Are you making these 6 mistakes when it comes to building your brand online? Maegan Lujan talks to use about vanity metrics and intentions, scattered content, our story and authority, the right "hub", communication and the need for a good call-to-action. If you want to take control or jumpstart your personal brand with a clear vision and purpose, then grab your coffee and wine and dig in.

 

 

Are you making these 6 mistakes when it comes to building your brand online?

Maegan Lujan talks to us about vanity metrics and intentions, scattered content, our story and authority, the right “hub”, communication and the need for a good call-to-action.

If you want to take control or jumpstart your personal brand with a clear vision and purpose, then grab your coffee or wine and dig in.

Connect with Meagan here:

http://www.maeganlujan.com

Instagram: @maeganlujan

Are you making these 6 mistakes when it comes to building your brand online? Maegan Lujan talks to use about vanity metrics and intentions, scattered content, our story and authority, the right "hub", communication and the need for a good call-to-action. If you want to take control or jumpstart your personal brand with a clear vision and purpose, then grab your coffee and wine and dig in.

 

Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post

Before you go, I’d love to connect with you and give you some gifts to help you grow your online presence!

Instagram @allisonscholes

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2594119307580743/

Work with me: https://ascholes.wpengine.com/instagram-success-method/

Free Caption Templates: https://ascholes.wpengine.com/free-captions/

Personal Branding Workbook: https://ascholes.wpengine.com/rock-your-personal-brand/

 

Full Transcription:

 

Are you making the six mistakes when it comes to your personal brand? Ooh, I got your attention now. Get ready because I have an awesome guest today. Meet Megan, Lujan. Her journey has taken her from foster care to corporate America and her tenacious quality has earned her a nomination for the 2019 women in business award from the orange County business journal. Megan is here to teach you, inspire you and encourage you to take imperfect action to building your personal brand. Let’s dive in. Hey there, my boss, welcome to the social media for mompreneurs podcast, where we dive into personal branding, how to build our businesses on social media. Learn some really cool marketing hacks all while balancing family life. And don’t forget we do it the fun and easy way. I’m Alison Scholes, once a corporate marketing coordinator, a teacher, and now photographer and podcaster. And yes, I’m that boss lady in sweat pants. Go ahead and hand out the kids’ tablets. Open those juice boxes. Put on your comfy sweat pants and hiding your closet. Let’s get this party started. Hey Megan. Welcome to the show.

Hi, how are you? Hello everybody. Glad you’re here. Now I know today we are chatting all about personal branding and mistakes. Many of my preneurs make during the branding process, but before we jump into all of that good stuff, Megan, please tell us more about you and your business. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you. First of all, for this opportunity and this platform to just share some of my failures with you guys, because let me tell you, um, I’ve had a couple down, down the journey. Uh, I’m a strategist, a storyteller and leader at a fortune 500 company. And then my day job, I get to design products and programs and bring them to markets. Um, the company that I represent has similar values, uh, as, as I do and, and create an Avenue to help, uh, people out there with personal branding. So I’m taking all of that corporate 500 level experience, plus all the do’s and don’ts and failures that I experienced in this path to showing up digital.

And I’m sharing that with, uh, with people out there so that they can do the same. That is so cool. And I’m sure you’re super busy during your day job. And then of course you’re helping entrepreneurs they’re on the side. Okay. We’re just gonna dive right in because I am really excited about the topic that we’re diving into. You’re going to share with us six mistakes, every mom producer mix, while branding. So I got to know what are these six mistakes? All right, we’re going to go down a little bit of a whimsical path here, but I’m going to all start off with some of the ones that I think are the most important. There’s a list longer than six, but we’ll, we’ll keep it crisp here versus clicking too fast without intention. You know, a lot of people are heat seeking what we call in the corporate world, vanity metrics.

