Ever thought about building a personal brand online? That’s exactly what Erin Henry has done, and in this episode she gives away her top tips for doing the same.

Erin is a Personal Branding Strategist who has built a successful coaching business as a result of her focus on creating regular consistent content on a number of different platforms. She has a Youtube Channel with over 100,000 subscribers, a podcast, and is very active on live video on Instagram.

So, let’s dive in!

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

In this episode, we uncover all of the secrets involved for those wanting to do the same:

• How Erin built an audience by creating consistent content long before she turned it into a business;
• Why creating content long before you launch can be a huge benefit – it gives you time to suck (!), to experiment with different content topics to find a niche that you love;
• Where to start if you are interested in your own Youtube channel (and the importance of just getting STARTED);
• Why ‘which camera should I buy?’ is the worst question to start with;
• Not letting perfection get in the way of just getting going;
• Why looking at people a few steps ahead is the worst thing you can do;
• The importance of consistency;
• The one thing that changed EVERYTHING for Erin on Youtube and really supercharged her audience growth and Youtube success;
• Being the most unapologetic version of yourself;
• Why going viral is simply a numbers game;
• The importance of binge worthy content and keeping people on the platform;
• The power of aligned content;
• How to structure your Youtube content and the importance of understanding the context of the platform;
• An overview of how Erin live streams on Facebook and Instagram;
• How to get started with live streaming even when you don’t yet have an audience;
• The power of live streaming for service based businesses and the way that it develops the know, like and trust factor as well as developing your expertise;
• The power of the DM as a sales channel;
• Voice noting on Instagram;
• How to create a lot of content on social media without it being a total time suck;
• Which of podcasting, Youtube and Instagram has been the most effective;
• Erin’s content formula.

• Erin Henry Youtube Channel
• Erin Henry Website
• The Game Changers podcast

Transcript

STEVIE: In this episode, I’m talking all things, YouTube, Live Streaming and Building Your Personal Brand with Erin Henry.

Hi Guys, and welcome to the The Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot Podcast. I’m really excited today because I have a guest on that I have pretty much internet stalked recently. All good people that I come across in the business world is either via Instagram or via a Podcast. And that is how I found Erin.

Hi, Erin welcome to the podcast.

ERIN: Thank you so much for having me and ditto on the stalking It was so funny because when you reached out to me on Instagram, I’ve seen you somewhere before and then just fell down a rabbit hole of your content. It’s great.

STEVIE: Isn’t it funny how that works literally, it’s such an online world these days, my partner calls that my Instagram friends because I face people that I’ve never met in real life, but I talk about like I know them.

ERIN : And it’s so funny as well. Because quite often I catch up with people maybe from YouTube or anything. And it’s weird because you like hanging out in real life. And then you like talking to each other about all of these things that you’ve watched or seen. And remember that time you did that it was three years ago.

STEVIE: So for everyone that has not heard of Erin before, I’ll actually get you to talk about yourself a little bit. But  Erin is a personal branding strategist. And the reason why I had to have her on the podcast because she has got a killer YouTube channel with I think over 100,000 subscribers got Right, which is impressive. She’s also got a podcast and an Instagram account with some pretty killer engagement as well. So we’re doing all of the things exceptionally well when it comes to social. And I’m excited about it. But tell everyone in your words a little bit about what it is that you do.

ERIN: Yeah, definitely. So I am really, really fascinated with personal branding, because a lot of what I do is working with service-based entrepreneurs, but those who are really trying to build a business just from their skills.

So whether it be a coach, whether it be a consultant, photographer, anything along those lines, those who are kind of not only just wanting to be the business and themselves be the business in the product, but they also want to be the influencer. 

And I kind of want to marry the two because it was two very separate camps. It was where the entrepreneurs were the influencers and quite often people but really, you know, sort of Tongue Tied about meeting them together.

Oh, no, I’m not an influencer. I’m an entrepreneur. And it was this very, very hefty claim that they made to be in one camp or another. And I think well, why can’t we just be both? And why do we need to put all the titles and all of this? Why can’t we just show up as the teacher and the message of the coach, the influencer, of all of the things and just be ourselves? Because you know, as we have just had a very interesting conversation on my podcast about, being yourself is honestly the best strategy.

So yeah, what I do is really helping my clients to ultimately at the end of the day, figure out who they are, become that version of them, showcase it through some sort of lens online, whether it be podcasting, video, anything, whatever it is that’s going to highlight who they are, and speak to their audience in the best way possible. And then just really help them, I guess, build an empire that goes alongside that brand of themselves.

STEVIE: I love it. And that’s what it’s all about these days, isn’t it? So we’ve just podcasted on Erin’s podcast about this. Listen to that one for context. And then we’ll just continue the conversation here.

STEVIE: So yeah. But what we were talking about over on your podcast was the fact that it’s actually so easy these days to build a business viral personal brand, because it’s what works on things like social media, right? It’s what gets engagement, engagement is the lifeblood of your socials. And it’s what ultimately builds a relationship with people that potentially will work with you.

