“IS ANYONE EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!”

When we start our businesses – and even when we’re seasoned veterans – this is a questions everyone has asked themselves at some point in their marketing efforts!

In a candid conversation on Content Creation Made Easy, life coach Allie Hill & I explore what to do when you’re wondering,

“Am I talking to the right people? Are THESE my people? Who’s listening? Where are the RIGHT people??”

Allie allowed me to interview her about the honest pain and ultimate positive results on her journey to find her Exact-Right Audience…

We discuss how:

• she got through difficult, hopeless, giving-everything-away-free times
• she stopped throwing spaghetti (and linguini and fettuccini and rigatoni) against the wall.
• one shift that made people start spilling their guts in her DMs

she honed a strategy to connect to people with her content - even when she doubted herself.

HINT: get laser-focused on your WHO!

Listen as we unpack the 3 things that helped Allie get to ‘waiting list’ status!

CONNECT WITH ALLIE

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Full Transcript

[00:00:02.110] - Jen Liddy

I'm really glad that you're here today on the Content Creation Made Easy podcast because I'm interviewing somebody who has been on quite a journey to figure out who the hell she wants to work with.

And this journey has not been and easy. It has not been fast. It has not been clear, and she has kept going.

You’re going to love her.

I'm talking today to Allie Hill. Allie is a client of mine and we've been working on her business. Allie’s a life coach who now specializes in helping empty nest moms find the next version of themselves, live in the next chapter of themselves, create a Happy Nest versus an Empty Nest.

But I want to talk to you today about her journey of finding her message, finding her exact right audience member, knowing what to say because she went from zero to room and it took a little while for her to get some traction. But she's here today to share her story and her insights. And Allie, I want to say I'm so excited to talk to you. I'm really proud of you. And thank you for joining us today.

[00:01:03.960] - Allie Hill

Oh, my gosh, Jen, thank you. It's my pleasure.

[00:01:06.730] - Jen Liddy

I'm excited to hear you talk about your experience. So why don't you talk a little bit about how you got into life coaching and what made you step into this field from what you used to do?

[00:01:18.550] - Allie Hill

I was a journalist before and I did that in LA for 15-20 years. And I just couldn't really sustain the journalism schedule.

So I decided to be a full-time mom. And maybe I did a few little articles here and there. So that was wonderful until my daughter was about to head to college.

I realized I'm going to need something, so I started with the first program with Martha Beck. And really that program for me was just a lot of learning. It was a great insight. It was so wonderful to have a schedule, to need to show up and be in a classroom.

I really liked the structure. But I never did that anything with that certification. And then a couple of years went by, and I discovered the Life Coach School with Brooke Castillo. That spoke to me because it was much more mindset, more cognitive, lots of tips and tools, but really direct.

I ended up doing her program. In fact, I started her program right as my daughter went to college. So it was perfect. And then I knew that I wanted to be a life coach.

[00:02:40.050] - Allie Hill

And I think around that time when I got certified, maybe I started working with you or a little bit after I had no idea about the business. I was one of those people who once they became a coach thought all the people were just going to come and find me.

It was like just tell people your life coach. Tell them you can help them, and they'll just line up and you’ll be making six figures a year, just like that.

[00:03:07.730] - Allie Hill

That was a little bit of a rude awakening, but you helped me so much on my journey. I can remember one specific time. You'll probably remember the time whether it was six months or nine months ago. But you said to me, I know you're frustrated. I know that you're really close to wanting to quit, but just hang in there.

And I was like, oh, yeah, sure. Okay, I'll give it, like, maybe another week or another month or something. And it turned and the tides turned.

If anyone in here is listening to this and is in that spot, the only way to fail is to quit.

[00:03:50.210] - Jen Liddy

I love that. Let's talk about what was causing that frustration in that moment. Give us some background of who you thought you wanted to work with at the beginning and some of the things you were doing at the beginning to find that ideal audience member.

[00:04:02.780] - Allie Hill

Oh, my gosh, I was, like, throwing spaghetti on the wall. Well, I guess I need to say that I'm an Empty Nest  life coach now, but that's not what I started out as:

I was the coach to all of my daughter's friends, so they just would call me.

And you're the one who convinced me I should start charging them. “Okay, I will charge you a little”, like $20 for an hour and a half of my time.

And that was great. And then their moms started calling me because I think that they could see that there was a real difference in their daughters and they were getting a lot of benefits.