They want the likes they want for the, let’s say the fame and the fortune related to being some type of an instant mom or an Insta life. And the truth is, um, you’re going to get the intention and the, and, and, uh, receive back the energy that you put out there. So if you are not clear and crisp on what your intention is and the purpose behind your content, you’re really just feeding an empty, well, that will never be quite what you’re looking for. So number one is don’t click without intention. Like just, just pause and figure out what your purpose is on your platforms, and then just be strategic in what you’re doing. That’s going to take me to the next one, which is, um, scattering content, because you’re not clear with your purpose. Um, it’s, it’s the old saying of like saying it and spraying it as a sales person where you just kind of like puke up your entire offering to a customer and you’re not actually listening to what they want or need from you.

So part of the process is really figuring out who you are, what makes you, who you are, what your values are, and making sure you can tell that story over and over in a prescriptive way. You know, the next one is forgetting to share your story. This was one that absolutely scared me because I live behind a very large corporate brand and I don’t have the privilege or the pedigree as people are calling it now to have the lifestyle that I have. I grew up in foster care. I experienced everything with that stigma. I ran away at 14 years old and I worked under the table and I’ve just worked really, really hard. And I never shared that story with people because I had an imposter syndrome and I was too afraid of, of just not fitting in with everybody else. And I found through this kind of black Swan event last year, that your story is your differentiation.

If you are trying to be like everybody else out there, you are missing it. It’s not about these cute little quote cards where it’s like, you’re the only you out there. I mean, like, let’s get real. There are reasons why you have passions. It’s from the pain that you have gone through. It’s the journey that you have experienced and that’s authenticity, right? So if you don’t tell that part of you, you are not humanizing yourself and sharing your value and your truth with the world. So story is a big one. I think we’re at three. How are we? Yes, yes. And I, you know what I can tell you too right now is everything that you’re saying. I know I resonate with all of it. And I know our listeners do too. And especially going back to number two, scattered content feeling. I know a lot of moms resonate with that because a lot of us are so multi passionate.

So we feel that we just have to like spew everything out there. And I think people forget to stop and think and go, does my audience care or need this? Even though we, we, we fall into this trap of making our content and our social media about us and it shouldn’t be, it needs to be about our audience. So I love the first three. I resignate with it. I know the listeners certainly do so keep going, Megan. Okay. You know, the next one is not picking your hub, your social hub and sticking with it. So I’m, I’m going to drop a little bit of strategic content creation methodology on you guys face here, you got a batch, create your content. You can’t be whimsical in the way that you put it together. And you’ve got a lot of Instagram ads coming at you in different clickbait to make you buy a calendar and to do this and to do with that.

Right. And that’s okay. But I call that stuff like content Botox, it’s filler, like it’s filler for your calendar, right? So it’s content Botox that stuff’s cool, but you’ve got to be able to have a primary social hub where your audience is at, where you put your main, what we call pillar content. So, as an example, it’s your blog. Your blog then gets ripped apart into, you know, multiple social posts. Right. But the core of who you are is in that social pillar where people will know to go and access content from you as your platform. Um, I see a lot of people, you know, um, showing up in places they shouldn’t be showing up and that’s because they don’t have a hub, which brings me to my next one. Like, don’t be awkward on social. If you’re not a video person, like don’t try to be a video person. Like if you have a skillset, cultivate that skill set. If you’re good at copywriting, just write your heart out and, and take your wins and your failures in the thing you’re the most comfortable in and then branch out. Right. So choose your hub and then communicate in the language that you know, how to communicate, because that’s going to rip authenticity out of your message. Right? You’re going to find your groove and gel into that overall kind of a flow. Good. Good. On the last two. Yes,

Absolutely.

Absolutely. The last one, um, is really important here. Living with intention, uh, is, is where we started. And then the last one is being prescriptive and what you’re looking to gain. Uh, so that’s your call to action. You’re putting content out there, which means you want people to interact with it and engage with you, right? So you’re looking for some type of, you know, attachment beyond the vanity metrics, like a comment, a, you know, they’re following you like conversion, we call it click through rate, right? So CTR. Um, so you’ve got to be intentional with every single one of your close outs and saying that will engage with them a question, what do you think, or drop an emoji below, or, you know, uh, contact me for this information. Do you have a question about insert, you know, whatever you’re talking about, and it’s all gonna lead to you, um, kind of creating a lead magnet or a landing page or some type of, you know, social call to action, a CTA that will help you better engage with your audience.