ERIN: Yeah, exactly. And this is a huge thing. And I don’t go super into the strategy. Definitely not as much as Stevie does, and his strategies, her thing.

You know, I’m more about the strategy in terms of the strategy of the person rather than the strategy of the analytics or anything. But one thing because I do have a YouTube management team, people who manage me on YouTube, because I don’t know, it’s weird, but something that they constantly feeding me best strategy, best practice best advice.

And something that you know has really shifted in the online space, when it comes to this conversation that we’re having is that it used to be very, you know, short, sharp, sharp, straight to the point snappy, viral all of these things, in terms of the best content. And now it’s people just want to watch people doing boring things.

STEVIE:  Yeah,

ERIN:To be honest. Whether it’s eating food opening presents, putting on makeup these long, kind of realistic real timepieces of content of people just showcasing their life.

And yeah, there’s the aspirational bits are thrown in there, and the inspiration, motivation, and all of that stuff. But what really, really works these days, and that’s why personal branding is so powerful is literally just putting a camera on you and what you’re doing a natural life. And that’s a really good way to connect and build an audience. And that’s pretty much what you’ve done, isn’t it? Yeah.

STEVIE: Yeah. So did you start with your YouTube channel? And then build an audience from the YouTube channel? Or was it part of your kind of business? Which way? Did it come? Was it the chicken or the egg? Did you start on YouTube and then build a business from it? Or vice versa?

ERIN:Yes, so. I was actually I don’t know which one’s the chicken. Which one’s the egg. But I am. Yeah, so I mean, I started the YouTube channel first, as a matter of fact, which not a lot of people I didn’t think, dive that far back into my channel. But I actually started on YouTube in 2014, creating Kayla’s bikini body guide. com, it’s a common thread battle store it somewhere interesting. Or the first video I created was terrible.

It was filmed on my webcam, as they usually are. And I was living with my fiance (now boyfriend) at the time. We had a bench press in our house for some unknown reason, sitting on a bench resting, Hey, guys, I’ve just started doing the bikini body guide, it was just terrible. But I sort of grew my audience in that way for a little while, went through the plant-based phase as well. And then got really super into creating content about the law of attraction, which then went into mindset, which then went into business.

So it was just this huge evolution of what I was interested in overtime, I only ever really created content about what my current interest at that point in time was. But simultaneously to moving my content into business stuff, I was made redundant from my job and I finished Uni. And I was, oh, OK, so now I have no job, I need to probably do something, I did not want to be an employee. I was like, that is not my vibe. Same as you. I’m a little bit of that freedom lifestyle. And I didn’t really I feel like entrepreneurship was in my sphere, it was obviously really popular because this was 2016, but it wasn’t really in my sphere of this kind of online business thing. But, what was really popular at the time was social media marketing.

So I thought, I’m just going to do social media marketing. So, the coaching staff wasn’t really in my sphere, what else? I was like okay, well, I’ve got this YouTube channel. I’ve had it for about two years now so I’m obviously professional.

Stevie: Did you have a following by then? 

Erin: Yeah, so I probably at that stage, when I decided to start my first business, which was in social media marketing, I probably would have had maybe around 15,000 subscribers or something like that on YouTube.

But then I started the social media marketing business, I had one client, but they were a full-time client because they have seven different brands under their umbrella, it’s hard to explain. But then, you know, in that business, I just ran into so much fear and self doubt, which then introduced me to coaching, which then, I’m gonna start this coaching business. By that stage, I probably had about 20,000 subscribers on YouTube and I launched my business. And that was one of the reasons why, to be honest, it was so successful. So quickly, the coaching that I have now. Because I already had that pre-built audience from YouTube.

STEVIE: I think that’s so interesting. And I think it’s a lot of people that want to start a business, they do all of the work getting the business together, right. And then they launch – at least, this is generally how it works. And then they’ll come to someone like me, and they’ll be like I’ve launched two crickets, there’s nobody there, my business isn’t working, it’s failing, what do I do?

And I think it’s so clever the way that you’ve done it, whether you intended to or not, which is to build an audience of people that get to know you, and trust you work out what it is that they want, and then offer it to them in a business and actually launched with, you know, a ready-made audience of people to buy from you.

ERIN: Yeah, I totally, totally agree. And that’s why for a lot of the time, and that’s, again, why I’m so interested in this personal branding and a huge as you would say, tactics, tactics strategy out there. I’m still confused. But the thing that I really being that I really highlight from the very beginning with people, when they first come to work with me, we’re going to go through figuring out your niche. And we’re going to go through figuring out your business model.

And you know, I talked about the ecosystem, but I’ve never used that word before, more just what products you’re going to offer, what offers you’re going to create. Yeah, but before we jump into any of that, it’s studying YouTube channel, standalone cause and do something. And then I always ,Well, I have nothing to talk about all this stuff. And I don’t care just start something. You start building relationships with people, the sooner you’re going to have people who are going to want to buy your stuff it, it really does blow my mind, you said when people have the best of intentions. Absolutely.

