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Welcome to Amplify Your Authority, the podcast where innovative marketing meets heart-centered entrepreneurship. Join Marissa Shadrick, an award-winning international speaker, Ray Edwards certified copywriter, and personal brand expert. You'll gain insights into the external strategies for business growth and how to navigate the internal journey of entrepreneurship. Now get ready to amplify your authority in a competitive digital world. And now is your host, Marissa Shadrick.

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Hello, hello, and welcome to Amplify Your Authority Podcast. I'm Marissa, your host. I'm so glad you're here today.

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I wanted to share a special episode where I encourage you to take this season that we're in. We're in the fourth quarter of 2024, the time of this recording. And sometimes we're so busy and we're going 100 miles an hour to get things done, and we're not really taking the time to reflect and plan for the new year and to see what's working, what isn't. And it really starts with you. So let me be a little bit more specific. Your work is really an extension of who you are. And so understanding and have that awareness of who you are, how you operate, what's really meaningful for you, why it is that you do what you do, how you want to be able to grow your business, who you want to impact, how you want to do that is really important to get clarity. And sometimes we get muddled in just the busyness of every day that we don't take the time to do that. But fourth court is always a great time to reflect and take this time to really dig deep and see how you want to tee up the new year. So I recently was certified through the full focus training with Michael Hyatt, and uh we went through our core values, and these are our personal values. It really is a journey of self-discovery of yourself. And a lot of the things that came out wasn't like new news for me, but um it helped me to bring that into my business and begin to reflect and look at some of the branding that I'm doing, why I'm doing it, clarify to amplify is really what helps you get started and helps you identify what you're gonna say yes to and what you're gonna say no to. So when I did this training to become a certified full focus coach, um some of the values that came up uh weren't new. Growth is one of my core values, that's why I love to learn. Courage is one of them, that's why I overcame many of the fears that delayed some of the things that I did and decided to do later in life. Gratitude is another one that is a core value for me. Empathy is also very, very key to who I am because of some of the things I've gone through in the past. So it's really important for me to empathize with people because I I'd never forget those days when I was very fearful and I was overcoming some things like public speaking. And I remember how frightening that was and how I thought I would need a, you know, a bathroom nearby so I can throw up, you know, because it was such a hard thing for me to do. I didn't want to be seen. I wanted to blend in with the walls, I didn't want to stand out. And so that doesn't help you very much in business, does it? So, in any event, I have empathy for many people that are in that place of self-discovery and trying to overcome some fears, whether it be a technology or selling. And then the other one is faithfulness. And faithfulness is really about giving wholeheartedly and being able to leave a legacy of compassion. And I'm very faithful to clients that have been with me for a long time. Um, I value them, and so I'm very faithful to them. I'm faithful to God, and so faithfulness is another core value. So as we went through this um journey of self-discovery, we create a mission statement and I'll read mine. As a family-driven woman, communicator and entrepreneur, I bring a nurturing spirit to my leadership and coach others toward growth and purpose. I exist to empower individuals to rise above their perceived limits, promoting courage and confidence as they pursue their dreams. I do this by offering encouragement, solution-based coaching, and the wisdom I've acquired throughout the years to help others realize their potential and embrace hope for the future. Now, when you heard my values, you could see why the mission statement turned out this way, right? Because growth, courage, gratitude, empathy, faithfulness is all part of my core values. So this was great to get it down on paper, get clarity. But then I wanted to make sure that all of this translates in my business because as you communicate out there on the internet, a lot of who you are is going to be shared with the world. And that's really what's going to connect your audience to you at that human-to-human level. But your story is really key to amplify your influence and attract the right clients. And so many people feel like their story is not enough. But your story is key to your business while you're doing what you're doing. And so a journey of self-discovery will help you kind of look for that, go deeper and look for that story that is deep within you. Because when you start communicating online, whether it's through blog