Episode 72
Follow The Host
When a Freelancer Becomes a Solopreneur
What happens when a solo entrepreneur takes the plunge into the deep end of business strategy? Hear it firsthand from Claire Gallagher, the founder of Claire Creative, as she sheds light on her journey from freelancer to business owner. This conversation delves into the intricate details of Claire's transitions, including her significant shift from designing branding and websites to creating meaningful content that truly resonates with potential clients. We'll also look at how the COVID-19 pandemic prompted her to reassess her values and business approach, a revelation that just might resonate with you.
Ever wondered about the nuances of being an entrepreneur versus a solopreneur? Claire's insights into her solopreneur journey - the personal and professional growth, the flexibility, the independence, and yes, the unique set of challenges - will offer you a new perspective. Equipped with years of experience in the field, she also deciphers the dynamics of sales strategies and why the 'hard sell' can often lead to potential clients turning the other way.
As we steer the conversation further, we uncover the essential role of websites in establishing an online presence. Claire generously imparts her three-step strategy to build trust and authority, underscoring the importance of tracking data, avoiding vanity metrics, and leveraging AI and templates for content creation. She also shares useful tips on ensuring your brand makes a lasting impression and why creating a content bank can be a game-changer for busy solopreneurs. Whether you're a newbie solopreneur or a seasoned one looking for innovative ideas, joining in on this conversation with Claire is sure to leave you inspired and empowered.
Topics of Discussion
Claire’s Resources
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (by Greg McKeown)
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom lin
Episode 72
Follow The Host
When a Freelancer Becomes a Solopreneur
What happens when a solo entrepreneur takes the plunge into the deep end of business strategy? Hear it firsthand from Claire Gallagher, the founder of Claire Creative, as she sheds light on her journey from freelancer to business owner. This conversation delves into the intricate details of Claire's transitions, including her significant shift from designing branding and websites to creating meaningful content that truly resonates with potential clients. We'll also look at how the COVID-19 pandemic prompted her to reassess her values and business approach, a revelation that just might resonate with you.
Ever wondered about the nuances of being an entrepreneur versus a solopreneur? Claire's insights into her solopreneur journey - the personal and professional growth, the flexibility, the independence, and yes, the unique set of challenges - will offer you a new perspective. Equipped with years of experience in the field, she also deciphers the dynamics of sales strategies and why the 'hard sell' can often lead to potential clients turning the other way.
As we steer the conversation further, we uncover the essential role of websites in establishing an online presence. Claire generously imparts her three-step strategy to build trust and authority, underscoring the importance of tracking data, avoiding vanity metrics, and leveraging AI and templates for content creation. She also shares useful tips on ensuring your brand makes a lasting impression and why creating a content bank can be a game-changer for busy solopreneurs. Whether you're a newbie solopreneur or a seasoned one looking for innovative ideas, joining in on this conversation with Claire is sure to leave you inspired and empowered.
Topics of Discussion
Claire’s Resources
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (by Greg McKeown)
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom lin
Alright, everyone. I'm joined today by Claire Galleher, who is the founder of Claire Creative, who focuses on business strategy that emphasizes solo preneurs branding. We're going to talk about a little bit of all of that Now. I know that you definitely know more about your business than I do, so why don't you try to make that a little bit better for me, especially considering you're the brand here?
Speaker 2:Ah well, an invitation to pitch. We all love one of those. So Claire Creative is the name of my business. My actual name is Claire Galleher. I help people to create content that converts, so that's very abstract. In reality, that means really creating an offer that feels irresistible to your ideal clients, building a path for them to follow from discovery to sale, and creating a content bank, which means that you can stay consistent online even at busy times and when you just couldn't be bothered, basically. So I help people to show up online in a way that gets some clients. There's a bit of website, there's a bit of branding, there's a bit of follow in there, but it's basically about helping to increase lead flow for solopreneurs. So the problems for people who work solo a little bit different for any kind of businesses with employees or VA's or assistants, things like that. So the solopreneur, the company of one, there's a kind of a set of problems that are kind of unique to us them. So that's who I focus on supporting.
Speaker 1:I know that you had a background for a while in design. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started. I studied graphic design many years ago. I studied graphic design and worked in corporate for a number of years and just basically had a chief heat, wanted to travel, so I went to Melbourne. I was living in London for a while, I was living in Paris for a while, then Montpellier, then Barcelona and just over the years I realized that I really wanted that independence and flexibility to have time be my own.
Speaker 2:So, as any creative like a lot of creatives kind of always do a little bit of freelancing on the side Somebody always wants a website or a logo or something and I kind of liked it. So when we were starting our family, I said like you know what, let's bring this thing full time. And I was in Paris at the time and part of a big expat network and everybody wanted a whips. So I was able to go full time with my freelancing and then ultimately really pivoted into actually more of a business than a freelancer. You know like the distinction there not just taking orders but structuring things in a way that you offer something specific. So over the years just built my business up from freelancing to be more established company and started out with just like branding and websites and did branding and websites for a number of years and just in the last couple of years, and I'm sure everybody you interview says but during the COVID times- things changed.
