Hint of Hustle with Heather Sager

How to Make Showing Up for Your Brand More Fun

July 04, 2022 Heather Sager Episode 156
Hint of Hustle with Heather Sager
How to Make Showing Up for Your Brand More Fun
Show Notes Transcript

Ok let’s get real this week— does visibility sometimes feel like a chore in your biz? Showing up consistently can start to feel draining and a lot of business owners are publicly sharing how “over” they are with social media, but the harsh truth is that if you’re feeling burned out or annoyed by “having to show up” for your business— your audience is going to pick up on your vibes.

Instead of fighting it— let’s make it ENJOYABLE. I’ll help you navigate just how inside this episode. These are reminders that I need to keep revisiting (and I need this message probably just as much as you do!). So it’s time to shake things up and get that magnetic groove back so that you can bring creativity in your business and inspire your audience. 


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Well, hey, friend, welcome back to another episode. This is airing on the Fourth of July. Oh, do I have mixed feelings about this day, as I'm sure if you're a woman you do too. It seems pretty weird to be celebrating Independence Day after some of the crap that has gone down over these last few weeks. But we are here, we are still standing and today we're going to talk about something different. Today we're going to talk about bringing fun into your business because if you're like many business owners, the last couple of years have felt very heavy, could have felt very hard. I also know many businesses who have flourished and had a lot of fun. These last few years as we've adapted and pivoted trying to figure out how to run in this new, this new world that we live in. 


3:00  

But today, what I want to do is have a conversation, something has come up a lot. As I've talked to many business owners who are just feeling bleh, they feel like that's the appropriate word to use for their feeling today about their business. And if we're going to build something great, if we're going to use our voices for change, to inspire other people, we have to be more than bleh. We got to we have to be on fire in what we're doing and we're going to add spark and joy to other people using your voice in your business for whatever purpose that looks like, maybe that's using your voice for change, maybe that's using your voice to inspire others, maybe that's using your voice to teach others. It can be about any topic or anything. What we know to be true is you have to step up and use your voice in a really positive way. I've been talking about that on the show for the last month. In fact, go back, now might be a really great time to revisit the episode that we had just a couple of weeks ago where we talked about not using your voice for negativity, how to use your voice to amplify positivity so that people associate you with that positivity in your business, so just to revisit that one or if you're new around here and you're wanting a good one to listen to that one for sure is a great one. 


4:18  

But today we're going to talk about how you can attract more people in your world by showing up more vibrantly and specifically how do you do so when it doesn't feel so fun? You know what we do around here is we talk about using your voice, we talk about showing up whether that's on stages, whether that's on social that's on video, on podcast, without showing your face on camera on a zoom call when you're in a sales conversation, whatever that looks like. It's you showing up and I know for some business owners it is super easy. It's comes really natural. For others, this can feel so freakin uncomfortable. But it doesn't change the fact that you're going to do it. It's part of building an online brand, it's part of building a personal brand. So I already know that you've choked down that pill and said, Okay, I'm gonna do it. But what I want to encourage you to think about is how we can bring joy and fun to it. Because here's the thing, just like with anything in life, if you're not into it, how can you expect your audience to be into you? Have you ever had been in a situation before we've been on a date, and you're, I mean, not really feeling the vibes of the other person. So you're just like, don't put out your best, most charismatic, flirty self. Yeah, what you're doing, you're shutting him down, because you're like, I'm not into you. So I don't want you to be into me. And sometimes they don't really get the clue but they definitely get the clue when it's in the context of business. If you're showing up on like, let's say social media, or Instagram stories, and you're just not having a good time. I mean, think about this in your launch. If you are miserable about showing your face on a webinar, or even doing a webinar in the first place, and your attitude is like, I have to do the stupid webinar. Okay, I'm gonna show up that's frickin stupid webinar. And you show up and sure you're having fun, but you really inherently don't want to be doing the webinar. I mean, let's be honest, how effective do you think you really could be? It kind of cutting yourself off at the knees of it. 


