The best social sharing snippet from this interview is by far… “put you front and center in your marketing, whether that’s your face, whether that’s your voice, whether it’s video, like it doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to take any specific form, but just don’t hide, like you speak the way you speak. Share what matters to you. I mean, show your face at least, like even if it’s just a photo be a human, like be as you, as you can. And that is what really makes your marketing stand apart. That’s the only thing you have that no one else has or can ever have is you. So putting that front and center is so important and so powerful.”
In this episode I talk with marketing coach, Lauren Tilden. She talks about the concept of ‘content packaging,’ and the importance of properly presenting content to capture audience interest. How small details like thumbnails, titles, and subject lines can significantly impact engagement. The role of AI in content creation, highlighting its usefulness in idea generation but stressing the need for personal touch. She also shares insights on the importance of consistency and accountability in executing marketing plans, the impact of mindset and habits on business success, and offers book recommendations that have influenced her approach.
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Hello, and welcome to the small business sweet spot. I’m your host Barb Davids, and this show is dedicated to helping small business owners like you get more organic website traffic and also to help create and distribute content and analyzing the numbers so that we can make better informed marketing decisions. It is action oriented, direct, and conversational. And if you’ve been looking for SEO or content marketing help, please stick around to the very end where I share about the group coaching program, small business sweet spot. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s go.
Welcome to the sweet spot. This episode, I am talking with marketing coach for small business owners, Lauren Tilden. Thanks for joining me today, Lauren. How are you doing? I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited. Yeah, you’re welcome. So I went looking for people to bring on the show for the small business owner audience.
And in particular, I look for people with energy and topics that they talk about that I like to listen to from my own business and your Energy that came off the page was definitely inspiring I don’t I feel like that word’s overused but it was inspiring it made me feel energized to do things with my business So I thought well, let’s just start talking Yeah That’s kind of how I started.
That’s such a compliment. I like Yeah, to, to have that feedback on your content. I feel like, you know, we all create so much content and whether it’s social or blog or podcast or whatever it is, and we don’t always get a lot of feedback on it just because of the way marketing works. So thank you so much.
I received that compliment. Yay. Yeah, that’s very true. There’s not a lot of, I think when people go into business, they think that they’re going to get a lot of feedback. And after so many years, you start realizing, no, people just kind of consume it, but they don’t really come back to it unless maybe they see you or they talk to you in a networking group or something like that.
And around the idea of content, I did do some sleuthing about some things that you talked about, like in particular things. And there was one that I was interested in learning more about, and it was called content packaging. Would you like to talk about that a little bit? Yeah, that’s funny that you picked up on that because that’s something I’ve been thinking a ton about lately.
To me, content packaging, like if we were to think about, let’s, let’s think of a physical product as a metaphor here. So the packaging of a book would be the title and the cover of the book. The packaging of a pair of earrings might be the hang tag that it’s hanging from with a logo on it. Any kind of like, plastic sleeve that it might be in, the packaging of, you know, a candle could be the label on it.
Maybe it’s in a box, but all of these things, the visual look of it in the case of physical products is Super important when it comes to buying behavior, because that’s what helps us decide whether we even want to approach it, pick it up, smell it. If it’s a candle, try on the earrings, like the way that it’s packaged and framed to begin with is what makes us decide whether or not to even decide to engage even a little bit with it.
And I’ve been thinking about this a lot with content. Because I think that every type of content has some kind of packaging to it, which helps us decide whether or not to engage with it. So, I think I started really thinking about this because I just started a YouTube channel and with YouTube, it’s really clear what the packaging is.
It’s the thumbnail and the title of the YouTube video. That is what helps people decide whether or not they’re going to click it or just keep scrolling right on by. So it’s so important that you don’t. Just skim past that like, you know, if you’ve spent 10 hours on the video, it can be easy to be like, okay, let’s just wrap this up quick thumbnail title.
Let’s move on. But that’s such a lost opportunity. Because, you know, if someone doesn’t find enough intrigue in it, or isn’t excited enough about the content. The packaging to click, then it doesn’t matter what’s in it at all. And so I thought about this with YouTube, but then I started thinking, wait, this is true for literally any type of content with an email.
It’s the subject line with a social media post. It might be the, the first visual that they see. And the first part of the caption with a podcast, I have a podcast and I’ve been thinking about it a ton of podcasting. I’ve totally actually changed the way that I title my podcast. I used to have. Podcast number.
And then just like, I throw a title on there in 10 seconds. And now I’m thinking a lot harder about that because I know that my podcasts are so good and they’re so full of awesome content that can really help people. But if the title isn’t good enough to make people decide to click in and listen, then it doesn’t matter.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about making sure that. I not only spend time in creating the great content, but spend probably close to just as much time or at least a very good amount of time also thinking about how it’s packaged, how it’s going to come across to people and how I can make it as enticing and exciting and like really prove what value is going to be inside.
From the way that people first see it. I like the way that you put that all. And I love the phrasing content packaging. I haven’t heard that before. And in marketing, that’s a rarity. So I think I’ve heard of it. I’ve heard of people using that term in YouTube, like packaging, but it just occurred to me cause I’m new to YouTube.
