By Kelly Forst June 7, 2021
How this entrepreneur bloomed into a thriving coach helping others live their dreams.
It used to be about long commutes, stressful corporate jobs and constant anxiety.
Not anymore.
Now, Brenda Ster runs a thriving coaching business helping online entrepreneurs and direct sellers create authentic relationships online.
Oozing energy and passion on the latest episode of The FWD: Thinking Show, Brenda speaks about finding your ideal client, knowing where your community exists and connecting authentically with people online.
Finding your zone of genius
Creating content on social media is about more than understanding your audience. It’s more than being everywhere at once.
It’s about doing what you love.
Of course, you have to know where your audience lives online. But doubling down on what you personally enjoy doing is one of the best ways to grow authentic connections with your audience online.
If you hate writing, you shouldn’t be blogging. If you love speaking, you should be on video. If you like what you’re doing, your energy is going to come through.
Double down where you enjoy the engagement, interaction and community — and your ideal audience will find you. You can always create on one platform, and repurpose content for another.
That is, if you create content that people want. And people want 3 things.
People come online for relationships, entertainment and information
Understanding what people come online for can help you create content that will attract people to your pages and help build your presence.
Ultimately, we come online for 3 things:
- Relationships. We want to connect and find community.
- Entertainment. We zone out on viral videos and humor.
- Information. We look for ideas, inspiration or are seeking answers to questions.
But you don’t need to do these 3 things on every single channel.
Brenda shares that it’s better to have a strong presence on a few channels than have a weak presence on many channels.
She also doesn’t believe that everyone should be on Facebook, or Instagram, or that one social channel is better than the others.
The only thing she can say definitely: Everyone should have an email list.
Why?
Because email is the only channel not on rented land
If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. Facebook could change the algorithm and your reach could drop tomorrow.
The only channel that you truly control and own is your email list.
Brenda learned this lesson the hard way. Even after building an audience of over 100,000 people on social media, Brenda did not have an email list. And she regrets that now.
She had to guide her audience toward the properties that she controlled after the fact.
So, when thinking about growing an engaged audience, Brenda’s advice is clear: start with an email strategy.
Listen to more of Brenda’s online marketing strategies
More about Brenda Ster
Brenda is the founder of Sassy Suite and Sassy Direct. She was a successful direct seller and now brings her attraction-based social strategies online to help everyone do social marketing better.