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Are you a thought leader? Do you think you should be? Do you have to be a thought leader in business these days? If you want to be one, is it as simple as just calling yourself one? What’s the difference between calling your self one, and being one? I had so many questions!

Verity Craft is a speaker, coach, writer and self-described thought leadership nerd (with her love of thought leadership possibly matched only by her obsession with musical theatre). Together with Christina Wedgwood, she's built Intelligent Ink into the go-to for thought leadership here in Aotearoa New Zealand (they like to say they were doing thought leadership before it was cool – who would have thought at school that they'd be trendsetters?)

They've worked with hundreds of big thinking, purpose-driven experts to maximize their impact, build their reputations, and grow their businesses as thought leaders and authors.

Verity joins me on MAP IT Marketing this week to explain why it’s ok to not love the term and STILL act like one, how to use different thinking skills to stand out from everyone else and why sharing your thoughts might not be the ticket to getting new clients. (It’s not all you need.)

This podcast is FILLED with great nuggets and information - quite frankly I didn’t want the interview to end!

In this episode we cover:

• Why you can have an issue with the name “thought leader” and still be one
• What makes a thought leader
• What isn’t enough to do as a thought leader
• How you can build a brand as one
• Whether thought leadership is just for those wanting to build a large audience
• Why thought leadership content is different from marketing content.

Important Links

Find out more about YOUR SUCCESS TEAM

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the best parts of being a content marketing veteran (aka, in my 50’s and having been involved in content marketing in one way or the other for over twenty years) is seeing patterns show up in how technology impacts our content and our marketing.

The ebb and flow of “too much info” has been one that we’ve struggled with as humans since the internet became an integral part of our lives. 20 years ago I was writing keyword stuffed four-hundred word blogs for companies that had no consideration for the reader and were all about getting google to notice us.

It worked for a bit. But then our human need for good content that actually informed us took over and the algorithms adjusted for us.

AI is creating a flood. People who've been paralysed in content creation or even content creators who just want to pour out as much as possible now have technology to help it. There’s AI everywhere.

And yes. I’m using it.

But I’m also excited about the opportunities other business owners are creating for me - because the more others create AI generic work, the more my “thinks” - what I call my own ideas, will stand out and be noticed.

They’ll have a different cadence, they’ll feel very human (and possibly even a bit flawed) and my people will find them

In this episode we go over why content marketing is even more of an opportunity for your small business than ever before, why you need to be creating “Confident content” and what I’m doing to help you do just that

In this episode we cover:

• Why AI is a gift for us (and not for reasons you think)
• What’s going to happen when we reach peak flood and why we need to ride the wave
• How to connect better with your content
• What I’m doing to stand out in a sea of “sameness”
• Why being brave, and being confident about your own voice matters now, more than ever.

Important Links

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s SUBSTACK

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free Face of your Business checklist

Download the free workbook

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When someone says that social media marketing is a waste of time, email is a waste of time, any part of marketing is a waste of time my response (at the very least in my head!) is “No, you just didn’t take the time to fix the problems to make it successful”

There are two really big reasons when content marketing can fail so miserably. The first one is you haven’t taken time to develop a plan AND stick to it, and the second is you haven’t taking time to learn how to present it in the way that best fits that platform,

I see people say “email is a waste of time” but they only email once a quarter. I agree. Doing it only once every three months IS a waste of time,

I see people say “Instagram doesn’t work” but they aren’t using reels, stories and only do promotional type posts. It’s not Instagram. It’s the business owner.

Learning to change what we do, in order to get results is a key part of marketing. There are 15 areas I tend to look at with my clients, and these areas help us work out what we can fix.

Let’s be clear. Content marketing is an extremely effective method of building out a long term, resilient sales funnel for your business. But - you need to understand how to make the bits that aren’t working work.

In this episode we walk through 15 key areas you can look at. As you work through them, make a list of actions you can take to improve your content marketing strategy. Let’s dig deep, find the problems, fix them and then… get the results you’ve been looking for.

In this episode we cover:

• What the 15 key areas of blocks and issues often are.
• How to address each
• Why you need to look at all of them in isolation as well as looking at the big picture
• Where to start first
• Why we always need the end in mind
• What we need to do to get more results
• What to do if everything you try just still doesn’t work

Important Links

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s SUBSTACK

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free Face of your Business checklist

Download the free workbook

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Alana rocked up to our group coaching day with her young daughter in tow she instantly reminded me of.. Me. Those days of taking my baby with me places is long past and I’m now looking at a completely empty nest next year, in part because I’m flinging my youngest out a little bit before we’re both ready

Alana is a corporate escapee and the cofounder of Your Success Team, a collective of business experts who have created a business coaching model that places multiple brains on your business, giving a giant hell no to "my way or the highway" advice and dated formulas.