posts, newsletters, social media, whatever you decide to do, YouTube videos, that is going to come out because your work is an extension of who you are. So when I was looking at my brand, and I I do this every year, I look at things and I decide what I'm gonna do for the new year. And I encourage you to do the same because you start the year with such clarity. So I'm gonna share a few things with you. Again, clarify to amplify is your brand. Now, Michelle Raymond, who is a friend of mine, she's gonna be at social media marketing world conference again uh next year in the spring. And um, I answered these questions and I thought, well, I already know this in my head. Why do I need to write it down? But I think there's something about writing it down that sort of connects it to our heart, and our heart and our head are now in sync together. And so I wrote them down. One of them is for you to ask yourself, what are your brand goals? So, as a business, what are some of your goals? Everybody has a different goal, and it's not always just to make money, it's more than that. So I'm gonna give you examples of what I wrote just to kind of inspire you if you want to answer this question. What are your brand goals? And I wrote in here, my brand goal is to elevate small businesses and independent coaches by empowering them with relationship marketing strategies, also known as quote-unquote social selling, you might have heard that term, in a way that resonates on a human level, human to human. The goal is to help my clients build profitable businesses through empathetic and effective marketing, right? Communication that includes branding, good copywriting, and also public speaking, because a lot of what we do online today, we show up on videos and reels and YouTube and so forth. So we need to really sharpen those communication skills in writing and speaking in every format that we can so we can communicate our story that differentiates us, right? So that brought some clarity. The next question is what is your brand purpose? What is the purpose of your brand? So I wrote down, and this was all first drafts, I may edit this later and change it, but I wrote down the core purpose of my brand is to foster genuine connections in the digital space by humanizing marketing strategies. I want to help my clients create meaningful interactions with their audience, which goes beyond transactions and fosters loyalty and community. There are no shortcuts or silver bullets, so it may sometimes feel unscalable, but it is so relatable. And that's what I wrote about brand purpose. The next question that you might want to consider answering for yourself is what is your brand mission? So I wrote, My mission is to guide and inspire businesses to prioritize empathy, which I thought was strange that I put that in there. But in my heart of hearts, that's really what I want people to be a little bit more empathetic. And it's going to translate in their writing and their marketing and their promotions and their emails and everything. So that was interesting that came out. But my mission is to guide and inspire businesses to prioritize empathy and genuine service in their marketing efforts, ensuring they can create sustainable success without falling into the pitfalls of impersonal automations. That really, you know, you can tell when something's automated and you get an email that's just not what? I already signed up for this. Why am I getting this again? So, so and use automations, those are great, but use them well and don't just set them up once and forget about them. Okay, so to finish this, the brand mission, this is anchored in the philosophy that less is more, focusing on targeted, strategic actions for clear outcomes. Takes a little bit of planning with that, right? But that's my mission is to help them plan and be very strategic and intentional in what they're doing and not compromising the relationships of the audience that they're trying to attract. And then the other question was what are your brand core values? Now, these I've had forever. They're different than my personal values. There's only three for my business, and that is the top of the list is empathy, which is understanding the emotional journey of my audience, clients, and even my clients' clients, right? So empathy is the top of the list. The second brand core value, my business value, is integrity, and that is honoring commitments with honest and ethical practices. And the third is service. And service is going beyond the sale, right? To provide exceptional customer experience. So to go above and beyond, basically, is what that is in service, whether they're a client or whether they're not a client. So, what would your core values be for your business? You might want to think about that. And you could use Chat GPT to help you create some prompts for yourself to see if you can get some of these questions answered and get a little bit more clarity. And then the other was what is your brand personality? So this, you know, brand personality can be anything as far as the casual way that you talk, the warmth that you show, how approachable, how authentic you are. Um if it's more, I put on mine heart-to-heart connections. So I always want it to be very non-promotional and be very um