And I adore them for being so optimistic about it. But it’s that Field of Dreams concepts, where it’s, oh, if I just put a website, and then create a course, all of a sudden, I’m going to have a five-figure month or I’m going to launch and people are going to buy that well, that’s going against physics, I don’t know science, there have to be people there, there has to be interest, there has to be some type of audience, whether you get it through paid ads, or through content creation. But if you’re going to put something out and you want people to buy it, you have to be putting it out to some people.

STEVIE: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And it’s literally what I’ve done with my business as well, we’re talking on your podcast about it. And anyone that listens to my podcast would know, I spent every weekend writing these crazy long blog posts and building an audience. But it meant that 11 months down the track, I launched on day one with a fully booked roster of clients because they already knew the value that I provided. And I’ve done that through content. So I couldn’t agree more with that.

ERIN: So I think, sorry, just one more thing on that, because I feel this is such an important topic is because it is a very important thing for people to recognize that that does involve huge amounts of patients, right. And that’s what a lot of people don’t have because I want to start this online business because I want freedom before. But freedom comes from having that financial, in your income from your business, so you can leave your job or whatever.

And I feel some people are just not willing to put in a time they’re not willing to put into two years it was for me the 11 months it was for you to build that audience. But ultimately, at the end of the day, you kind of do shoot yourself in the foot because you’ve got to do it anyway. Business first, then grow the audience or grow the audience and then launch the business.

As a matter of fact, you make it easier for yourself focusing on growing the audience first, because then you’ve got attraction, you’ve got feedback, you’ve got people to research, you understand what questions are coming your way, it makes you a better entrepreneur to just play around with content and building an audience first, rather than getting your ducks in a row with the business. Either way, you’re going to have to grow the audit.

STEVIE: Yeah, today. The other thing is it gives you time to suck.

ERIN: Yeah,

STEVIE: Which sounds like a headache. But honestly, it gives me time to kind of find your voice and to improve the way that you record your videos. I didn’t know I feel original videos is still live on youtube, Erin. Yes. And they saw me I saw I could look at it. But you know what I mean? 

It actually gives you an opportunity to develop and to find out as well, you know, if you’re in a position where you want to start a business, and I know there’s some people listening to the podcast in that position, they want to do something, but they don’t know what it is that gives you that time to kind of try out different things to see what’s right and what’s not.

ERIN: And honestly, because again, I work with more sort of service-based entrepreneurs and a lot of this stuff, 80% of the time, my clients will change their niche, you know, a few months into our work together.

Because they evolve, they get a sense of confidence that they didn’t have before, which allows them to open their minds to new opportunities and new ideas that they were sort of harboring from themselves before because they weren’t allowing themselves to dream in that kind of way.

And that’s why again, if you spend six months before ever putting a piece of content out building a business, six months later than that, you might find out that you’ve built this business that you don’t even want so that time of content creation and sucking and just being in experimental phase allows you the opportunity to evolve with your ideas and get to a position where you have those goosebumps, this is the thing that I’m supposed to be doing. Yes. Sorry, if somebody came to study YouTube channel. Yeah,

STEVIE: How do they stop.

ERIN : Okay, so such a loaded question. But honestly, where do they start? I know, this is everyone’s going to probably just click off this podcast right now. I apologize. But where do you start? Is that you just have Yes. Honestly, I think so many people are I need to have a perfect idea. perfect camera.

STEVIE: Because the question that I always get asked to the podcast is what microphones do you have? And I’m getting out of here that is not the question.

ERIN: It’s still working. Honestly, I have

STEVIE: [inaudible]camera to you.

ERIN: Yeah, I have an inbox full of messages. I could go through my inbox right now and show you I guarantee they’ll be at least 10 messages someone asked me what camera I use.

STEVIE:Yeah.

ERIN : And honestly, going back and look at my first video. It was filmed on my webcam, everybody has an iPhone these days, there’s your perfect camera, put it up in front of you I feel I am demonstrating right now known. And get you to get your best tripod, which is your arm, hold your camera in, what’s this horizontal, put it out in front of you.

And yet, just start sharing some type of message at the end of the day, everything else can improve people are going to give you the benefit of the doubt on your first video. If it doesn’t look something Steven Spielberg has created his own right, everyone has to start somewhere.

But the thing is, if you’re trying to get the perfect camera, try to get a perfect microphone trying to have the perfect niche, you will paralyze yourself for years. And the thing is, I didn’t know you know that proverb where it’s the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago, the second-best time is today. Well, that’s the same as when it comes to content and putting building an audience online.

Know two years from now is not the perfect day to start a YouTube channel when you’ve got all of this stuff. Because I guarantee what you’re thinking is the right strategy now will be completely different in a year. Start today with what you got and what you know. And grow with the times grow with your audience grow with the technology, grow with the algorithm, write it out, get better evolve. 

