podcast or creating a LinkedIn post, and that’s all that project is for, it has the knowledge it needs to be able to use it for each and every post that you do. So I know it’s really hard to understand when I’m just talking about this, but I just want you to know that the systemization using AI to systematize is important now for what’s to come. And then also to let AI do some of the heavy lifting. Now, today, we can have AI do things that we don’t know how to do. Isn’t that crazy? It could create code. I have it create code so that I can create certain charts on Notion, or creates a certain chart maybe on Google Drive or Google Sheets. It will code it and give me all of that, so all I have to do is copy and paste or upload it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:13]:So I don’t even know how to do the code, but it can do it for me. And so it’s getting to the point where AI can do things that we don’t even know how to do, so that you can do the things that you do best. Right? The next point is, how do you grow your YouTube channel? Okay. We had some experts share about YouTube, and one expert, I think it was Nick Nimmin, n I m m I n, he shared not to start with the video, but to start with the title. Very much a a copy thing. Because the reason behind it is if the title doesn’t stop the scroll, if the title doesn’t catch them, right, they’re not gonna even click or even look at the video. So he was really emphasizing the importance of having a good title. And the title on your thumbnail doesn’t necessarily have to be the title of your video.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:07]:They could be different. In fact, they should be different. And so you’re leveraging all that real estate. But he said, don’t start necessary with the video, do everything, and then figure out the title. Start with the title. And if you’re gonna work backwards even further, look for keywords. And he said test titles and thumbnails first before filming. He said use polls or use Google Trends to pick the most clickable angle.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:32]:And so you want to do a little bit you don’t even have to nerd out on this. If you just do a little bit, if you even just go on Google Trends, and you can have ChatGPT even recommend some keywords, and then just put them through the test and and use some of these keyword tools, or just at the very least use Google Trends and see what it shows so that you could be more strategic in the titles that you choose. And then build the video around what people actually want. So now we’re gonna transition into where some of these experts differ. Now it’s not like they disagree. They don’t disagree, but they just have a different perspective. I mean, you have a different perspective. I have a different perspective, but I thought it’d be interesting to see where they differ.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:14]:And the one is SEO. Some people live and breathe by SEO. Some people are saying SEO is dying. Experts like Michael Stelzner, and Dan Sanchez, and others said, no. SEO is not really staying the same. It’s not that it’s changing or not relevant anymore or dying. It is evolving. It is evolving.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:39]:SEO is evolving. SEO is shifting. Because of AI, SEO is shifting from search to suggestion engines. Not a search, but suggestion. I mean, it’s crazy. Right? And I looked this up, and here’s what I found as far as this SEO shift, and I’ll read it to you. Google is indeed evolving from traditional search engine into what can be described as suggestion engine, leveraging advancements in artificial intelligence, AI, machine learning, and natural language processing. This transformation is reshaping how users interact with Google’s platform and how information is delivered.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:25]:So where is the opportunity? Is this a bad thing? There’s an opportunity here. Create content that’s helpful and searchable. If you create content that’s helpful, and again, we’re going back to content is king, but there needs to be value. You need to give people what they’re looking for. Right? You’re gonna be fine if you do that. So this is one of the things that is happening right now. You might hear more about it in the future. SEO isn’t dying.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:53]:It is evolving. It is changing, but there’s still plenty of opportunity for visibility. So the next point where things differ is what’s the best way to stand out as a brand? So Rory Vaden, he spoke on the focus of one niche to be seen and known. And he challenged everyone to find what is the one word that you help people with. Put the problem, pain, problem, struggle, all of that into one word. What is it? And then what’s the one word answer that represents your brand that brings a solution? So he gave some examples. I had to think about this, and I had to think of complexity. I help people with the problem around complexity.

Marisa Shadrick [00:22:38]:Complexity about copywriting, complexity about marketing, complexity about AI, and the value I bring through my brand is simplicity. So you want to think of one word. It’s pretty challenging. It’s kinda like Brene Brown. You know her for shame. Right? And so that is the word. So he says, find the word, and then what is it that your brand brings as a solution? So I I found mine. I was thinking about it a little bit on the plane, and I thought, well, it’s complexity.

Marisa Shadrick [00:23:05]:I wanna simplify everything, And the solution is simplicity. And then Pat Flynn, he, he did a a great presentation on branding. And again, we’re talking about the best way to stand out as a brand. Pat emphasized magical moments that create connection at every stage. I love that. Magical moments. Can you create magical moments? It’s almost like back in the day when we used to say over deliver. Right? What can you do to create a magical moment that your brand provides some kind of solution, your brand provides some kind of answer, but how can you make it magical? How can you just give it that little extra? And Roy, again, emphasizing the domination of one space.

