231: Increase Your Visibility With These Tiny Tweaks

Melissa [: 00:00:00

Hey, hey, hey, I hope you guys enjoy these what I'm calling podcast shorts for my burnout to all out community. This is just a little peek behind the curtain of the coaching that goes on inside of my programs. We're bringing to you some of the best nuggets and coaching I'm giving, within hot seats of all of our different programs, whether it's our LinkedIn Method Academy, our Mini Mastermind, Business Basics, all the way up to our higher level Mastermind. If you're hearing some of these questions, and you're like, man, I wish I could get my burning question answered by Melissa. Hey, guess what? You could be featured on my podcast. If you've got a question that you want answered and you submit it to my team and we pick it, we will bring you here to the podcast for our podcast shorts and, do a hot seat with you. Where can you submit your questions? Send them to team burnout to all out.co. We'll make sure we drop that in the show notes for our podcast shorts.

Melissa [: 00:01:02

And I hope that you guys find as much value in the shorts as our clients do inside the program. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Alright. Let's see.

Melissa [: 00:02:16

So Justine says, many of the people that I request to connect with do not respond. I assume most are because they are not very active on LinkedIn. Many that I look up are from past events that I've been to. I would love any other ideas for broadening my reach for connections to lead me to ideal full service interior design clients in my area, or is my content part of the issue? Any tips? Okay. So first of all, when you're requesting to connect with people, are you looking at their like activity history?

Justine [: 00:02:53

No, I see that.

Melissa [: 00:02:54

Okay. So you're seeing that they are somewhat active on the platform?

Justine [: 00:02:59

Majority of people that I connect to with partners posting.

Melissa [: 00:03:03

So I think that there's a couple of strategies with the interior design. Do you have, like, a niche group? Is it, like, a certain type of tell me about your ideal client in an interior design.

Justine [: 00:03:15

So my ideal client is gonna be within a pretty narrow approximately 30 miles radius or less. Okay. So it'd be very, very small. And I think a client is a a busy professional or busy homemaker who's up to their design activity. They have children, and they're looking for interior design services at the buybacks' owner house, or they're doing a renovation, or they are looking to completely rehab all their furnishings on the east white floor of their home and often doing free service at the same time, like, aging and or covering and window treatments, etcetera.

Melissa [: 00:03:52

Awesome. So a couple of things to think about is power partnerships and b to b on LinkedIn for you. So I'm thinking about, like, general contracting, like, folks who do, like, major renovate I'm thinking I'm pointing because, like, my neighbors over here, like, this couple, they specialize in renovations, and so locally in this area. And so they would be a gateway into a lot of people who would need your services. So instead of focusing so much on the individual, I would actually start by networking with people who are local that work with your ideal client, and work on establishing relationships with those guys as well. Because it can be really beneficial. I know I'm in new construction so it might be a little bit different, but we're building a mountain home right now. And our builder is like elated that we have a designer that's helping us with everything because she's really helping with more than just the interior design.

Melissa [: 00:04:52

She's really helping us even with some of the angles of all the different things in the house. And she really had a critical role in the entire floor plan of the house before we, like, finalized the floor plan. And so that's why I'm thinking, like, can you find and collaborate with some of these? And then do you have, like, a niche price point for homes? Is it luxury homes? Is it anything in between? Like, what is your price point? So you could find Yeah. No. I think that it it's thinking about even these, like, magazines and articles that are published locally, looking for these types of groups and representation on the LinkedIn platform. Right? It's like thinking of and even real estate. Right? Like, even real estate agents locally and collaborating with them. But then when I think about the direct consumer, I go back to RT who sells those luxury watches.

Melissa [: 00:06:00

Right? And for any of you guys who listen to him in the masterclass, it's really about the power of the network of the clients that you've worked with. So another strategy is, I would look through your book of business over the past 10 to 15 years, and I would connect with every client you've ever worked with on LinkedIn. And then that way, the next thing you can do, and this is for all of you guys, one of the best ways to get seen and engaged and get in front of ideal clients is to engage with past clients' content. Because you're kinda scratching their back. They're noticing you. They're remembering that you worked with them, and then they ultimately do the same thing when you put content out. It's kind of a backdoor visibility.