But the biggest piece of advice I have is for anyone listening, if you want to start a YouTube channel, as soon as you stop listening to this podcast episode, record a video and put it up on YouTube.

STEVIE: I love that. I think that is what paralyzes people, in every aspect of the business. And I see it a lot with social media and content. But they look at you where you’re at now or they look at where I’m at after a year podcasting or whatever. And I need it to be at that level.

And I need it to be a certain quality and it just paralyzes them. So I think that gets started is such a good point. But what I will say is that there’s people who probably got started when you got started, right? And they’ve still got 13 views on YouTube, zero subscribers. 

So there has to be something, what is it that you think has separated what you’ve done in terms of building an audience from people who aren’t having the success that you’re having?

ERIN: Well, I know the frustrating answer that no one wants to hear as well is consistency. I have very rarely let a week go by that a video hasn’t gone up. If not put up three videos on my channel, no matter through changes of niches, everything along those lines. I have 100% just committed and there’s been, you know, for the fact that I don’t know if I went to my YouTube channel, I maybe have 300 or something videos. Now, what’s growing my channel is probably four of those videos, you know what I mean? I don’t have regular views.

But at the end of the day, if I was to track back, when I was doing the health and fitness stuff, there was one results from the candidate cnet’s bikini body guide that went semi-viral. And then since then I probably had a small handful of videos that have just got me over that hill. But the thing with vitality, and what really ends up actually growling someone is that there’s no strategy to it that is I must say a little bit of magic luck, whatever you want to call it, but the only way to influence that is by putting out as much valuable content as you possibly can.

Because you give yourself more opportunities. It’s if you want to win the lottery, Well, okay, you could buy one ticket, and you could hope for the best way you can buy 10, you’ve just 10 extra opportunities for getting that. And I’m not saying that going viral is winning the lottery, obviously, there are lots of things that you can do that would influence it.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, the more opportunity that you give yourself to connect with an audience and to build a relationship with them, the foster you will inevitably grow. But the thing that I will say completely change everything for me.

 And this is what we spoke about as I feel bad that we keep referring. But honestly, the thing that I feel changed everything for me, I jumped from Yeah, as I said, I think when I started this business content I was on maybe 20,000. So 15 when I really started crying. And then it was 40,000 like, a jump was when I started talking about something that I was truly, truly passionate, passionate to the point that I could just sit there and talk for three hours, obviously, I wouldn’t create a three hour YouTube video but and also, when I 100% started being myself.

So if you actually went and looked at my old videos, I still had that, you know, high school presentation voice on it was to this point, a point being kind of a semi polite  when I fully stepped into the most unapologetic version of me the version that I am when I was hanging out with my friends or that just the US version of you, when I fully stepped into that people started to listen, yes, I feel  if people are still struggling with their strategy on YouTube, yes, there’s lots of little things you can do. Are your titles really searchable? Are people actually looking for that content? Are you capitalizing on trends that are happening at the moment? are you adding really valuable content? Like you said, as well? Are you going the extra mile?

Or are you just repeating what other people have said?Are you offering anything else to the conversation, there’s lots of those strategies that are involved that maybe people aren’t doing, ultimately, at the end of the day, you’ve just gotta make it more entertaining. And the way that you’ll make it more entertaining for people is by being as much of you as you possibly can. I love that. And I think there’s two parts to that, that are super relevant.

STEVIE: So, the consistency parts.

ERIN :Yeah.

STEVIE: Everyone is looking for, the secret sauce for getting 10,000 followers on Instagram, or, you know, starting a successful YouTube channel. And you know, they’ll just be sitting on the edge of their seats, tell me what it is what I’m saying, you know, but I what I love about what he said is if you’re consistently doing it every week, right, you’re getting better number one, sorry, that, you know, obviously counts for a lot, but you’re just giving yourself more chances to knock one out of the park, you know, and not something that you can guarantee.

But I can guarantee that if you’re doing 30 videos, there’s a lot more chance. And if you’re just doing one every now and then trying to find all of the tips and hacks for what makes it work. And then you know, completely beating yourself up and not doing it again for a while when it doesn’t work out for you. So I absolutely love that.

ERIN :And I think also, YouTube actually rewards as a platform like the people who are, I feel a part of the algorithm and the game. This is one of those kinds of nuggets of wisdom that my management team has given me. But it’s YouTube will actually recognize when you’re keeping people on the platform, their biggest analytics is viewer retention and watch time. So the more people the more binge where the content you have on your channel, the more YouTube is going to reward that because the more you’re actually keeping people there.

And that’s all YouTube wants his people on its platform. Yeah, well content, you have them all for people to watch. And the thing is, when someone finds you for the first time, it’s likely that they’ll watch 10 videos, if you don’t have 10 videos for them to watch, you’ve lost that person forever. You know, I mean if you have 10 relevant videos, someone finds you and they like this was an excellent video, in that moment when they’ve just found you as the time that they’ll binge on your content, which is going to give you that boost. So you almost want to catch your people when they’re in that kind of binge-worthy state, right.

