12 march 17 guest Dani Schiess
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching. I'm Ellie Scarf, an ex-lawyer turned executive coach. Over the last 17 years I've coached in-house, I've been an associate coach and I've run executive coaching businesses with teams of coaches around the world. My clients have ranged from global brand names to boutique startups.
And organizations doing good in the world. I now run the Impact Coach Collective, a community of executive coaches who want to level up their business skills and take action in a community of like-minded peers. I'm a traveler, a reader, a mom, wife, and dog parent. And I know firsthand that our stories have a huge impact on our businesses.
The executive coaching business is tough, and I've learned all the lessons through plenty of mistakes, and also with some great mentors. This podcast is all about growing a thriving executive coaching business. [00:01:00] You can build a coaching business that is profitable, sustainable. And that supports your personal goals, whatever they are, I'll be sharing tips and ideas translated for your context, as well as stories from the field with brilliant coaches and mentors.
If you wanna level up your executive coaching business skills, then this is the place for you.
Hello and welcome to the business of executive coaching podcast. I am so pleased today to have the wonderful Dani Schiess here with me. , Dani is based in the U S and she has an extraordinary professional background covering. ops leadership, social media management, but I think her real zone of genius, if anyone else has read those books, her zone of genius sits in coaching and mentoring, and particularly in executive coaching, which is her focus.
Dani, welcome. Hmm. Thank you so [00:02:00] much. , I should also say Dani has got a beautiful dog, Willow. So if you follow her social media, , feeds, which I will get her to give us all the links to include in the show notes at the end, , you might see Willow in amongst , , her stories that share a lot of really both practical and almost.
not spiritual, but really reflective wisdom, which I think , is really lovely. So I encourage you all to follow Dani. , Dani, do you want to do a bit of a deeper introduction of you yourself professionally for us? Oh, I mean, I think you really covered it, but yeah. Excuse me, I'm an executive coach and I also offer a mentorship program for women and it's, I started it when I myself was going through a career change and I didn't know what I wanted to do and what I wanted out of my next career and I was tired of clocking in for work Dani and out for life Dani and I, wanted to find more answers internally from within myself instead of [00:03:00] externally.
And so there was a lot that was going on and I really wanted guidance during that time. And because of that, I started to create a mentorship program just from things that I'd learned from books. I was reading podcasts, my own coaching that I was receiving. , and that's something that I'm extremely passionate about because yeah, it takes women from this place of overwhelmed and just a little deflated and confused and unmotivated to really clear and really empowered, inspired, driven, action oriented, and it's just in a month.
So yes, I do executive coaching and I would say right now. , and so , as you were going through those things, I was like, yes, I could have used that program many times in my career and my business journey. So, you know, firstly, for doing that work. And I know. for a lot of our listeners, like where we do this work because we're passionate about the impact that we can have.
And I can really hear that the way you speak. Yeah. Thank you, [00:04:00] Ellie. I appreciate that. It's amazing. So, and today we are really going to take advantage of the fact that not only do you understand this context of coaching. , and particularly sort of the executive corporate coaching world, but you also have so many insights in how we show up from a marketing perspective.
And so today what I'm hoping to do is absolutely grill Dani in the nicest possible way. I'm here for it. I'm prepared. Yeah. Good. On. On some of the factors that we need to think about as it comes to our brand, our social media, our use of social media for marketing purposes. And, and, you know, yeah, I'm not sure where it's going to go.
Dani, I've sent you through , some suggested questions, but we'll also just see, , see where we go. So I want to ask really practical questions. I think , that's what we're here for. , mostly. Firstly, thank you , for coming and sharing that with us. Of course. Yeah. It's a pleasure. So there's a whole bunch of [00:05:00] terminology I discovered when I started, , marketing my business and it's quite confusing.
, so I was wondering if you could sort of decode a few words for us. , so the first one is brand. What does it mean when we talk about brand as a coach? . Yeah. Well, you can think about it from the perspective of. Brands that you know, so when you think of Nike, you typically think of the Nike Swoosh.
That is really their brand. , , That's their branding, I should say. And their brand is that they are in the athletic industry and they do, you know, , they offer clothing and footwear for athletes and People who are athletic alike, and so there's branding, which is the swoosh that you would see, and then there's the brand of what it actually is.
Right. If that's a really Yeah, yeah. And then there's that also, like, the just do it, right? Which is sort of part of Mm hmm. Part of the brand. This is a total [00:06:00] side story, but when I was doing my coach training, and I did it at Sydney Uni back in the early 2000s, , you know, we did a lot of, like, peer coaching.
So we had these coach triads, and I was being coached by , a gentleman and no matter what, this is really giving away , some secrets. I don't know if I should say this, but no matter what the topic he was coaching me on, his advice was just do it. And it was probably the first time I realized that actually there's coaching and there's coaching.