Speaker 1:We can't get away from it.
Speaker 2:We can't get away. It's still recent history, but during that time, I think for a lot of people, your values and what are you doing with your life came into sharp focus and I really went through a process of trying to understand my most valuable contribution to people like how can I best help people with my services, with my expertise and my kind of the way that I can create things for people? So, instead of just sticking to the branding and the website, I refocused towards content, because I think people care less about the website and more about the feeling that they get when they encounter you online, and that's the really thing that I really want to cultivate for people. It's that I say this all the time is like you want to get that gut level yes, when your ideal client meets you online so that sales become easier. Because, long story short, I'm terrible at sales.
Speaker 2:So I want to give the content to do a lot of that heart, that heavy lifting for me, and that's what I do with my clients as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes two of us. So I'll do like calls, one on one with people for like visa services. At the end they're like so what are the next steps? I'm like I'll explain what we do, but I'm not going to sell you. It's either you want it or you don't, and I won't pursue it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that is that in a way, that is a sales strategy and you can only do what comes naturally. I think you can try and embrace some strategies, but you really have to make these things your own, otherwise it just makes you want to puke.
Speaker 1:And I think in this day and age too, the way that sales is pivoting has to be kind of that soft pitch. I mean maybe for each and, but on the individual level, especially like B to C, people are very aware of like if you're pushing me and you make me feel uncomfortable, I mean maybe it still works. I don't know, but that's just never been the way I've gone about it.
Speaker 2:I've had a few experiences where a lot of business coaches they have incredibly strong sales techniques, otherwise I think they just don't make it as coaches. And I've been on the receiving end of that a couple of times and was roped in and realized that the only thing that I could learn from the encounter was the sales and not the actual coaching that I received. So I've been on the receiving end of it and I think people are sensitive to it. Now it's like, oh right, you're selling to me now, oh guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's almost like an untrustworthy thing. Well and again, this is my personal thing, but like it's a hard sell, it freaks me out. I'm like I don't something's wrong here, like why do you have to push me so hard?
Speaker 2:This is it and I think the reason that I pivoted into really insisting on the like, the content aspect and higher, making people feel and getting that, yes, before you even speak. It's that thing of like. If people straight. First point here is like, if people actually get it what you do, if people understand because some people, especially if it's a technical thing or a health thing or something with a fair amount of jargon often surrounding it if people really understand the value of what you do and how you can genuinely help them, that's half the battle. And then the sales thing is just, it almost becomes like a formality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I definitely want to dive into kind of the funnel which is, I think, what you're describing a little bit there here in a bit. But I know that one thing you're talking about is making that jump from being a freelancer to owning your own business. You briefly touched a bit about kind of that mindset behind it, but can you elaborate a bit more on what that looked like in practice for you, being an expat? You know, living in France, I'm pretty sure is when you made that jump Like, what was that like and why in France did you decide to kind of do that? Was it because of you're an expat or All of those questions.
Speaker 1:I'll try to go through them all by one, I do that I just load up a bunch of questions and you just pick your favorite.
Speaker 2:I'll try not to miss any. So France, just a start at the end there. I'm a gentleman, he is French, we are married, we have children, so that's the reason that France was the specific. But I'd freelanced before, when I was living in. I lived in Melbourne for a little over a year and just all through my corporate career I'd always like freelanced, so projects on the side, and when I left my day job I was actually working in the gallery in Paris at the time, which was kind of I thought, my dream job. Oh wow, that we get back to that another time maybe.
Speaker 2:And like freelancing in that time was I would go into a company to fill a gap. Somebody's on maternity leave or there's a big project, they need an extra hand. So in terms of freelancing, I was always like stepping into, like sitting at somebody else's desk, basically, or the spare desk, and just doing as I was told. You know, we have this project, we get this at the gate in two weeks, we need extra help. So freelancing in that respect was always like, okay, job for two weeks, or job for a month, or job for three months, and it always just felt like it was nice. And then I liked it and it was kind of there was a good flow of work in that way, but I kind of wanted to do things on my own terms.
Speaker 2:The real truth of it is like I was freelancing and I did have like a six month engagement to cover somebody's maternity leave and then I got pregnant. I was pregnant and just you know that office environment I had to go okay, on Tuesday I have to go get a blood test for this, and if you've ever had any kind of medical engagements, you're sitting, in a way, way longer than you hope to. So I always just felt like this kind of tension of like I have to get back to the office, but this is my baby I'm talking about here. So I didn't want, in an ongoing basis, for somebody else to be in control of my time and I really felt, even as a freelancer going into agencies, going into other companies, I always felt that I didn't own my own time.
