Do This Before You Blow Up
Welcome to the UnCloned® Insider audio newsletter. My name is Audria Richmond, and I am your marketing and launch strategist. I work directly with my clients to show them how to build uncloned brands and launch profitable marketing campaigns. We are the brand that you come to when you want to become or remain the obvious choice of your industry. Hey, y'all.
Audria Richmond®:What's up? What's up? What's up? Today is Labor Day, so happy Labor Day. Hopefully, if you're listening to this, you didn't have to work today, and I am totally working on today because guess what?
Audria Richmond®:I'm committed to the goal, and so here we are with our audio newsletter because, you know, we drop it every single Monday, so you all are in for a treat. So today, I wanna talk about what you should do before you blow up. So the name of this audio newsletter is called do this before you blow up. And, the reason that I am putting together this audio newsletter is because I witnessed so many people who they wait to they wait to do the the the real things. They wait to do the things that really matter.
Audria Richmond®:They wait to do the the hard lifting, the heavy lifting. They're like waiting to be discovered, waiting to be found. Right? And what I mean by that is oftentimes people don't invest in a really nice brand, a nice website, good photos. They're not thinking about their product suite, their vision, their plan.
Audria Richmond®:Like, they're not thinking about any of that because it's like, when I get x amount of followers, I'm going to do x. When I get this many subscribers, I'm going to do x. When my email list get to this size, I'm a do x. And, you know, my first book is called Are You Ready for the Yes? How to Prep Your Personal Brand for Lucrative Opportunities.
Audria Richmond®:And in that book, it was all about preparation and being prepared for opportunities. So when it presents itself, you are in essence ready for the yes. Like, that's the whole premise of the book. It's like, do these things, you know, follow these 7 phases framework so you can be prepared to, you know, be prepared for the success that's on the way. Right?
Audria Richmond®:And another thing is, like, people don't realize that people when they discover you, they wanna see you with some level of traction. There people are not gonna discover you and then be like, oh, I'm a wait and give them 6 months to get their stuff together, and then I'm a stick around and be ready to buy the thing. No. When they pull up on the scene, whether they pulling up on your Instagram profile or if they're pulling up pulling up on your LinkedIn profile or whatever you got going on from a marketing perspective. When they pull up in your marketing campaign or whatever, they need to know and can trust that you are the solution for them.
Audria Richmond®:And so it's important to get prepared before you blow up, not after you blow up. And if you go and study the the stories of a lot of people who, you know, went viral and they're like, oh, I didn't even know that was gonna go viral or, oh, I didn't even know I was going to be doing blah blah blah. And this kinda moves me to a whole another mindset. Right? So if you're like, hey, I didn't know this was gonna happen, why the hell are you doing it?
Audria Richmond®:Like, I never really understood that statement. Like, oh, I I didn't know that it would it was gonna do that. What did you think it was gonna do if you did if you you did it for a reason. Right? You didn't do it just to post it online and not get engagement.
Audria Richmond®:You you created the thing because you wanted to get seen, you wanted to attract clients and customers. So if that's your intent on building the business, then why are you not preparing yourself to win? Why are you not assuming already that you're winning? And and that's really what I wanna talk about today is, like, what are some of those things that you need to put in place so by the time you do get picked up, discovered, you know, people come across your profile, you're ready. And this is why early on in my career, even when I didn't have a lot of followers and I didn't have a lot of nothing, I still was ready for the yes.
Audria Richmond®:I still was preparing myself. I still had a a nice website. I still had optimized socials. We're gonna get into all the things you need to have in place, but I think it's important to note that, like, these things should come before your success and not after. Now granted, when we go over this list, you might be thinking like, Arjorie, I can't do all of that.
Audria Richmond®:And I'm gonna I'm gonna challenge you a little bit to at least do the bare minimum of each one of these things. What is the bare minimum thing you could do of each one of these things to show some some level of effort or commitment on taking action. Right? And so let's get into it. I wanna go over, some things that you really wanna put in place and the things you wanna do before you blow up.
Audria Richmond®:Alright? So number 1, I want you to get clear on what you want to be known for. What do you wanna be known for? And let me also say this too. Like, you have a lot of opportunity to change this thing that you're being known for.