6:21  

So what we want to talk about today, this is going to be a short one. I'm gonna do a series of just shorter episodes here the next couple of weeks as we take a little breather at summertime. I don't know about you, I'm having some summertime. So by the time you listen to this, fun fact, I will be nestled on a beach in Hawaii, enjoying a much needed vacation with my family. So yeah, I hope you're doing the same whether that's in Hawaii, if you're there, come say hi. But I hope that you're taking a little bit of a breather and having some fun. I think that's actually one of the things we'll talk about in this little mini episode is how you're scheduling fun in your life to make business more fun. I mean, if you're showing up and you're on all the time, and while you might not be sitting at your laptop, or at your desk all day, I bet your hand is chained to your phone, and even if you're not always on your brain thinks you are, so it's no wonder business might not be feeling so fun. 


7:20  

So what I want to do is share with you some insights that I have that I have to keep revisiting in and I am speaking with you today, because I need this message probably just as much as you do. So these are reminders, it's not that you will get this right, and then, whew, you're in it to win it and you have it all figured out. No, we have to continue, we have to continue making this a priority because business building can start feeling pretty monotonous, business building can feel at times if you let emotion creep in, it really can feel draining and it's your responsibility to keep a level head to bring the enthusiasm so that you can bring creativity in your business and make the biggest impact possible. 


8:00  

So here's where you might be sitting at right now. Maybe you're listening to this and be like, no, Heather, I'm feeling great, I'm feeling great, I'm excited about the business, I'm excited about the future. If that's the case, then the only question I want you asking yourself in this episode is how do I continue to keep it feeling fresh and fun and exciting? It's a continue conversation. How do I keep intentionally bringing more of this in my life? If you're sitting here and you are quite frankly, feeling the absolute opposite where you're feeling burned out. Today, I'm gonna encourage you to consider maybe taking a break, not taking a break from business but maybe that is what you need. But I'm taking a break, like if you're burnt out from posting on Instagram stories, I mean, frickin take a break. You don't have to . Don't worry about the algorithm. Don't make decisions based around oh my gosh, if I don't post for a week, what will people think? Oh my gosh, like, what happens if my posts get pushed? Let's just I'll be honest here who freaking cares about the algorithm? Like let's just choose your own mental health and your own sanity right now over the freaking algorithm. If you need a break, take a freaking break and don't worry about it. It's summer. Take a frickin break or repurpose some old content. But if you are filled in feeling burnt out, please stop trying to cobble together solutions that are not working. It's like I keep seeing these Tiktok videos around workout people, I don't know trainers, dieticians and such. And there's this really common theme that I see a lot where they say if you are feeling like if you want sweets, do not fricking try to substitute it with strawberries or blueberries or some kind of like frozen banana blended pretending to be ice cream situation. Because at the end of the day, it's not going to scratch the itch and you're still going to want the frickin Snickers bar or the Skittles or the whatever other thing that you are craving. The recommendation is just frickin have the thing and move on with your life and get back into your majority healthy eating. 


10:05  

I want you to think about this too. If you're burned out, stop trying to fill yourself up with scrap together strategy, stop reaching for carrot sticks and celery and things that you don't actually want, but you think are going to solve the problem. Maybe in this scenario it's maybe you try to figure out, oh, maybe I'm gonna post more on reels, hey, maybe I'm gonna try that thing that I see other people doing where they delete all their Instagram posts, and just have nine squares on my Instagram, whew, that feels lighter, maybe I'll try that. Or maybe you're thinking, Oh, maybe I'm going to try getting off Facebook for the summer. I don't know, like, everybody's trying all these different things. Maybe instead of trying to try more strategies just to bring some relief into your life, why don't you try take it a frickin break? I mean, what would it look like? I mean, what would it look like give your business just like shut the social media down for a couple weeks, if that's what you need. Side note, I don't know if I'm gonna be doing that over the next couple of weeks as I preach through all this. I don't have a plan to shut down and take a break from social media but I'm also I don't have a plan to be like posting consistently while I'm on vacation. We're just gonna see what happens. But at the time I'm recording this, I'm leaving a few days and I don't have a content plan for the next three weeks outside the podcasts that I'm recording. Oh, I'm not worried about it. I'm not freaking worried about it. And I guess I just wanted to give you permission to not frickin worry about it either. Let's just maybe like stop being so precious around the content schedule and just take a frickin breath and say sometimes it's just totally cool to take a break if you need. Okay, that was my long winded TED Talk. For those of you who are feeling super burned out, it's cool. Hit pause, take a break. 