Speaker 2:So I decided to be like a freelance service provider, not going into corporate, but really just kind of working from home, taking projects that I wanted to take because at the time there was enough work coming in. And then I just kind of said, okay, well, let me just structure my services a little bit more and really focus on the work that I want to do. And that was the moment where it was really clear creative wasn't a freelance service anymore but a business that offered this and that service. So it was really just a desire and I think a lot of digital know-hits and freelancers out there very often we just want that flexibility. We want that freedom and ownership and agency of our own time and what we do with our lives. A bigger picture.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think that that's one thing that being a remote worker nowadays is really allowing people to do. There's a difference, I think, between a remote worker and like a digital nomad. Well, obviously, but I guess the sense of like if you're a remote worker who has to stay in a specific place and like still maybe be close to the office or you have to stay with them, it's different, and so it's nice to have that flexibility to maybe you want to go on vacation and work and not really have to tell anybody because it's really not affecting anything. I mean, it'll allow people who don't necessarily, because entrepreneurship's hard, there's a lot that you have to do, and so people who don't necessarily want to take that leap to own their own time, to get their own time back, maybe don't have to this day and age, which is nice.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Because I mean, you know, I was kind of on the same page of wanting my own time. So I mean, I've always had an entrepreneurial drive, even when I was younger. But that's kind of the huge thing is, you know, you said that you were in the corporate life for a while and it's difficult. You live on someone else's time and someone else's schedule.
Speaker 2:And there was a lot of overtime as well. When you're working in creative fields especially. I know it's definitely changing with AI. I know we might get to AI at some point, but there was a lot of late nights when working and working towards a big launch or towards a big deadline and like sometimes you'd be in the office until midnight and I just figured like I'm not going to do that, that's just not going to be an option.
Speaker 2:If I have to pick up a child or to like even if there wasn't a child involved, I mean I don't at the time when I was in my 20s I'm in my 40s, now in my 20s like that was exciting. And then you go for drinks or you get pizza and it's like there's a real camaraderie in the office. Even as a guest freelancer in an agency, there was a lot of excitement there. But I just didn't want that to be the long-term thing, because I had worked in offices where people had kids and had to leave and there was no small amount of eye rolling when they had to step out and pick somebody up or go fetch them because they're sick or call in to work from home because their kid was sick, and it's like there was a lot of kind of don't say it now, but, jesus, this is inconvenient for everybody else and I didn't want that kind of pressure. I'm a recovering people, pleaser.
Speaker 1:I'd like you to maybe explain a bit of the difference between an entrepreneur and a solopreneur. But is that why you've kind of gone that solopreneur route, so you don't have those necessary ties or obligations to others? What is the difference in mindset there?
Speaker 2:That's kind of it Entrepreneur entreprendre to undertake something, get the French word for like you're undertaking something, you're going for it, basically An entrepreneur. I think a general assumption about entrepreneur is they're building a business, so that would imply that you're hiring people and that you'll be going somewhere with it and then ultimately maybe you'll sell the business and it'll be this bigger thing. It won't be just you, you're creating something, and that entrepreneurial thing is you might do that multiple times. You don't just start one business, you start multiple different things and bring them to profitability and then okay, what's next? For me, that's my kind of. When somebody says entrepreneur, that's the kind of the belief that I have and I think that's quite a common understanding of what that means Solopreneur and I don't really like this kind of something preneur device. But it's just the quickest way to say it quite often, because it's not freelancer and solopreneur, not the same thing. But like I don't like this mom preneur thing.
Speaker 1:I've never. That's the first time I've ever heard of that. So if that, makes you feel better.
Speaker 2:I've never heard of that or like these Sempreneur or these, like girl boss things. It's like no, I'm a person who has anyway getting on a bit of a rant there, but I agree this the solopreneur thing for me is I'm undertaking something but I don't really want teams. I don't want to hire people, that necessarily. I came to that point before when I was doing 100% web and branding and I just needed extra. I was having freelancers quite often and I just thought this isn't what. I don't want to be responsible for somebody's mortgage payments and then I'll mess it up or something. I just think there's. I needed that flexibility and freedom. And then also during COVID times, I was like, okay, branding and web design, it's been really kind to me and I've had a good time, but I'm done and I didn't.
Speaker 2:I don't want to be the, the person who comes in and goes, oh, you're all fired, the end agency closed. So the solopreneur thing it really allows me to be flexible and there's challenges within that as well. When there are no limitations, when you're making up all your own rules, there's nobody holding you accountable, which is why, as a solopreneur, I've always got a community of others. I quite regularly throughout the year I'll have like coaching engagements with coaches and mentors, and I think that's something that I really love about it, because I think this whatever partnership and personal development they always go hand in hand. Like you're growing as a person, you're connecting with your values very often and it's not even woo-woo because like you're making all of these decisions and it's all for you, about you.
Speaker 1:It's inevitable.
Speaker 2:It has to like. Personal growth just comes with it, and I really love that aspect of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I noticed, though, that you were saying that you really enjoy like collaborating with others. One of the things that I know that you do do is have a mastermind in Barcelona, which is great because it's close by. I haven't gone to one, but I'm going to.
Speaker 2:Well, they're starting up again in September. We're taking a break for the summer.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect, because I'll be traveling in Northern Europe for the next two months.
Speaker 2:Everybody's traveling in the next two months. That's the way we're pausing Exactly Smart.