All of a sudden, I became the College Mom coach. But it wasn't really a fit. 

It wasn't one of those things where I knew what I was doing. It wasn't filling me up, I should say.

And then I'm trying to think how naturally it came together. You probably have a better memory than I do on how I became the Empty Nest coach.

[00:05:09.270] - Jen Liddy

I just want to insert something here. You're forgetting some of the extra things you were doing with this. It wasn't just spaghetti.

You were also throwing fettuccine and linguini at the wall, too, because you were doing workshops for middle school girls and middle school moms.

And then you just had gotten to this point where you loved working with these people. You saw that they really needed your help, and they really weren't willing to commit to do the work. And that was very frustrating for you.

You were like, ‘I know they love me. I know they need me. I know I'm helpful, but A, they don't want to pay, and B, they're not making their next sessions, they're not showing up, they're not recommitting.’

That was really maddening for you. Because you knew you had this special sauce and you were just kind of talking to an audience that was just a little bit off center from where you really thought you could get some traction.

[00:06:04.910] - Allie Hill

No, it's so true. And I remember you explained to me there are solutions, but what's the whole thing?

[00:06:10.670] - Jen Liddy

The solution ready people. Yeah.

[00:06:13.290] - Allie Hill

Even though I knew I had the solution and I thought they were ready, they weren't ready. They just really were what you call fans.

I was like, “Wow! How can you not want help?”

But really, there was that section and I was doing any and everything.

Thank goodness for you to be able to shine like a light on this problem of going, “Allie, those aren't your people. The people who really want you will are going to be coming after you and will be committed!”

Do you remember the exact moment when I shifted to empty nest life coaching? It was July, it was so it would have not even been a year ago.

I was at a retreat. I was meeting my cohort for the first time. We were all talking about our niches.

I was saying I knew that there were a lot of women in my neighborhood that needed help. “Oh, my gosh, I wonder if they're going to see this. Not you and not you. Not you. Of course not you the other one. And then we start talking about it!”

[00:07:33.160] - Allie Hill

Then I was saying, “But you know what? They all need it. I know they need it. They don't know they need it and they're not going to pay for it.”

But as soon as I got that kind of AHA moment of who it was, I realized it's not the ladies in my neighborhood, it's all the other people!

Then it was really an exercise of how to get out of my neighborhood. And that was a whole journey, which we can speak to, too. Yeah.

[00:08:04.060] - Jen Liddy

So this is really good for anybody who's listening, what Allie is talking about here is your audience is on a journey, the people that you want to work with are on a journey.

Some people are just not ready to admit they have a problem. 

Some people don't even know they have a problem.

Some people don't see their problem.

Like, you can see it so clearly and, you know, you could help them.

But if they're not ready and willing to admit that there's an issue and they're not searching or they're not curious about a solution for this thing, then as a content creator and as a person marketing your business, you're going to spend a lot of time throwing the spaghetti and the fettuccine and maybe some Bow Tie pasta also against the wall.

Allie, you just got to the point where you were like, it just hit you at the right moment where you're like, “Okay: if it's not these people and it's not those people, it's not the other people, then who the hell is it?

That's when we got really laser focused and it all came to you really quickly, easily.

[00:09:00.320] - Allie Hill

And I think that's when we put out the poll, of like, “Okay, if you want. What are you looking for?”

I did a “Calling all all empty nesters” or something along those lines.

All of a sudden, the stories came in and all the comments came in, and I'm like, wow, this is it. These are the people!

They're apparently not in my neighborhood, but they're in the world. And then they all started privately in my DMs.

It was a secret conversation, which was so interesting because I remember I would be telling you, Jen, I'm so tired because I was up till midnight answering all my DMs. And it's great.

I love serving these people, but it'd be so nice if they would share it in the comments. Everybody else could know. And then that switched it's like once somebody commented, the floodgates open and everybody felt safe. So that was a great moment!

[00:10:01.980] - Jen Liddy

That's when you really started to learn your exact right audience member! But it was quite a journey for you, and it was not fast, and it was not straightforward at all. So then they start DMing you. And what did you learn from them? Dming you.

[00:10:20.190] - Allie Hill

I learned that they were really desperate.

I think they were in the box of solution oriented, except for some words, because I remember saying, oh, my gosh, there's this woman that DMs me every day.