11:46  

Now if you are not feeling burned out, but maybe you're feeling a lack of inspiration, maybe you're feeling like a little bit in a rut, like a content rut, social media rut, a creation rut, any kind of rut. Why is that word rut, rut, rut, so weird? That sounds like a dog. You're welcome for that. If you're feeling a bit rutty, might I recommend spicing things up in your content bedroom? What I mean by that is spice up your routine, try something different and this can be both in your work or outside of your work. If you're feeling uninspired, you need to get out. Side note, here's a fun story. So just this last weekend, I was in Boise, Idaho attending the Craft and Commerce conference alongside my friend, Emily Hall. She and I are going to do a debrief or recording tomorrow. It'll come out in just a couple of weeks, where we're going to do a full debrief on that conference. It was so much fun. But what I wanted to share here was I had the huge honor of seeing my client, Cara Chace, speak on stage. I've been working with her for a few months on this keynote for this event. And one of the things she talked about in her amazing trick killed it. Cara, if you're listening, shout out you already know I'm so proud of you. I told you it's a bajillion frickin times but you frickin killed it. One of the stories she shared, Cara has had an incredible, she's a former federal agent. I call it my secret agent client, former federal agent, she worked with a social media manager for that heavy rock metal band Megadeath. And she talked about how she was having a content rut if you will, when it came to social media. I don't know back in 2012 when she was saying how she was just like, oh, one day she was so friggin fed up. She was just lots of things going on that she just said screw it, shut down her laptop and took a frickin break. And she went to Barnes and Noble and cozy to her way into a little chair in the back of the thing and she was flipping through a magazine. And she was inspired by an idea. She saw it in a Crate and Barrel ad. And it was to use hashtags in a really, really specific way and I won't steal the full story. You can get that from Cara, maybe later we'll do a debrief on that. But for her what it took was her getting out of her normal social media scroll, her normal workday rhythm and to go do something unexpected ie, be lazy, take a break, go to Barnes and Noble, flip through a magazine and she got this killer fricking idea that accelerated her work. 


14:14  

So why don't I invite for you thinking about if you're feeling a little uninspired or you're feeling like you're in a creativity rut, how can you shake up your routine, whether that's mixing up where you're looking for sources of inspiration online, maybe that's physically getting away from your desk, or out of the Facebook groups or hanging around in? Maybe that's physically getting out and going out with your family to the zoo or taking an adventure somewhere else getting out on walks listening to different podcasts than you're used to. Sidenote, keep listening to this one because we got some really good shit coming out for you in the next couple months. But tried some other stuff like get some other people who you're interested in but you maybe you haven't listened to their show in a while. Shake it up, baby. Shake it up. If you're feeling uninspired, maybe it's because you're swimming around in the cesspool of the same ideas over and over again. So shake it up, that could look like consuming other content or it can look like you physically changing up your routine. What would it look like for you to take mornings off this summer? What would it look like for you to only work a couple days a week or a few hours a week? I don't know. That's what I'm working in. I'm balancing right now. It's summertime. So the schools are closed, obviously. The kids are out of school. So that's going to look very, very different for me over the next couple of months, especially as we're going on some family vacationing. I'm not worried about, oh my gosh, I can't do all the things. I'm going huh, how can I get my work time into like 12 hours a week? That's a fun challenge. For me, I'm looking for more inspired ways to do things. And I really invite you to do the same. Summer is for me, maybe it's not for you, maybe summer is the time for you to lean in, and that's cool, too. For those of you who are on a modified summer schedule, because you have kids at home, because you want to just be lighter in your business, There's no, look, you don't have a boss, okay? There's nobody saying like, oh, my gosh, you have to be working X number of hours as a business owner, like I'm on a constant pursuit around how can I work fewer hours, like be super productive in the time that I work. I want to take Christmas time off and we celebrate Christmas in my house. Two weeks. It's like a big hoopla from Thanksgiving into Christmas. For you, what does that look like? Are there special holidays that you want to have more space around is there's more time around the summer? What does that look like? But if you're feeling uninspired, might I recommend shaving down your schedule a bit if at all possible and finding inspiration other ways. 