human to human, as if I was talking across a kitchen table, right? Uh, just very grounded and so that someone feels like I'm speaking to them. And this is a practice in copywriting. You try to speak to one, and when you speak to one, you speak to many. And then the next question is who is your brand here to help? Now we also often think of this as who's your audience, right? But my answer was my brand targets, small businesses and independent coaches looking to make a real impact in their communities and industries. These individuals seek to create authentic connections with their audience and build their brand around integrity to create positive change in the world. Many of my clients, the reason why they're in business it doesn't come from head knowledge, it comes from heart. They've experienced something and they have such such value in their experience alone, not to mention their skills and everything else they bring, but just their past experiences have so much value and wisdom that oftentimes they don't realize how valuable that is. That's why the story is really important because we begin to extract that and hear what it is that caused them to create this business. So this piece I think is so important. And again, I can't emphasize it enough. It's what's going to differentiate you from everyone else. And then the last question is um, what makes you and your brand different? So again, for me, it's that blend of just being a mom and having that nurturing spirit. But when I was in ministry for so many years for decades, it was really about listening and understanding people and putting yourself in their place to be able to bring the best advice or counsel to them. And so a lot of that I bring into my business for profit, right? And also my personal growth and my personal experience and some of the challenges I faced as a child, a lot of that is what makes me different in the space because I overcame a lot of things. And I challenged myself, like with public speaking, entering an international speech competition and becoming one of the top hundred speakers in the world. That was not a flippant thing that just happened overnight. That was years and years of training, and then the competition alone was six months of having to get in front of people over and over and over again, giving a speech to strangers that I didn't know, and getting critiques and feedback and all of that to be able to just overcome fear. I didn't want to win anything, I just wanted to overcome fear. So I went through a lot of stuff, and the same thing with writing. I went to a lot of conferences, I pitched to editors because I was trying to get over my fear of having somebody read what I wrote, right? So lots of stuff that I was overcoming. So that makes me different from others. Maybe some people um struggle with something else. Maybe they got laid off from a corporate job, and now they want to bring those skills in their business. And it could be a different story altogether. Um, so I put in here, let's see, let me, I didn't pre-read this. I hope it's uh okay for podcasts. My perspective is not just about marketing efficiency, but about the uh riches of relationship building, which is often lost in the digital age. My experience as a public speaker, copywriter, and branding provides a well-rounded approach of digital marketing that many others may overlook. This authenticity and genuine desire to serve before, during, and after the conversion process makes my brand resonate with my audience. So um, so anyway, let me review again the questions. If you want to do this to kind of go a little deeper and figure out your brand, and again, we're still under clarify to amplify because your work is an extension of who you are. Figure out what are your core values, what's important, and even create a mission statement for yourself and then look at your business. And here are the questions for your business. Uh, what are your brand goals? Number two is what is your brand purpose? Number three is what is your brand mission? Number four is what are your brand's core values? Number five, what is your brand personality? And number six, who is your brand here to help? Oh, and number seven, there was a seventh one. What makes you or your brand different? Again, these questions were given to me by Michelle J. Raymond. She's awesome, awesome person and speaker, and she is a LinkedIn expert. And I'm so grateful that she gave me those questions to answer because it really gave me a lot of clarity. So you clarify to amplify, you got to start there. And then the next one I want to encourage you is to simplify to scale. So in the coming year, once you figure out your brand, who you want to serve, what how you want to do that, you're gonna simplify to scale. Now, I did an interesting thing today. I posted on Facebook and Instagram, and I have two Facebook pages, one that I had for a long time. I have like, I don't know, 5,000 people on it. Um, and then I have another one, another page, and I have an Instagram, and I posted today a farewell post. It was an image with me and my AI assistant, and it said we've moved, and it has my LinkedIn handle on it. And this is what I wrote. Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when it involves platforms that have been a part of my journey for many years. However, one of the most strategic decisions business owners and marketers can make is to retire methods or platforms that no longer serve our vision or the highest use of our time. And then I continue to share with them because I wanted to give them a little bit of value too. I said the market is changed and focusing on innovation and finding new ways to serve our audience better is critical. The future of marketing is so exciting as we experience a paradigm shift with the integration of AI in ways we never thought possible. Today I'm embracing the shift. My AI assistant scout and our internal AI team will continue to update my coaching programs for 2025 and launch a membership to Amplify Your List building with AI. Since my primary audience is B2B, it makes sense for me to remain active on LinkedIn. This platform continues to align with my goals and offers many native features to help grow my business exponentially. Relationships have always been at the heart of what I do, so these changes will make that possible. So while it's goodbye to Instagram and Facebook, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn. And then my handle at Marissa Shadrick. Until then, stay safe and remember success isn't a destination or your identity. It's a 10 seconds of courage you practice daily to create extraordinary results. There's again the encouragement for courage, and I decided to stop posting on Facebook and Instagram. And so today, well, by the time you hear this podcast, it'll probably be yesterday, and you can go see it if you want to. But I have decided to stop posting on Facebook and Instagram and getting on the scheduler and just exclusively post and level up my game on LinkedIn because LinkedIn has far surpassed my outcomes, my goals, getting clients, than Facebook and Instagram ever did. The algorithms are different. Um, Facebook and Instagram, it's all about getting more visibility, going viral, because they want um be to be able to sell ads. Where LinkedIn is different, it's all about relationship building, and their model is subscription. So it's very different. And you know, I didn't take the decision lightly. I I thought about it and I said, I really need to eliminate the things that I'm doing week after week, month after month, year after year, that's really not producing anything. And so I went ahead. And created that post. And it felt good. I felt relieved afterwards. And if you've noticed and listened to other entrepreneurs, they're making a shift because we're in a new era right now with AI. And many people are shutting down or selling businesses. They're changing what they're doing. They're upgrading what they're doing because everybody is reading the writing on the wall. And AI two years ago, it frankly sucked. It was terrible. But it has improved. There are new versions of even chat GPT. They continue to push out new versions of it. And the AI team that I mentioned, it's not humans, it's AI. It's custom GPTs that I'm creating. And my lead one is Scout. And you'll could see a picture in the post of Scout. And he has a little nameplate that says Marissa's assistant on there. But simplify to scale means that you need to look at the past year or two years and figure out what am I doing all the time that's not really serving me well? Is it because I'm not doing it well and I'm just not really going deep with it? Or is it that my audience isn't really there, or it's something I really don't like doing? You have to figure out the pros and cons for yourself and figure out what are you willing to spend time on. I am willing to spend time on LinkedIn because it's already provided revenue for me multiple times in a short amount of time than I've been on it. So I had been testing it the end of 2022. So it has been two years, two years in October. So two years this month that I've been testing LinkedIn and really enjoying what's been happening. And I'm doubling down and using more of the native features and the paid subscription on LinkedIn because I see the value. But you need to figure out what works for you. This idea of being everywhere and posting everywhere, I don't know where that came from, but we all bought into it and we all did it. And you can't really go deep and you can't really create connections or relationships if you're everywhere. Are you gonna be going to Messenger and Facebook and then to Instagram and checking there and then going to LinkedIn and then going everywhere else to check who responded and who commented and everything? You can't. It's crazy. You can't do it. If you're gonna do something that's not scalable, do something like have a conversation with someone one-to-one and just get on a call with someone. That's something you can't scale easily, but you get so much value from that, and you provide value as well. So when I say simplify to scale, eliminate what's not working, or maybe improve something that you're doing that maybe you're kind of halfway into it, not really 100% into it, and improve how you're doing it so it begins to work for you. And use AI. Use AI because it's not going away. There is so much that we can do with it now that is gonna shape your time. And people wonder, well, do I need a paid version? Um, I