And so if you do the right things, maybe in one video, you’re talking about x topic, and you say, hey, I’ve got this other video, and then you can link up with the cards. 

When you get to a certain number of subscribers, you’ll have these cards feature, but either way, but in the description, the more that the more content you have that you can interlink with one another, the more that you’re playing the game of the algorithm. And so again, it all just comes back to if you really, really want to keep people on the platform, give them a reason to be there.

STEVIE: Yeah, it’s that daisy chain effect. And they go back, I think another thing that you do really well with your YouTube content because I have definitely going down the rabbit hole of watching for if you’ll video .Okay, I need you

ERIN :all at the same time.

STEVIE: But what I think you do really well is number one, it’s really valuable. And it’s all Alliance content. So it’s very easy to go from one of your videos to another because it’s not you’re talking anymore about you know, something that’s completely unrelated to another topic, everything is very much aligned. So if somebody finds you for one video, they’ll go down the rabbit hole, because there’s so many other relevant topics.

And I think another thing that you do really well is the structure of your videos. So and I don’t know if this is something that you’re even aware that you do, or whether you outline your videos or whatever. But you’re really good at getting in there because I hate when people ramble. I hate this one podcast as well. And it takes forever to get to the point of what the hell it is that the podcast or the video is about. But I love that this is what it’s about. He’s seven tips, and you literally just go through in a sequential order. So people know what they’re going to expect. They know the value that they’re going to get out of the video, and then you deliver on it. And it’s a no brainer to either subscribe if you like it or to keep watching it, you know?

ERIN :Yeah.

STEVIE: I think having a point for every video that you’ve put out there being succinct and then having a bit of a structure is even though it’s maybe not intentional for you. And that’s what I really found useful.

ERIN :I love that. I am didn’t I do know that I do that. But I think it’s actually less of a strategy and more of just knowing the context of the platform because it hasn’t Matter of fact, I love to ramble. It’s my favorite thing in the entire world. However, it doesn’t work well on, you know, a short, sharp pieces of information they want that kind of more, as we said, more dragged out human.

 It’s not l Fred on the fourth kind of funky jump cut, that doesn’t really work anymore. And they just want to have a conversation that’s had in 10 minutes that gets them the result that they want. I actually love to ramble. But that’s why I love doing live streaming so much because I could sit down on a live stream and just talk for an hour until Instagram boots me off. It’s just knowing the context of what’s going to work on each platform.

STEVIE:  Yes, the context of the platform. Totally. Let’s talk about live stream because you love it. I…..

ERIN :Love it.

STEVIE: So jumping over to Instagram now but what do you watch every day, right?

ERIN :Did you know, someone said to me the other day, one of my clients was have you ever seen The Truman Show? And I was classic love that movie. And they’re I could seriously imagine you intentionally having The Truman Show.

STEVIE: I didn’t see that.

ERIN :I have someone. Honestly, I’m just wanting my fiance to retire from his job so he can follow me around with the livestreaming camera. I would love that. I don’t know why, I just I think because I love to watch lives so much. And for me again, it probably is because I like to ramble. But ultimately, the end of the day live streaming. For me. It’s the human connection. When you create a YouTube video, it’s recorded, and then someone else edited.

 And then it goes up. And it’s three weeks until I ever get a response on what got forgotten what even spoke about in that video. But it’s live feedback from a live stream that for me as someone who’s a coach, I love coaching calls, I love the one on one calls, I love podcast interviews. And that’s the way that I can really connect with my, free audience in a way that really gets me to feel I know them. Yeah.

STEVIE: Yeah. So what do livestreaming about.

ERIN :OK, so again, context of the platform, I’ve just started recently, costing a little bit more going live on Instagram and Facebook at the same time. But most likely, if I’m going live on Facebook, I will have a proper topic I will have a thought out. This is what I want to speak about. You know, I never plan anything in terms of a script or anything, this is the topic. You know, I’ve had an idea of how to a piece of inspiration probably in the shower this very good, bad. And then so I will go live.

And that will be more destruction you could say masterclass as well. And I didn’t do anything like that. There’s more to life great for that. Yeah. Whereas Instagram, for me, I just want to hang out, let’s just talk about something if I was in the park before, literally, just before our, our podcasts or before my client call before that. And I just had this idea and just went live in the park and just started talking about this idea on Instagram. And then so it is I feel Instagram, it’ll be more just I’ve had an idea. I want to talk about something whereas Facebook for me will be more, here’s a topic, let’s teach on it.

STEVIE:  Yeah. Do you friends like so? Do you really feed off the interaction on an Instagram lines? So people will come on and they’ll be asking questions, and you’re kind of chatting and replying? is it quite interactive in the way that you do it?