, so that is a total, , by product, but you know, I have actually grown , , To see the value in that advice in terms of sometimes we just need to get out of our own way. Right. Which is, the just do it. But I feel like there was perhaps some nuance that we missed as early coaches. Yeah.
Maybe, an overgeneralization, you know? Yeah. Okay. , so then how does, so there's, we talk a bit as coaches about a visual brand. Is that just, is that like the same as the switch? Like it's our logos, it's our colors. Is that what a visual brand is? Yeah, I would say that's visual brand or also [00:07:00] more of the branding aspect because brand is really more about, you know, what is your mission statement?
What are your values? What, like your core values and getting really to the meat and potatoes of like what your business is, what it offers, what it stands for. I would say that's more of the brand. And then the branding is the visuals and the logos and the designs and the things that you can, like you mentioned, visually see it's the visual brand.
Yeah. . Do you think, like, how much detail do we need to have as coaches in terms of our brand? Like, do we need to go through, like, how much of a process? Yeah, well, I can share from when I was working at the digital marketing agency that I was at previously, that the first thing that we did when working with a client was spend about two weeks on The brand itself, like the strategy behind the brand itself.
Like who is the target audience? Who are our competitors doing a competitor analysis? What are our content pillars? And I don't want to, you know, [00:08:00] dive into the entire, strategy deck that we did, cause I think it can be overwhelming, but just to give an example, as an agency, we spent at least two weeks when beginning to work with a client on developing just their strategy and their branding for social media.
So I think it's really important because. Without that, without knowing what our brand is, like what, who, me as a, coach, if I don't know what I stand for, then I really stand for nothing. And that is a part of my brand. And then if I don't, if you know, if I'm using all sorts of colors and all sorts of designs and I don't have branding and then I can't have this cohesiveness that people can just see.
So, , and recognize immediately. So I would say it's. Incredibly important to focus on your brand and your branding to begin with. So if I was a, like , a coach starting my business and maybe I don't have a budget to engage like a digital marketing agency, which is probably most people, , what are the sort of main things I need to reflect on?
So I know inside the [00:09:00] Accelerator, we reflect on, you know, who are your ideal clients? What are your values? What are your offers? But I feel like it sounds like there's a little bit more that people could do. Yeah, I would say a few things to focus on in the beginning is your branding tone of voice. So what you will say, what you won't say, what point of view you want to be speaking from.
, just to give a couple examples, it's like, are you the cool aunt? Are you the informative next door neighbor? Are you the calm big sister? Like what, , who is talking when you're, what is the voice? And, and it could just be, you know, thinking about me, myself. I'm a multifaceted woman and I think a lot of us are, people in general, but I want to show up in a specific way on my socials as a coach.
I don't want to just show up as the me who can go out and have drinks and the me who can get surly with my [00:10:00] friends and that, you know, , I want to have a very cohesive tone and branding tone of voice when representing myself as a coach online. So taking time to really think of like what me. Do I want to be the one who's spearheading my brand tone of voice?
So , I would spend time there because then again, it can be kind of confusing not only for your followers and your audience, but for you as well. Like , if I don't have it, if I'm not clear about how exactly I want to show up, then there's one day I could be like, Oh, I'm feeling kind of funny today.
I'm going to post this. Oh, I'm feeling kind of interesting. I'm going to post this and it can sound very different if I haven't figured out what lens or what voice I want to funnel that through. And then also to our followers can be kind of jarring where it's like, Oh, for so long you've been using really calm, peaceful, soft.
Verbiage and now here you hit me with like a swear word out of nowhere. , it's just kind of jarring. So yeah, I would say, spend [00:11:00] time figuring out what your voice is and how you want to represent that as your brand or what your branding tone of voice is and then target audience. That's a really big one because when starting out, I think people have this tendency to say, well, I want to reach everyone and Then if that's the case, then we reached no one.
And I think it can be kind of difficult because in this day and age, we're really not living in binaries , or I think there's this push to not live in binary. And I really appreciate that. And when it comes to marketing, there is. A space for binary like there's a space to do you want to attract more women or men?
Do you want to attract people who are from 18 to 26 or 26 to 35 and? Really getting specific about who it is that we want to reach and why and then you know Just to clarify. So for example, one of the activities we do in the accelerator is actually identifying sort of You know, three or so sort of [00:12:00] segments or industries where we have like a disproportionate advantage and they tend to be our target audience.
And so what I'm hearing is that if we're clear about those people, then that's who we're talking to. So we don't have to talk to everyone. We don't have to be like, yeah, okay. Yeah, and I think especially as coaches, there can be this idea of wanting to be available to everyone or wanting to be of service to everyone.