And that’s what it’s about. You gotta move from one way communication, which is just spewing stuff out to by directional interaction. And the best way that you can do that is with call to action. So become intentional, go through all your story, your journey, make sure you got your hubs, make sure that you’re communicating the language is often, um, authentic to you. And then just like above all else, just engage back in and listen to your audience and create that call to action. Awesome information. And the next thing that’s jumping into my head is I know we’re going to have a lot of my preneurs listening and their head might be spinning a little bit right now. And when that happens and I hear this over and over, they get stuck and they don’t take action. So what’s one thing mompreneurs can do today to take control or jumpstart, their personal branding.

You have got to get clear on your vision and purpose. You cannot take action into the tactics of creating a brand identity or communicating out outwardly to people. If you don’t understand yourself, what your purpose is behind your activity. And if you cannot figure that out, I’m going to give you a harsh reality. You’re seeking vanity metrics right now. You just want to be popular. And if you want to be popular except that for yourself, because that’s kind of okay too, but go with it with that in your mind that you’re just seeking popularity. Not that you’re trying to change the world with your cleaning habits from nine to five, you know, so just be clear with what your intention is, uh, you know, related to your overall vision, um, and get real with it. Like if, if your hobby is, you know, gardening, or if it is, you know, Rubik’s cubes or, uh, scrapbooking, just figure what that is, figure out what that is and niche down.

And just tell that story over and over the point behind this is on average, we know in a corporate world that takes seven touch points for somebody to remember you or understand your audience. If you’re scattering content, if you don’t understand your vision and your purpose, when you push out content, people will not understand you and you will not break through the noise. So repetition. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. And then tell them again, what you’re going to tell them, right? If that old it’s that old, like saying there. So figure out who you are and say that message over and over and over again. And just claim that for your next step. I love that you said that in going back to clear on your vision and purpose, you nailed it because I get many, my producers who come to me and they are frustrated with like Instagram, because they’re not getting, they feel like they’re not building the community.

They’re not getting the followers. And their first question is, what do I need to post? We have this feeling of I’m not posting the right things. And I always have to say, I think you need more clarity. Let’s take a step back. And I say, Hey, we need to figure out who you are first and what you see on four. Then once you have that clarity, then you can put yourself out there on Instagram. It builds your brand. Yeah. We call that in a corporate world. Uh, one of my, uh, strategist employees, it’s calling, I’m turning it from FID fear, uncertainty and doubt into FOMO, fear of missing out. Right? So the idea is, if you’re clear in your why and what you’re trying to communicate your prescriptive on the front end of it, you’re planned. You’re, you’re, you’re already speaking outwardly the type of content that you want to create, and you don’t get caught up in this FOMO of a Nordstrom sale.

And you got to put your new booties out there because you’re not hitting a trend line, right? Like these things are just like super bizarre, like, does that actually matter in the real world? And I’ll also tell the people, you know, who are the doers and looking to like add a couple of different income streams. Your follower count does not equal your income stream. Okay. You’re searching for vanity metrics. In that case, your network is your net worth. You’ve got to find the right people who understand what you offer and then niche into that. If you’re spreading yourself too high and wide, they’ll never find your voice in what they’re looking for. A man preach girl.

All right. So Megan, I want to know what is something you wish you would’ve known sooner when you started your personal branding journey? I wish I would have known sooner that it’s a million little clicks. A personal brand is a story that is always being told. It is not categorical. It is full spectrum. It is who you are as a person represented in a 21st version of a diary, scrapbook across multiple social channels. Um, being authentic in who you are and making sure that you just start now is like it’s, it’s seeding and cultivating that, that vision of what you want to become. So you can’t wait for it to be perfect. You can’t assume that you’ve got to get this final everything perfect with a little bow and PTA mom, this thing to the next level here, it doesn’t work. Like part of the process is to show your growth and to be human in this approach, right?