Audria Richmond®:When you think about people who who was known for several things every every decade or every couple of years, they're kind of pivoting. That's okay, especially in this society because there's so many changes that's happening market wise. And so if you're in if you wanna be known for something today and then you realize 3 to 5 years from now or a decade from now that you don't wanna be known for that thing, that's the beauty of living life is that we get to rewrite our stories as many times as we would like as long as we have breath in our body. Right? And so what's the thing you wanna you wanna be known for?
Audria Richmond®:Like, when I first got started online, I wanted to be known for the branding lady. Like, come to me if you want bomb branding, nice website, banging photos, and you want people to take you seriously. Right? Because I I would I'm a firm believer of premium branding attracting premium clients. Right?
Audria Richmond®:I don't talk about branding as much unless you're like a private client or, you know, I might briefly talk about branding, you know, through content or something like that. But I realized that, like, I really want people to come to me when they have their idea and they want to market and get that idea out into the world via launching. Right? And so once I decide I wanna get known for that, then a lot of my marketing and content started to reflect that direction in which I wanted to be known for. So that's the first thing you wanna ask yourself is, like, what what's the thing I wanna be known for?
Audria Richmond®:Number 2, you wanna get clear on what to offer and sell. So this is something that you're gonna, 1, be open to the idea of this changing all the time. But I did a YouTube video on YouTube. If you head over to YouTube, at Arjorie Richmond on YouTube, I actually did a whole video on this. Right?
Audria Richmond®:On how to get clear on what to sell, like your product suite and stuff. And so the name of that video let me find it really quickly. The name of that video is called, how long does it take to create an uncloned product suite? That's the name of that video on YouTube. It's called, how long does it take to create an uncloned product suite?
Audria Richmond®:And in that video, I talk a lot about our product suite, how long did it take for us to get our product suite to where it is, and, like, things you might wanna consider as you developing your product suite. And then I also did another, livestream where I talk about, 7 pitfalls to avoid when creating your offers. So I highly recommend you go back and and watch those 2 YouTube videos. You get a lot of value out of that, and that's definitely gonna help you with number 2. But the reason you wanna get clear on what you sell and what you offer is because when people discover you and they they become super fans of your brand, they're gonna be wanting to buy something from you.
Audria Richmond®:And so if you don't have anything for them to buy, then you're missing out on the opportunity because when they find the next person, guess what they're gonna do with them? They're gonna buy their products and services because that person was ready for the yes. Right? Alright. So number 3, you wanna decide, and this is something that I'll I'll speak to both of these.
Audria Richmond®:So let me let me first say the talking point, then I'll speak to both. Okay? So you need to decide on will you operate as a personal brand or company brand. So, like, what are you talking about, Audria? Like, I'm of I'm obviously, I'm an advocate for personal branding because I wrote a whole book on it.
Audria Richmond®:However, you do need to get clear on the positioning of your business. Like, there's a lot of things I know about business now that I didn't know when I first started my business, you know, 16 years ago. Like, I wasn't thinking about creating a company to sell. I wasn't thinking about a comp creating company to exit. And so I at the time, I was just thinking about how do I have a business so I can collect money and, you know, pay my bills.
Audria Richmond®:Like, that was the primary reason for getting a business. And once you get out of survival state with your business and you like making money, you're able to save money and put money to the side and blah blah blah, you start to think about business a little bit different because it's no longer about, like, let me pay my bills. Now it's about, like, what am I doing with this asset I'm developing? What am I doing with this asset I'm creating? And so before I before I built my personal brand, I was a company brand.
Audria Richmond®:And what I mean by that is my husband and I had a business called Juice Me Baby. We had a business called, Love Noir, building big brands, so on and so forth. Right? We always kinda operate as a company, and I decided that I wanted to kinda reinvent myself. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Like, I wanna reinvent myself. I wanna reinvent my positioning in the marketplace, and so I decided to build my personal brand. Like, I want people to know Audrea as the expert and not Audria who's kinda playing around with all of these different businesses. Right? And so I began to start building authority and credibility as Audria Richmond, and I've been working on the development of my personal brand ever since I've been online, which is 2014.
