Marketing With Less Overwhelm: The 15-Minute Visibility Plan

Marketing can be less overwhelming if you let it be

Danielle: Rebecca is getting new kitchen cabinets put in, and I’m sure her house is mass chaos, so she is not going to be with us today. We’re talking about how marketing can help you earn more with less overwhelm. Yes, I just said marketing can be less overwhelming. You’ll notice Rebecca and I have been putting up posts this week all about this. This week is all about that, and Thursday is all Q&A. We will help answer your deepest marketing issues if you just show up to the live Q&A. So: marketing. It could be less overwhelming, if you allow it to be.

Branding: stop chasing the shiny object

Danielle: The first thing to know is about your branding. Your branding is a big part of your marketing strategy. What is your branding? Is it consistent? Or are you following the ADHD “ooh, shiny object” syndrome: changing your logo, changing your colors, changing what things look like, changing the name of your business, often. I see this so often with female-owned businesses. And this is not a male-owned business thing. Even with my ADHD male business owners, I’m not seeing this. But we want what’s pretty, what’s on trend. We saw another logo we loved, so we should change our logo, we should change our name.

One of the best brand strategies when you are starting, especially if you are a service-based business (if you are a product-based business, we’ll have a very different conversation, I’m just speaking to service-based right now): be your name. Be who you are. You are your brand. Your brand is you. If you are the one offering your service, you should be the brand. There are a few exceptions. Jessica here is a pet sitter, and her business has a name that makes sense for what she does. But if you are a coach, a VA, an OBM, a web designer, it should be your name. Danielle Ralston OBM. Danielle Ralston VA Services. Danielle Ralston ADHD coach.

I have recently moved. You’ll notice it’s not my name anymore, it’s The Original ADHD Coach. But my name is still tied to every single one of those things. The reason I could do that is that I’ve been around a long time. People know who I am. They know my name, and they associate my name with The Original ADHD Coach. There is a marketing strategy for changing names, and it’s a long-term move if you want to do it well. If you don’t want to do it well, and you just want to have fun and don’t care about the consequences, that’s perfectly fine. But know that there are consequences for doing it that way. Make sure you understand brand strategy and brand recognition. Colors are part of that. A logo is part of that. Pictures, selfies. It’s why we say “selfies constantly” if you are a service-based business owner, because people associate you with the thing you’re delivering. Use that brand strategy to your advantage. Don’t keep changing it. It’s very simple and easy. It doesn’t have to be hard.

If you don’t have the money to buy a logo and aren’t sure what to do, I know a couple of logo businesses you can hire, and I’d be happy to share links. Rebecca owns a company that makes logos. They’re very low cost, they’re more templated, but they are perfect when you’re starting out. And if you can’t even afford that, use your name and a picture of you. Period, end of story. That can be the logo for your business for the first year. You do not have to spend money on a graphic designer to make you anything. Which means you can earn more, because you’re spending less. That is a big thing.

Find your ideal audience by asking, not assuming

Danielle: The next thing is understanding how to find your ideal audience. Who’s your ideal client? Go ask them questions. Literally offer them a free coaching call, a few hours of free VA services, a free strategy call, something in exchange for getting to ask them all kinds of questions. Need marketing strategy questions? Just ask me. I could drop a whole list of marketing strategy questions for you to use.

Ask your ideal client. Don’t assume they like Instagram. Don’t assume they like Facebook. Don’t assume they’re on LinkedIn or Twitter or TikTok or whatever. Verify. That’s one of the bigger mistakes I see business owners make: they go with what they like. They have an ideal client in mind, but they aren’t making sure they’re speaking to that ideal client in the right place. You’ve got to know where they hang out.

I know my ideal clients for coaching are all over Facebook. They are not on LinkedIn. However, in my consulting business, none of my ideal clients are on Facebook. I don’t think most of them even have a Facebook account. They’re only on LinkedIn or Twitter. So that’s where I hang out for consulting, and yes, I have accounts over there and I’m very active over there, because for consulting, that’s where I need to be. Knowing where your ideal client is, is really important. Ask simple questions in a Facebook group or on a LinkedIn page, or even in your own social media, and see if you can get engagement answers to figure out where they prefer to hang out with you, watch your content, or read your content. Maybe they only like blogs. Maybe they only like podcasts. Maybe they only like YouTube. Know that before you really get going with your business. Knowing where your audience is, is a huge piece of it.

Your business goals direct your marketing effort

Danielle: Know what your business goals are, because your business goals direct your marketing efforts. If your business goal is to make 500 dollars a week, and that only takes one client, then how often do you need to show up, and what do you need to do for that? Know what that is. If you have a six-figure goal for your business, and you want to be making six figures six months from now, then you’d better be mega consistent, with a really good strategy, all laid out. And we’re ADHD, so you have to really make sure that on your good, better, and best days, you’re always showing up for your marketing, because it’s a necessity for reaching your business goal.

