Ep. 028 How Being Authentic Can Boost Your Business

Welcome to the Cracking Content Podcast, helping entrepreneurs to amplify their expertise through storytelling, content, and PR, so they can get more sales and make a bigger impact. Every business has a story to tell. Don't be afraid to tell it. In these episodes, I am talking to content creators that have built businesses in their own way, using different types of content marketing. So I'm welcoming Lauretta Ihonor who is the founder of the amazing self-development platform, The Ambition Plan. Lauretta: {00:58} The Ambition Plan is a digital platform. It's essentially for Type As, women who don't want to settle, who, I guess, outwardly have it all. Claire: {02:03} I know you've got a very big following on Instagram for The Ambition Plan. How did that come about? How did you build this really big and loyal following? Lauretta: {02:15} It's a fortuitous accident, but it's an accident in terms of it was an accident at the start and I've nurtured it and built on that. But when I talk to people about it, I say it's really two things. It's having the clarity of who I was trying to focus on, and just being authentic.  Lauretta: {02:48} I think I always came from an authentic place. I knew exactly who I was speaking to, which were women like myself. Everything's based on my own backstory. Lauretta: {04:27} I jumped through the hoops and it felt very inauthentic. I didn't really do webinars that much, but I did things like PDF lead magnets, three day challenges, masterclasses, and all the stuff you do to get people in the top of your funnel. But as I said, it just sat uncomfortably with me and over the last year, I've just thrown that out and just focused on being authentic. Lauretta: {04:50} Do you have a problem? Here's a solution. If the solution is worth money, pay for it. If it's not, have it for free. And if you don't like it, go somewhere else. That's literally how I operate, and the right people get it, and the people who don't get it aren't the right people, and I wish them all the best. Lauretta: {06:35} I sit down and I say, "What does the person want to read about? Let me write that topic." Because that's what they're Googling. Claire: {06:59} Obviously my background's journalism, so it's all about the story. It's all about writing about what your customer or community need to hear. And I think if you are creating regular content like that and publishing regularly, then yeah, you'll get found on organic search. Lauretta: {10:22} I've never filled my social grids with pictures of me. It's not what I do as a person in general. So I'm not going to do that for my business, because it doesn't feel right. It's not where my interest lies, and it relates to what we said previously. I can't keep it up long term because it's not authentic. Connect with Lauretta:  As a doctor, entrepreneur, journalist, TV producer, nutritional consultant and one-time fashion stylist, Lauretta is a serial self-reinventor, driven by a search for her life's true purpose. Two years ago, she founded the self-development digital platform The Ambition Plan (theambitionplan.com), which has since grown into a global online community of over 300,000 women. Her motto? "Keep looking, don't settle.” Website: theambitionplan.com Instagram: instagram.com/theambitionplan  Facebook: facebook.com/theambitionplan Twitter: twitter.com/theambitionplan   Connect with Claire:  You can download my free PR guide here https://clairewinter.info/freebies/be-your-own-pr/  To find out about 1:1 content coaching go www.clairewinter.info. Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crackingcontent/ Website: https://clairewinter.info/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairewinteruk  Join the Cracking Content Club Membership: https://clairewinter.info/cracking-content-club/