16:47  

Here's another thing, if you're feeling, if you're one of those people that I mentioned right at the top, that's actually feeling pretty good going along, you're like, Hey, I'm doing good. But maybe you're feeling a little too comfortable, maybe you've been in the same rhythm for a while, maybe your business has been running the same kind of launches, or the same kind of sales cycle, you've been on the same program, you're on a little bit of a rinse and repeat model. First high five to you. Kudos, I think that is incredible. So let's celebrate that. And let's see if you're ready for the next challenge. If you're feeling a little too comfortable in your business, where showing up isn't feeling very fun, it's starting to feel a little, dare I say routine. Let's honor and celebrate the fact that you are not freaked out by video, the fact that you can keep showing up for video or for content or for lives or for speaking, and it feels routine. That's a pretty big feat. And now you're up for something bigger. It's time to do something a little riskier or a little scarier or do something that freaks you out because if you already mastered the platforms you're on, it might be time for you to shake things up, baby doll, like let's think about that. 


17:52  

So it's time for you to do something that scares you a bit. Maybe there's a stage, you've been pushing off pitching, maybe there's a podcast that you're like, no, I couldn't. I'm not big enough. I just don't have a big following yet. I'm not, I don't have that lead backup done yet but after I finish that new website, then then I'll go for it. And you and I both know how that turns out, how that works out, there's always going to be the chance for you to kick a bucket down the road. So I'm gonna encourage you today right now, to think about that scary, sexy goal that you've been considering but you keep making excuses for why you're not going after it. I want you to take action towards that thing. 20 seconds of insane courage is all it takes to send a little message, to jump on and start engaging with somebody else's content, to do the research to at least know what the next step is. What's one move that you can make to make yourself palms sweaty, crack sweaty, underboob sweaty, uncomfortable wherever you get the sweats. Don't roll your eyes right now I know you get all of those weird sweat things when you get uncomfortable and do something scary. You know you're on track to something really good by the way. You got to do that scary thing. If you are too comfortable on camera, you're too comfortable speaking on stages, I'm going to argue that you're playing way too small.


19:19  

So if you are going, ah, do want to show up more vibrant. I am kind of going through the motions. If that's you, you better step it up. And maybe that's it, you step it up in the fall kind of thing. But I'm gonna say if you've been kicking the bucket for a while where you've been feeling very comfortable for a while right now, do not be like, oh, yeah, I'll do it after summer. Heather said to take a little bit of time off. Now for you, I'm going to say you need to do that one big move like today, like this week, make it happen, then you can rest, then you can rest. But right now you got to show up for yourself and say I'm gonna do that scary thing. I'm going to send that email. I'm going to do that follow up. I'm going to research that project. I'm going to declare what I'm gonna do publicly out loud to other people, whatever that move is for you, you're going to make it. You're going to make it this week, then you can rest, then you can say, it's done, universe. Takeover wherever this goes. I'm ready for it but you have to make that move because you and I both know that if you don't make that move this week, the likelihood of you making that move after Labor Day, it's pretty freakin low because we know that there's going to be a lot of other tasks pile up that happens once the kids go back to school, so do that scary thing. Just one move, do it now. That's your marching orders, friend. 