don't know what you get paid an hour, but I could buy a lot of Chat GPT's paid version for what I get paid an hour. So for the 20 bucks or whatever it is now, I'm not sure how much it is now. I mean, that is nothing if it's gonna save me some hours and I can do one-on-one coaching. It's you have to look at it that way because what some people do is they'll pay for ads and they'll have an ad budget, 300, 500, 1000. I don't want to do that. I would rather invest on something that I have a little bit more control over, like with AI and also some of the subscription models on LinkedIn. That's a fraction of what an ad would cost me. And I'm able to continue and sustain that and not have to turn it on and turn it off and turn it on and turn it off, right? It's a different, it's a different thing because I'm all about, again, relationships and building relationships and connections. So when I say simplify to scale, remove what's not working for you, improve something that you're doing that maybe you didn't do it as well this year, but if you just put a little effort or a little bit of structure around it, you can improve it and it has some potential. Or maybe start something that you haven't done that could be something that will work better for you than what you've done before, and then use AI. We're all learning how to use AI right now. We're still in its infancy. And so if you feel like you've missed the boat, you haven't. All my programs are going to include a form of AI. And so if you ever join any of my programs, you'll be able to learn about AI and you'll have actual custom AIs to use in any of the coaching programs or even in the membership that I have. So you would learn a lot about AI. But um, and if you're interested in that, it's not open yet to register for the uh membership. It's gonna be really low-cost membership. It's all about list building using AI. There's different ways to build a list, and um, it's gonna be very affordable. It's right now for the launch, it's only $29 a month. There's custom GPTs, there's custom designs from a graphic designer, there's modules in there already on how to create lead magnets, and it's going to be very comprehensive for list building. That's all I'll say about that. So to recap, the first thing I wanted you to stop and think about is to clarify to amplify, and that's your brand. The second is simplify to scale, see how you can simplify, how you can speed up your workflows, your processes. And then the third is prioritize to optimize. You need to really begin to look at some of the goals that you have and break them down into quarterly goals. So look at your annual goal, what is it that you want for the coming year? And don't create a long list of things. It might be just one thing. And then the rest of the year is ways that's gonna support that one thing. So figure out what is the goal. If it's revenue, back it up and see how many units do I need to sell of this product to be able to get this revenue. How am I gonna promote so I can sell the number of units to get this type of revenue? If it's um something else that you're trying to do, grow your email list, how are you gonna accomplish that? You need to really be very clear on what those goals are and break it down by quarter so that you can have a way to measure and track. And then what's really helpful is to create habits around your goals. Now, I didn't realize I did this, but I did because I journal a lot, and I had different ways of creating sort of a I'm very visual, so I use like a mind mapping tool to be able to see all the components and pieces I would need for a launch. And I use simple minds and I create a visual of those things, and so I add it there, but I also have a type of productivity tool, sort of like a sauna, where you can see a list of things that need to get done for that one particular thing. So I break it down to small chunks and I figure out at the beginning of the week, no week looks the same. Because there's usually appointments, things that I have to attend that I can't, they are they are absolutes. I can't change them. But I look throughout my week and I see where do I have chunks of time where I can work on this project. And so it's going to vary from week to week. But I have this goal that I've broken down by quarter, then by month, and then by week, and then by day. And so that helps me really accomplish and get a lot of things done. That's how I got my website all redone. That's how I finished a quiz from start to finish, and even created a custom GPT for those that are in my membership. That's how I get things done is I break it down, and a week or two weeks later, it's done. And so you have to be so focused and you have to really put blinders to everything else. Um, so many times our time gets eaten up by attending more webinars and looking at more things that maybe will give us some sort of hack. You know, there are no hacks. So you really need to prioritize and build these habits on how long you're gonna spend developing content, whether it's a YouTube video, a podcast, an article on social media. And typically what I always recommend is long form, which could be a podcast, an article, and then from that one long form, create all the short form pieces that are gonna