And she did for three or four months. When finally I had a beautiful offer to present her, she's like, “I'm fine, thank you.”

And then you reminded me that there are fans and there are people who just want your content, but then there are people who really want your help.

Then it was just the learning curve. Once I got over that and really listened to what their words were, they were saying, you really taught me that.

Pay attention to their words and mirror that back to them in your message. Now, almost, I don't want to jinx myself, but, like, on a daily basis, I get someone who says, I don't know how you came to me on Instagram, but I was falling all day yesterday, and you're saying exactly what I needed to hear. And I'm like, wow, this is amazing.

[00:11:34.950] - Jen Liddy

Finally. So how would you describe who this person is? Because we've talked a lot about the process that you've gone through to come to understand who your audience is. But people still who are listening still don't know who you help. So who is it that you help?

[00:11:48.480] - Allie Hill

I know, and I feel like everybody knows what you talk about all the time. They're all living with me. This is a person the Empty Nester, whose child is either about to go to college, has gone, is at college, has been out of college.

Basically, they're women moms who have adult children out of the house, and they're in transition. A lot of them have been full-time moms, and they have devoted themselves 24 hours to the care and love and support of their family and their kids.

Then I have a bunch a ton, actually, of single moms who are working, moms who've been working all the way through, but they don't have the partner.

The partner can be a great thing when you're an empty nest or it can be a whole other complication.

So those are my women, the women whose role has changed dramatically. And even if they were trying to prepare for it, it's a bit of a shock in the transition.

And the phrase, like, “NOW WHAT?!” That's what they all have in common.

[00:12:57.160] - Jen Liddy

These are people who are either gearing up to be empty nesters or are empty nesters and they're struggling with it.

Since I love talking so much about what their words are, are they willing to admit that this is a struggle for them? How did they describe the pain or the problems that they're having?

[00:13:15.800] - Allie Hill

Yeah, their word is struggle. Some say grieving a lot, say sad, heavy, empty, purposeless, not feeling that they have a purpose, loss of identity.

They're all these very heavy words.

[00:13:42.350] - Jen Liddy

What I love about you're so wonderful to coach, Allie, because you're so coachable in that many life coaches come to work with somebody on their marketing, and they use words like,

“I want to help my people be more empowered.”

“I want to help women in transition.”

“I want to help them step into their best self.”

But those are not words people are Googling to solve their problem.

Right. So you very quickly embraced. Okay, I have to let go of that life coach jargon and really step into speaking their language.

And it has completely worked in your favor. Right?

[00:14:15.020] - Allie Hill

It does. I mean, the minute I got clear on who they are and started using their words and they could see that I understood them by using their words.

It's not like a fake using their words. Like, really, I am embracing their words, holding them, thinking about it, and then saying back to you,.

It's really me saying, I see you, I hear you, I get you, and I've got you. Let's do this. 

And they're coming!

[00:14:42.850] - Jen Liddy

Well, I call that the marketing mirror. A lot of people who come to me for content creation feel like “I don't want to talk about their problem. I don't want to talk about their pain.”

But sometimes you're naming it for the person, you're actually doing them a favor by giving them the words and mirroring what?

It's not manipulative. Like you said, it's not yucky. Sometimes, Allie, you're the only person who hears them or sees them, especially your people.

They haven't really been seen in a long time. Right?

[00:15:11.590] - Allie Hill

Right. No, absolutely. I just got off the call with the client today who said, “I've got a great marriage. My husband is amazing. I've got great friends, but nobody gets it.

“Nobody gets what I'm going through. Like I'm a happy go lucky person. This has thrown me for a loop.”

This woman was telling me she's become a real estate agent, looking into becoming a life coach, she’s got a store, but it's not helping.

And I said, ‘Well, we might want to try processing feelings. And she's like, all right. God dammmit!”

I had to say, listen, I'm a life coach - let's do that feeling work.

[00:16:01.770] - Jen Liddy

First of all, I want to congratulate you on all the work that you've done and how clear you've gotten.

Now we're seeing a lot of traction happening!

I’d love to talk about the growth and the wins that you've specifically seen once you got your ideal, perfect, exact right audience member pat down.

[00:16:19.790] - Allie Hill

Well, for one, I got to start charging a little money, so I stopped coaching entirely for free.

The more I've listened to people, the more I've been able to tailor programs for them. So, like, right now, I’ve got a 3-month coaching program, where we discuss all the things that they're doing, but we have a goal in mind that one's really sort of goal oriented.

