In order for your audience to know, like and trust you, they need to be able to make a connection with you so today we’re going to dive into how to connect with your audience.
IE 316: How to Connect with Your Audience as a Blogger
We are continuing our series started that started with episode 312 on the business of blogging and then went to episode 314 where we talked about what positioning in business is.
This series is following along with workbook for my corresponding book Influencer Entrepreneurs: The 4 Step Framework for Building Your Audience, Growing Your Business and Making Money Online.
If you haven’t already grabbed your free workbook, you’re going to want to make sure that you do that.
So far, we’ve talked about positioning as part of that four part framework of P.A.C.K., and last week we talked about what makes you unique?
How to Make the Connection
So now we are going to talk about making that connection.
You heard me tell my story in the first part of episode 312, where I talked about my past experience of doing door-to-door sales and how I quickly realized that it wasn’t about being a salesperson.
It was about making a connection.
And the way in which you make that connection is you have to know what the events were that formed you.
What made you into the person that you are today.
If you were to look back, what are the little things that just made you who you are.
It could from your early childhood, elementary age, going into high school, college, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, wherever you are in your journey.
I want you to be able to look back because as we are trying to make connections with people, our stories make a difference.
One of the things that was happening to me during the writing of this book was that my dad had to go in to have a quadruple bypass, and it was very sudden and wasn’t expected.
He had just been playing full court basketball at the age of 61.
We also found out that there was more to what was going on with him.
And when I shared this inside my membership site recently, I had someone reach out to me that said, Thank you so much for sharing this because I didn’t realize we actually had that connection.
We actually have that understanding and how hard it is when you find a family member that is dealing with this illness.
I want you to really start to look back at your life.
Tell Me Your Story Exercise
I want you to go to the second page in the workbook and start to tell me your story.
You’re going to set a timer for 10 minutes, and while the timer’s tick down, I want you to write continuously.
It just should be a continuous flow of you getting out on the paper all the things that happened to you that made you who you are today.
I want you to start with your childhood, like I said, and go all the way through your teenage years into adulthood and where you are today.
It’s supposed to be a stream of consciousness.
You don’t need to go into details of the story.
Just put a name to the event.
In other words, if when I was in high school I had a bad breakup, I would simply write bad breakup and leave it at that.
You don’t have to go into great deal detail of what it was.
You can just simply say, bad breakup and move on from there.
If one of the things that was really important to you was graduating from college, college graduation day.
Or maybe it was meeting your partner.
I want you just to quickly write it down and keep going through the things that have impacted you and made you who you are today, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
No One’s Path Looks the Same
I want all of that to go into this. The events that have actually incurred in your life have made your path twisted.
I want you to think of it that way.
No one’s path is the same.
We talk about this all the time because we have the terrible habit of comparing ourselves to other.
You never know how their journey or what path they have been on.
Your path is your path.
And most likely, like everyone else, your path is twisted. There are little nooks and crannies.
There are little things that have caused you to slow down, maybe to feel like you’ve walked in circles for a while.
Maybe it’s just a circular motion, whatever that might be. It is your path.
So I want you really to be thinking about. It’s a multitude of events that led to the twists and turns that of that path that have made us into who we are at this moment.
Show Gratitude
Be grateful for that path because without those events, you wouldn’t be who you are today.
Be grateful for all that you have done and all that you are.
Think of all the lives that you have impacted and will impact in the future.
We often get bogged down with minuscule day to day of our lives. We forget to take time to be grateful.
This lack of gratitude can affect the type of people that we attract and will be attracted to.
In order for us to truly connect with others, we need to be grateful for who we are.
And each of these pitfalls and twists within our path has made us into who we are and we need to be grateful for that.
So as you are going through and writing these down, I don’t want you to feel like you’re taking steps backwards to talk about this.
Always, always think that the failure has made me stronger, has made me continue to move forward and see myself as knowing how to get past that.
Our lives are not meant to be perfect.
Those bumps and trials and tribulations that we have gone through, make us who we are today.
So go through, walk through it and look at it because I’m telling you, there were others that have probably gone through similar circumstances.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
- Join the conversation on Instagram by tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