Speaker 1:So you're newer to Barcelona. You've been what living in Southern France for quite some time now. What was that process like? To set up a mastermind in Barcelona? Did you already have a large community here, or Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:That's the plan. That's kind of the point. So I lived in Paris for around five years and then we moved to the south in Montpellier for eight years and Paris is very different in that there's a lot of communities for people to do things and you can just like join those. And that's what I did for five years in Paris and it was in Paris that I really set up Claire creative for the first time as a business. And then when I moved south, it was a much better work life balance, like a really great lifestyle inside the friends. But those things just didn't exist. You know, there's a lot of tourism stuff and a lot of wine tours and beach volleyball and stuff and that's lovely, but I wanted something that was just was a way for people to get together, hold each other accountable for their goals, share stories, come to each other with problems specific to business, because your partner or your friends they quickly get very bored of your entrepreneurial journey if they're not doing that themselves. So I had been part of a mastermind in Paris. That was extremely helpful to me and when I got down to the south France, it didn't exist and absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2:For English speakers Like I speak French very well, but sometimes you just want to not do that translation in your head before you speak. So I set this group up and we met once a month. It's basically how I got half of my friends, and whenever we would get together, there was a continuity of conversations and oh, and didn't you say you were going to do this or how's that going, the problem that you talked about last time and there was just like an ongoing conversation and support and genuine concern for each other. And then ultimately, the networking came out of that as well. People started hiring each other and promoting each other and recommending each other, and I just loved the spirit of it. No money changed hands at all, like as the mastermind being provided. It was totally free. It's just like you had to RSVP, like on the day, because it was only like limited seats.
Speaker 2:And then we left the south of France and I left my beautiful mastermind behind. So I got here and I thought like, oh, I'll just join another one. And then I just thought, josh, I'm so used to leading these rooms, I'm so used to like creating this space for people that I just wanted to continue with here. So it's called the entrepreneur brain. If anybody's in Barcelona. You can find out on meetupcom. So we're hoping to do the same here. We've got over 100 members after one event, so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I noticed that, which is why I was so curious. I was like wow, that seems really nice. She just got here. You just tell people, you just put networking in the title and they're like oh yeah, that's so true, Especially again with that rise of remote work, people are just dying to go kind of collaborate in some manner with other people who again want to talk about that entrepreneurship. That if you don't want to talk about it again, you get really bored of it very quickly. So, yeah, it's nice to have that.
Speaker 2:It feels good to create that space as well. Like every time I go to a session like this, it's really energizing because there's so much, especially working from home, working for yourself. There's a lot of two dimensional people that you can talk to, not that their character is two dimensional, but literally they're on screen until holograms kick in. It's good to actually just get out there and, like I, would go from the school to my desk, back to the school, back to my desk and do nothing else. But this is a great way to kind of force me to go to things as the leader of the group, because as an attendee, you can just go. Ah, do you know? Why don't I just go to the gym and sit?
Speaker 1:I'm curious did you attend any before realizing no, it's time for me to just start it again.
Speaker 2:There's a lot available. The really is. I've been to a bunch of them like talks and networking sessions and things like that, and it's not that they weren't what I was looking for, they are. I just wanted to create an additional one that was more specifically mastermind, because a lot of these ones are like there's a talk and there's a Q&A, and then there's networking, there's a talk, there's a Q&A, and it's really, really nice. I couldn't find an open mastermind without a huge investment upfront or without like some kind of big commitment which I know a lot of people just can't do or just don't do straight out.
Speaker 1:Okay so I guess to ramp up on kind of this entrepreneurial thing and then kind of get into more of like the branding and strategy side of things. I did want to wrap up on the lifestyle though. So entrepreneurial and lifestyle we're going to wrap up on. You lived in southern France for a long time. What is the difference between southern France, if any, and northeast Spain? Because I've never actually been to France, I assume there's quite a bit of a difference. But I know that Catalan is kind of this weird mix between you know, in France Moroccan.
Speaker 1:But like so is there any kind of collaboration, like synergy, between where you live not that long ago and now?
Speaker 2:To be honest, I really feel still very fresh off the boat, as they say, like I really still feel very new In terms of just general lifestyle. I think it's different here in that it's so international. My kids go to the French school and it's just so international, like. My kids are friends with people from all over the world kids from all over the world and by default then their parents become my friends. I have no choice. So there's that aspect of it that it's very international socially and I just feel like it's a really fantastic place for opportunities.
Speaker 2:People are very open to discussing ideas, even if it goes nowhere, just to kind of creating. I talk about creating space for things quite a lot. You might notice that. But people are very open to kind of hearing what you have to say and maybe like well, let's just see where this goes, let's give it a go and see what happens. I didn't really find that in France. I didn't find that as much unless you were meeting other expats, americans, things like that. I didn't feel like there was a default openness to opportunities, whereas Barcelona so far, six months in so far it has felt that it's just opportunities are popping left and right. It just really feels like a very creative, entrepreneurial kind of city.
