Hey, I’m Sunny Lenarduzzi. Being an influencer is an important job…but the term gets tossed around so loosely these days. Today’s video is all about creating a sustainable influence and lasting impact.
RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
Download your free guide “The Influencer’s Handbook”
“1000 True Fans” by Kevin Kelly
“Primal Branding” by Patrick Hanlon
Watch my video “Finding Your Tribe (5 Steps to Attract and Elevate)”
Watch my video “How to Handle Rejection and Hate (With a Smile)”
Watch my video “3 Content Creation Hacks (Save Time, Be Productive and Build Authority)”
I get a little weirded out by the word influencer. I always have. It’s like I’m allergic to it. But the thing is when you start making content, and you start putting yourself out there, you build a community, and with community comes influence.
And so, because I’m a little hesitant to use that word, I almost wanted to do an experiment. I sent out an Instagram story a couple days ago, just saying, “Meet me here at 12:30 on Friday,” just to see if anyone would actually show up in real life. Because if your influence online can translate offline that’s a pretty amazing thing, and you can actually have real human connections with your tribe.
It’s a weird thing to build a following.
But once you do, you have a responsibility to figure out what to do with it and to continue building relationships with your community.
Rule number one, treat people like people and treat them how you’d want to be treated. Outside of that, the best brands in the world that stand the test of time, like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Oprah, Apple. They all have common elements that make them influential. I’m going to break down these three steps to become an influencer in today’s video, so you can start using it for your own strategy.
But first, it’s important to understand that you probably already are an influencer whether you like it or not.
If someone has taken the time to click Follow or Subscribe or Like, you have influence. You have people who are looking at you and wanting to hear from you and looking to you as a guide.
That’s influence.
You are an influencer.
The best article on this topic is called “1,000 True Fans” by Kevin Kelly. If you haven’t read it yet, this concept is brilliant, and it talks about long-term community building and long-term sustainable success about going deep rather than going wide.
Now, what this means, and what I really applied to my own business is to be a successful creator, you don’t need millions. So what it says in the article is you don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans.
To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor, you only need 1,000 true fans. The math is if you have 1,000 true fans who are dedicated to you and to your brand and to your business, and if those 1,000 true fans are paying you $100 a year, that’s $100,000 a year.
There are people out there who have millions and millions of bands and followers but don’t have any business behind it.
They don’t even know how to monetize it or make money from it. They just happen to have this really random, varied, wide following instead of this dedicated tribe who knows exactly why they’re there and what they’re following you for and what they ultimately want to invest in with you. That’s much better for you in the long run and much easier for you to manage because it’s building deep connections and relationships versus these surface-level, bad, viral connections.
The three steps that I’m about to share with you are going to change the game for you in building a ton of influence in your space and your industry.
STEP #1 – RELEVANT CONTENT
First and foremost is relevant content.
Not just random content because random content is going to get you a random audience.
It’s not going to get you people who are actually interested in following you for the long term. It’s going to give you a viral hit of success, which might sound really glamorous to you, but it really doesn’t mean anything.
I can say this from experience and from working with people who have millions and millions and millions of followers and subscribers, but they don’t know what to do with them. So focus on content that provides value in some way, shape or form because the more value can bring, the better quality of audience you’re going to attract, and you’re really going to find those 1,000 true fans.
Think about it this way. If you’re putting out scattered, random, irrelevant content, you’re attracting a scattered, random, irrelevant audience.
Make sure that you’re focusing first and foremost on that content that’s providing value.
The thing to remember here is that it has nothing to do with you. The less you focus on yourself and the more you focus on how much impact you can have on your audience, the faster you’re going to build your influence.
STEP #2 – CONSISTENCY
Step two is consistency. What I mean by this isn’t just, “Let’s post at the same time every day and every week.” That is huge and it’s a big part of creating influence and building a tribe and a community around your brand that is super loyal.
You guys know I post every Tuesday at 6:45 AM. I show up for you, you show up for me. It’s just like an offline relationship. You have to build that trust. But that’s not really what I want to dive into right now.
What I want to talk about right now is the concept of Primal Branding, which is an incredible book and it was recommended to me by a friend that breaks down what all of the biggest brands in the world have done to create cult-like followings that have lasted generations over generations.
What it breaks down to are different steps that each of these iconic brands has taken.
So, take for example Apple. The first thing that Apple has that really created this cult-like following for generations over generations is a creation story.
This is step number one of Primal Branding. A creation story is the origin. How did it start? What’s the emotional factor of how this business was built?
For Apple, it was started in a garage by two guys named Steve, and it seems like this crazy story for now where Apple is as a company.
So, you want to start with your creation story. That’s super important.
The next step of this is your creed. What is it that you believe in?
For me and for my brand, it’s “Be your own boss and build your own life”, and I say that every single video because that’s what I stand for.
You can also think of someone or a brand like McDonald’s, golden arches. No matter where you go in the world, you know that’s a symbol for McDonald’s. As much as that may not be the thing that you really are craving at that time, it creates a sense of familiarity and safety because you know it, and you trust it, and you’ve probably been going there since you were a kid. That icon makes a huge difference to the brand loyalty and why that brand has been able to stand the test of time.