go on social media. So you have a long form, short form, and it's usually on the same topic. And that can give you quite a bit of content. So that's really helpful to be able to do that and leverage your time because next year, a lot of people, as they continue to implement AI, things are gonna move faster because people are gonna be learning how to use AI. And if we don't incorporate some shortcuts, some ways, templates, workflows, figure this out and how we could be more effective, improve what we're already doing, and do it faster using the help of AI, we're gonna be, we're gonna be completely lost and we're not gonna be able to catch up. And so my encouragement is get on my email list if you haven't, because I'm gonna be providing workshops on AI and on LinkedIn. If that's something that's interesting to you, then just get on my email list, and you can do that by just joining the podcast community, and then you'll be notified when I have some of these workshops because I think it's really important. Um I'm really um looking forward to the coming year. This is a paradigm shift, and so we are having to look at things a new way with fresh eyes, and we need to adjust and adapt, and we'll be fine. So I wanted to encourage you that the years to come are gonna be great. And it's gonna be a a journey of simplifying things, doing it more effectively, and being able to reach those goals that you have. And you'll be able to sell those products. So um most of the people that I talk to are coaches or service providers or small business owners, they are personal brands. And so in that space, I can also say to you, as you're looking at your goals too, really look at the products that you're gonna sell and work backwards. Like, what is it that I want to sell? And I encourage you to have three options. So anytime you talk to anyone on a discovery call and you're trying to really serve them and listen, and that's a big part of the call is listening, you can assess which one of the three products would be best aligned for them. So, to give you an example, people when they're first learning, if the word they're in an entry level, there's a lot of how-to information, right? Once they get past that and they're more at an intermediate level, there's going to be a blend of how-to and coaching, right? And then when they're more advanced and they've got the how-to and they understand what strategy they're using, then it's more about community and networking and collaborations and affiliates. So depending on what stage your audience is at, your clients, you can customize those programs for them. And you can have maybe something for an entry-level, intermediate, and advanced. That could be a simple way of creating it. So I hope this was helpful for you. I hope this gives you just the motivation to kind of reflect and take a look at some of the things that you're going to be doing in the coming year. Again, the three things that we covered today was to clarify, to amplify. And it was all about your brand. And I gave you those questions to consider answering to give yourself some clarity. The second one was simplify to scale. And that is simplify everything that you're doing. You know, are you posting everywhere? Is it really necessary to be everywhere on social media? You know, we're so afraid. Oh, but I might miss a client. Well, think about how many clients you've gotten on that platform, right? Is it producing what you're hoping it produces? Or whatever it is that you're doing that takes time. And then if you can, add something new. And what I would encourage, if you haven't embraced AI yet, start with Chat GBT and check it out. Um, join my email list. I will be doing some trainings in the future, and you'll be in the know. You've got to have ways of using AI, templates, workflows, processes. So everything is like clockwork and you're repurposing content and you're not creating everything from scratch over and over again. And the third point uh prioritize to optimize. And this is all about you know being able to create those annual goals and create the quarterly goals and the monthly goals and the weekly and the daily and create habits around it so that you're consistent and you execute. So hopefully this was helpful for you. I am looking forward to the coming year. I hope you're going to be uh with me on this journey. I am going to be doing a lot more with AI and I'm still going to be coaching, marketing, strategies, and I am going to be incorporating a lot of LinkedIn for those people that love LinkedIn. And so I hope you join me for this journey. I anticipate it being a really, really fun new year because there's so much newness in the air, right? And so if that's you, um, I welcome you to join me and go on this journey. And I am happy to pass on any information that I'm learning. If you want to get on discovery call, if you got a question, I'm an open book. You could just connect with me. Um, again, my values, you heard what they were. I have a ministry background. Uh, I love to listen and to support people and at least get them in a direction, give them a tip to help them to go in the right direction so they feel more confident in what they're doing. So until next time, thanks so much for listening. Take care. Bye bye.