Marisa Shadrick [00:23:50]:Being clear about what you wanna be known for. What is the one word that you tackle with your business? The next point is should you focus on short form or long form video? Well, I think this one we kinda covered earlier, but I’ll go ahead and cover it again. We need to focus on both, not one or the other. We need to create long form content that’s really thought out really well as far as what the topic is, keywords, all of that. Create it, and then you begin to cut it up into smaller pieces of content or repurpose it into newsletters, blog posts, and so forth, which we covered earlier. Short form might convert fast if you’re just focused on short, but the long form builds depth and trust. And And I think it also builds your credibility too. So think of that as far as creating the podcast or some long form content that you can cut up into smaller pieces of content.

Marisa Shadrick [00:24:44]:The nice thing about a podcast with audio and video, you can create video clips. You can also create all the other pieces of content like we mentioned earlier. The last question where experts differed a little bit in their point of view was this, do you need fancy tech to succeed? And the answer was no. You don’t need teleprompters. You don’t need fancy cameras. You don’t need a whole bunch of AI tools. You don’t need all of these gadgets and gizmos. You can come very easily with just your phone and create great content.

Marisa Shadrick [00:25:16]:It’s really about what’s in the content more than the things that you add to it. So they agreed that the iPhone with a good mic would be just fine, and natural light. You don’t even need a ring light or a special light if you don’t have it. You can just use natural light. You can use your iPhone, and you might wanna just get a little mic that’ll cost you about $10.20 bucks. It’s not a big investment whatsoever. You can really simplify your tech stack and not over complicate things with tons of tutorials and begin to just create excellent content. If you wanna grow your brand, if you wanna increase visibility, those are some tips, and you can kinda hear the common thread.

Marisa Shadrick [00:25:58]:It really is about valuable content, figuring out what is it that your audience wants to hear, learn about, discover, understand, and then start there. And once you create that large piece of content, break it up into smaller pieces. And if you’re one of those that likes to blast it on all the social channels, go right ahead. If you’re one of those that likes to stick to one and really engage and deep dive, that’s okay too. Test. Figure out what works for you. Right? Because it’s your business, so you make the decisions. So hopefully, this was helpful for you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:26:30]:I found it really interesting, some of the things that they were saying. I kind of felt in my gut this was a direction, but it’s always nice to hear confirmation from leading experts. Because sometimes, you know, even myself, you know, you kind of doubt and you go through imposter syndrome. You think, is this all in my head, or am I going the right direction? It’s kinda nice to hear that they’re all on the same page. And I love how people are really leaning into relationship marketing. It really makes my heart feel good. So I hope you got a lot of value out of this podcast. And if you enjoyed it, I would love it if you would rate and review the podcast on Apple.

Marisa Shadrick [00:27:05]:I would appreciate it so much. I’m trying to get a few more ratings and reviews to boost the podcast, and I’ve got some expert speakers that are gonna be coming up here this spring and summer. So I hope you’ll be looking forward to it as I am. And until next time, take care.

If you’re tired of generic, robotic AI content, keep reading and discover how to turn ChatGPT into your content-creation partner using a simple strategy that makes your content more aligned, human, and efficient.

 

A few years ago, I bought an Instant Pot during a Black Friday sale. Everyone was raving about it, but when I opened the box, I was overwhelmed—so many buttons, pressure valves, and a manual that made me question my intelligence.

I was so intimidated that I moved it across two states before I ever used it. But once I finally gave it a try, I realized how simple and powerful it really was. That one small shift changed everything—and now I use it all the time.

Using ChatGPT is a lot like that. If you’ve ever felt intimidated or frustrated with AI because the results were off-brand or robotic, I get it. But with the right method, you can turn ChatGPT into your content-creation partner—and love what it produces.

 

In this week’s Amplify Your Authority podcast, I’ll share a powerful, user-friendly approach that flips the script on prompt engineering.

Instead of obsessing over the perfect prompt, I’ll walk you through how to provide the context AI truly needs. When you do, ChatGPT becomes more than just a tool—it becomes your content creation partner, helping you write faster and more effectively.

Using my C.O.N.T.E.X.T. Method, you’ll turn ChatGPT into a reliable writing partner that understands your voice, your brand, and your goals.