Speaker 1:I know Barcelona is a bit more international in that sense and obviously entrepreneurial. Did you not get those vibes in Paris?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very hard to kind of put your finger on it. Really, paris feels very intimidating. Also, I was a different person back then. That's like 14 years ago. I was a different person back then. It was just my first steps into the entrepreneurial thing and I think your listeners might resonate with this. That like a city that you visited when you were 25, and you visit the same city when you're 35, has the city changed or have I changed? You know, I think there's a Buddhist quote of like a man never steps into the same river twice. Yeah, because he's not the same man and it's not the same river. So your experiences can change as you grow through life. Sorry, to get really philosophical about it.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I love it. That's not what I'm all about.
Speaker 2:But Paris. At the time I was learning French. I was trying to understand how to use Photoshop in French when I was going into somebody else's office. I felt like my first couple of years in Paris were all about observing and listening. You might have noticed I talk a lot, so, like when I was in Paris, first I was learning French, I was trying to understand the culture, I was trying to be a business-y person and I think I just wasn't the same person that I am now. So I think I would have a different experience if I was to go there now.
Speaker 1:That's something that I'm almost kind of afraid of is going back to places that I absolutely loved a few years ago. If I go back and it's not the same, I feel like I'm just going to be sad inside because I've built it up so much in my head. But you're so right that it's definitely going to be a different experience, different people, different time.
Speaker 2:It's a sign of your personal growth as well. It's like look at how much I've evolved, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so switching to the strategy side of things, I'm interested to pick your brain on not only branding but business strategy. I know that's kind of two things that you emphasize with what you do. What, in your mind, is the difference between branding strategy and business strategy, and what are the things that you should maybe focus when contemplating how to create those?
Speaker 2:Well, I think brand strategy fits inside of business strategy. If you think, if you like, concentric circles, like the big circle is your business strategy. Where are you driving this thing to? What are your money goals? What are the impact goals? Those kinds of things. Like it's all of the biggest, like five to 10 year planning stuff I tend to focus on the five, never going down to one year planning. So the business strategy like it's often very focused on revenue and I think once you put literal numbers on things, it's like this is the number that we want to achieve, like the number of clients, that the figure in the account and the resources that you can invest, and like are you investing? Is that part of your strategy? Are you looking for people to invest in you? Are you looking for funding those kinds of things? That's all business strategy stuff. And it's, I think, some people, especially like creatives and solo printers, that just like oh, I just give this a go away from my freelance and into like a business. I think we can skip that and just focus on how it feels first of all. But I think that business strategy moment is an important one. It's kind of the first thing that I do when I get a new client, it's like, well, tell me, where are you going with this thing? And your brand strategy is almost like a vehicle to help you get there. So the business strategy like as a solopreneur who works with solopreneurs we look at the money what kind of money do you need to be making in order for this to be feasible long term? And when we get that number, we look at how that breaks down in terms of how many clients does that mean? And if you meet that many clients, what does that look like in terms of visibility? And that's really the cold hard data of it all. Now, somebody who's more specialized in business strategy might give you a different variation, but I think for the small company of one, you got to look at what the money situation is, because you can't really mess around with that stuff unless you have somebody paying your bills Within that.
Speaker 2:Then there's the brand strategy. It's about creating something that is memorable, meaningful, has an ideal client in mind, and then all of the decisions that you've made in your business strategy inform what your brand strategy needs to do Like, what is its job, and it's that it needs to be memorable for this type of person who is wanting to solve this kind of problem. And when I work with my clients, I often encourage them to focus on one ideal client, one offer and one path from discovery to sale. Unless you have a kind of a team of people or you're investing heavily in multiple like advertising for different revenue streams and you can handle all of that, I think you can really quickly burn yourself out if you're trying to sell five to 10 different services to five to 10 different avatars and it's just. It dilutes the impact that you can actually make with a single strong offer.
Speaker 2:So like I'm talking about offers here, which relates to pricing, which is a business strategy thing, but then the brand strategy is like how are you positioning yourself in somebody's mind? So that's the positioning piece. How are you being memorable to people, how do they feel when they encounter you online and how does that all come together? That's very, that's very fluffy. But the brand strategy then a lot of people hear the word brand and they think of logos, but it's the strategy. It's very much more about who you're trying to reach and why should they actually pay attention to you. And even in terms inside of the brand strategy, there's your personal brand, which is, whether you like it or not. You kind of got to have one these days. Either you define it or it'll be defined for you. So there's a lot of personal branding stuff that goes on in there as well.
Speaker 1:So a lot of entrepreneurs tend to at least I'm one of them I have a grand vision and I want to just capture it all right now. So what questions maybe do you ask? Or how do you figure out how to really nail down that single Item or thing that you're selling to, then maybe scale that and then get to the next stage? How do you help people focus on just nailing down that one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's actually a question that comes up a lot because, like you tell somebody to niche or to be specific or choose one, and they're like, do I have to? And it actually takes a lot of guts to lean all the way into one thing and it does. I mean, I'm not saying this lightly. It does take a lot of guts to do that because you feel like if you're more, if you're really really specific, you're eliminating a bajillion people and loads of opportunities. But actually the opposite is true, but I think people who are very early in their entrepreneurial journey, they need to make terrible mistakes and have awful clients in order to see who their actual, real dream clients are. So I think, like very early days, it's good to have a bit of an experimental mindset and to throw some spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks, but with the Awareness that this is a testing phase. This is a moment where we're trying stuff out, we're being scrappy, we're seeing what we can do.