And then that's just not possible. Like there's, if we're trying to reach everybody, we reach no one. Yeah, just getting really clear about , who we want to attract , and also using that as a filter, because there's some people like, at least for me, I want to work with women specifically.
So , my content is going to be geared towards not just women, because that's very over generalization or just like, but women who are. have already done some work on themselves and have some self awareness. And so some of my [00:13:00] verbiage might go over some women's head because they're like, I don't know what it means to be in touch with my intuition.
And it's like, that's okay. I'm okay if this doesn't reach you because you're not who it's intended to reach. It's also meant to filter people out so I can actually bring in people who would Yeah. So yeah, the branding tone of voice, the target audience, and then the content pillars. Yes. And really, I guess actually before that, I would say values, I would actually really say values.
Yeah. Tell, tell us about like, so I think as coaches, we probably are quite well connected to our values. Is our, are our personal values and our business values, if we are sort of basically. You know, solo printers, are they the same or are they different? , it depends on what you want, I would say, but yeah, to me, it feels like, how could they not be the same?
Because I am my brand. , it's just me working as an executive coach. I don't have, you know, , I'm [00:14:00] not this big organization or I don't have other employees. If there were other employees and even still, it doesn't, , our values don't have to change just because we have other employees, our values can attract those employees.
So that they're aligned with our values, but to me, yes, they are one in the same. And I would say more often than not, whatever the, well, not in a big corporation, cause in a big corporation, it just doesn't make sense to have one person's values be that for, you know, 50, 000 employees. But in a smaller organization, I would say, yeah, the values of the owner tend to be the values of the brand.
, and the employees that it attracts. So it totally depends per person, but for me personally, yes, my personal values are the same as my business values. So I can see them that like, there's this interaction between all these things, right? , our values almost come first, I suppose, is, would you say that's sort of , the foundation, then we've got our tone of voice, our target audience and our content pillars.
And [00:15:00] yeah, , if we have an idea of those things. then we're going to present something that is more professional, more cohesive, more consistent. It sounds like. Yeah. And also just be a good guideline for us because something that we talked about in the Accelerator group was how there can be so many tips and tricks and trends and new things to try on social media that it can be derailing.
It can be overwhelming and, you know, just really distracting because then I'm like, oh, should I, if I don't have my values in place or if I don't have my content pillars and I. So I'm like, Oh, let me just jump on this trend and try it. And then it doesn't work out well because it's not aimed for my target audience.
I don't know who my target audience is. So of course, it's not going to reach people that would actually want to work with me. And so, yeah, I would say those things are definitely important to get to the foundation before representing [00:16:00] on a social platform. That is amazing. Now I'm going to come back to content pillars because that I think is a big one, but before I do, how do we know where we should be showing up?
Like in terms of , the platform. So I think as executive coaches. We feel, if not confident, then comfortable on LinkedIn, right? That's our place. That's our people. But a lot of us also feel like we should have a presence on Instagram or Facebook, or I don't hear many say TikTok, , but, you know, who knows?
No, which platforms we should be on. It depends on who you're trying to reach. So for example, just like a really quick example, if you were wanting to reach a younger audience. You could go more towards TikTok if you were wanting to reach a more mature audience, you could go towards LinkedIn. That's just a really oversimplification, but that's just like one example of how you would determine which one you wanted.
But it's really about who your target audience is, like how old are they? What sex are they? Where are they [00:17:00] located? And what platforms are they using? That's where you want to be showing up. So if you know that, for instance, for me, I know that my target audience is female, the age range is from 25 to 40, and when I just look at that, you could even just type that into a Google search of, you know, what target audiences What women between the ages of this and this, what platforms are they using?
And it'll just pop right up for you. But I know that for me, it's Instagram. That's a very big one for me. So that's where my target audience is. So that's the one that I'm going to put my efforts into. Do you know, it's interesting. , I probably for, or I want to say the last 15 to 20 years of my business.
So for 10 years, I didn't really do anything on social media at all. Didn't, think it was important. Didn't, you know, sort of was a bit. I'm a bit scathing about , why would you do that? You don't need to do that. , obviously I have totally changed my tune , and particularly LinkedIn for me is, , , a big platform.
What I discovered in the last [00:18:00] year though, was I started looking at the other platforms a little bit differently. Cause I've always thought, no, it's professional. I'm just on LinkedIn. That's where all my people are. But then when I thought about, well, actually. Where am I right? Because a lot of my audience are like me.
They're sort of, you know, they're moving into their second careers and which is when you decide you might want to become a coach. You've got a great professional background. So yes, you're on LinkedIn, but you're also on Instagram. You're also on Facebook. , and there are a lot of tools available. I think when you are showing up on those platforms that aren't available on LinkedIn.
