The Critically Conscious Coach

Today, Ashley M. Williams, founder and CEO of RIZZARR and I are going to dig into her personal brand. She's got a video show, a podcast show. Her talk for the C3EB Summit centered on aspects of her personal brand and messaging.

Ashley: I love this thing by Lisa Nichols, where she talks about how the world would be different based on who you decided to be. I think each of us has our own idea of becoming the best version of ourselves. You have your own unique set of things you can contribute to the world that can make such an impact on other people's lives. Do not dismiss or doubt that. Don’t take that for granted.

I’m here with Ashley M. Williams, the CEO of RIZZARR, for our 3rd episode in her interview series. 

Our generation is characterized by some distinct struggles, namely college loans. That often transitions into the inability to purchase a home. We talk about those parts of being a Millennial a lot. 

But do you feel like being a Millennial has actually equipped you well for entrepreneurship, in some regards?

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/11/12/the-rewards-and-struggles-of-millennial-entrepreneurship/

Ruthie: Today, Ashley M. Williams, the CEO and Founder of RIZZARR and I are going to talk about something that we very much have in common. It's becoming a topic that is more and more prevalent in conversations, business or otherwise. That is being at the intersection of “woman” and “minority”.

I think Ashley is a great person to talk to about it, because she actually has been successful at securing funding for her business, despite being both.

Of the $40 billion raised for the US venture capital fund in 2019, only 3% went to minorities and less than 2% went to women. But if you were in that intersection of “woman” and “black”, it was 0.2%. So we have to remember that these intersections can actually further remove us from the resources we need to make it to 5 years in business like Ashley has.

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/11/11/at-the-intersection-of-woman-and-minority/

I’m really excited to introduce my first guest for season 6 of The Defiant Business Podcast, Ashley M. Williams! I'm going to tell you a little about her, and then we're going to dive right into everything about Ashley and her business.

Ashley is the leading Millennial and Gen Z content marketing strategist. She's a spokesperson consultant and global speaker for brands that want to reach younger generations, helping brands create the right content, craft the right messages and produce experiences that bring Millennials and Gen Z together.

She's excited and determined to use her love of journalism, social media, and live experiences to inform and inspire. Ashley is the founder and CEO of RIZZARR, a tech-enabled content marketplace. Through RIZZARR, brands are able to find and work with Millennial and Gen Z content creators worldwide- particularly nano and micro-influencers.

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/11/10/ashley-m-williams-founder-of-rizzar/

Marketing consistency is the exact opposite of winning the lottery. But when we’re marketing, we want to win the marketing lottery: going viral, getting tons of followers, tons of people on our email list, etc.

The trick about the marketing lottery is that you can go viral and still not make any money. Last week, I was playing my guitar and singing a song. It was about going viral, but not getting any new clients. So going viral is like winning the marketing lottery.

The problem is that most of us don't go viral. Even those who do may not immediately see a financial benefit of going viral. In fact, there can be some bad things about going viral because if you go viral for the wrong reasons, you're growing an audience that is not aligned with your business purpose.

Shownotes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/10/22/the-problem-with-marketing-consistency/

So last week, I opened up LinkedIn on my phone, and low and behold, what did I see? I have LinkedIn Stories now. LinkedIn has been rolling out LinkedIn Stories in different countries for the last several months, but I was actually pretty pumped when I saw it. What should you post in LinkedIn Stories? I like to do quick tips myself, and I've been actually doing this for a couple of weeks. I’ll find questions on Facebook or LinkedIn, and I'll create a quick 20-second video responding to them.

Shownotes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/10/14/linkedin-stories/

Today we are going to talk about content resonance. This topic is interesting because if you google it, there isn't actually anything there. And that's because this was an idea I stumbled upon when I was talking to Jennifer McGinley about what it takes to make great content. This was a bit before I got firmly entrenched with the idea of radical authenticity. So content resonance was actually a concept that came to me even before radical authenticity.

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/10/02/content-resonance-content-creation-sweetspot/

When we're talking about my method - the Radically Authentic Authority Marketing Method - I refer to something called the Expert’s Portfolio. Some people call this a speaker's resume, but it doesn't quite do it justice. I would recommend that you use a speaker's resume when it's requested, but you also want to use your Expert’s Portfolio. And most of the time, I default to the Expert's Portfolio.

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/09/25/experts-portfolio/

Today we’re going to be talking about a phrase I've been dropping a lot; radical authenticity. What does that mean? Well, let's think about what authenticity means. Authenticity means you're being genuine.

What makes it so radical is that - especially in the spaces where I work, as a professional B2B person - we don't have a lot of authenticity. We talk about being authentic in such a way that "authentic" is almost a trite word among marketing professionals nowadays. That's why I felt like I needed to qualify that it needs to be radical authenticity.

Show notes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/09/18/radical-authenticity-the-key-to-standing-out-online/

Today, we’re going to talk about repurposing webinar content. So you came up with your idea, you marketed the webinar, you delivered it. It was great. The value was huge, and you're so happy with it. What now? Shouldn't you just create a gated, evergreen webinar?

The big thing is that it’s evergreen and you're like, “This is so great!” It's wonderful, but there's no deadline.

There's no scarcity. There's no compulsion. So what's going to drive people to watch that? So what if it's a lead gen piece?

I think if you've built up some authority and you have a reputation for creating amazing content, then yes. That could potentially work out really well for you.

But like I said, once the event is done, you hibernate. Once you're done hibernating, then you have to ask yourself, “How do I repurpose all of this wonderful content that I have?”

So I'm going to share with you what I recommend to my clients, from what consumes the least amount of resources to the most.