I have the Happy Nest membership program, which is just launching this week, and that's really these women have said they want community.

They want to be with other women who are going through their exact same journey, even if it looks differently. So that's been really great to offer that to them. And then I just have some one-on-one coaching. So I don't know if that answered your question.

[00:17:14.990] - Jen Liddy

You’ve been able to make some more money & tailor your offers. The beautiful thing about being able to tailor your offers is you're not offering a little bit of this and a little bit of this and a little bit of this and a little bit of this, which a lot of people fall into that thing because they're like, maybe I just need more offers.

That’s almost never the solution. When you have more offers, that means you just need to do more marketing and people get confused.

So you're very tailored on that.

The other thing I'd love for you to talk about is your Instagram growth it has been from zero to very impressive. What are you up to now?

[00:17:49.950] - Allie Hill

6000 something? Yeah. No, it's crazy. When you and I started, I was at 200. It's even that was a lot of.

[00:18:00.440] - Jen Liddy

Like, personal friends that were all friends and family.

[00:18:04.000] - Allie Hill

Which quickly dropped off. But they're not empty nesters because I'm very directed on the empty nest message. So, yes, you got to see my trip to lA last week. But by and large, that's it. Yeah.

Do you want me to speak to how I did it? Because. Okay. Because I don't know if this is a scientific process or not.

[00:18:26.510] - Jen Liddy

But it works for you.

[00:18:28.140] - Allie Hill

This is what works for me. So first of all, I actually invested in somebody who helps me with Instagram. So I write all the content, but I hired her to do the Canva and all of that because I was spending hours and hours and hours on Canva.

It's just something where I just love colors. It's such a waste of time. I'm much better writing, giving it to her.

She can slap it on and boom down. That was a big one.

Also, just getting clear on my essence and my colors and all of that. I think it's good to be consistent in your aesthetic.

There's that definitely the mirroring back of people of what my clients and what the people in the community were saying they needed help on. I would address that specifically in my messages. And then my secret sauce formula for gaining I guess  is when I would have a post that would have high engagement organically, I’d have three to five comments. I'd have 100, 200 likes. I would boost it. And what that means is I would push boost.

And I'd say for five days, $5 a day. That got me when I would say out of the neighborhood because I could tailor it to Empty Nest moms, 40 to 60 in the US, I did do that accidental thing where I hit Africa the first time.

That didn't work as well. But I do have a great client from Panama, but that just got me out of the neighborhood.

And once that happened, from September, I'd say September to now. You're good at math, nine months or whatever, I think. Yeah, 200 to 6,500.

[00:20:31.670] - Jen Liddy

Incredible. And you not only show up regularly, you create content regularly.

But one of the things I really like is your message is so consistent. It's not like you have to recreate the wheel.

I really want people listening to remember, you don't have to always be baking the bread from scratch.

You can go and reuse the messaging, tweak it a little bit, make it look a little bit different. But your people are just still really drawn to a very similar message that you've had since you nailed down this ideal audience member.

[00:21:04.040] - Allie Hill

Yes. And you're speaking to an important part or component! Because I know I've said you, Jen, I'm so bored of my message. Don't you think people are tired of me yet?

I say the same thing over and over again, and you always remind me that it's not just because I'm putting it out there doesn't mean somebody saw it.

How many times have I missed people's feeds? And yeah, so I tweaked it a little bit. They still want to be seen and heard. You're so right.

Also, you write one thing, you do a story on one thing, you blog on one thing, you can repurpose it all over the place. Yeah.

[00:21:39.880] - Jen Liddy

I always say to my clients, you're going to get bored of your content way before your audience will.

You have to manage your mindset, because entrepreneurs, they're brilliant, they're fast, they're constantly thinking, and so they're onto the next thing.

With you, if we didn't have a strong anchor, you'd be like, okay, I'm done with empty nesters!

What's my next thing? Because you're so highly creative and it's just staying in this Lane.

Now that we've got some traction, we're staying in the lane.

You’ve launched your membership, had 67 people on your wait-list for your membership. You've got private clients that are paying you - that you never had.

There's so many big wins around this now that now we're just going to keep the machine humming.

[00:22:24.670] - Allie Hill

You just have to keep reminding me they were nice. But I'm going over here now.

[00:22:31.790] - Jen Liddy

I know we're all so guilty of that.