Speaker 2:But maybe to periodically review this is something that we do in our mastermind. Actually, we do an end of year review, we do a mid-year review to say like, oh, the things that we've been working on. It really doesn't feel right for me or it hasn't actually made an impact. Do I need to give it longer? Let's give it another go, or let's just call it a day on that one and move on to the next thing. So there is, especially when you're in your first two to three years, you will be trying out a bunch of stuff and I just always do encourage people to put a date on a review. I'd say like three months is a tiny amount of time really. You pretty much just got a Visibility beginning in three months, but to give something six months to really see, like if this is something that will fly.
Speaker 2:The other side of that is Like the lifestyle aspect of it. You're working on your own, you don't have a team. How is this impacting your quality of life? How is this impacting how you spend your time and if you actually have any free time, because life's too short to have mostly bad days? This is kind of one of my little mantras, like if your, if your work is making you're miserable, you need to make a change.
Speaker 2:If you're really stuck in deliverables which often happens with creative services like design or anything else that has a deliverable Like if a photographer does a lot of retouching of their photographs. If you're stuck in deliverables, you're going to miss out on time that you could be marketing, or miss out on time that you could be going to the beach or Actually enjoying the city that you're currently based in. So there's a lot of Kind of convincing that I can do for people's like your quality of life might improve if you simplify things. But again, in the early days you will be Trying stuff out, the exercise that I do with people who are ready to kind of get specific on this. It's called your most valuable contribution and it's from a book called essentialism. I forget the guys. Essentialism.
Speaker 1:I'll look it up, we'll put in the show notes, but the shots, but it like what's your most valuable contribution?
Speaker 2:So he talks about like saying yes to too much stuff that you're kind of. Somebody else could probably do a better job of this. I do good websites and good branding, but I know people can do excellent brands and websites and stuff like that. So my most valuable contribution was always helping people with the content, getting their words out. And if you're narrowing things all the way down to a specific offer for a specific person, the kind of the backbone is of that is like what can I do Better than most people? And it's something that I personally get fulfillment from and enjoyment from. So, again, if you're not outsourcing absolutely every part and being a CEO and then ultimately go to the beach or go into the golf course, you need to be doing this deliverable stuff. You need to be the one showing up, so it needs to be something that makes sense for you as an individual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I know that you talked about being able to kind of sit back and then determine. You know those measurables, those metrics determine Is my doing something that's working or am I not? And another thing that you talked about on your website is vanity metric. So what are some of those things that maybe you shouldn't focus on? I mean, obviously this varies from, you know, business to business and industry to industry, but as a generalized answer, what are those things that maybe you shouldn't focus on? And then, maybe what are those things that you should Focus on, metric wise and seeing if what you're implementing and trying week to week, month to month, is actually working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you look at data, you're always going to get information that you can build a strategy around. If you know that your ideal client Hates social media but they scroll on YouTube all the time, you'll know that that's a good thing for you. And if you're doing maybe a six month trial period showing up there, and if your website traffic is growing based on clicks through from YouTube, these are good metrics to follow. On the flip side of that, there's a lot of things I should be doing that come into people's mind like a lot of social. I mean, if you don't want to go dancing on TikTok, don't. Personally, I'm not a dancer.
Speaker 1:Not on TikTok at least. Well, I don't know, I had to uninstall that thing.
Speaker 2:It's too mind-bending. But just as an example, right, I was doing an experiment a couple of months ago based on Gary Vaynerchuk's video, the $0 marketing strategy, and it's like basically post on social media 12 times a day, like 12 posts a day.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, yeah, yeah, that's impressive.
Speaker 2:And I experimented with that for 30 days and my following grew. I got some decent engagement and I Didn't really get any more calls more than I would have gotten anyway. That I was kind of like that was about average for me. So the metrics there were how many followers, how many likes, how many comments and those are like the vanity metrics because like, oh, by following is growing, oh, that looks really really good and oh, look at all those little hearts there and and it's kind of it's a little buzz. You know it's like a dopamine hit that you got. Okay, I'm gonna keep going in a post 15 times a day tomorrow and you can get very Into that world and it actually does pay you very much. It doesn't really pay you.
Speaker 2:So instead of vanity metrics, I encourage people to define a north star metric. Like what is that north star? I think they do a lot of this in like sprints and, you know, startups and stuff. Like what is that north star? That is like. This is to think that we want to aim for.
Speaker 2:I don't care if people are liking or Saving or following, but if I get twice the amount of lead calls that I normally get, that's the metric that I really want to see and if those lead calls are people who will actually convert.