So it is, it’s a million little clicks in your personal brand is something that’s always being told because people want to know your story. They want to be attached to your character and they want to go through this path and journey with you. And you’ve got to invite them along so that they care about your why and your purpose. So I think your overall message to my preneurs is to take imperfect action. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Just get started living your truth. I find what makes you the sunrise of every single morning and tell the world about it, because I’ll tell you what, that will never be worked to you ever. I love that. So at this point, I want to

Make sure that my listeners get it

Chance to connect with you on social media. And I think you also have a freebie on how to build a personal brand. So go ahead and share where we can find you or connect with you. Absolutely. So guys, this for the first time ever, I’m actually opening up my personal Instagram and sharing the life behind the corporate 500 world. And you know, my Corky week, you know, keeping it together, a woman in business, uh, setup. So find me on Instagram. If you search M E G a N L U J a N, Megan, Lou Hahn, you’ll find me there. Um, and, uh, the freebie that I have for you guys is six steps to building your personal brand. So some really quick clickable actions that’ll get you started in the right direction. Um, when, when you go to my website, you’ll be able to sign up and get access to that. And then you’ll be part of my digital community and you’ll get all the new, greatest, latest updates as I release more tips. Thank you, Megan. And I will make sure that all of your information

It’s in our shownotes and I’m excited

To follow your journey. I know we will keep talking because when it comes to personal branding, you are definitely speaking my language. So thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much. Hey, for, for your listeners. I just want you guys to know one thing. I am the definition of, you know, living proof that you can be anything that you want to be. If you put your mind and your heart into it, you know, the definition of who I was supposed to be on paper in the case files as a foster youth is not the person I am today. And it’s because I realized the person I wanted to be wasn’t too far from who I was. So it’s taken a little actions, right? So I want you to know that I believe in you, I’m in your tribe. I’m rooting you on. And as you take these little clickable steps forward, I want you to tag me and tell me, because I want to root for you. So good luck. We’re here for you and it’s all about community over competition.

Hey there, sister, are you trying to mimic what others are doing on Instagram? Because they appear to be successful and have all the right engagement. Have you tried to transform your Instagram newsfeed to look perfectly branded, but you still feel icky about your brand and how you show up on Instagram. I want you to imagine if you had a done for you Instagram plan, that’s aligned with your authentic self right now, you have the opportunity to work with me one on one, and we’ll take your brand from feeling to memorable. I’ll help you clarify your Instagram objectives. We’ll fine. Tune your bio, define your three brand pillars for Instagram, and then map out a 30 day content strategy. I’ll even give you stock photos and caption templates to compliment your brand. Wouldn’t it feel amazing to wake up every day, knowing exactly what to post and how to engage with your audience, no more spinning your wheels and wasting countless hours on your computer or phone with an Instagram strategy.

You can get back to the things that really matter in your business, in life posting on Instagram. Does it need to feel impossible or overwhelming or even time draining? The best part about my method is it can be rinsed and repeated every single month. Amen. I remember my very first client Farrah and her sigh of relief. At the end of our call, she had such a clarity breakthrough on her own brand and how she wanted to show up for her audience on Instagram. Her exact words were I’m so glad I don’t have to do what everyone else is doing now. That’s just awesome. And guess what? You shouldn’t be doing what everyone else is doing. And I’m here to help you figure out exactly what you should be doing and how to show up as your authentic self. This is a no brainer book, your strategy call today at Bitly B I T dot L Y forward slash I G method mama. Hurry, because I only take eight seconds once a month. Why? Because you are worth my time and energy. You don’t want another cookie cutter coaching call, right? You want me to strategize with you? You, so if you want to book one, those spots are extremely limited. It’s Bitly Ford slash I G method. Let’s get you consistent and confident on the gram.

 

Please follow and like us: