The Surprising Way to Build More Authority in Your Niche with Jess O'Connell

Courtney Elmer  0:02  

You're listening to the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast, Episode 26, which is all about online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. 

What's up my friends, I'm Courtney Elmer, your host, and today we are talking about one of the ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace so that more people can find you, and the incredible work that you do. And I know that you're one of those people who wants to make a big impact, and to make a real difference in people's lives. That's probably why you started a business in the first place, right? But right now, you might be struggling to grow that business or feel frustrated by how hard it seems to get traffic to your virtual door. You’re probably trying all online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. Because let's face it, there's a lot of people out there growing a business online. And let me be honest here. There's not a lot of people doing it right, which is why they're struggling. They’re not using the right online marketing tips. So rest assured, there is a lot of opportunity for you to rise to the top and plenty of room when you get there. And today's guest is going to show you exactly how to stand out from the rest with the best digital marketing tips. Allow me to introduce you to my friend, Jess O'Connell. 

Now, Jess and I have known of each other since last fall. But it wasn't actually until this spring that our paths officially crossed. And when they did, we made an instant connection. In fact, Jess and I just finished a 10 week intensive coaches training program with James Wedmore, who you've heard here on the show before, the founder of Business by Design. And it was in that program that Jess and I were able to learn more about each other's businesses, and we discovered just how much they align. And when you finish listening to today's episode, you're gonna see why. Now what's fascinating about Jess, is that she started her first business on the internet eight years ago with a blog back when blogging was a thing, remember that. And she's always had a knack for explaining things in a way that people understand. And now she's using this superpower for good helping people take their unique skills and guess and turn them into a profitable online business so they can make the income and impact of their dreams. 

Today on the show, you're going to learn this simple framework for communicating what you do in a way that people instantly understand with the best online marketing tips to serve your audience. You'll learn how to stir more desire and create more demand for your products and services using this simple framework. And finally, Jess is going to show you how to use the expertise you already have to create powerful solutions for your audience's problems. So they can't help but be drawn to you and the work that you do. 

Now, I’ve got to warn you, when you apply Jess’ process of online marketing tips, digital marketing, and internet marketing to your own business, be prepared for people to start pulling out their credit cards and begging you to take their money. I am serious because Jess is going to help you stop hiding. Get out of your own way and learn the psychology of digital marketing so you can stop hearing crickets and start getting clients. In fact, when we apply Jesse's strategy here at the effortless life, we are instantly able to communicate the value of the transformation we provide in a way that our audience gets. 

Finding just the right way to explain how powerful the effortless life method is. And how it works was something we struggled with, even after being in business for three and a half years. And then in a single, 30-minute conversation with Jess, she was able to help us spell it out and we had clarity like we've never had before. It was crazy and mind-blowing and so awesome. And guess what? It's made it way easier to talk about our programs and so much more fun. So without further ado, let's jump right into that conversation with my good friend Jesse Connell to discuss online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. So you can take these gold nuggets and start applying them to your business today, too.

[INTRO TRACK]

Courtney Elmer 6:18

Jess, welcome to the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast, I am so excited that you are here today to chat about digital marketing.

Jess O'Connell  6:24  

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat with you guys today about online marketing tips.

Courtney Elmer  6:27  

Yes, and I cannot wait to dive into what we're about to talk about in this episode. And for those of you listening, Jess and I both attended a James Wedmore event last fall, and we knew of each other. But we didn't officially meet until this spring when we both started training with James himself to learn his coaching methodology. And I don't know about you, but I feel we hit it off. And I was so fascinated by what you do. And whenever you shared about it on one of our practice calls, it was I instantly saw the value and how important it truly is. 

And we hopped on a call for just to actually walk through her system and her framework with me now, I've been in business for three and a half years and just this year have gotten clarity around who specifically we're here to help and how we can best help them and then just just came in and took it all to the next level when she sat down with me just a couple weeks ago. And we nail down our signature framework of what we teach here The EffortLESS Life®. So just I figured the best place for us to start would just be to have you share who it is you help, how you help them, and then just take us on your journey and what got you started.

Jess O'Connell  7:36  

Thank you so much, it was so fun to sit down with you to chat about online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. And I totally agree. I'm so glad that we've connected recently. It was fun to sit down and take that bird's eye view of your business and help you get clarity on that. So my name is Jess O'Connell, I help passionate women entrepreneurs nail down who they help and how they help them by taking a stand for the change that they want to see and create for their ideal clients. I help you stand out online by creating a signature framework that produces consistent results and also nailing down your standout messaging so that you stand out, take a stand for something and create a movement around the change that you're creating with your offers. It’s all about digital marketing. 

Courtney Elmer  8:28  

I love this idea of taking a stand for something. So tell us a little bit about what that means specifically because I know for those listening, it's something they might have heard about in the internet marketing world, you need to take a stand and use your voice and speak your truth and all these things. But what does that actually mean when it comes down to your business?

Jess O'Connell  8:47  

I think that's something one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making is creating solutions for problems that people have without standing up for the change that they want to see. When you create a solution, that's a huge piece of this right? We provide solutions for people's problems. But a lot of the problems that people have, they don't necessarily understand that they have them, or they are not familiar that you can create the change that they want. 

Courtney Elmer  11:49  

That is fantastic. I'm over here leaning in, tell me more, you are magnetic right now describing all of this, and oh my gosh, what a great metaphor to and literally thinking of a magnet and how that operates. This was a huge aha I had recently where I was, I'm watering everything down because I don't offend anybody or say the wrong thing because I want to attract more people. And in doing so I was actually repelling people, because my attraction was not very strong, right. And it's interesting, because even in these past few weeks, as I've kind of taken a shift more towards creating, you know, taking a stand for the EffortLESS CEO™ and who that person is and how we help people become truly an EffortLESS CEO™. 

Jess O'Connell  12:55  

So it is such a great question. And it's so funny. I'm, so thinking about my own thinking that I hate when people say on a podcast? That's such a great question, after every single question. I promise I'm not gonna do that. But I was looking back at what made my first offer so successful. So I launched my business a year and a half ago now. And I had an offer that just took off. 

Courtney Elmer  15:21  

Wow, that is amazing. So when you took that 300 students out the gate, I mean, that's a dream offer, right? You think of all the times, you know, and I can think back to the very first offers I put together, I was, Yay, seven people. But I learned so much from that, right? It's taught me so much on the back end of how to hone in my messaging and why all of this is so so important. It helped me with online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. 

So I'm curious about your online marketing tips and journey, and along the way, what would you say was the biggest aha breakthrough that you had maybe the biggest story that even if you didn't realize it at the time, you notice that you were telling yourself this belief you had bought into that was maybe keeping you stuck, and you're moving forward, that shifted for you and change the entire course of where you're headed?

Jess O'Connell  16:00  

You listening can't see me but Courtney can and right over my shoulder, it says my success is inevitable. And before adopting that belief as my truth, I believed that nothing I did was ever going to be successful. Not in those words, because that sounds harsh. But I felt my failure was right around the corner, which is maybe a better way to phrase that I want to put this out there. But I'm afraid because what if it fails, or I want to anytime I would achieve something, I would say Yay. But you know, I'm probably going to lose it right? And how many of us are operating from this belief that I don't want to be too successful because then I might lose it. Or I don't want to put myself out there because what if people don't like it. And so I found myself looking at the things in my life that were successful as failures. And kind of building up this list of all the things I had done that were not quite good enough. And I was operating from this perfectionist paradigm, where nothing I did was ever a success. 

And I realized that if I want to be successful, but nothing I ever do is successful.  What the heck is success, right?  I couldn't have if there was such a paradigm there that I was stuck in. And so I heard this concept that completely blew my mind. And it was that this game, this life is rigged in your favor. And that everything that happens to you is happening for you. And that your success and whatever you set out to achieve is inevitable. And so I started to look for evidence of it in my life, which is how I've been able to make any big mindset shift. This is to find evidence. I feel our beliefs are current or backed up by evidence. We gather evidence for everything.

Courtney Elmer  20:43  

Wow, and what a refreshing stand to take. Even just hearing you share this. It's almost like there's a weight lifted. And I can imagine for you listening to you, maybe you felt that that, Oh, wait, you mean it isn't black and white? You mean, I don't have to get it perfect. I don't have to get it right. What you mean, that launch that I put out there that I only got two people interested, you know, wasn't a failure, and it was working for me. 

Jess O'Connell  21:49  

Yes, I love this. And I think that having a signature framework is such a statement, I definitely said I am so sorry. Um, I, I take a stand. But having a signature framework is one of the most important things in your business. If you are just teaching things that other people have taught you, or trying to follow what everybody else is doing, there's nothing that you do with that is proprietary. And so by creating your own way of doing things, or recognizing and giving yourself the authority that you do have a unique way of doing things that gives you so much more authority and leadership in your industry. 

Courtney Elmer  24:45  

Yes, I already had the methodology in place, which is our five-step proven process, you know, to become a true visionary leader. And people have followed that methodology time and time again and gotten amazing results. But whenever you took it and kind of took the zoomed-out approach and showed me, Courtney, these are the actual pillars, let's talk about what these pieces and components are that they're mastering in this process. And you could kind of see, you know, I don't know if it truly was. It just added a layer of depth that wasn't there before. And we're gonna be unveiling this framework in a few weeks, I'm excited for our listeners, for our followers for our community to have this because you know, it's so interesting, it's when things become clearer for you, in your business, when you have a deeper understanding, it becomes clearer for your audience to just another reason why this is so important. And  I said, told you I was, you just gave me the gift of clarity. And that is just, it's priceless. So, yes, and continue, because I want to hear more.

Jess O'Connell  25:48  

Okay, you're so welcome, by the way, and I'm so excited to hear how that goes, and how that changes the way that people are magnetized to your messaging, online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing.

Courtney Elmer  25:56  

So Jess, would it be helpful, then, you know, I love this idea of sharing with our listeners how to use just this simple Venn diagram tool to create their own pillars and their own framework.

Jess O'Connell  26:07  

So when you want to do it, take a bigger view of your current system or methodology. Or if you don't have a methodology or a system in your business, think about the transportation from A to B. And so in there, you have all of the different steps to take somebody from where they are to where they want to be.

Courtney Elmer  30:47  

And I'll tell you when we sat down just on the call that day, I'm telling in 30 minutes, guys we had this hammered out. Jess was asking me all the right questions and pulling the information out of me in a way that I had not seen before. And it was so powerful. And it's given us so much more depth to be able to speak from the right because now we know we're clear on the gaps that our audience is facing, and the specific challenges of that unique gap. And so we're able to speak to them where they are. 

And so our copy is more clear, it's converting better, and people feel heard and understood, because we're speaking to them and meeting them where they're at. And so for those of you listening that are visual learners, Jess has created this incredible template that you can go to the show notes and download and start to see what your framework may look like. And she's got some questions and some prompts and things in there to help you visually put together what these foundational pillars of your business are. So that you can better understand your ideal client. And so that you can also speak to them where they are for them to recognize why they need you. I love this. And it has been so powerful, even in just these past couple of weeks, just that we've been using this. It's truly amazing. Our digital marketing is much better too. 

Jess O'Connell  32:03  

I am so glad. And I'm glad that, even though you've been in business for a while, this was kind of the missing piece for you to have that greater level of understanding. And I think sometimes as entrepreneurs no matter how long we've been in business, or how successful we may be, we have gaps that we don't necessarily see, which is such a powerful thing about still engaging in student mode and not staying there forever. But being open to more information and open to learning new things. Because there are parts of your business that if it feels like you're not quite sure what it is, it's probably because you're missing one of these pillars to getting to where you want to be.

Courtney Elmer  32:42  

Yes, that is so key. And I'm glad you said that because that is something common that I hear from people and they're, you know, I feel  I'm putting myself out there. I'm showing an online video, I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing. But people don't seem to be connecting, or I don't seem to be getting the engagement that I thought I would. 

Jess O'Connell  33:33  

So what you saw today was just one small piece of my methodology for developing your signature framework. Obviously, understanding your methodology is so important and understanding your own pillars of your framework. But there are three other pillars that you're probably missing if you have this rock star framework, including something I call Aligned Launching, which if you've ever launched something and it hasn't gone as well as you wanted, or you feel you're launching to crickets, it’s because you’re not Aligned Launching. 

Courtney Elmer  34:39  

Jess, any final thoughts that you want to leave with our listeners today before we wrap it up? Anything on online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing?

Jess O'Connell  35:06  

I am just so grateful that you had me on to discuss online marketing tips, digital marketing, and internet marketing.

Courtney Elmer  35:36  

So just the final question that I ask every guest that comes on the show, and I love hearing the different answers because they're all so unique is this. What is your definition of success?

Jess O'Connell  35:48  

This is such a great question. And I've been thinking about it since you asked me to not think about it. But my definition of success is freedom. I started a business so that I could spend more time with my family, more time serving the people that I wanted to serve and more time just enjoying my time. And so success to me is creating a business that doesn't have to have me in it all the time. 

Courtney Elmer  36:26  

Beautiful. Jess, where do you hang out on social media so our listeners can go connect with you?

Jess O'Connell  36:33  

I am all over Instagram @Jess.Connell_ you can come to hang out with me there to discuss online marketing tips, digital marketing, and internet marketing. And then on the Launch Fix Podcast.

Courtney Elmer  36:43  

Fantastic. Just thanks so much for being here today and for sharing all of your incredible wisdom online marketing tips, digital marketing, and internet marketing expertise with us. I appreciate it. I know our listeners do too.

Jess O'Connell  36:51  

Thank you so much for having me.

Courtney Elmer  36:55  

Thank you guys so much for tuning in to listen to online marketing tips, digital marketing, internet marketing. Remember to subscribe so that you are the first to know as soon as a new episode drops, and please take a second to leave us a review and tell us about your favorite online marketing tips. It only takes a couple moments of your time and your reviews do help people find us people who need to hear this message to plus when you leave us a five-star review. We might even feature it on an upcoming episode and give you a shout-out right here on the show. All right, we'll see you back here next time on the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast. Until then go live your EffortLESS Life®.