Justine [: 00:06:46

And I just don't know if it is just this weird cyclical thing that it's just super smart. And this is just maybe a really weird time. It's a weird time. And my clients aren't responding. I'm classmates are not responding. I'm making, but I do try to connect. So most people just do not connect because I think they are not active enough.

Melissa [: 00:07:09

Yeah. Well, then I would also say, do your market research. So in the sense of, like, industry wise, like, industry wide, what does the market look like for your industry? Is there a big dip in what people are spending on renovations and interior design? And if that's the case, that just is like and I actually talked about this the other day in a group. It's doubling down. And some of you guys don't wanna hear this, but the reality is when people have less money in their bank account, they just don't part with their money as easily. So we have to work harder for their investment, and that's just the reality. And a lot of business owners, unfortunately, like, reduce their spend when times get tough. And the reality is, it's the business owners who double down and double down in the work that actually ultimately get the lion's share.

Melissa [: 00:07:59

They get the market share from those who aren't willing to do the work. So it may be a case of there's a big dip in your industry. How hard are you willing to work compared to your competitors to get in front of these people? What kind of deals are you willing to make? Like, what are you gonna do that your competitors aren't in order to get the next sale? I mean, we've seen that industry wide, like, in our lead gen academy, it's really wild. It's not wild, it makes total sense. So the average American has, like, $10,000 less in their bank account than they did a year and a half ago. The bottom line is the number of people coming in on payment plans has significantly dropped while the same number of people are paying in full, which is basically telling us there's a split in the market right now where there's people who have the cash and they're ready to invest, but the people who were barely able to get in in the first place have fallen off. So then that then the question for us is, well, why how do we broaden our market to go find the people who are willing to invest that they still have that money in their bank account? We have to work harder, right, just like you have to work harder, because the reality is, it's just where we are in an economy. So it's just getting creative with, you know, even with the GCs and the real estate and stuff, like, maybe you've never done this before, but maybe you offer, like, referral bonuses.

Melissa [: 00:09:17

Maybe you're giving them a portion of your business for their referral. And maybe that's something you never had to do before. But it's just getting creative with what maybe you haven't had to do before to basically, there's always opportunity in the midst of disaster. And that sounds morbid, but the reality is, over this dip in your industry, you could actually take over the market share from those who aren't willing to do what you're willing to do. But it's, are you willing to, like, do that? Right? I know it's not what you wanna hear. But those are my initial thoughts. The last thing I'll say is, are you ever open to doing design virtually? Can you do Can you do big full service jobs if even if they're not within 30 miles, if they're 3 states away, can you still do full service or no? Depends. Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:10:10

So just something to think about. Like, the two last things I'll land on, because this is like when things are tough is when we think differently. And that's what I'm just challenging you to do, is if the market is down, but you work in this kinda luxury home space, what we do know is the houses that are selling are, like, above the 3,000,000. That's where, like, houses that the end is, like, in real estate, people are paying in cash are still buying. And so if you've been limited to this 30 mile radius, and the market is down, you've dramatically reduced your opportunity for that demographic. And if you're open to potentially looking at how you could provide your services more virtually, you could target it to locations where industries are booming, like where there is a really concentrated area of high income, high potential for your services. And just to cast a vision, we hired our interior designer last November. She lives in Northern California.

Melissa [: 00:11:11

I've never met her. I mean, she's never flown out. We've never sat across the table from her. All the materials have been shipped to her and us. And I'd even be happy to introduce you to her or her website or whatever just to get a feel. But she just did a luxury home in Miami, and she's doing ours in North Carolina, and she lives in Northern California, and she hadn't been on an airplane yet. So and I'm paying her probably $10,000 a month in invoices for the work that she's doing for us. I just wanna challenge you to maybe think a little bit differently beyond the 30 mile radius and maybe this is an opportunity to rethink the structure of your business in order to get the market share that others aren't willing to go out and do.

Melissa [: 00:11:55

Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode. Episode. And I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704-318-2285. That is text the word update to 704-318-2285.

Melissa [: 00:12:34

Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So again, come find me, melissa_henault over on Instagram, melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.