So what are your business goals? Lorna knows she needs to show up a couple of times a week and go live. I know that I need to show up a couple of times a week and go live here, post in multiple Facebook groups, and give value. And I need to show up in my DMs. My DMs are my most powerful place to close sales and get leads, which means I have to be visible in other places in order to get people into my DMs. How do I get people in my DMs? I show up. I go live. I write content. I know what those things are.

And make sure your business goals match your mental ability in your business. Is it overwhelming to you? Okay, get help. If you can’t get help, figure out how to make things easy. We gave you nine thousand tips last week on how to make things easy for yourself, and we’ll do it again on Thursday. Come ask questions so you can make things easy, so you can earn more with less overwhelm. Because it is possible. But there are some hard and fast rules that are pretty much concrete when it comes to social media algorithms and how you need to show up in order to be truly effective at marketing.

The 15-minutes-a-day visibility strategy

Danielle: I teach one way that you can build toward six figures in your business in 15 minutes a day or less. That is something we talk about all the time around here. It is possible to earn more money in 15 minutes a day, period, end of story. But I show up 15 minutes every single weekday. Do I show up on the weekends? No. You can do it in 15 minutes a day if you actually do it consistently. Fifteen minutes once a week is not going to help, I’m not going to lie. Is it better than nothing? Absolutely. But if you’re showing up for 15 minutes on a Monday, then not showing up for three weeks, then showing up for 15 minutes on some Friday, that’s not going to get you to your business goals. And maybe you really aren’t building a business. Maybe you just want a side hobby where you make some money here and there without consistent clients. That is perfectly fine too.

So what do I get done in 15 minutes? In 15 minutes, I go through my top five Facebook groups, every single day, and I get visible. Just visible. Is that answering questions? Maybe. Is that posting a link when somebody asks for help? Yes. Is that tagging a VA when I know somebody’s looking for a VA? Yes. Tagging an OBM or a web designer or somebody else? Yes. It’s not always about what I do or what I offer. It’s just about showing up and being visible. If somebody posts something really heartfelt that doesn’t need advice or tips from me, I’m still going to show up and support them and celebrate them for sharing. As long as my name shows up on a post, I get visible. That is the number one strategy for building any business: get visible where your ideal clients hang out. And yes, you can do that in 15 minutes or less.

I do four 15-minute sessions a day right now. Why? Because I want our membership to grow by a minimum of 10 new clients a month, and in order to do that, I need to show up more, because more growth means more visibility. Is it always me pitching and doing sales? No. I rarely pitch or do sales. I’m just showing up. It does not have to be hard. You can do it with less overwhelm, I promise. It takes time, though. This is not a fast strategy. But it is the most effective strategy, and I have done it in about 900 different ways over the last 25-plus years. I’ve done it on forums. I’ve done it in networking groups. I’ve done it in many other places, not just Facebook. Facebook is really powerful for our business, so that’s where I show up. I know LinkedIn is not powerful for us. I know Instagram is becoming more powerful for us, but it’s not the ideal. Facebook is our ideal, and there are a lot of Facebook groups I show up in.

Visibility first: the first 30 days and the honest math

Danielle: Know where your audience is. Know what your audience wants to hear. And know that you just need to be visible. Your first visibility efforts, for the first 30 days of getting your name out there, can be as simple as “oh, I love that quote,” or “happy birthday,” or “I know that Danielle does that, you should reach out to her,” or “I know that Lauren does that,” or “I know that Kelly does that.” It has nothing to do with what I sell or what I do. Lauren has found a lot of power in this. Catherine and Denise and Sonia, all of our members, find a lot of power in this 15-minute strategy.

Again, know what your goal is for your business, because the bigger your goal, the more you have to show up and the more you have to do. Effort is commensurate with return. What effort do you have the ability to put out in order to reach your goals? That is a huge part of marketing, and it’s why it’s so important to really understand your goals, so you can build a marketing strategy around them.

Does it have to be difficult? No. It’s freaking easy. Marketing should be one of the most simple things you’re doing for your business. Is it time consuming? Is it one of the most time-consuming things you do for your business? Absolutely. But I didn’t say it was hard. Simple, but time consuming. It really is something you’re going to spend a lot of time on.

I’m going to leave you with that today. I have this really long list, and I’m looking at it going, that’s a little too much. Rebecca and I will be dropping written posts about this all week, and we will be here Thursday at 11 a.m. Central to answer all of your marketing questions. Do you have social media questions? SEO questions? Website questions? Visibility questions? Reels and IG questions? Please show up Thursday for the live Q&A. This is the space where you get free coaching from both Rebecca and me, so we can help and support you the best. Remember: show up Thursday at 11 a.m. Central, and we will see you there.