So I think, you know, things like if you want to use paid advertising. , like LinkedIn paid advertising is very tricky. , whereas, you know, , so I am learning to be a little bit more open about the value of different social media platforms. , does that make sense? Like, is that what we should be doing?
We should look at where are people, where are our people? Yeah. And I think you had a really great point of. Looking at yourself as your first person of who's my target audience. Because if you [00:19:00] are attracting somebody like you, it's so much easier to dissect because then you can just say, okay, what platforms am I on?
And why am I using those platforms? You know, my goal, I'm not going for me. I'm not going to LinkedIn to scroll and get inspiration. I'm going to LinkedIn. To make actual connections, to see what's up in the business world, to make like connections that I could actually work with a network. When I go to Instagram, it's usually for inspiration, sometimes for a scroll, sometimes for community, you know, but I can start to dissect why am I using those platforms?
Why do I show up on them? Why do I enjoy using them? And then that's how we can show up. And, that really leads to authenticity, which is a big thing because, like I mentioned before, there's a lot of things out there that is like, try this tip, try this trick. And those are just distractions.
That's not tips and tricks are not the same as a strategy. And that's a big, really big differentiating factor. And so. With these tips and tricks that can be, yeah, just like, , false. [00:20:00] It's like, oh, you're trying to get my attention. Oh, , you're trying to keep me on this platform longer. You can just sort of sense it out, I think, at least for me.
And so when we're thinking about what we actually enjoy and we can create that ourselves from our own unique perspective. Of course, you know, we don't want to just straight up copy what somebody else is doing. But that lands so much more authentically than. Oh, here's a quick little dance, you know, I was going to say, you're telling me I don't have to dance to trending audio on Instagram, thank you very much.
You do not. Yeah. This is your permission. But if I really wanted to, I'm good. Exactly. If you wanted to, and you know, if it came to you and authentically that's then I would say absolutely you should, but if it doesn't, then don't. And , if I put on my executive coaching hat. You know, the decision makers, the people who are bringing us in as coaches are typically heads of business unit, heads of HR, L and D folks.
, and although we think of them as roles, in fact, they are [00:21:00] people and they are people on a lot of other platforms as well. So, so although it may not be our primary platform, , there's nothing to say that we can't use those LinkedIn in quite effective ways. Absolutely. And yeah, and I think such a great point because exactly that, you know, we, at least for myself, I can, when trying to make these connections, you know, see a title and feel like, Oh my gosh, that's a, that's a big title at a big corporation.
But then at the same time, , that individual and I might love the same influencer or creator who makes these certain recipes and we can, you know, they are just, they're also people, these people, you know, with these big titles, they're also people as well. So, yeah, I think that's a great reminder. , , I am consciously that it can be a bit overwhelming, right?
When you're sort of starting your business and it's like, okay, do marketing and you're like, oh my God, I've got to do all of the things in all of the [00:22:00] places. My suggestion has always been like, start with one platform and sort of get comfortable with it and then expand if you think it's relevant. Do you have any thoughts about that?
Like, should we start with everything? Should we start in one place? No, I think you're right on. In fact, that was, , advice that we gave at the agency instead of trying to be everywhere at once, start with a platform or two and test it out. And especially for coaches as well, because you know what you were saying about just starting a business in general, there's so much to do.
And then to be the social media manager of our own accounts, it's asking a lot. There's a reason that. There are agencies that have full time employees, multiple full time employees that only do social media management because it is a full and a half time, like it's full time and a half job. It is a really, , it's a lot.
So yeah, I would say starting with the one or two platforms, but also starting with the ones that. That you're already [00:23:00] drawn to, that already feel good for you to show up on, that don't feel like such a twist, you know, twist the arm sort of thing. Something that feels kind of fun, if anything, because sometimes I can appreciate that it might not feel fun at all.
But if there is one that you're feeling more drawn to, that I would say explore that one first. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. , so I also want to ask, , so we've, let's say we've done that reflective work on it, on our values , and our brand, and we've got our branding in place. So we know sort of how we visually want to show up.
How do we decide what to say? So we know , our ideal audiences. , you know, we sort of know that tone of voice. We've got that point of view. We know our values, but how do we know what to say? And I think it probably has something to do with what you introduced called content pillars. Can you tell us a bit more?
Yeah, for the content pillars. Okay. So, you know, when posting it can, to me, at least it can feel overwhelming because there's, like I said, I'm very multifaceted. And so there's a lot of things that I could post [00:24:00] about, but , if that's the case, it's, what is it the saying of throwing spaghetti at the wall?
It's just like, . It's just a lot that might not even stick or might not even land. And that can be okay. I think it's really important to remember that social media, it's in the name, it's social, like it at the end of the day, it really can be a place of fun and a place of play and creative.
And so. I think there's this tendency to get wrapped up in like, Oh my gosh, what do I say? And if I say the wrong thing or, Oh my gosh, should I just post something and I misspelled something in it? Oh, you know, and it's just like, at the end of the day, there's so much on social media. It is just a drop in the bucket and it, you do, you just move on from it.
But yeah, with the content pillars that really just helps. The creator themselves stay consistent with their brand and their branding consistent with their branding tone of voice and then consistent with what they're posting so that they're not, I can speak for myself. I'm really interested in skincare.
I'm interested [00:25:00] in food and walking, exercising, Pilates, that sort of thing, playing with my dog. reading, there's a lot of things that I'm just kind of interested in. And if I don't have these content pillars in place, and I'm trying to represent myself on social media, I can, get really confusing really fast because it's like, wait, what is this account about?
You some, one day you're showing me skincare. The next day you're showing me what book you're reading. The next day you're giving this recipe. And sometimes that can be great for, you know, lifestyle or whatever. But if. we have these content pillars in place, then at least we have the filter that we're like, okay, here's this thing that I want to post.
And you know, we can get more clear about what the content pillars are, but here's something that I want to post. Does it fall within my content pillars? And if not, then maybe I don't post that thing because it can take me out of my brand. I love this and I love it because I think guidelines, like you said, help us to be consistent because a lot that I [00:26:00] hear from coaches is that There's so much overthinking that goes on, like there is so much overthinking.
There's so much questioning of, is this the right thing to say? Am I saying it in the right way? So if we have like made that decision once and then we can sort of run everything through that filter, I think it takes a lot of stress out of what we're doing. , yeah. So ,tell us , what exactly are content pillars, Dani?
Yeah. And I was going to say a lot of stress, it takes a lot of stress out of it, but it also takes a lot of the mental fatigue to, you know, like, which is really do I post this? Yeah. Do I post this? Do I not post that? So content pillars. , I suggest having three. There are definitely some businesses and some brands that have five, like three to five, but I would say start with three.
You want each one to be, I could give an example, like, let's say education is a content pillar of yours, and actually education [00:27:00] is a content pillar of mine, and okay, well, there we go, so, , yeah, you want to know what your content pillar is, so we just identified it as education, and then we want to know , why is that my pillar, and It's a really good place to start like asking the why, and especially as coaches, I think it could be a fun thing, but.
So asking why is really going to help understand if this is kind of a filler content pillar or if it's actually one of my main core ones. Oh yes, , , that hits, yep. Yeah, so asking, you know, what is my content pillar and why is that my content pillar? Okay, so let me, just work through this.
So education is, well, I think of sort of thought leadership or sort of sharing, you know. Education. It is. Why is it my pillar? It's my pillar because one of a big part of my purpose is educating coaches on how to grow thriving businesses. And yes, I want my [00:28:00] business to grow. I want people to join me, but more than that, I want to create an environment where coaches can bring what they do to the world in more sustainable ways.
Is that, is that what you mean by why? Yeah, I would say that's a really good one for why, and also that relates to how your audience would connect with it. Yeah, okay. Which is, so when I break down a content pillar, and this is what I learned from the agency that I was at, is. Then three, well, technically four, if you count the, what is the content pillar?
Why is it your content pillar? And then how is the audience going to connect with it? And the last one is what will you actually post? So getting more clear about, you know, if it's a LinkedIn post, is it going to be just a caption? Is it going to be a photo and a caption? Is it going to be a carousel? Same thing for Instagram.
Okay. Is it going to be a reel? Is it going to be a 15 second reel? Is it going to be a reel that I'm actually talking or am I going to do a voiceover in the reel? You know, getting really, really granular and specific about what it is [00:29:00] that you're going to post. So I think when you are sharing about your why, it also was blending into.
you know, it's, you can kind of think about like, why did I choose this content pillar? And then why did I choose this content pillar to connect with my audience? Yeah. Yeah. I like it. And so then like, if I think of how that connects to what I actually post, it's sort of, it's like, I usually post, for example, when I have a podcast episode and I'll share a post that has got.
, so you know, , the big chunks of the teaching actually included in the post and then, and then some graphics and then maybe an excerpt from the podcast in audio or video that by the way that I have not actually been doing that consistently. So that.
, okay, , but that's super helpful. So I might say, I'm just going to , on Monday, I'm, if I was a coach, I'd say Monday is going to be the day where I'm going to post some education for my people about resilient leadership. because I know that's what they care about. Because in [00:30:00] their industry, they're experiencing a lot of burnout and there's a lot of, you know, change.
Mm-hmm . And then how and how are you gonna post that? Yeah. , so I could say, yeah. So people might say, I'm gonna post a substantial article once a month, and then I'm gonna follow that up with a short tip every week, or mm-hmm . Or something. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Exactly. What other sorts of content pillars might we have?
So education being one, like what are some other ideas? , well, they can really relate to your values, , but I'll just give more examples. , community can be another content pillar, , especially for coaches as well. Yeah. So yeah, education, community, sustainability. There's a lot. I mean, there's so many that it could be and really.
I think a good way to, because kind of like what we were talking about before it sort of this decision fatigue, it reminds me of when I'm trying to pick a color to paint a room in our home and I just stand at the wall and there's so many paint colors that I'm like, Oh my gosh, I don't even know which [00:31:00] one.
, I think that can be similar for content pillars where it's like, Oh my gosh, there's so many things out there. So I would say starting with. What do you like about accounts that you follow? Why are , you know, , what are you drawn to? Are, and for me, I really am drawn to accounts that educate me.
I'm drawn to accounts that are consistent. I'm drawn to accounts that have a greater cause. You know, it's whatever their company is about, they also stand for something. So , you know, instead of just giving a list of what content pillars can be, I would say just first dissecting what accounts you're following and why you're following them.
And then if there's like an overgeneralization or just a general, , theme of the accounts that you're following, and is that something that you resonate with that you want to provide as well? Yeah. And one of the accounts that I follow, she is very much community driven and, and I would also say she's really authentic.
[00:32:00] And it's not. Authenticity isn't one of my content pillars, but it could be like, I, you know, that could have been one of the ones that I started with. And then it's like, well, is it really a pillar or is it something that I want to incorporate into my brand tone of voice? Yes. Like, and it's your how it's like the way I communicate is authentic.
So yeah, how I speak. Exactly. , Dani, I remember you sharing with our community that one of your personal content pillars is levity, and I really loved it. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Like, how that plays out for you, just as an example? Yeah, so I think it's really important for me as a coach to show my personality.
But like I've said before, very multifaceted, just like I think a lot of us are, or dare I say everyone is. And it's, you know, I'm very playful and If I can be so bold, I think I'm pretty funny. I can confirm. , but , I [00:33:00] wanted to bring my personality into my content pillars in some way, shape, or form. Like I really want to showcase who I am on my socials, because that's one of the things, one of the main things for me when I'm picking a therapist, a coach, someone to work with.
Yes, sometimes I can look at their credentials or their website or, you know, looking at their social media for this social proof, but really what I'm looking for is to get a sense of their personality and who they are, because that's. If I'm going to be doing such vulnerable, honest work, I really want to enjoy my counterpart.
Absolutely. And so, that was why I chose Levity, is because that's a very big part of me, my, it's a very big part of my personality. And also, it's something I enjoy about accounts that I follow. When I'm scrolling through and I see something and , it make, it just brings a little bit of lightness. It doesn't have to make me have this.
Full blown cackle, but you know, it'll bring some joy into my day. And on some days that might be the first spark of joy I've felt. [00:34:00] And that is really big because it can be the catalyst for me to be like, okay, you know what? Things aren't as intense as I thought they were. Okay. Yeah. , let's get up.
Let's get out. So levity was really important to me. And, and, you know, I thought a lot about the why and I kept questioning it to make sure like, is this actually a content pillar or just a way that I want to show up? , so, and then does that answer your question? It does. , and I love it. What I'm hearing is that the content pillars don't have to be generic, right?
It doesn't have to be that everyone has education and connection and, you know, whatever. We can actually find ourselves in it and then sort of connect that purpose of what we're doing and that audience we're talking to through , that almost , our personality. Which I think is great because we talk a lot about, you know, authenticity on social media being so important , and even on LinkedIn, I think a lot of people think you can't have personality on LinkedIn and , I don't think that's true, but sometimes knowing how to do it in the way that feels safe , is tricky.
So I [00:35:00] think having those guardrails , feels great. Yeah. Oh, I was going to say that I also with the content pillars, yes, I think spend time and, you know, really workshop them , and get to a point where you're, you at least want to test them, but then also having that testing period of, so maybe I.
Said, Oh, I want mine to be levity. And then when I show up on social media in that way, I actually don't feel fulfilled by that. And it feels like I'm just stuck and ideas don't really come to me when it comes to creating content that falls under quote unquote levity. And then we can change it. We can totally change and adjust, you know, so it doesn't have to be so set in stone.
But yeah, just having this playfulness with it as well. Yeah, no, I love that as well. And I think that that's. You know, as coaches, I think we know that nothing is set in stone. There's no black and white, but sometimes it's hard to balance that, right? That polarity between the structures that we know will help us to.
, and then, you know, the flexibility , that we might need to adapt as we go. And I [00:36:00] think we can have both of those, , which is brilliant. So one question that I'm asked a lot is how much of this can I outsource and like, you know, how, like within different budget levels, because some people, , they tell me that I don't want to do any of it.
Some people don't want to outsource any of it. , you know, what is your sense of the sort of the levels of outsourcing that coaches might consider? Yeah, for me, it's all of it. I don't want to do another thing on social media. Truly. I, as soon as I've got that in my budget, it is outsourced. It will absolutely be outsourced, but, , yeah, there's so many, you can break it up in a few different ways too.
, so yes, you can work with an agency. You can also work with freelancers and you can break it up. So , some freelancers and some agencies will offer these things, which is separating the strategy from the actual content creation. So you can have somebody who is more of a strategist for you. And what they're going to [00:37:00] do is analyze what you're putting out there.
They're going to analyze what you're putting out there. And typically, , , again, each strategist might do this differently, but in general, strategists will analyze what content you're putting out there. They're going to look at your data, your analytics. They're going to look at things on the backend and see how things are performing.
And then they're also going to test. They're going to share things with you , that you could try testing. So if they saw that you got more real, well, let's say that your, your goal is to. Engage more with your community, and they see that on a reel you got two comments, but on a carousel post, you received seven comments.
They're going to, you know, compare that and say, well, you got more comments on your carousel. Let's try testing more carousels and see how that works for the engagement. , there they should also provide an overview, , of your month. And to show you, you know, on what day did you have a spike? What day did you have an increase in followers or whatever it is, whatever goal it is that you're wanting to focus on.
[00:38:00] And it could be growing your following. It could be engaging with your community. It could be more partnerships and there's a lot of different goals that you could have for your social media, but they, a strategist should also be able to talk to you about that as well, but yeah, they're going to give you.
, analysis, a monthly analysis and give you some strategic direction. That's something that you can get from a strategist and from a content creator, they're the ones who are going to actually be creating your reels, your graphics, your captions. They're going to be posting for you doing your engagement.
, and so you can also just talk with a freelancer as well and ask them. , you know, or tell them here are the things that I really enjoy doing for my socials. Here are things that I want to outsource and it can sometimes get far too granular. You know, like if you're looking for somebody to take on your socials, but you're like, well, I like doing this and I also like, like, let me get more clear.
, if you say, well, I like [00:39:00] posting. Myself whenever I want and I also like responding to some comments and I do like looking at my analytics and kind of testing a few things here and there that's going to be really hard for you to outsource someone and work with someone because it's just so granular.
It's you haven't made it very black and white. Here's what I would like you to be in charge of. Here's what I wouldn't like you to be in charge of. And you're also not asking them to cross. You're not asking them to do some strategy for you and some content creation. You know, you really kind of want to separate the two.
, ideally you give everything to a social media manager or an agency because . It takes time for them to test things out, to get clear on your goals and to put content out there for people to interact with , and what I mean by time is I would say three to six months is when, is how long you really need to dedicate working with somebody else.
And that's one of the things that I find. And that happens often is somebody will quote unquote [00:40:00] outsource and then they don't see immediate results. They don't see a hundred followers within 10 days or they have these really, , aggressive expectations. . Yeah. And, and it's just not feasible. And so it can kind of feel like the working relationship doesn't work well, but it's like it just needs time.
You just need to be able to, you know, dedicate time to working with this person. So. Yeah, you can work with just a strategist. You can work with, , somebody who just does content creation. You can work with somebody who does both. , And then you can also something that the agency coastal collective marketing and , I'll provide their website, but something that they offer is an intensive and that's where you don't hire them to do your socials.
You hire them to get your social media strategy deck, everything that we've been talking about, your content pillars, your competitor analysis, your brand tone of voice. How you show up for community engagement, all it's just, it's a very in depth document [00:41:00] and they do that for you within two days.
And so it's a one time fee and they give you direction. They give you templates, so they, you know, get, they give you designs, , they go over your. I mean, I used to do this. I used to do this with clients and every single time the client walked, truly every single time the client walked away and just had raving reviews about the intensive because it gave them such direction, but also.
Empowered them to take on their own social media, but they had, like I said, they had the direction, they had the know, the, the wherewithal of, okay, what should I post? When should I post? Why should I post? It just answered so many of the questions that we're going over right now. So that's something that you can also outsource is just doing an intensive or just getting a social media strategy deck built out.
Yeah. Cause I imagine if you had something like that, then you're in a good place either to do it yourself or to then brief at a lower cost, , you know, almost like an [00:42:00] administrative resource to help you implement, , if you didn't want to do that yourself. So, right. It sounds great. And because then you've just given them the, the blueprint.
