In today’s heart-to-heart, I’m walking you through why we overcompensate when we talk about our work and how to shift into clarity, confidence, and service. I want you to know how to talk about your business without turning it into a TED Talk, why rambling is part of the process, and how to build a brand once you’ve lived your work, not before.
In this episode we're talking about:
✨ How to explain your work without the song and dance
✨ The “dirty diaper” phase of starting a brand (based off what I learned in acting school!)
✨ Why a Google Doc & Stripe link can go further than a fancy site
✨ Why your branding starts after your first few clients
Someone comes up to you at a party and they ask what you do, and 10 minutes goes by and you're still somehow trying to explain it.
I get it. You're trying to earn trust, but you're making it a hundred times harder on both yourself and on the person who's listening to really understand not only what you do, but the value that your work brings to them, to the world, talking about your work can sometimes feel like a song and a dance. Like a long TED talk. It could feel like you're losing yourself, and you have to apologize and say, okay, from all that, basically what I do is X, Y, Z, and I want you to be able to be really confident in talking about your work, not only because it's what you're passionate about, but because it's what will bring something better to the world and to your potential clients.
Here's how to talk about your work without feeling like you're doing a song and a dance, by the way, hi, I am Kira. Welcome back to the podcast. So happy you're here.
I'm the artist and creative director at Studio Violet, a content and design studio where I help female coaches and consultants who feel the ick when it comes to social media, who feel cringe when someone asks what their website is, who feels like their brand just isn't the world that they know it could be.
And transform that into something that you are dreaming of into a world that you step into every single day because you have the freedom to create a business you love.
Feel free to hit subscribe if you're listening on YouTube or wherever you're getting this podcast to subscribe there as well.
I am gonna break down a few of the things that you're probably thinking when somebody asks what you do, the work that you do, what your job role is, and how we can reframe those. So the first thing that you may be thinking is. I have to overexplain my process because people just aren't gonna see how good I am.
They're not gonna trust me without me telling them what my background is, without me explaining my process all the way through. Because you probably started. This business started this work because you either were frustrated by doing it somewhere else and them not having a good process, or you saw it from the outside and just knew something could be different.
So now you're super proud of your process. You're like, I do things differently. Most people see this. I do it this way. For me, I can get so caught up in talking about my process because I. Worked in digital marketing and content creation for four years before I started my studio, and I saw so many things that went wrong.
And so now I'm really proud of the process I have. I'm like, you know, I don't believe that you need a social media manager if you're a female coach or a consultant. And here's why. I believe social media and content creation is a form of self-expression. It's not marketing. And I, I wanna go there because that's why I started this.
And of course, that's why you wanna talk about it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your process and being excited to talk about it. But we also know that when we have such a short time to answer someone's question, we do sometimes have to use the phrases that we might not naturally wanna use.
We use the definitions that we have our own definitions for, and so we have to find that balance of meeting them where they're at and explaining it differently. I'll give an example.
I never wanted to be that girl who is like a social media coach, or I talk about social media, I talk about, branding.
I, I'm around a lot of people who are brand designers, and so even that phrase, I'm like, well, it's so over used. Everybody uses it. And then for social media coach, I have this vision in my head immediately when I say that, and it's not something that I wanna do. So that's me, and that's not something I'm doing in my process, and I know that because I look at it in a totally different lens.
But when someone comes to me and asks me what I do, I know that I need to speak in a language that they understand in order for them to. Really know how I can help them. And if I see my work as a service, which your work as a service, all of our work as a service, not just service provider, but a service to a greater good, to the expansion of the universe, then I need to serve and I need to humble myself.
And get rid of this preconceived image of what I'm seeing in my head because I'm making it all about me. I'm not making it about them. So yes. Now I do use the phrase, oh yeah, I am, um, brand design. Uh, I help women who hate social media, who I use the word social media because I see that immediate. Click in their brain.
When I've used that phrase in the past, and this has come from me, bumbling on for for minutes, and so there's a, there's a, there's a time and a place in your business to do that. When you're first starting and you're first starting to do networking, you are going to to ramble on and on and on, and that's fine.
You are working things out and usually when you're experimenting with different networking events,
what's great is that you end up basically using this as a practice round, and so from you rambling on and on and on. What ends up happening is the other person's gonna say, they're gonna say something.
Something in them is gonna trigger them. They're gonna maybe ask a question about, well, what kind of websites do you do? And so that might then trigger you to say, okay, well next time they're actually just wondering what kind of websites I do, like, what platform I'm on and I'm on show it. So maybe next time I'm actually gonna say, so I do show it website.