 What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• Why prompts alone often lead to weak or off-brand AI results
• A formula for turning AI into a content partner that reflects your voice, brand, and intent
• The full breakdown of the C.O.N.T.E.X.T. Method
• How to drastically cut content editing time—and love what AI gives you the first time
• How to eliminate hallucinations and endless edits

 

Key Takeaways:

• The Importance of Context: Discover why context is more critical than the prompt itself when using AI like ChatGPT for content creation. Learn how setting the stage with the right information can lead to more accurate and effective AI outputs.
• AI as a Creative Partner: Explore how treating AI as an intern or partner can enhance your creative process. By giving AI a clear role and detailed instructions, you can produce content that aligns seamlessly with your vision.
• Avoiding the “Hallucination” Trap: Understand how providing context prevents AI from making erroneous assumptions, leading to content that truly reflects your intentions and reduces the need for extensive edits.

 

Quotes to Remember:

• “AI is only as smart as the context it’s given.”
• “When you give AI your brain, your brand, your voice—it gives you content that feels like you.”
• “The prompt is the ask. But context? That’s the conversation.”
• “Context turns AI into an intern or a partner in the creative process.”

 

Your Next Step:

Subscribe and listen to the “Amplify Your Authority” Podcast! Click Here!

Rate & Review: If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

Tip: Use the following prompts inside ChatGPT (free or paid) to craft your review! 

• How did you discover this podcast?
• What’s your biggest takeaway from this episode?
• How has this podcast helped your current journey?

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to write a review! 

 Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:Most people that wanna create content using AI are looking for prompts. They’re trying to figure out what the best prompt is to use with ChatGPT so they can get their writing done faster. But here’s what I’ve discovered drives better results. It’s not the prompt, it’s what precedes the prompt, and that is the context. So in this episode, we’re gonna flip the script, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about context. And you’re gonna discover a more human friendly, story based approach to working with AI to create your content. Stay tuned. Hello, and welcome to this episode.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:43]:Today, we’re gonna talk about how to generate content using AI and what the best approach is so that your output is much better than what you’ve been getting, which means less edits and you’ll be able to be more efficient with your time. But first, let me ask you something. Have you ever overcomplicated something that was actually very simple once you understood how it worked? I think maybe we all have. I know a few years back, I bought an Instant Pot. I call it Instant Pot, but it’s an Instant Pot during a Black Friday sale. Now, apparently, everyone was using them, so I thought that I should probably be that person that cooks more efficiently, and so I got one. It came in this big box, and it was packaged well. And you could see on the front, it had a picture.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:33]:It had lots of buttons. And it when I opened it up, it had warnings about pressure valves that I didn’t understand, an instruction manual that made you question your intelligence. Well, I looked at it, and although I wanted to use it here’s my confession. I was afraid to use it because I thought the pressure cooker was gonna blow up in my face. I thought it was going to explode or something, and so I I didn’t use it. I moved that thing twice to two different states and never used it. Fast forward three years, once I moved to Tennessee, I decided since I brought it to this state, I was gonna go ahead and use it. So I plugged it in.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:13]:I hit pressure cook. I set the time, and guess what? It worked. It was easy. It was simple. No explosion. Just quick and easy juicy chicken in minutes. And the kicker was the chicken was frozen when I put it in. It was a game changer, and I use it all the time now.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:31]:Kind of the same way for people that are looking at ChatGPT. They overcomplicate and think this is just gonna be too scary. The output’s gonna be horrible, and they overthink it when really it can be very, very simple. So let me go over a few little teaching points. The first one is why prompting alone isn’t enough. Prompting is only part of the equation. What precedes the prompt is context. Let me give you an example.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:58]:When I ask my husband to do me a favor and, let’s say, grab something from the store, and I give him instructions as far as what it is that I need, and then I leave out the tiny details, right, about what I need. He goes to the store. He sees all kinds of choices and options, and then when he comes back, he’ll bring the wrong thing. And, of course, his response to me is, Marissa, I can’t read your mind, which is so true. If I could be more detailed or snap a picture of something that I need, it would make it much easier. Well, it’s the same thing with chat GBT. It can’t read your mind. We have to give it very explicit instructions, context, so that it understands what we’re trying to do because it has no clue.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:43]:AI is only as smart as the context is given. The prompt is the ask. It’s the command. It’s what you’re wanting it to do, but it can’t do something without the context. Context is the conversation or the scenario of the situation. Here’s point number two. Have you ever been taken out of context? You can see the importance of context. I laugh because I’ve done this.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:09]:If somebody only hears part of a conversation or if they misread a text message and they take something out of context, it can be disastrous. And you don’t even realize it was taken out of context until you’re not invited to the family barbecue. Then you realize somebody misinterpreted something because of context. So you can see why context is so important. And that’s what happens when you give ChatGPT a prompt without context or explaining the scenario. You give it too much room to fill in the blanks, and that’s when it begins to hallucinate. Hallucinate simply means it fills in the blank with whatever it can find. It’s not really aligned with your brand or with who you are or what you do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:53]:It’s just trying to fill in the blanks, because it’s trying to please you. And sometimes it’s hilarious, sometimes it’s just wrong, and other times it leaves a big old editing mess for you to clean up. And it’s not because AI is ineffective, but we left it to guess, and we don’t want to do that. So here’s what I want you to walk away with. I want to introduce a simple method. It’s an acronym called context, and with each letter, I’m going to give you a method to be able to make sure that you give it the context it needs. So, obviously, this word has seven letters, and so there’s seven parts to this method. But once you remember it, you’ll just think, oh, context.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:37]:Do I have all these pieces in here when I’m giving it the scenario before I give it the prompt or the actual do this for me? So here we go. The first one is the c in context, and that is clarity on AI’s role. What do you want AI to be? You don’t want it to act like something. You want it to be someone. So you tell it, what do I want ChatGPT to be? Do I want it to be a strategist? Do I want it to be a writer? Do I want it to be an analyst? Do I want it to be an editor? What is the role? So that is the c, clarity on AI’s role. The o in context is objective of the content. What is the goal? So when I think of objective of the content, what is the objective? What is the premise? What is the purpose of this piece of content? Is it to educate? Is it to inspire? Is it to convert? Is it to entertain? So you want to give it a clear objective so it says, okay. I understand what we’re trying to achieve with this piece of content.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:44]:The n in context is niche or audience. We want to make sure we tell it, give it the context or the scenario of who this is for. Is it for a certain level? For example, a beginner, intermediate, advanced level. Is it addressing certain pain points or certain interests? So explain as much about the audience. And if you have an audience profile already created, you can simply upload that document to ChatGPT so it understands the audience, and it will help you with the output so it aligns well for that audience. The t in context is topic and point of view. So what is the subject? What is the topic? And what is your point of view? What is the take or your belief on this? And that’s what you wanna provide for it. And notice, we’re not asking it to do anything yet.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:39]:We’re just giving it context. The e is for expertise, brand, and research. Now here’s where we can be a little bit more tactical if we want to, if we’re writing something that’s how to, and we can explain and go deeper with the tactical portion of your point of view, or you can give it a little bit more of the business knowledge or maybe a case study. Or even if you need more research done, here is where you can ask it to research this topic and to cite the website where it got the information so you can review it yourself and see if you wanna use that and reference that website for that research that was done. The x in context is expression. Expression of style and format. You want to be able to upload samples of your voice, your tone, the way that you communicate, the language that you use, the formatting that you use, how do you format things, whatever the output is, whether it’s a blog post or a social post. What’s the format? And give it examples so it will understand the format.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:47]:So the expression of style is what really begins to shape this into something that sounds like you. The last one, the t in context, is terms and constraints. So are there certain terms you don’t want it to use? Is there jargon words that you wanna eliminate? Are there certain AI giveaways that you wanna make sure it doesn’t include, like unleash or unpack? Are there constraints? Is there something that you do not want it to do? Like, for example, do not use emojis, because it can go emoji crazy if you let it. So there could be some constraints. It’s the do’s and the don’ts, the rules that it needs to follow. And perhaps it could be a word count not to exceed a certain word count. So all of those things creates the boundaries for it, so the output is better. Context turns AI into an intern or a partner in the creative process.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:46]:So let me go over the context method very quickly. The c stands for clarity on AI’s role, the o, objective of the content, the n, the niche or audience, the t for the topic and point of view, the e, the expertise, brand, the research, the x is eXpression, style, and format, and the t is the terms, conditions, or you can consider the rules, the do’s and the don’ts. If you give it a little bit of this context method, your output is gonna be much, much better. Then when you do say, now I want you to and you ask it to produce something, it will have all the information that it needs to be able to produce better output. Once again, think of the prompt as the ask, but that is the second step. The first step is the context, which is the instruction or the scenario of the situation. So it understands and it continues to learn what it is that you want. Context helps ChatGPT, or any AI for that matter, make sense of the request or what you’re asking it to do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:01]:Otherwise, it doesn’t know, and it will try to pull from anywhere just to make you happy. When you give AI your brain, your brand, your voice, it gives you back content that feels like it came from you. That’s the power of context. I hope you found this episode helpful, and it will give you a little bit more confidence when using an AI tool to generate content. And if you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would leave a five star rating and a review so I can get this out to more people. Until next time, take care. Bye bye.