Audria Richmond®:So really late 2013, 2014. So over a decade, I've been building my personal brand. And now that I'm on the other side of developing my brand and building my personal brand after 10 years, what have I learned? 1, I still think you should develop a personal brand. Right?
Audria Richmond®:But I'm also a firm believer of, yes, it's okay to develop the company brand too. And so if I had to kinda redo this thing all over again, the same way I went about building my personal brand, I will go about the same as building my company brand. And so if you wanna kinda know what that approach would be like, then I highly recommend you go and get my book, Are You Ready for the Yes? It's a part of our book bundle. At the time in this audio newsletter, it is 50% off.
Audria Richmond®:So if you wanna get it, you can head over to unclonedbb.com. That's uncl0ned, 2 letter b's, b's and boy as boy. So unclonedbb.com, and you can get the uncloned book bundle, 50% off. But inside of my book, I talk about developing your personal brand, and I go over the 7 phases, framework, but that exact same framework can also work for your company brand. So when you get the book, it's on page 79, so make sure you make a note of that.
Audria Richmond®:And the same thing that I would do for a, for a personal brand, I would also apply those exact strategies, for a company brand. Alright? Okay. So the next thing that, you want to be thinking about, give me one second. My little notes here kinda disappeared.
Audria Richmond®:I don't know what's going on. My, I was kinda signed out of my little Google situation here. Okay. So now I'm back. Alright.
Audria Richmond®:So the next thing is number 4. I I I didn't optimize your website. That's number 4. Audit and optimize your website. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have abandoned their website or don't have a website or don't give a damn about their website because they primarily spend all their time on social media.
Audria Richmond®:I know y'all don't care about your website. Okay? Not everybody that's listening to this, but a good portion of you all could care less about your website. And I'm gonna have you reprioritize your website because your website is something that you own. Your website is a journey that you can take people on.
Audria Richmond®:Your website is in a identifier of you and your brand. And so if I go to your website and I go down to the footer because I'm one of those people, and I know other people are like this. But if I go to the footer of your website and I see that your website haven't been updated since 2 2020 or 2019 or 2008 or something like that, like, to me, it's like, this ain't a brand I really wanna mess with because you don't even prioritize updating your website. And I know you may be thinking like, dang. I could lose business because I don't wanna update my website.
Audria Richmond®:Absolutely. Because let me say this too. The bigger the check. Okay? The bigger the check you're seeking, the bigger the the bigger the check that you desire, the the higher the expectations of the client.
Audria Richmond®:Right? Like, I think a lot of the times when people say they wanna get premium clients, they want clients that pay them tens of 1,000 of dollars, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, a 100,000, or whatever. A lot of the times, you're not even presenting yourself as a brand that can accept a $100,000. Like, if you can't even update your website, what makes me think that I should wire you $50,000? So I know this sounds simple, but it's so big of a point.
Audria Richmond®:Like, because you gotta think about it. The the bigger the company too, the more they gotta sell people on you being the person. See, when you're working with solopreneurs and you're like, there's only one decision maker. Right? Because this person don't doesn't have a huge team, or it's just a few people are there to head honcho, meaning they don't have, like, an executive team or leadership team.
Audria Richmond®:9 times out of 10, like, you're gonna have to you know, when you're working just with the solopreneur that doesn't have a team team, it's easier to get a yes out of them because it's just them in in their company. Right? But when you're dealing with a CEO who has an executive team and they gotta go and get things approved, they're gonna be like when they when they pull you up as a candidate along with the other candidates, because, you know, also the bigger the business, the more they shop around. See, the smaller the business, the more they don't shop around because, you know, they're not thinking about trying to go and do, like, a request for proposal. They're not trying to go through a corporate buying process at the at the bigger.
Audria Richmond®:Right? So the bigger the check, the more decision makers, the more people that have to get your approval, and the more honestly legitimate you need to be contract, legal, all of that stuff. Money wise, banking, all of that. So if your goal is big checks, big moves, big deals, then you need to be very serious about how you're presenting and showcasing you, your brand, and your expertise. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:Because you're not gonna always get the opportunity to come in a room and talk to people and tell them why you dope. People need to discover you and pull up on you and check out your brand and see why you're dope. I really hope that helps. Right? Alright.