Speaker 2:That's the number that I want to see. So, these very visible followers and likes and and views and things like that, the numbers feel good. And second, all people like me. It's great, but it's not really gonna impact your bottom line and something that I discovered is that most people Ultimately become my clients. They're not following me on social channels. They might be on a mailing list or they might come from like speaking of edge or a podcast, but they go directly to my website and they convert within a matter of weeks. And Knowing that, it helps you to really iterate on your strategy so that you're not wasting time on things that actually don't feed you, they don't pay you, and you actually are focusing on things that will really genuinely make a connection with your ideal client. Get them on a call so that you have the opportunity to help them with your most valuable contribution that you have spent so many days and nights.
Speaker 1:Very well said. The one thing that I just can't fathom right now I'm still just stuck on is I don't know how someone can post 12 times a day on social. I don't have that many things to say. I just can't construct it like I feel, like that would take, I mean, all of my day. I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:You have heard of AI.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that is a really good point.
Speaker 2:That is how I did it AI, templates and automation. It does take a little bit of focus. I mean, when I was doing 12 to 15 posts a day, like I mean, I really only did it for 30 days as an experiment, that's not my jam. I was just like well, does this work? Gary Vaynerchuk seems to. He's very convincing, and this is actually something that I do with my clients as well. We create a content bank.
Speaker 2:So I devised a spreadsheet of about 45 personal questions Like what are three things I wish I knew at the start of my business journey. You know these kind of generic things. And then I kind of had my I know it's a bit kind of passe, but like my themes, my content themes, like the kind of the things that I always talk about, my values, the topics that come up in it on a practical level, and I made all of these lists At the start of every week. I'd fill a couple of them out, so like I'd have a five day content schedule and then in the moment I allow a small thought through. So some people are like, why want to make this extremely value rich? I'm going to create a carousel posting, I'm going to spend two hours on it and then I'm like I four likes for my mother, my brother and my auntie. You know it's like. So the strategy of posting that much per day is to really do the thinking once, because the thinking takes up a lot of energy. So you do the thinking once and then you look at the prompt and then you go to your AI, then your Canva template and you spend about 15 minutes creating 12 posts for the day In Canva.
Speaker 2:I did a little tutorial on my Instagram of like automatically populating a bunch of posts and then you're done for the day. But it's cheating a little bit because it's 12 posts, but it's could be one post. It's four posts on three platforms. Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. And stories as well. You can count like a story card as a post as well. So kind of cheating. It sounds very impressive when you say 12, but like you might be able to do that after about a week it becomes automatic and if your vibe is social media and you love it and it makes sense for your niche, it can be very impactful. Your intention and your strategy and your North Star metric need to be in place, but it can be very effective and there's no kidding If you've got a big following online, there's a massive amount of credibility that goes with that. Oh, she's got all of these followers. She must be worth it. So there's like I hate that. That is true, but unfortunately this is the world we live in.
Speaker 1:And it helps so much as like a solopreneur, to be able to sell a product because you already have some outreach, like you click 15 letters on a screen, click send and then you've sold. I did an air quote there for the people who can't see how many followers you have, which kind of brings me back to the importance of having a website that's attractive, which is kind of that branding strategy and overall the business funnel. That is essential and the importance of kind of social media. How much of a role does that play, like the personal brand, your website, connecting that with social media, in the role of like a solopreneur? Because I feel like what you were just saying is the more following by default, the easier it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. It just takes a ton of work to build that up. You can go for paid reach, which is kind of the shortcut, but it's going to cost you. But like, in terms of like websites, I kind of got out of doing websites full-time because I think people care a lot less about the website I said this already but they care less about the website and more about what you're actually saying, what you're all about.
Speaker 2:So the website is important because it's the only real estate that you own online. So any social followings or like other people's communities or like groups and circle groups and Slack communities and things like that. You don't really own any of that. But your website is the place where you have. You get to make all, you get to call the shots. It's your HQ. You can have like analytics there to see where people come from, what they do when they're there. You get to retarget them. Then, if you're going in an ads direction, you get to make different kinds of offers but any kind of buttons. So the website I think they are still relevant.
Speaker 2:Yes, because you own that real estate and you get to define what is there the three kind of steps that I talk about when I work with my clients, it's visibility, credibility and conversion. So the visibility piece, it can be social media. It can be podcast guesting, it can be doing webinars with other groups, it can be public speaking, it could even just be your local network. It doesn't necessarily have to be social media. The credibility piece, then, social media can be in there. You know, that's where your social following is proving that you are who you say you are and that there's a big credibility factor in the brand and your personal brand and your online presence in that. Look, if I put up a webpage tomorrow and said my name was Sally O'Malley and I won Very Irish name right now.