How to Turn Skeptics into Loyal Clients in a Trust Deficit Era

Feeling like your marketing’s not hitting the mark anymore? You’re not alone.

The trust deficit in today’s market is real—audiences are skeptical thanks to automation overload, pushy sales tactics, and too many broken promises.

But don’t worry—there’s a way to pivot.

In this Amplify Your Authority episode, I share five practical strategies to overcome the trust deficit, build real connections, and turn skeptics into fans—all without those outdated, high-pressure moves. Let’s make trust your secret weapon.

 

Why This Matters Now

The trust deficit is why traditional marketing’s losing its edge—I’ve felt it, and I bet you have, as well.

But here’s the upside: it’s your chance to shine.

By tackling the trust deficit head-on with genuine value and connection, you’ll stand out and build a business people can’t help but trust.

 

What You’ll Get Out of This Episode

• Why traditional marketing has become less efficient (even when you’re doing it “right”)?
• How to offer stellar customer service before someone’s a client—and why it matters.
• What a “long runway” looks like and how it nurtures leads without feeling salesy.
• Learn to use free value to build bridges with your audience.
• Discover steps to rise above the noise and win over your ideal clients.

 

Big Takeaways to Jot Down

• Transparency builds trust: Share your privacy policies—people need to feel safe.
• Play the long game: More touchpoints mean deeper connections over time.
• Show, don’t just tell: Stories and visuals are an added courtesy that builds trust.
• Great customer service starts before the sale.
• Honesty wins: Overpromising creates short-term wins but long-term distrust.

 

Episode Quotes 

• “The biggest marketing problem today isn’t competition—it’s a trust deficit.”
• “Take ‘random’ out of random acts of kindness.”

 

Your Next Step:

Subscribe and listen to the “Amplify Your Authority” Podcast! Click Here!

Rate & Review: If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

Tip: Use the following prompts inside ChatGPT (free or paid) to craft your review! 

• How did you discover this podcast?
• What’s your biggest takeaway from this episode?
• How has this podcast helped your current journey?

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to write a review! 

 Follow Marisa on Social Media:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisashadrick/

 Subscribe and receive each episode in your email inbox: https://marisashadrick.com/listen

 

Watch on YouTube

 

Podcast Transcript

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:The biggest marketing problem today isn’t competition. It’s a trust deficit. So if you’re a solo business owner, how do you stand out in an era of skepticism? What brought this on? In this podcast episode, I’m going to give you a little background and also five trust building strategies that you can implement right away. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And welcome to another episode of Amplify Your Authority podcast. Before we get started, could I ask for a wee bit of a favor? If you’re a listener and you enjoy the podcast, would you mind going to Apple podcasts and giving me a five star rating and a review? I would really appreciate it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:44]:I was looking at my, Apple Podcasts and I realized I don’t have hardly any reviews. I think I’ve had one review per year, which is horrible. It’s terrible. So I know there’s gotta be somebody listening out there because I see the the numbers. So if you wouldn’t mind, I would really appreciate it to kinda bump up this podcast to just leave a little review, and you can always use ChatGPT to try to formulate your ideas, but I’d appreciate it so much. And I’d love to give you a shout out on the podcast as well. So today, we’re talking about traditional marketing. So traditional marketing methods are losing their effectiveness.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:19]:I don’t know if you’ve noticed that or not. If you’ve been online, you probably have. Things are different. The market has changed, and it’s been changing since COVID, and it’s continued to change. And that was in 2020, and we’re in 2025. So we’re seeing this happen online, and it’s making it harder for people to convert and get clients. So if this is happening to you, it’s not you. It’s everyone is being affected by this.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:45]:So why are audiences so skeptical? Well, I think we’ve seen it ourselves. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. There’s a lot of automation overload now that we have tools and third party tools. There’s constantly pushing out marketing pitches and messages, and it’s very, very aggressive. So this aggressive sales tactics has also made people feel a little skeptical as well. And the delivery of content has not met expectations. And so people are a little skeptical now, and they’re a little bit more reserved when it comes to even giving their email address. And that’s probably happened to you as well.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:25]:But when we’re solo business owners and we’re trying to navigate this marketing world, how are we we going to do this? And this is something I’ve had a look at too, how to shift my marketing to see what I can do differently because I’ve noticed it too. And things that used to be much easier five years ago is definitely not as easy and not as effective. We’ve seen that with webinars, and we’ve seen that with other types of content that’s out there. So people are pivoting. People are testing. They’re trying to see what works and what doesn’t. So here today, I’m going to give you some tried and true tips on how to continue to build trust because that is going to be your main asset. Because of this deficit, when you show people that you can be trustworthy, that you are honest about the content you create and the words that you speak, it’s gonna go a long way.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:14]:Much further than maybe before, when people didn’t think they had to do all of that. So let’s go into the five tips. So we want to be very transparent. Now I know that is an overused word. People always say transparent, transparent, transparent. What does that mean? But you wanna be transparent in the way you prioritize data privacy. First of all, make sure that any of your pages that ask for an email, that it has your privacy policy, it has your terms and conditions. And nowadays, people are even adding how they use AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:49]:So that’s a first and foremost. We need to do that. We have to do that. A lot of times people will buy emails and they’ll blast emails to people to see what will stick. That’s not a common practice among solo business owner. We create valuable content, and in exchange for that content, if they wanna download, watch, listen, consume it, they will give us an email. So everyone in your email service provider has raised their hand saying, yes. I wanna hear more from you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:18]:So we need to reassure people their information is private, that we will not sell their email, and that they can trust us with that. And being transparent, that’s just part of it, explaining the ins and outs behind the scenes of your business. Maybe your mission statement is part of being transparent, what your goals are, maybe what your five year goals are. Maybe that’s part of being transparent. Just depends on your business and what you wanna put on your website that would mean value to your audience. So they think, oh, wow. I’ve not seen this before and this person is being really transparent about what they’re doing and where they’re headed. So you wanna make sure that you offer a clear opt in and not a lot of false promises and also an opt out.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:07]:So when you send an email, there needs to be a place for them to opt out. Oftentimes people kind of work around this where they create multiple lists and people will opt out of one list, but they’re still on another list. You wanna be clear. If they wanna opt out, you can give them an option. Opt out of this campaign or this promotion, but stay on the main list or opt out of all lists. And so you can modify that if you want to. If you want them to self select what they receive, you can do that too. Takes a little bit of time, but it gives them the opportunity and empowers them to be able to say, this is what I wanna receive from you and this is not what I wanna receive from you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:47]:So don’t do those gimmicks where they unsubscribe from one list and then you’re blasting them through another list. Just make sure you give them options and it’s very, very clear. You should have one main list. And if you segment, then they can be removed from that one segment if they choose. The second way that we can improve trust is to create what I call a long runway. Now, when you think of a runway for an airplane, I think of the San Francisco Airport. And when we used to live on the West Coast in Nevada and also in California, we would have to often fly out of San Francisco. Well, that runway, the airplane, it would take off and in a few seconds you’re in vertical mode because there wasn’t a long runway and it always made me a little nervous because I knew it was down below, the nice big blue ocean.