How to Blow People Away With a Powerful Personalized Experience (Part 2)
Clarity, Confidence, & connecting with Your Creative Work
This Fall, I’m dishing out a 6-week Instagram Live Training + Blog Post series around the topic of “Finding Clarity & Confidence in Your Creative Work.”
This theme will scale each week setting you up to take the next step and thrive going into the upcoming Q4 3-Week Boot Camp. (Saturday, Oct. 29th - Friday, Nov. 18th) 🗓
In this 21-day group coaching workshop, you’ll learn how to Confidently Promote You, Your Work, + Your Value!
Note: Click the image to watch the replay. Continue below to read the blog.
Click to watch the Instagram Live Training Replay
Take Initiative & Do the Unscalable
Before you get all crazy diving into this session, I highly recommend first checking out the previous session, Pt. 1 in How to Create a Powerful Personalized Experience.
I gave out one of my biggest tips in terms of how to get your ideal people to feel more connected and invested in what you’re doing.
While also revealing that you don’t need a massive audience to crush it…
And that you can find a lot of success playing the small game leading to big results.
Already read/watched it? Then let’s build off it and go deeper down the personalized experience rabbit hole.
Let’s talk sports real quick so I can create some context…
And then no more sports—pinky promise. 🤙
Whatever sport you play or watch (or ignore), you want players on the team that do things that don’t show up in the stat sheets.
For example, with basketball, the stat sheets only show things like points, rebounds, assists, steals, etc.
You don’t see the X-Factor hustle/effort stats like:
Deflected/tipped passes.
Diving for loose balls.
Help-side defense.
Taking a charge.
Good communication.
Team morale + leadership, etc.
This parallels the creative realm in terms of building a magnetic brand and getting the right people invested in what you do.
These hidden hustle/effort stats in our creative pursuits are what:
Create a powerful, personalized experience.
Keep people craving for more of what you create/share.
Convert silent followers into engaged fans.
Mold brand ambassadors who promote for you.
Build community and loyal customers.
Most of these are unscalable tasks…
Meaning you can’t always automate these AND expect to give a personalized experience.
If you want your ideal community, customer, client, collector, etc. to engage with what you do…
Often it requires you to take initiative on engaging and doing the unscalable.
It’s tedious work, but the long-term results speak for themselves.
Here is my “Doing the Unscalable Checklist” to create a powerful personalized experience.
Doing the Unscalable Checklist
1. Respond Back to ALL Interactions
This used to be a standard for me, back when this was a side hustle and I had no kiddos.
It’s incredibly harder today as I’m both a dad + a self-employed coach where my students get priority in terms of responses…
But when I make the effort, people definitely notice.
Here are my top suggestions:
Do your best to carve out time to respond back to all comments, DMs, emails, messages, etc.
Have a listed order of priority for who gets your time/replies first.
Don’t ignore the surface-level interactions (like a single emoji response), but definitely take note and nurture the meaningful interactions (like an in-depth response).
Think of these people as hot leads you can serve now and well into the future.
Ways to respond back:
With genuinely grateful comments.
Ask if they have any questions.
Continue the conversation with open-ended questions.
Never respond back with just an emoji–it’s a bit lazy (even if they only left an emoji first).
This is about effort and not taking the easy route.
A simple response of “Thanks for your support!” will suffice.
BONUS 1: To really blow people away, respond back with an audio or video message.
BONUS 2: Use people’s names when you reply back.
Take an extra second to click on their profile for their name.
You’ll be surprised how this can positively affect someone.
BONUS 3: Have templated responses + quick replies that you can customize if you get a lot of repeatings comments and questions.
2. Initiate Appreciation
If you haven’t noticed, people appreciate being appreciated.
Genuine gratitude is contagious and creates good energy making it hard for someone to not want to support you.
You never know when someone is having a hard day and needs the pick-me-up that you can provide them.
Trust me, you won’t be forgotten when it lands on a person who needed it.
Tips to initiate appreciation:
DM and connect with new followers thanking them for the follow to spark a conversation and/or offer your support.
Reach out to those who have left a Rating or Review thanking them for their support.
DM those who leave thoughtful replies to your work/posts.
Reach out to your idols regardless if they respond back.
Many of your heroes are just normal people like you and me and are extremely grateful to hear from you.
So many of my guests say my podcast listeners are the best because I give them a CTA to reach out to the current guests and show their support, and they actually do!
Visit and engage accounts of people or pages you want to brush shoulders and engage with them.
Leave genuine and supportive comments (make sure to tag their handle).
Over time, you’ll pop up enough to pique their curiosity enough for them to check out your account.
Some of my favorite community members and close friends are people who were always on my feed. I ended up checking out their profiles and sparked a relationship.
Reach out to those who share, bid on, and collect your artwork.
Give a homie hookup: You could mail out a thank you letter, send someone some swag, hook them up with a digital product, or offer a promo code to show some gratitude for someone’s support.
I’ve had plenty of cool things sent my way because I showed someone support first.
I’ve been able to grow a deeper relationship with these people because of it.
I’ve hooked up plenty of people in my community for supporting me.
This creates a deeper connection and sometimes creates a new brand ambassador.
3. Be a Community Connector
Take a moment to connect two people you’re acquainted with who can mutually benefit one another.
This could be connecting someone’s resource (podcast, book, course) to someone you know could benefit.
It could be connecting someone looking to hire with someone who you know would be a perfect fit.
My friends Tom Ross and Diane Gibbs connect me with people all the time, which results in amazing new friends and new guests for the podcast.
Currently, I’m constantly connecting my students who are pursuing NFT art with friends that are collectors that have that specific taste in style.
When you’re a connector, you open yourself up to the Rule of Reciprocity
The people you connected may want to connect their circle of influence to you and what you’re doing.
When building and nurturing your community in your hub, being a community connector offers EVEN MORE value to your members.
Whenever I see people seeking advice or looking for recommendations, I immediately tag experienced individuals who come to mind who can help that person.
Tiny Efforts = Big Results
You may be thinking, “But Scotty, this all sounds like a LOT of work.”
True, creating a long-term thriving magnetic brand takes a shit ton of work and effort.
All these tiny efforts compound over time.
You never know when that personalized experience will create a raging fan, loyal customer, or repeat client.
Why not do everything within your control to make you, your work, and your brand hard to ignore?
It takes one person at a time, over time to connect with what you do and share it with their community.
It all can start with a powerful personalized experience that creates an unforgettable impression that leads to many more.
Do the unscalable and focus on the hustle/effort stats and points that most are too lazy to do.
It’ll pay off.
Action Item: Start practicing at least ONE tip noted above in your daily creative routine on social.
Report back when you start to notice it working.
Keep showing, keep putting in the work, and keep creating—YOU GOT THIS! ✌🏻🍕
Want to work together? 🤝
Consider learning more below about how to join an upcoming 3-Week Boot Camp. 👇🏻
LET’S WORK TOGETHER 🤝
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