So I'm basically using that. What you can do is you can turn your ramblings. Write down what someone else has to say about that, what they're asking, and then start with that answer the next time around. That's gonna help you speak. What they're speaking. The reason why I say I help women who think social media is cringe or know that they should be doing it, but they hate it is exact words.
Those exact words are things that I have heard people say in response to my ramble. So it's perfectly okay for you to ramble for a little bit when you're starting out. Just make sure to note down. What those questions are that people ask you, and then use that to lead your next one. And then they're gonna ask you some more questions and you're gonna write some more things down and then use those few things to lead the next one.
And then they're gonna ask more questions. And pretty soon you have what many people call an elevator pitch. Anything, any language that helps you understand it. You're gonna have that little phrase that just immediately helps people understand who you are.
It takes humbling. I'm telling you, it takes humbling for you to be like, but it's not just show up websites that I do.
It's so much more. Yes. Every business owner believes that what they're doing is so much more. And it is. It is. Every business owner is doing something more unless they're like lazy and just trying not to do anything, but they are not listening. Right now you are doing your work because you know it's so much more.
We know that, I know that you have confirmation right now. I know that you're doing so much more, but when you're trying to explain your process to other people, you need to use the phrases that they are asking about. You need to be in service to them. You're in service to the world. You're in service to the greater universe because you know that this is going to change lives.
It's going to expand their world in some way. So you need to humble yourself to be in service to that,
and you'll find at the beginning when you first start networking. You are overcompensating a little bit because you are still working out all of these things in your brain, and that's perfectly okay. It is okay. Again, it's okay to ramble. It's okay to feel like you need to overcompensate.
You've just started or you've shifted things in your business, so of course you're going to want to prove that even though in the shift you're still doing the work you want, that is okay. I want you to acknowledge that first. Then humble yourself and say, I'm gonna use phrases that I don't align with.
But this is just the beginning of the funnel, right? We just, it's just about capturing, it's just about bringing people into the world. Then you can invite them to sit down on the couch and tell them a little bit more. Then you can offer them some tea and some snacks, and tell them a little bit more how social media is self-expression, not marketing.
How you're consulting does things in a much different way, but it's, we need to bring them into the house first or else they're never going to accept the cookies and the tea.
Okay, so number two, you might be thinking that, well, other coaches and consultants, they have long pages that outline everything on their websites, and so I, I have to meet that, that I have to be that detailed. The comparison game is so real. I see so many websites that are so, so, so, so, so long, it reminds me of those really long sales pages when you're about to buy something, and I kind of get those because you're basically about to be the decision, the deciding factor between someone buying your program or your offering or not.
So they wanna explain everything because they're right at the crux of that decision making process. But again, we're the beginning. This is. When you're overexplaining your process, this is when you're explaining your process. It's just because people are asking you, they're interested, they're not like ready to buy.
They're not gonna say, well, I'm going to, I will only buy this when I know what your process is like. That's very rare. They're going to ask about your process or they're going to ask about your work when they're at the beginning of it. And once you invite them into the world, that will help them make the decision.
But basically we think that because so many people have these like really fancy long pages that have, here are the three steps, here are all the takeaways you're gonna get. Here's how much it is. Here's a video of me explaining things. That's all great. That all comes in time. But it reminds me of, in acting school, my acting teacher would call the first year.
It was a two year program. The first year, the dirty diaper face. Because we needed to see if our craft had life first. We would do acting exercises like repetition, and we. Would want to basically check to make sure that we had some sort of emotional life somewhere in us. We weren't just like blocked off from the world.
We had a point of view about things and we were curious and we were taking things off the other person. Similarly, in your work, if you have just started this business or if you're, if a season of Reshifting, you wanna make sure it has life first. So building, and I do this too, I'm saying this to myself.
Just as much as I'm saying it to you, building an entire landing page sales page, abstract website when you first started this, it is not going to show that your work has life. I wanna see that your work has life. If your work can live on its own without having a fancy landing page.
If your work can live well enough by you talking about it in a Google Doc, you have proven that it has life and you've proven that it is deserving of a long sales page. Now. We can get all into when it's time to make all of that. But what I invite you to think about, because I hear so many women who I work with think is that like, well, I can't get started until I start my website, or I can't get started until, you know, I do X, Y, Z.
This probably sounds crazy coming from someone who does show it websites and branding and content creation, because I believe all of that is a manifestation of your future. But in the same sense, if you're at a point where you haven't really tested out the waters of your own consulting, of your own coaching, of your own work, you're going to make it so much harder on yourself. You're not practicing enough of that actual process. You're not deep in there in order to really understand what makes it different. And so that's why I really don't work with women who are like, I've always wanted to start this business, so I'm gonna start it.