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:39]:And so you would take off and it would go practically vertical because there wasn’t much of a runway. The same thing coming back. As soon as it landed, it had to put on those brakes because that runway was very short. So when we’re looking at it for marketing, a long runway means simply that you’re going to have a lot of touch points to build trust. You want to communicate often with someone, especially if they opt in and they’re part of your email ecosystem. You wanna create touch points, and you want to give them a chance to get to know you and trust you. That’s what I mean by a long runway. If you’re doing something online on social media, you’re not gonna DM them like some people do on LinkedIn and immediately pitch the offer.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:24]:You wanna create some relationship. Maybe if you even get on a call, it’s just simply to find out about their business, or you can have some type of free coaching call that you’re offering that if they’re interested, they can sign up for that. It’s not a sales call. You can serve people. And so that’s what I mean by a long runway. What can you do to create multiple touch points? Not just one or two and then bam, you know, try to sell them something, but how many touch points will it take? Where are they in the customer journey? Again, if they’re not aware of the problem, it’s gonna take a lot of touch points. If they are and they’re pretty close to buying, it still requires some touch points because they don’t know you. Right? They may need the solution that you have, but they don’t know you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:14]:And so this is where we share a lot of testimonials and case studies to build that trust. Of course, once they’re in your email service provider, you can email them. But if they’re not, you can create video messages. There’s ways you can use your phone on certain social media platforms. You can leave a voice message. You can put out content like podcasts and newsletters. It’s very value driven. There’s different ways to stay visible and create those multiple touch points.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:41]:You can also offer a high value resource that when they access it, they think, wow, this is amazing. Now maybe it’s a a little training, a mini training. You could look in your archives and see, did you have a webinar that you did at some point that had a lot of great teaching? Could you take a slice of that and create maybe a little video around that topic? Most webinars have, three misconceptions or three best practices. Maybe pull one of them and create maybe a seven minute, ten minute video that has some content to it, maybe a template with it. Just something very simple that they can consume that when they watch it and they download the resource that goes with it, they go, wow. This was really valuable for a free resource, and it actually taught them something that they needed. And so you can look at some of your archives and see, webinars aren’t converting as well either as great as they are. I’m not saying that this is the case all the time, but it’s much harder than it used to be.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:40]:Webinars are still effective. I love webinars or master classes, whatever you wanna call it. It’s still the same thing. It’s a webinar. And, you can create trainings, workshops, and those are effective too. And I think it’s a great way to get to know your audience. But just know it’s just a little harder. You want that nice long runway and to be able to bring people into that live training if it’s going to be live.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:03]:And the best result would be if they come from your email list. So that’s why we wanna always be able to offer some kind of free resource to bring them there if we do want to have a webinar. But you can create some little mini training that has a lot of value. It’s just it packs a punch with value. It’s very quick to consume, almost like a video that you would see on YouTube, and you can put that in any part of your marketing funnel. So that’s the long runway. So so far, we’ve talked about being transparent, making sure that you’re very clear about privacy. The second is you create a long runway.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:40]:The third is content marketing, where you show more than tell, where you show more than tell. Now with content marketing, storytelling is huge. Right? Because that’s what case studies are in testimonials. They’re stories. But you can tell your own story of transformation too. So with content marketing, you wanna incorporate stories as much as possible. Remember the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? I remember I got published in one of those, and the whole concept was, we want the stories to make them feel like they just had a nice cup of chicken soup. That warm feeling inside.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:16]:Right? You can decide, you know, what type of content you wanna provide, whether it’s video, written, audio, but make it so that it’s helpful and they learn something, at least one, two, three takeaways from that content. Another way that’s helpful to show and not tell is to provide images, like any graphs or charts or maybe a blueprint. That’s really helpful. I just had a call not that long ago with a group and I said, you know, give them a visual like you see in a mall when you go and see the mall map, and you stand in front of that map and it shows a little circle, you are here. Maybe show them you are here, and to get the transformation that you’re looking for, you need these steps first. So maybe just start with this first step and then give them value with that first step. So there’s different ways that you can do it and sometimes these graphs or charts or blueprints are so valuable that people will take a screenshot of it so they can save it. So think of ways that you can create marketing content that shows and doesn’t just tell with stories, images, graphs, and that sort of thing.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:29]:The fourth way to build trust would be to deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. That’s just practicing good human skills and being courteous and following through. When you say you’re gonna do something, follow through. Right? If you meet someone at a conference, follow through if you make a promise or if you say you’re going to send them something. Treat that prospect like a VIP customer. So deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. So be helpful with DMs, emails, community interactions, and that goes a long, long way. It builds your reputation, and I’ll tell you, it’s going to stand out because a lot of people don’t do that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:15]:And offer guidance without expecting any immediate transaction or return. One of the sayings that I have is take random out of random acts of kindness, because we need more of that. You don’t need to be random with acts of kindness. You can do it all the time. So be sure to take random out of random acts of kindness when you’re interacting with people. So another way of giving great customer service before their customer is to provide frequently asked questions on your contact page. Because sometimes people don’t want to schedule a call if they have one little question. So think of the obvious, maybe, objections that people might have or questions around whatever it is that you have on your, free coaching call or your contact page.