20:42  

Okay, so we've described this, whether you're feeling good about how things are going or you're feeling burned out, and you know, you need to take a little bit of a break whatever that looks like for you, and maybe you're feeling uninspired, we're going to spice up a routine, or for those of you feeling a little too comfortable, you're gonna congratulate yourself for where you're at but you're also now going to do something scary. These are the types of questions you have to be asking yourself constantly, how am I feeling when I show up? How am I showing up? What is it like for me? What's the process? We have to start asking these things to figure out what our next groove is. Because when it comes to showing up for your brand, as I mentioned at the top of this episode, episode, episode, this is like a show episode, an episode. We're going to call it that from now on. Anyways, what we talked about was, if you're not into it, how can you expect your audience to be into you. So in order for your audience to be into you, you have to show up vibrantly when you show your face. So the secret to showing up for your brand in a way that feels more fun, that feels more vibrant, that feels more magnetic, well, you have to make sure that you're in a space where you can show up for your audience. So if you need to take a break, if it's not the right time, if you need a hot minute, it's okay for you to pause. 


22:00  

Next week, we're going to talk a little bit about my thoughts and recommendations around content batching which sidenote stick around for that episode 158. That's going to be a really good one because my recommendation for batching go a bit against the industry norm. So just come back for that one if you want to figure out okay, how do I plan my time a little bit more intentionally? The other thing I want you to think about is, I had an interview with Renae Fieck a couple months ago, where we talked about how your cycle, ladies, yes, your periods how your cycle actually impact how you show up. So if you're struggling to show up more vibrantly, or to be consistent in following through, when you say you'll show up, be sure to check out that episode, maybe this summer is your chance to get back in sync with your cycle to start tracking it to know where you're at and start paying attention to when you feel in that really alive, vibrant state, that would be a really great resource for you. 


But what I want you thinking about this time in summertime, and again, most business owners that I know take it a little slow over the summer and they're gearing up for some kind of fall promotion. So what I want you thinking about right now is how you can show up for your brand new way that feels fun. This is the time for you to look at your calendar and say, what do I have on the schedule over the next couple of weeks or the next couple of months? But really, what is this all leading up towards? Do you have a launch coming up? Are you on a more of an evergreen format where you're showing up consistently driving leads to a sales call or to an evergreen funnel, whatever that looks like for you? Start thinking about where are you going to be really intentional in your schedule to show up consistently. And you might be asking, okay, what do I mean by show up? Well, whether that's you going live consistently, maybe it's you showing your face on Instagram Stories, maybe that's you pitching podcasts. You do you. You got to figure out what that looks like. And you know, I have a ton of resources on the show. We'll link at the bottom of the show notes on here have some recommended episodes, that if you're feeling the want to get into this a little bit more, we'll give you some next steps around live streaming, and such for where you can get started with that there's a couple episodes on podcast pitching, and a couple episodes will show a lot of episodes on podcast pitching a lot of episodes about going live but start digging into that. 


24:16  

But today, what I really want to leave you with is starting to think about how you feel about showing up right now when you're actually showing up but also the head game before you show up, after you show up. And if you're feeling those things that I described that a burned out uninspired, feeling just fine or feeling really uncomfortable, I want you to dig into that for yourself and say, if it's not feeling fun at the moment, how could I make it so? Because if you show up in a way that you're having fun, where you're feeling excited about what you're talking about, it's then you're audience sees that and that invisible quality around you showing up just being so excited about your topic. Have you ever had that happenend before where you raise your hand at a meeting or give a presentation, and you were so freaking jacked about what you're talking about? Other people have no choice but to be excited about how excited you are on the topic, right? Hopefully you also get them, excited about the topic but you've had that happen, right, where they're like, man, like, if you're this excited about, I don't know, some like really highly technical thing. I just laugh about like an accountant who can get really, really excited about the difference between accrual accounting and cash basis accounting, and they're just like, so on fire about it. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I don't care about these things, but you're excited, I'm so happy that you're excited which makes me excited. Now, you don't talk about it, right? That's what we want to do, right? We want to be so on fire and so excited about what we're doing that other people feel that. It's that spark forward where people feel good in our presence, because here's the thing. If you're feeling any of those things I mentioned today burned out, uninspired, a little frustrated down around just the news and everything going on in our world, if you're feeling that, what do you think the chances are of your audience feeling that too? Pretty high, right? 