So I’d love to hear what's your favorite part of your messaging, either because it resonates with your audience or because it really means a lot to you.

What's your favorite thing to talk about to your Empty Nest, Moms?

[00:22:47.640] - Allie Hill

Well, I think what's most important to them is that I recognize the pain points and I speak to them, so I think it's 50/50.

I really like shining that light and letting them know that they're not alone and that I see them, I hear them.

It really is a thing.

Empty nesting really is a hard transition, but I really love the other part.

 I really love letting him know that there's hope that there's possibility that, listen, it doesn't have to be hard. Definitely feel your feelings. But listening that we can get to the other side, and I can show you how.

[00:23:27.570] - Jen Liddy

And you're living proof of that.

I think that's an important point because a lot of people either only want to talk about the possibility and never address the pain points, or they kind of get stuck in only talking about the pain points.

And you do a really beautiful job of balancing both. I just want to honor that with you.

What advice would you give to somebody who's really struggling to nail down their messaging or find their just right audience member?

[00:23:54.440] - Allie Hill

Hire Jen Liddy! No, of course.

But I would say that if anybody asked me, that is what I would say.

I think I came to you as such a hot mess.

I would say, get help. Listen, don't be in a box.

As a writer, first and foremost, sitting and looking at the empty page is really hard. It's so much easier if you have prompts.

It's easier if you have somebody who is someone to bounce ideas off to mirror things with.

Definitely get some help and get things that you said to me.

Get specific. When you think you've gotten specific, get more.

Keep going down.

Almost to the point where “I help 37-year-old empty nest moms who had two boys and one daughter at UCLA,” almost tone it down because those people, when you it feels like you're confining yourself.

But what it really is is you are getting your absolutely ideal client both for them and for you. And then you don't have to worry about all the maybes and I might hire you.

[00:25:20.030] - Jen Liddy

Allie and I are at the point where when we work together, she'll be talking to me and I'm writing down what she's saying.

And I know what she's going to say because she said it so much like her message is so consistent that I'll be writing.

She's like, YEAH!! She just knows her message so deeply.

I want that for everybody because once you get it, it feels like you don't feel like burning your business down anymore, walking away from it.

[00:25:43.610] - Allie Hill

It's exciting. I mean, they're still up and down, but you've got the foundation and, you know, like having done a couple of things and this works and this doesn't.

You really taught me, “It's just data. It's just great information. Keep going.”

Now I'm teaching this to my daughter who's looking for a job applying all over the place. Just keep going. I think that's the biggest thing.

[00:26:10.590] - Jen Liddy

Thank you for sharing your insights. We’d love to hear where people can connect with you.

I know we're going to talk about your Instagram and also let's talk about your membership and how people can at least get into your world, because I know you've got a great download for people, too.

[00:26:24.310] - Allie Hill

Okay. So many things. All my handles are the same. @AllieHillCoaching.

If you type that in, you'll go to my website or it'll be on my link tree. From there, it will show you all my offers. The exciting one right now is the Happy Nest program, because that's the way I can connect with you and you can connect to others.

There's a private Facebook group, too.

There’s the “My Turn” 3 month program, which I've got a waiting list for that right now because we're all filled all full through May.

And then I just do some one on one single coaching. If you just need something in the moment and it's just like a 911 emergency.

[00:27:28.270] - Jen Liddy

Allie, thank you for sharing your journey with us because I'm not only so proud of you, I'm excited for other people to hear that.

It's possible that you can feel like you're treading water for a long time in the deep end of the pool and you just want to give up and climb on the floaty but now you're like swimming laps and you're so strong in your messaging and I'm so excited for you.

[00:27:49.570] - Allie Hill

Thank you so much and you worked in my water analogy.

[00:27:56.410] - Jen Liddy

That’s right!You're on the paddle board now.

[00:27:57.990] - Allie Hill

Yes. Thank you.

[00:27:59.210] - Jen Liddy

Go check out Allie’s stuff and if you know somebody, maybe you're not an Empty Nest mom.

Or maybe you're about to become an Empty Nest mom.

I'm telling you I'm four years out from becoming an Empty Nest mom and I'm following her stuff and I am just like sopping it up with a biscuit you're going to be dialed in four years. Perfect. Such a pleasure, my friend.

[00:28:26.190] - Allie Hill

Bye, everybody. Bye.