If you did want to hire someone, you've just given them a really robust blueprint. Yeah. Amazing. I think that sounds. And then I assume that, you know, there's, cause I mean, those may not be within reach for a lot of new business owners, , those options, but you could, , you could do things like. You know, buy a set of templates from either an individual or a, you know, I think you've referred to a website, creative market, which sounds like a place where you can, you know, things that you then chuck into Canva and apply your brand colors to, , just to help you with the visual components.
, . Yeah. And then there's, you know, well, actually, here's a question. What do you think about using AI in your content creation? Yeah, I totally, I, I think AI can, Get a bulk of something done and to be more clear, let's say, you know, writing captions and you just say, okay, write a [00:43:00] caption about three reasons to work with an executive coach and it goes through AI.
It can provide sort of this outline. But then I would go in with the scope, the lens of what's my brand tone of voice? What do I want to change? And it could be something as simple as, , why choose executive coaching? And then says, instead of saying something like it is just changing it to it's because that's not how you would actually talk to somebody.
, so it can be something as small as that, but then also. From that lens of, Oh, let's see. I said that I, my point of view from my brand tone of voice , is the cool aunt. So AI gave this to me. What verbiage would I change in here to make it more , in my branding? So yeah, I think absolutely you can use AI.
There's even Descript. I think, did you mention you use Descript? Yeah. Yeah. Descript can be great, especially for, you know, if you have a podcast episodes or just like long videos and having it Find the things that it thinks is going to be the most engaging. Great. You know, [00:44:00] that takes time off my plate. So yeah, I think absolutely using AI.
Yeah. Good. Inside the accelerator, we do sort of , in our content development module, we do talk about what are those tools and how to have like a basic process. So I think what we're talking about today is really like, if you want to turbocharge it, like we cover the basics. But there's, there's, you know, there's really infinite amount of, , you know, things you could do with, you know, your content.
Like I think you could do so much with your socials, so much with your content beyond the sort of the, you know, the basics of connecting with your audience. So, , that's now I'm conscious that we are just about out of time. So I want to ask, , one sort of rapid round question that I, with no notice, Dani, who's your dream client?
If, as a, as a coach, if you could coach anyone in the world. Gwyneth Paltrow oh, very cool. Okay. Yes. Awesome. Oh, that was quicker than, than I thought. Most people have to think about that. And the last question I do also ask [00:45:00] is, have you ever said no to work? Yeah. Famously. What, what basis would , do you turn down work?
When it doesn't align with me, when I have this internal, , I can feel it that there's a, , it's either a loud alarm or a very quiet alarm, but regardless, I'm being alarmed by my intuition that this isn't , the move or the collaboration for me. I love it. Thank you. And you know what I really hear, , , through this session is just that alignment between your values and how you show up and, you know, having seen that, , personally , on your feeds on LinkedIn and Instagram, I can see that, you know, , that's really authentic, , which is, you know, walk in the talk.
So Dani, I want to say a massive thank you for, for coming on the podcast. And so just to wrap up, how can people find more about you connect with you? We will of course put all links in the show notes. Yeah. So I'll give my Instagram, which it'll be in the show notes, but it's hello _ Tucson as in Tucson, Arizona.
And [00:46:00] that's probably a tricky one to spell, but it's T U C S O N. , my website, in to do intuitivecoaching. space, and then my Calendly to book. You can book one on one coaching calls with me there. Fantastic. So I'll provide all of that. Also, I was going to, but I was waiting until now. It's Schiess instead of scheisse.
Schiess. Oh, I'm sorry. It's German. How have I known you this way, this long? You're not, you're not alone, especially when you see it spelled out. , it's definitely, it's more like scheisse, but yeah, schieße is in the German spelling for good shooters, or good marksmanship. But soon it's going to be another name since I get married in May.
Oh, congratulations. It's so exciting. Thank you. And you will see a little bit of wedding content on Dani's Insta. There's a bit of, a bit of content because that is , a real thing, planning a wedding. It's real. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much, Dani. Really appreciate it. And, , yeah. Be [00:47:00] back next time.
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business of Executive Coaching. If you found it helpful, please share it with a colleague or friend on LinkedIn and don't forget to tag me so I can say thanks. I would be tremendously grateful. Also, if you would leave a review on Apple Podcasts. More reviews means more people can find us.
This episode was brought to you by the Impact Coach Collective, where executive coaches grow their businesses in a community of peers with business education, mentoring, deal clinics, and more. If you'd like to contact me or work with me further, all my free resources courses and more info on the Impact Coach Collective can be found at elliescarf.com.
Have a brilliant week, and I look forward to talking to you again soon.