ERIN : Yes, but for anyone who maybe doesn’t have an audience, because this is where a lot of my clients get tripped up on. But no one’s watching me yet. So I always say Yeah, I do feed off the comments a lot now. But even if I was just starting out, if I was starting on Instagram today, I would still show up as if there were already people there. not pretending as in calling out someone’s name is yeah, okay, girl sends us. Yeah, that would bring the energy and I would be Hey, you guys I’m here. 

And I would just speak as if there were already people there because yeah, 35 people go watch that replay afterwards. And they want to feel that same energy have a conversation, even if they’re watching the replay. So for me Yes, at this stage, because I do have an audience of people who will watch no matter what time I go live on Instagram, I feed off the conversation. But for anyone starting to speak as if there are people there anyway, don’t make up question. You know what I mean, during mad question, but just bring that energy as if it were a conversation anyway.

STEVIE: So what impact do you think live streaming? Because I think it’s a really smart move. So anyone that service space, anyone that sells expertise, or people are coming to work with them. It’s a personal thing. I think live streaming is so smart, because it’s basically getting people to know you before they’ve even met in so, I didn’t know if you find this, but it kind of worms people up. So by the time they’re actually inquiring about, for you, Aaron and vacationing services, hey, I want to work with you. Because I already know what you’re all about. Have you found none?

ERIN :Yeah, massively. And I know my strategy might be a little different. But livestreaming from is also the place that I promote a lot of my programs, a launches and things like that. But because it’s so conversational, people actually don’t even realize they’re being sold to a lot of the time. So I recently launched because I’ve only got a 12 month mentorship. It’s the only way you can really work with me one on one at this stage.

But I recently was, I just want to work with clients.I just I love people. So I launched these six week coaching program. It’s sold out in one day, but it was one of the clients said to me, she’s like, I don’t even know how I found out about this. I’m just I feel you told me and I was, well, you were on my livestreaming asked a question.

She was oh, OK, so minded, a really good way for you to be able to speak about your services, your products, yourself promote things, but because it is purely not there’s no strategy behind it in terms of like, you’ve actually gone on and designed something on camera and put it on your Instagram stories. It’s literally just a conversation to be had. So yes. It also shows of my expertise. You could say when I’m talking about personal branding, strategy, anything like that. It shows people that I know what I’m talking about in real time conversations.

I can coach people because they’ll ask questions. So it is a good way for me to sell myself and sell my services, but in a real way that people actually don’t feel they’re being sold to.

STEVIE:  Yeah, I feel salesy on social people are so turned off by it, right? it doesn’t get engagement. People are just ,I’m here to be entertained. Or I’m here to be inspired. I’m not here to get a sales pitch. And I think it’s a really clever way of doing it. Do you find from a live stream or a story then take people into dm or always?

ERIN :Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

STEVIE: I’m just so passionate about teams at the moment but as a sales channel, it’s just such a, like you said non salesy way of selling.

ERIN : Yeah. And I didn’t realize and, you know, again, something that you do, but you don’t realize ends up turning into a strategy. For me, I am a terrible speller.I just have terrible grammar and spelling. Something that I did from the second that it was offered as a feature I know it’s been offered for face on Facebook for a long time, but came on Instagram recently was voice noting, my favorite thing to do in the world is to voice note people. And I started you know, doing my lives and people would ask me questions and then slide into the DNS and ask me questions.

And I would just voice note them back because I didn’t want to try it because guaranteed I saw something wrong. And so I just started voice meeting people and that increased my business massively because not only was it this even deeper level of communication that people were able to have with me, but as a matter of fact, the appreciation that came from taking the time to voice night someone because even though I didn’t have hundreds of thousands of people in my audience, but I do have quite a successful business so there’s always still that isn’t really Erin that’s responding me or is it her team? Know when people know that you’ve got a team?

They’re not quite sure. But voice noting people a doodle live. People ask me questions voice known in the back. It was a game changer for me being able to sell me being able to grow me being able to just promote my business in general,Thursday ends and voice notes. anyone listening down to the voiceprints? It’s epic and

STEVIE: Yeah, yeah, I think it’s really cool.They I think I got one for me when I very first dmg on Instagram, you came straight back either way. So. I was ‘This is so cool. What the hell and it’s so nice and personal. And I think it’s a really good point when you said, people don’t really know if it’s you responding, I literally only just started to have that happen.

People, I guess I’ve always assumed that it’s me. But for one reason or another lately, people have damned and they let wondering if they’ll use me as the third person or whatever. And maybe the perception is changing a little bit. And I think that sucks. Because you want that real personal connection with people. And yeah, I think that the voice message feature is very cool. It’s limited to a minute, isn’t it?

ERIN :Yeah, but I just don’t like ten number

STEVIE: Yeah, I love it. That’s very, very cool. Okay, sorry. One question that I have is you’ve got your podcast, you’ve got Instagram, you’ve got YouTube. So you’re doing a lot in terms of content? I’ve actually got a couple of questions around this because you are a content machine. So number one, how do you do it all? Let’s start with that.