Audria Richmond®:So number 4 was audit and optimize your website. The next thing you want to audit and optimize is your social media channels. That is number 5. So number 5 is audit and optimize your social media channels. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have a social media profile and it's just unkept.
Audria Richmond®:Right? It's just unkept. There's no consistency. There's no content that builds authority and credibility. It's like a hodgepodge of dumping.
Audria Richmond®:It's like a photo dump where people just find random stuff and repost celebrity junk, reposting old stuff, sharing graphics that's not properly sized. Things are being cut off in the feed. Don't even get me started. Alright? So if you want someone on our team to look at your social media, we we will partner with you with a Unclown Marketing Pro.
Audria Richmond®:And so if you reach out to us, we will partner with you with 1 of our uncloned marketing pros, and they will do the audit for you. There is a fee. So if you're interested, you can send us a text message to 404-965-4113. And so our unclown marketing pros are certified to give audits that we've created that's going to help you optimize all your social media channels. So if you need your Instagram audited, your LinkedIn, your YouTube, your Facebook business page, anything that's social related that we cover, reach out to us and I can partner you with one of our uncloned marketing pros, and they can help and support you with auditing and optimizing your social media channels.
Audria Richmond®:Alright. And so the reason why you wanna prioritize your social media is because before people even get to your website, the first thing they're going to see is your social media. And so if you're not taking your social media channel seriously, I don't even wanna click the link in your bio. I don't even wanna land on your website. I don't even wanna buy your products because you've already showed me on already just off social media that you're not ready.
Audria Richmond®:Okay? So keep that in mind. Alright? Number 6 is create and build your email list. This is something that, you know, whenever I am doing intake forms or whenever I'm talking to people, oftentimes, the email list is actually fairly low for a lot of, small business owners.
Audria Richmond®:And a lot of this has to do with the fact that you're not asking people to get on your email list or you're not doing anything to grow your email list. And so when I say ask people to get on your email list, I'm not talking about just having your website with a little pop up or something that people can opt into. I'm talking about how often are you deliberately asking people to get on your email list. And so there's 2 ways that we primarily grow our email list. Actually, 3.
Audria Richmond®:The first way we grow our email list is when we launch. So whenever we launch, and we do a marketing campaign, whether it's a free workshop, free challenge, whatever. Right? Just a lunch. Whenever we do a lunch, we always grow our email list.
Audria Richmond®:It doesn't matter. Even if we grow, like, about 50, 10, you know, a 100, a 1000, like, we always grow our email list as a result of when we launch. Now the other thing to think about too is that you can grow your list by acquiring customers. So when you get clients and customers, that's a way of growing your email list. And then the other way of growing your email list is just, you know, creating content frequently.
Audria Richmond®:Like, we do this in this audio newsletter every Monday. We do our YouTube video every single Wednesday. And so having a place where people can come and be reminded so when people join our community, they're they by the you know, if you're part of our community, you you got on our email list. Right? That's the only way you really learn about our community is by being on our email list.
Audria Richmond®:And so by having an email list, you have not only your community, but you have people who are interested in brand that you can email, that you can reach out to, that you can, you know, interact with. That's that's just extremely beautiful when you really think about it. Right? So getting your email list up is great because you have this asset that's independent of social media that you can utilize when you're ready to put your brain out there in a big way. And number 7 is to create content that's in alignment with your community, based on who you want to attract.
Audria Richmond®:So if you haven't hopefully, you haven't been on The Rock. Right? And so if you've been listening to the audio newsletter all year, because we've been consistent with it all year, I'm so proud of myself. Oh my god. I'm so proud.
Audria Richmond®:And so in May, we started putting up YouTube videos. When people say, like, I don't know what to say or what should I be saying, you should be saying anything that's going to attract your ideal people. And when I say anything, I'm talking about content related to what you teach and talk about. If you say you're an expert on helping me build a nonprofit, are you creating content on that? If you say you are an expert on helping me grow my Instagram, are you showing me how you're doing that for other people?