26:11  

So my question for you is right now are you willing to raise your hand and say, okay, I'm feeling these things and I have an obligation to step up from my audience. I have an obligation to shift within myself out of that burnout. I need to take a break. I have an obligation, I have a duty to them to get re-inspired by changing up my routine, I have a duty for them a responsibility to shake things up for me to stretch myself and show up in a bigger way because I've gotten too comfortable and I need to show them to take risks, too. 


26:44  

If you're here, it's because you have a big message on your heart that you want to share. You want to help others and it's going to require you reaching a new level for yourself. So as we enter summertime, I want you to get real present to what you need right now for yourself, and what your business needs from you. And I want you to give your business that gift in this season. So if that's you taken a beat, taking a vacation, taking a pause, if that's you changing up your routine, if that's you reaching for something bigger, I know I'm repeating myself a lot in this episode. And it's a very intentional reason, because I need you to hear what I'm saying right now. What do you need as a business owner to feel good about how you're showing up? And what does your business need from you to show up? You have some big goals. That is just truth. Now the question is, how are you going to show up to make those goals happen? I hope today's conversation got you thinking. I hope it got you reflected in the best way possible. And if anything, I hope that it helped you. Take a breath. Take a breath, there is no rush. There's no rush in this business building journey. There is no rush. You're here, you're already doing it. You're already doing these big, incredible things and you should be so proud of yourself for how far you've come. I mean, if you've gotten this far, with what's going on in the world, with what's going on in your life with you. I mean, you scrappy thing, look at you, and I say that to me, too. We have gotten this far. Imagine where we can go next. But this is the time for us to get present with ourselves to ensure that we're taking care of ourselves along the way. Do a little quick check in. This is your time friend. I can't wait to see how you spend that time. And if you are like me taking a little vacay this summer, tell me what you're up to. You don't have to blast it to the world. Send me a direct message on Instagram. I'm @theheathersager. I'd love to hear where you're listening to this episode from if you happen to be on a beach to. Tag me. I want to see your beach. I'll show you mine, and that sounds a little weird. You show me your beach, I'll show you mine. I don't know why that sounds really dirty. But I don't know. Like, I just had to say it. And that's just what fell out of my mouth. So here we are wrapping up the episode. I'll see you next week. But we're gonna dig into my take on batching your content like I said, I think it's going to surprise you a bit. And then in two weeks, I'm gonna have my friend, Emily Hall, come in, we're gonna do a full debrief on Craft and Commerce. And by that time I will be back from vacation with a whole new lineup for the rest of the summer. 


29:21  

Oh, and hey friend, if you're listening to this, just to give you a heads up I'm a planner and I want you to be out in front of it too. As you think about what's coming up for you at the end of the season, just a heads up those speaking workshops are making their way back this fall right in time for the Fall speaking season. So if one of the things that you really want to work on and get more comfortable with maybe a little more uncomfortable with as we explore that together if getting out on stage is, speaking on podcast, showing up on video, if that's one of those things that I hit today that you're like I'm still not feeling great about it. Just know the speaking workshops are coming and if you want to get on the waitlist for those workshops, just head over to the show now notes on this episode, we'll put the link in there at the bottom of the show notes. You can get on the waitlist for those opening up here early this fall slash late summertime so you get all the details there. Alright, friend. I'll see you in the next episode.