ERIN :So honestly, every single time I get a podcast interview, or all the time people say that, to me, you’re a content machine. I actually don’t feel I create that much content, or at least in the, in the context of my entire 24 hours that I haven’t a day, it doesn’t feel it takes a lot of time yet, but I’ll go deep into the actual how I do it. So I do one thing I will never outsource is damned. I will never ever, ever outsource anything that has my voice on it. I will create myself but I do have someone who helps me repurpose a lot of that stuff.

So I don’t know, again, I think it’s more habitual now to just do the stories do the lives I don’t think I spent 35 minutes thinking about doing a live which reduces the you know, a lot of people think about it for so long, and then do it.

STEVIE: So that’s a good point now.Cause a break commentator l I find when I have to jump on Instagram stories and then jump back off. I feel it’s kind of breaking my day up. Do you find that? Or does it? Is it something you enjoy in its natural?

ERIN : Yeah, I think it’s pretty natural now. But I don’t want to say that it always was I really had to prompt myself. One of the advice that I gave to my students this morning in a in a video course that I’m actually teaching was around stories I said, just setting the alarm three times a day, and just document what’s going on at that stage.

Because again, people want to see the mundane stuff. But you do have to train yourself to remember to story to go live in the park when I was walking my dog, it wouldn’t be natural for me to just go live. But now it is

STEVIE: Yeah.

ERIN :So I’ve reduced the time it takes me because it I’m not thinking about it. I think people spend so long thinking about it. But more strategically I do batch create the YouTube video. So I do 10 at a time. So my fiance and I go to a filming studio, we filmed 10 videos, then he edits them all. And all your lovely you have him to edit them. Yeah, but even still, you can find in a video editor.For anyone who was interested in YouTube, but didn’t have the time to edit them yourself. You can find relatively inexpensive editors on fiverr.com.

So people who will edit your videos for you. And that’s a really good way that, you know, if you didn’t have the time, you could get that done still, or just don’t edit them, just chuck them up. It doesn’t matter. As long as there’s not heaps of mistakes, just put it up. People still appreciate it regardless better than doing nothing. It’s what I mean.

But yeah, and then with the podcast interviews, this podcast that we did, or just put it up online, but why do people feel I’m doing a lot of content is because we’re repurposing a lot of the same stuff. So we actually have one piece of cool content that goes out a day, either podcast interview, a guest blog, post a video or something, and then that’s turned into a podcast.

STEVIE: So that is, that is a lot of content, though, in terms of core content.

ERIN : Yeah, again, I feel it is but it’s, I don’t know that I feel this is such bad advice to give. But I feel it’s just habitual feels it sounds it’s a lot of content. But you know, these are only a 10 minute videos, or 10 minutes sometimes lives. I think if you just do it and get it done, it’s only taking 10 minutes.

STEVIE: And I think that’s what I’m getting from you it’s not you just have to get in. Don’t think about it, put it up and it’s done. You know?

ERIN :Yeah.

STEVIE: Because I think a lot of procrastination is in thinking about it and the editing and editing again and making sure it’s perfect. And you don’t actually need to do that. It’s the Gary V the document over create thing, right?

ERIN :massively. So one of my really good friends Ruby, she’s actually, you could say an influencer on LinkedIn, I think she interviewed you as well. She mentioned that she did. I mean, her strategy because interviewed him her corporate platform, she committed to a video every day for 90 days.

 And it literally so many people as well, that’s so much content, I could never do that. Again, Ruby picked up her phone, recorded a message posted it to Instagram 10, I mean, to LinkedIn, 10 minutes, that’s, you know, you can create a lot of content if you take all the bells and whistles off and just post I like it.

STEVIE: Very good. Okay, so my second question around that was with the podcast, with the YouTube but with Instagram. What do you think of the three channels for you has been the best in terms of your business? Or do you think that there’s not one that has done more than the others? They say to me, should I start a podcast? Should I start a YouTube channel that do this? Should I do this? Where do I start? And you’ve done them? All right, so.

ERIN :Yeah, so I ok. So if the podcast let’s ignore that, because for me, it’s just because I want to talk to cool people. I feel  it does kind of help the business. But I feel for me,, Um, no, it’s not something that

STEVIE: I actually think a podcast is amazing. Yes, it’s been good for my business, and yet, whatever. But I actually think the coolest thing for me about having a podcast is I literally get to talk to the people who inspire me.

ERIN :Yeah, saying, I just wanna, I just want to talk to cool people. But um, so one thing I teach with my say, for example, in my group coaching program, because my whole concept is businesses need to be this difficult. We’re all making it too hard for ourselves and getting with this whole content thing, which we all do, we make it so much harder than it needs to be. So something that I teach is businesses as easy as ABC, right. So A is attraction, you have to have some type of content platform that’s going to attract people how people can find you.

This may be through paid ads. 