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:01]:What is on their mind and try to answer that? For example, some people might think, well, how much do you charge? What would you say in a frequently asked question? Or how long it takes to deliver this service? You know, those those type of questions that you can quickly answer in a frequently asked question. And, again, you wanna be clear and you want to provide it as a service to them before they’re a customer. So think of the frequently asked questions you would create on a product page. You would think of all kinds of things to make sure that they buy. You wanna do the same thing for these people that aren’t clients yet, answer some of those simple questions for them. The fifth tip for developing trust in this trust deficit era that we’re in is don’t embellish. Honesty sells more than hype. So be realistic about the products and services, what they can do and what they cannot do, who it’s for, who it’s not for.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:57]:I think that’s really important. Because, really, as I think back and I look at my own audience, a lot of them are in the beginning stages. They don’t need to invest in high ticket offers at this point. They can learn because there’s no lack of knowledge. I mean, to be totally honest, there’s no lack of knowledge. You can Google stuff. You could go on YouTube. There’s books that you can buy.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:24]:There’s things that you can study, right, without, you know, paying a lot of money for a high ticket. There’s so much to be done in the beginning, the fundamentals. Again, understanding you and what kind of business you want, right, and understanding the bandwidth that you have and the season of life, and then understanding your audience and understanding your business, what kind of business you want, having a business profile, and again, what type of products you wanna sell. All of those things take time, and so when people are in the beginning stages, I don’t think they should really think about investing in high ticket. Now, that’s my opinion, but, they can, but it doesn’t necessarily bring the results if they’re not ready. I’m talking about the 10,000 and above. I’m not talking about, you know, a thousand dollar program or a $2,000 program. I’m talking about the big bucks, 10 thousand, 20 thousand, 30 thousand.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:20]:That’s what I’m talking about. Just wanna I just wanna cover that because I think there’s been a lot of disappointment, and I think that’s why there’s such a trust deficit. And I’ve fallen into that too, and I’ve paid for things that I wish now I wouldn’t have, but lesson learned. Right? I still learn, but I I learned other things other than what I thought I was gonna learn. But you have to just be careful with your resources. So be that person that is very realistic with the products and services that you sell, what it can do, what it can’t do, if it’s a right fit for that person. If they need a call with you, tell them, hey. We can get on a call to see if it’s a right fit for you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:58]:Or if it’s out of your scope, let them know, you know, this is out of my scope of work, but let me find you a referral that I can refer you to. And I will make some calls, and I’ll let you know, and then follow through on that. Use real testimonials, no fake or vague or raving fan quotes. Use real testimonials from clients. Avoid high pressure tactics that create short term wins, but long term distrust. So we wanna make sure that we avoid high pressure. I know most of my listeners are not high pressure. Most of my listeners are very faith based oriented people, so am I.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:37]:I’m probably just speaking to the choir, but I felt it was important for you to be aware of the trust deficit, so that as you’re creating your marketing content, you keep that in mind, and you make sure that you go a little over and above to create that trust with people. So consider in every step, what can I do to add trust with this person? Because I’m a total stranger to them. What could I say? What could I offer? What could I do to eliminate that skepticism they may have? We have to do a little more these days than we had to in the past, but that’s okay, because we wanna make sure that we’re bringing in the right people. We wanna make sure that they are excited and ready to work with you. Right? We don’t want them coming in to then be disappointed. We wanna serve them well. So here are the five. Be transparent and share the privacy policy, the terms and conditions, and maybe if you use a lot of AI, how you use AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:38]:And let them know that you don’t sell their email address. Number two, create a long runway with lots of touch points. People don’t just go from, you know, from meeting you to buying, typically. They will especially if it’s coaches or consultants or service providers. Other businesses maybe so, but not when it comes to coaches, consultants, service providers. So you wanna create that long runway, more touch points, build more trust. So sometimes it takes five, six, seven, eight times, and then they’ll say yes. So just don’t give up and don’t think it’s anything about you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:10]:It’s just we’re living in this trust deficit, and so we wanna make sure that we give people ample time to be able to get to know us. Number three is use content marketing to show, not tell. Make sure you show them with testimonials, case studies, images, graphs, blueprints, show them. Number four, deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. And number five, don’t embellish. Be honest. It’s not enough to say, oh, these results aren’t typical. You know, just be honest across the board of what you offer, what it can do and what it cannot do, who it’s for, who it’s not for, and be very upfront and offer a call if they’re not sure if it’s a good fit.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:57]:But most, like I said, most of the people listening to this podcast are pretty honest and upfront. I feel like I’m preaching to the choir, but it is what it is these days, and I just the main thing I want you to know, it’s not you. I don’t want you to begin with the self doubt or imposter syndrome or any of that. I want you to realize that it is what it is right now. Same thing that we went through when COVID hit, when the recession hit, and we have this now. There’s always something. So we need to let that that fire inside of us, what caused us to wanna start our business, to to be able to burn bright, keep fanning that flame because that’s what’s gonna get us to the other side. That’s what’s gonna help us pivot and adjust and refine by remembering why we started this business, Keep that fire burning, keep fanning that flame, keep serving people, and you’re gonna do just great.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:55]:You’re gonna stand out because you are building relationships and trust. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.