The next thing is creating rituals.
For a brand like Starbucks, you know that you’re going to go get your morning coffee. It becomes part of your daily routine. It becomes part of your life. It becomes part of your go-to, which is also why a lot of the times people will choose to go to a Starbucks versus any other coffee shop. It’s not because the coffee is any different or any better. It’s more so because it’s part of their life and their ritual. Rituals can also come through symbols or phrases or anything that you do consistently, and your content creates a ritual with your audience.
Next thing is pagans which means the opposite of your tribe.
Any big brand or any success story is going to have opposites. So when it comes to things like McDonald’s, you have Burger King. Or it comes to car companies, there are so many different competing car companies, and there are loyal brand ambassadors for each one.
Pagans are not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s important to recognize who you don’t want in your tribe because it’s all about attracting the right people, those true fans, as opposed to trying to track everyone because attracting everyone is actually going to build slower momentum for your business than attracting the real people who actually want to be there.
The next thing is sacred words, and the best example that I can give you of this is, again, going back to Starbucks.
Some of the orders that you’ll hear when people go to the till at Starbucks are so incredibly random if you hear them out of context. Now, I just happen to get a simple green tea. But creating words like venti, grande, whatever it might be. Those are only terms that you really hear at Starbucks. And double tall, sugar-free, vanilla soy latte, that’s an order you’re only really going to give at a Starbucks.
Even if you only give it there, no matter where else you go in the world for a coffee, you’re probably going to repeat that same phrase, and it won’t mean the same thing if you’re at a different coffee shop.
That’s those sacred words or sacred phrases that create almost like a cult or a tribe within your company that’s like this little secret society.
So as a business or brand, what are some of the things that you can create that are unique words?
For us, it’s #ByoBOSS.
We knew no one else was using that. And so, that was something that created a sacred word within our tribe.
“Be Your Own Boss” stands for being independent, doing what you actually want to do, not just doing a nine-to-five job, something boring that you’re forced to do. It’s actually doing what you love.
Now, the final step of this primal branding code is leaders.
You always have to have a head of the business, the brand, the tribe, a symbol of what the brand really is. So it can be the leader, the CEO of the company. It could be a fictional character that’s like the mascot of the company. It can be whatever you think fits best as the leader and the model of what your business represents.
But you have to have something that people can look towards.
In most cases, if you’re trying to be an influencer, that’s going to be you. So you need to make sure that you’re representing all the qualities and characteristics that you want your brand to represent that we’ve talked about in these prior steps.
I can’t recommend enough you pick up that book — Primal Branding. It really breaks down beautifully how to build a cult-like following and really build your influence.
So, what’s a brand or a person that you followed for your entire life and you have such an attraction and a loyalty to? For me, it’s Oprah. I have followed her because of all of those elements that we just talked about. Because if you start dissecting them, you’ll start to realize there are things that they’re doing that you can actually create in your own business and brand to create true influence.
STEP #3 – CONNECTION
So the next step is connection.
Connection is about your tribe. It is not about you.
It is about how much you’re bringing to the world.
The people who create true influence — i.e. Oprah — are all about generosity and giving.
So what are the unique skill sets and the unique values that you can bring to the table that will truly influence your audience?
The real kicker here is creating a methodology that you’ve come up with. So anyone can talk about any kind of tutorial to do anything in the world. But if you can create some sort of acronym around it or create it as your own methodology, it’s a lot easier for people to hold on to and associate you with what you do and what you’re an expert in.
Creating your own methodology is really important and creating a true connection with your audience.
On another level with connection – people want to work with people that they know, like, and trust, and that they see is an authority.
To create a real, true connection with your audience, you have to have truth in your testimonials.
You have to have real testimonials and proof from people who have worked with you or come in contact with your content and that you’ve made a real difference for.
Maybe you don’t have a course or maybe you don’t even have something that you’re offering as a business yet.
But I can guarantee if you put content out there that’s valuable, you are helping people.
So, ask that question on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube in the comments. Ask, “How have I been able to help you?”
You’ll start collecting all these qualitative comments about how you’ve helped other people, and you can start sharing those at other places, and that’s going to help build that trust and that cult following because people will see you as an actual expert, as opposed to someone who just claims to be an expert.
So, these are the three steps to building your influence and becoming an influencer.
And we’ve created something pretty cool for you!
I’m calling it “The Influencer’s Handbook”, and it’s breaking down all the concepts that I just shared in this video. So make sure you grab it and start building your influence in a very real and authentic way like I know you can.
Remember, you don’t need to please everybody. If you want to really drive that point home, make sure you watch last week’s video on how to handle rejection and hate.
It’ll definitely set you up for success and starting to build your influence and putting yourself out there on a bigger scale and a bigger level. Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.
Also, don’t forget to join the Be Your Own Boss Mastermind group on Facebook with thousands of entrepreneurs all over the world. Join your fellow bosses in achieving the life you want to live on your own terms!
Thank you so much for watching!
-S
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