But if you want to do it organically, it’s going to either be through a podcast, a YouTube channel, LinkedIn, video, some type of call rich, valuable content that will help you stand out, showcase yourself differentiate, etc, etc. BS building relationships, building trust, right, you need to have a way to get your audience to get to know you. And that for me is through live streaming on Instagram or Facebook. So a story for me is YouTube, then I build the relationship on Instagram. I’ve never ever sold anything on YouTube ever. I might get more promote, maybe something that I’ve got going on, but never has a sale be made on YouTube. So I do that in the build of the relationship. 

But then see is the conversion stage right is when you actually go out and make the offer, hey, I’ve got my, you know, boot camp going on. I’ve got my killer video Academy or something. And again, that happens still predominantly in live streaming.

For me, that’s how I sell I don’t do any intricate, webinars or anything like that. It’s mostly just your live stream. So there’s no one piece of content that is solo responsible for the, you know, the success of my business. 

Each of them do play a part. But again, it’s about not making it super difficult. Which do I do for what it’s just about? How can I attract an audience? How can I build a relationship with them? And where am I going to sell to them? For certainly for a lot of people? Email marketing?Yeah. So That’s how it works. Me.

STEVIE: I think that’s cool. I’ve actually got a really, it’s so funny, when it all boils down to it, when it comes down to building an audience, personal brands, social media, whatever, it’s all actually quite similar. I love your ABC. But I’ve got a really similar framework, when I think about it, its value connection promotion, and it’s pretty much the exact same three things. And I like the takeaway. It’s not rocket science, building an audience, create connection and sell to people, whatever platform you use for doing it. Have an ecosystem for doing it. And yeah, yeah, don’t think too much about it.

ERIN :Yeah, and that’s the thing. I think all areas that just as important as one another, but where a lot of people do stagnate remember before how you said, someone may be stuck,stuck in their business stuck on their YouTube channel is because they’re not putting the same amount of energy until all of those three areas, sometimes people prioritize building their audience too much. And they wonder why their businesses and making money, you have nothing to sell or sell a

STEVIE: I do see that  a lot as well. I do think that a lot. Yeah. But I think that definitely a preferable way to start than the other way.

ERIN :Selling too much and not having the audience. Same. Yeah, definitely. It’s it. But I mean, in terms of if someone’s goals were to, I want to build my audience, I want to leave my job, I want to make money. So I can have a freedom lifestyle. All of those three areas should have time and it’s tension each and every single day.

STEVIE: Yeah,

ERIN :Am I going to reach you is how am I going to nurture my current audience? And what am I focusing on sales activity, whether it be creating new office, liking, on old offers, working with clients, whatever it may be, but that’s pretty much all you’ve got to do every single day, and obviously, work on yourself. But that’s a whole different story in itself.

STEVIE: We’ll have to come back and do another podcast on the mindset stuff. Thank you so much, Erin, that was so helpful. And I know that a lot of people are just paralyzed by this VM, or not knowing where to start, or the perfectionism and I think that this podcast will be super helpful for those people. So a big thank you from me, but also, I’m sure from them. So

ERIN : thank you so much for having me. yeah, recording both of these episodes. It’s been so much fun. I love it.

STEVIE: What’s going on for you?

ERIN :So currently, I have been learning. There’s always something new going on. I’m, you know, a serial launch about

STEVIE: a lot of authors that go out, don’t you? Yeah,

ERIN :yeah. And that’s just a personal preference and it isn’t, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. It’s either keep creating new offers, or keep launching the same offer. It’s always just, you know, getting your products in front of the people. But I’m a classic Gemini. So I have ideas galore. And I get frustrated if I didn’t implement them.

So I always launched new programs, and I love to run things live. So at the moment, I’m launching a new program called vision and tribe, which is really helping people to really understand the clarity and a lot of what we spoke about on the podcast we did on my podcast, but really getting people to understand, you know, what is their ultimate, mission vision that they’re on? What are their values? Because a lot of the time when people get stuck in this, I don’t know what content to create. I don’t know what to say.

 It’s because they actually don’t know what’s inside of them. And they’re not giving themselves that kind of outlet to let it out. And I just really want to help people find that clarity. So no one ever uses the excuse again, I don’t know what to say. It’s all about just figuring out. Yeah, the mission you’re on. So yeah, that’ll be fun.

STEVIE: Awesome. How can people find you?

ERIN :  @erinmayhenry,Pretty much over the entire internet, YouTube, Instagram, anywhere. There’s an internet connection there.

STEVIE: Awesome, thank you so much, Erin, that was so good. And for anyone that is listening, make sure you go over and check out Erin’s podcast. That’s the name of the podcast,

ERIN : Game Changers

STEVIE: So check that out. 

ERIN :Thank you so much.

STEVIE: And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. Make sure you hit subscribe if you want to be notified when new episodes go live every Tuesday. And just a final reminder, I would love to see in my social media program. Hashtags Aren’t the Answer. Doors closed on Thursday. Head over to  thecoursecartel.com to come and join us. All right. Until next week. I will see you then.

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