And she’s doing it all with three children under the age of five. The week I’m recording this, work was put on hold when gastro swept through her house. The juggle is one her clients know all too well too.

Alana’s developed some excellent tools to deal with overwhelm, learned from hard experience. In this podcast we talk through the juggle, the need to be kind to ourselves and have more reasonable expectations of what is actually possible and why it’s ok to take time out and carve your business around your life, and not the other way round.

As she says “Because, at the end of the day, business owners want to make money from their talents while living life on their (very unique) terms. Which is why when you bring your talents, experience, and grit to the table, and they bring theirs, you'll be amazed at what they'll create together.

In this episode we cover:

• Why Alana and her co founder work with start ups and small business owners
• What she sees as common struggles around mindset and time management
• How Alana plans out her time to make sure she’s building a business that has room around her children
• What she can struggle with, and what she loves about life as a business owner with young children

Important Links

Find out more about YOUR SUCCESS TEAM

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We spend a lot of time looking at our ideal clients and what they “look like” but what if we spent more time looking at what they are experiencing, what they are being influenced by, and what they are needing from us more.

Using empathy in our marketing strategy can help us identify the core needs of our ideal clients, so we can talk to them better. We can show we have grace for the sticking points that are making life harder, be aware of the blocks they might have in the way of assessing success, and use their own words, and voiced thoughts in our marketing messages

In this episode of MAP IT Marketing we cover the seven steps to using empathy in our strategic thinking, and how it can then be applied to our marketing and to our sales.

If you know you want to connect with your customers in a deeper and more authentic way, then THIS is for you.

In this episode we cover:

• Why using empathy in our marketing strategy can help develop our messaging
• How to get inside our client’s heads
• What we can look at
• The steps to developing an empathy based strategy
• How I’d apply this to my own business

Important Links

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s SUBSTACK

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free Face of your Business checklist

Download the free workbook

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s nothing like having your entire world turned upside down to discover holes in your business. And this year that’s exactly what happened to Kat Corbett

Kat’s been a freelancer, a consultant, and an agency owner.

When she started her copywriting agency 3 years ago, she needed a consistent flow of clients to be viable. So she learnt how to make this happen - even with a small audience and an introverted personality. Her primary platform is Linkedin and she’s used it effectively to grow her audience and client base.

One of the biggest lessons in this process was realising that when she was so close to what she did, the 'curse of knowledge' prevailed. She couldn't have an objective view of the true value she offered to the marketplace.

This close proximity could create a lot of frustration when it came to marketing her business. She didn't have clarity on how to articulate the transformation she created, and that impacted her confidence. So she didn't put herself out into the marketplace.

When unexpected change appeared overnight, Kat had to step back and look at her business, what she wanted as a business owner and what her core benefit really was to her ideal client (and- who her ideal client actually was!)

As a messaging strategist, she now works with her clients to help them identify and express the value they create for their ideal clients.

Her Peaceful Pipeline process takes clients through a framework that builds confidence and transforms how they show up in their marketing - in a way that aligns with them.

In this episode we cover:

• What led Kat to make a change in her business
• How she gets her leads from Linkedin
• Why her model is called The Peaceful Pipeline
• What Kat sees is missing in many consultants and coach’s marketing
• Why it’s so important to work on the “hard stuff”
• How to message people without sounding salesy.

Important Links

Find out more about The Peaceful Pipeline

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’ve only ever talked about buyer profiles before in a retail environment but we’re all talking to people and selling to them (even if we are selling to a business we are still selling to a person IN the business)

So the nine buyer profiles are still worth looking at.

There are some buyers who come in hot. Is this a good thing or a warning sign? How can you tell the difference?

What can you do to warm up someone and are any of them timewasters or are they just misunderstood?

I’m covering what each one is, what they need and also letting you know which ones I personally find the most challenging in this episode of MAP IT Marketing

In this episode we cover:

• What the nine types of buyer personas are
• Why it matters to understand these
• Whether you need to focus on them all
• Which ones to really watch for as a small business owners
• How to treat them differentiating in marketing
• What they all need in the sales process.

Important Links

Come to Rachel’s Free content strategy workshops

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s SUBSTACK

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

Become a part of our Facebook group

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download OUR free Face of your Business checklist

Download the free workbook

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.