Like, I need to know that you've done this a few times. And so, you know, your process is different. And equally, I want you to have the confidence that, you don't need to overexplain things at first
you are never gonna get that first client unless you really have a process.
Unless you, you're confident in the work you do, you're not going to get that second client until you've tested it out on the first client and you're not gonna get that third unless you've tested it out on two. And then you've refined that process even more. So you need that time for the dirty diaper phase before the branding even begins.
So I always believe like DIY it for a little bit, you know, just post the thing. Make the sale, do the work that's going to teach you more about your brand. I'm not gonna be able to do any branding or content creation work unless you've done that
just because other coaches and consultants have the super long service page, it does not necessarily mean that you need to as well. They are likely at a much further season in their business than you are, and it's like comparing their step 12 to your step one.
It all goes back to if you feel like you need to over talk, over, explain your services, I want you to go back to.
What are my dream clients actually asking for? How can I humble myself, speak to that? And that's gonna get your first few clients. And then those first few clients are going to help narrate what your brand really is. But you won't be able to do the work unless you do that.
So like spending all this time designing this abstract website and going really deep into the sales page. Landing pages and product descriptions, it, it's service descriptions and service pages. It's gonna do more harm than good. And I'm telling you from experience, I've wasted so much time doing that.
And I wouldn't even say it's wasting 'cause I actually learned that. I just love designing. From that I just loved designing. And so I realized like, okay, I need to start a content design studio studio 'cause this is so much fun.
But for you, if you know that you love the coaching consulting work you do, you really need to lean in on just finding those first few clients and challenge yourself.
Can I find these clients just from having a Google doc and a Stripe link? Just by talking about it, maybe talking about how, I'm in like the beta version of this right now. I'm in, I'm offering case study pricing, like using language like that it's code for being like, I'm still building out this thing and so I'm gonna give you a good deal.
And then from there you're gonna learn so much. And that's gonna start building your world, building the world of your branding. By the way, if this is helping you so far, I would love it if you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening on YouTube, subscribe to the podcast. If you're listening anywhere else, I really, really, really would love to inspire you to use content creation and branding as building an entire world to manifest your dream.
Clients do your dream work even more, and continue building that dream life of yours. Whatever that looks like for you. Go ahead and hit subscribe. I'd love to see you round.
Number three, you might be thinking that you really can't do any work without website content.
That phrase, what I've been saying over and over, you might be like, no, but people won't see my credibility starting is going to help you build that world. Not starting is gonna keep it vague and diluted. And what ends up happening is that I end up seeing brands that it doesn't feel like their branding is a world, it doesn't feel like when I go on their website or their social media, I have literally been dropped into this different universe.
This home where I can see the colors of the painting on the walls. I can see like the artwork that they would love. I can see like what it would feel like to sit in a living room and really work with them and know then if I wanna work with them and. That ends up not happening. If we focus on the branding and content creation, first, this isn't to say don't post when you're starting.
This is to say, don't need to invest when you're just starting. Like prove to yourself that you can do this a few times. Do prove to yourself the types of clients you wanna work with, and that will build the foundation, that will give you the paint, that will give you the brush. And that'll give you the twinkle lights, the interior design pieces, whatever, will help you design this world in the way that you want to.
You're not gonna be able to have any of those tools or materials if you haven't already worked with clients. The work is going to give you those tools. Then we'll be able to build upon that and really create that world that you want. The worst thing that could happen is you assume I wanna work with this type of person
and you get your branding done, market towards them. You work with them a few times and you absolutely hate it. And now your branding has to be totally different. So that's why I really don't work with people again, like who are just starting a business
because I don't want them to waste money or time. I just don't want that.
I want this to feed your business for years and years and years, and your creativity and your life because content creation is a part of your lifestyle, I know that your work is a part of your lifestyle because you love this work so much.
I want it to be integrated in your life. And if you feel like that sounds icky like you, oh no. I want business and I want life, and I want that to be separate. I really invite you to ask yourself why. To ask yourself, what about your business are you seeing as businessy and boring? Because for true content creation to happen, for a true brand to happen, for you to truly love the work that you do every single day, your lifestyle needs to be integrated into your business and vice versa.
That goes in your branding, your content creation, every part of it, it is all one.
If you finally wanna see social media as something that isn't icky and something that you can approach and that's fun, and that is like FaceTiming your friend or texting your friend, go ahead and watch the next episode.
Stay inspired and stay creative and I will see you next time friend. Bye.
thestudioviolet.com | @thestudioviolet | Book a fit call ♡
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