Audria Richmond®:If you say you're a social media manager, are you showing me how you manage other people's social media account? Like, you all have to remember that people, when they're thinking about doing business with you, they're looking for proof. They're looking for evidence that you know what you say you know. Right? And shameless plug again, go check out our YouTube video we recently did called 7 types of proof that closed deals.
Audria Richmond®:So when you go back and look at these videos, you're gonna be like, damn. You know, like, okay. I can I can do this? This is possible. And so you should definitely be creating content that not only builds authority and credibility, but it also demonstrates to people that you are the obvious choice.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And so the next two things that you should do before you blow up are things that I did fairly late in my business, but something that I wish I would have prioritized at the start. Right? And so number 8 is get your legal house in order. Get the contracts, get the trademarks, get the copyrights, get the patents.
Audria Richmond®:Whatever you need to be able to confidently market yourself online and offline at scale, meaning if a a million eyeballs got on your brand today, you will feel confident knowing that like, man, I got my stuff together. I got my brand together. I got my stuff together. Like, we in this junk, we cooking. Right?
Audria Richmond®:So you wanna make sure you had your legal house in order because I ain't gonna lie, it put a little pep in your step when you could pull up knowing that you got your stuff together and knowing that when you do business with people, you have, really good contracts, you have really good proposals, you have a really solid way of protecting your brand, or someone's out here using your brand name without your permission, you can sue them because you owed it you own the trademark. Right? Or somebody try to swipe your content, you know, and try to make derivatives of it. They can't because you can sue them because you have and own the copyright. And so getting your legal house in order is not about spending a bunch of money with an attorney.
Audria Richmond®:It's about you having the confidence to put yourself out there in a big way because you know you are protected. Right? Like, you already know what it feels like when you go into a certain part of town or when you come home and you feel protected. Like, that's how that's the confidence you wanna have when you're marketing your business and you don't wanna be on pins and needles. Like, oh my god.
Audria Richmond®:I don't wanna be able to take my stuff. I don't wanna be able to take my stuff. Like, you don't necessarily gotta be in a head space if you prioritize getting your legal house in order. And number 9, and this is probably should have been number 1, but I'm making it number 9 because it was late in my career, but it should definitely be top of line for you all. It's hiring an accountant an accountant firm to support you with your money.
Audria Richmond®:Unfortunately, I've had bad, interactions dealing with accountants. Everybody ain't legit. Everybody don't give a shit about your money and your and your accounting. And so the firm that I'm working with now, they had to go back and really fix and amend a lot of my, taxes because of the previous accounting firm that I was working with. And so a lot of the times, you don't even know someone is doing it right, which is what I was dealing with.
Audria Richmond®:I didn't know if, you know, the firm that I was working with was doing it right. And so you don't really know what's wrong and what's right. And so when I switched firms and they went in and fixed everything, they saved me so much money. Like, I was getting screwed over so hard. It's it's not even funny.
Audria Richmond®:And so it's important to know that, like, you need someone to support you with handling and managing your money and making sure you file your taxes on time and having a good relationship with all of the government officials. Right? You already know who they are. And so, you know, that's something you definitely need to do before you blow up. And so I wanna recap the 9 things just so we can make sure we're on the same page, but also, you know, I really want y'all to win.
Audria Richmond®:I really want you to win, and I really do hope you've gotten value from this audio newsletter on this beautiful Labor Day. So number 1, you wanna get clear on what you wanna be known for. Number 2, you wanna get clear on what you want to offer and sell. Number 3, will you operate as a personal brand or a company brand or both? I recommend both.
Audria Richmond®:Number 4, audit and optimize your website. Number 5, audit and optimize your social media channels. Number 6, create and build your email list. Number 7, create content that's in alignment with the community and the clients you want to attract. Number 8, get your legal house in order.
Audria Richmond®:And number 9, hire an accountant to to support you with your money. So I really do hope y'all enjoyed this audio newsletter. Please, please, please, this is my favorite part of this this conversation is me knowing how this helped you. So please let me know your biggest takeaway inside of our Unclown Marketing free Facebook group. And if you're not a member of this group, you can visit the description section wherever you may be listening to this audio newsletter so you can join our free Facebook group.
Audria Richmond®:Until next time y'all. Let's go live an UnCloned® life and build an UnCloned® brand. Bye y'all.
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