Speaker 2:Sally O'Malley. Sally O'Malley, I think it's a SNL sketch.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And then I just pretended to be somebody for money. There's not a lot of credibility in there if you've just got a couple of pages here and there and no LinkedIn and things like that, you know. So even just that content gap that needs to be filled and it needs to be filled with stuff that makes people feel like they find what they're looking for. So if you've got a website, it doesn't have to be massive, but if it's branded, if you're showing your face there, if you've got a couple of videos there, there's that building of the no like and trust factor, and I think websites can help with that more than other social channels Also. Then you've got your mailing list. Oh my God, I could totally go on all day. I can totally go on all day about this. But your online presence at large, you need to be findable, you need to be building trust and authority and you need to have calls to action that get you in a room with your ideal clients so that you can talk about working together. That's basically it.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm definitely not stopping you because this is just a heap of knowledge, so I know that all the listeners definitely appreciate it. So we are kind of wrapping up to the end. I skipped over quite a few questions, but it's all right. I always do wrap up with two questions, the first of which is if you could take all your life experiences and turn around and give somebody one piece of advice based on those experiences, what would it be?
Speaker 2:I was thinking about this one before and it's like your attitude towards money changes everything I grew up in. We were fine, we were doing all right, but we were massively wealthy and money always scared the crap out of me, like having it, losing it, earning it, being near it. It made a massive difference to me when I changed my money mindset, in that the earning money isn't gonna make me a bad person. This is such an odd thing and it's maybe where I'm from, maybe it's just who I am or how I was raised or some experience. But the attitude that I had towards money having conversations about money, all of that kind of stuff when I started to work on that I mean, I'm still not there yet, but when I started to work on that, it freed up a lot of stuff and made decision making like a lot easier, like whether to invest in this or is that gonna show a return, rather than just holding all my money for dear life.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of women struggle with that as well. I followed Denise Dufferfield Thomas. She talks about money mindset all the time. It's kind of at the edges of what I can tolerate in terms of woo-woo, but her content has really helped me as well. So how you think about money changes a lot of stuff in your life.
Speaker 1:Okay, so would you say then that being a little bit more risky with it is something that you'd recommend, or is that kind of what you're trying to get across there? Or just saying that it's, you know, be more comfortable around being an entrepreneur or scaling a business, or it's?
Speaker 2:specifically for me. I was always afraid to invest in things in my business like coaches and training and expensive things, and it comes from just having this mindset of when you have money, you have to save it and you have to hold on to it because you don't know what's around the corner. But the entrepreneurial mindset and this kind of more free money mindset is that when you are smart with your money, you can invest it in things that will actually double triple your investment. So like working with coaches, like even technically investing that's not something that I'm aware of, but we bought a house last year, so just not being afraid to invest in order to increase your return.
Speaker 1:Turns Yep. Amazing, but be smart about it.
Speaker 2:Don't just throw your money at people who say they can help you.
Speaker 1:Well, Claire, this has been amazing. I appreciate the time and the insight you provided. It's been really great to get into the mind of someone who has a very well understanding of business strategy but then also like travel internationally, so I do appreciate the time there. Where can people find you and where can they reach out to you if they're interested in diving more into that brand of years?
Speaker 2:Well, you can find me Clairecreativecom. You can find all my links there. I have some nice freebies there. There's one in particular. It's a checklist to help you increase your lead flow, so it's an old fashioned PDF. I'm working on changing it into a quiz because I mean who wants PDF these days? But it is a PDF currently and it'll help you to fix your lead flow. So jump in there. It's a free PDF that you can be added to my mailing list with that. But, Clairecreativecom, you'll find all my social links and if you wanted to jump on a no obligation call, there's links for that as well on my site.
Speaker 1:Cool, and that obviously I'll be in the show now. So, claire, thank you so much and yeah, we'll hopefully have you back on soon.
Speaker 2:Cool. Thanks to you, cheers.
Speaker 1:Cheers. And that wraps up another episode of Thoughts of a Random Citizen. Thank you everyone so much for tuning back in. For those who are new listeners welcome and I appreciate you joining. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and our guest today.
Speaker 1:If you are new and you're doing anything remote, be sure to check out Citizen Remote. It is fantastic. If you're already traveling the world, it's a great app to join a very quickly growing community. It's a great tool for those who are just about to begin traveling and figuring out how to navigate that, especially if you work remotely. It's a fantastic platform and we continue to build more and more tools for you guys, weekend and week out. Otherwise, if you're an entrepreneur and you're looking for tools or assistance with the next steps of you, know what you need to do with your startup. Or if you're looking for software development network connections, reach out to us at Torque United. Otherwise, if you're just tuning in for the conversations, thank you. That's why I love doing what I'm doing Keep tuning in and actually keep a lookout for the not-for-profit that we're about to open up.
Speaker 1:You know its main focus is going to be on international collaboration and helping build a borderless world, because it's something that I'm very passionate about. That's why I'm not only doing Torque United, but Citizen Remote as well. Really exciting stuff on that horizon. Please keep up to date with all of that stuff the not-for-profit and entrepreneurial side of things at Torque United. But again, if you're traveling the world, check out Citizen Remote. If you're wanting to travel the world, if you're a remote worker, check out Citizen Remote. Check out the app we've built for you guys. Check out the platform we've built. It's only growing every single week, so hopefully you guys will take part in that with us. Otherwise, I will speak with everyone in a fortnight. Until then, cheers.