So I was learning a lot and I learned, I learned that, but then I thought, wait, this is, this is true for literally any format of content. It has to have something to it that makes us want to read or watch or whatever it is because our natural state, any of us listening can probably relate to this, is to scroll right on past whether it’s junk in your email inbox or stuff on social media that it doesn’t call to you or In your podcast player, like you, you’re subscribed to all these podcasts.
How are you going to choose which one you press play on? Our natural state is to scroll. So what is it? How can you design the content such that it calls out to people and makes them want to click? Mm hmm. I think that is very, specific way of. Being intentional, I think is what it is, like, don’t just throw it out there, give it some thought, sit down, think about it, that kind of thing. Do you have any feedback or what you feel about AI and how people are creating content in terms of they can put things in there and get a title right away, or they can get a headline right away, or they can get copy right away, and it’s not necessarily going to stop them.
From scrolling or that will make them click it if they see it. What are your thoughts on that? On AI for content creation. Yeah, I, so I use it, but I, I, I’ll say a few things first with AI. I think the quality of what you get out is so such a product of what you put into it. So the more context you give it and the prompt that you give to, let’s say chat, GVT, The more context you give it, the more specific you tell it what you’re looking for, the more it knows your tone of voice and like your priorities and your values, the more it knows.
I like to give ChatGPT in particular, like a job title. So I’ll say you’re the world’s best content strategist, or you’re the world’s best podcast script writer, whatever it is. So as much context and detail and intention, I like the word intention, you can put into the prompt, the better the output is going to be that said, I still feel like I can tell when content has been created by AI or I, I can tell when it hasn’t, let’s say I can tell when a piece of content has been created from someone directly and like they care and their hearts in it.
And. You know, you paid me such a nice compliment about my content, and I think what you’re probably picking up on, I hope, is like, that I really believe in what I’m talking about and I care about it and it’s like literally from me. So while I do use Chai GPT specifically for content creation, I never take it word for word for what it’s telling me.
I’ll use it for idea generation, I’ll use it for You know, if I’m writing a podcast about 10 ways to get more engagement on your content you know, I’ll come up with eight of my own and then I’ll say like, Chachimichi, what else do you have? And maybe it’ll come up with a couple ideas. And I’m like, yes, I totally agree.
So I’ll use it for that. I’ll use it for outlining. A lot of times. I just need to get it kind of all my thoughts into an order that makes sense. And it’s great for that, but actually putting the words together, the phrases, the examples. I think stories are something obviously chat GBT can’t tell your own stories.
So all of that is what really brings your content to life. And yeah, I think there’s a, there’s a place for it, but I personally haven’t found a way, and I don’t really know of anyone who can make it as good as great content written by a human is. So I think there’s a place for it, but not like a full replacement in terms of using AI for like.
Content packaging. So let’s say coming up with titles of podcast episodes or subject lines for emails. I think it’s great at ideation. So say give me 50 subject lines that, you know, are curiosity provoking, specific, non spammy, whatever criteria you want to give it. And it’s going to come up with a big list.
Usually for me, maybe there’s a couple in there that I’m interested in. I’m not sure I’ve ever taken word for word what I’ve been given, but I’ll, you know, I’m a marketing pro at this point. So like, I can kind of, I know what works, so I’ll say, oh yeah, like I’ll take part of that and part of this. But a couple of tips for this are depending on what.
Platform you’re talking about. There’s all kinds of online tools that are not chat GBT, but there’s like subject line generators. So where it’ll get it, it’ll say it’s a little too long. You should take out one of your emojis. And I can send you some links for this kind of thing, Barb. I don’t have them off the top of my head, but I’ve, I’ve got them linked somewhere so I can send them over for you to put in the show notes if you want.
But that’d be great for some, yeah. Subject lines, blog titles hooks, even there’s all kinds of tools that can evaluate your, your subject lines. I’ll just, like, while I’m on my little tangent here, offer that there’s also just some, like, consistently useful formats, really, for, for hooks and subject lines in particular.
So if you can promise that something inside is super valuable. So things like how to. XYZ where XYZ is something that people really want to know how to do or the ultimate guide to or a step by step process to or listicles numbers work really well. So 7 ways to 7 steps to. Also specificity is really engaging.
So I’ll often do subject lines that are just a series of three things, and it’ll be three things that I pulled out of whatever’s in the email that you can’t really make sense of without opening the email. So it might say like, the pomodoro method, green tea lattes, and chachiviti. And like that’s a subject line and people are like, what?
I need more. But, but it’s not clickbait because when you open it, like I have talked about all three of those things somewhere in the email. That sort of set of three really specific things I’ve noticed works well. Personalization, I can’t remember what writer said, like, there’s no, there’s no word more beautiful to us than our own name.
So if, I wouldn’t do this in every single email, for example, but putting someone’s name in the email or in the first line can help people decide to open it. So, Those are a few ways. But yeah, I usually lean into either provoking curiosity. So people are like, what does that even mean? Or promising something valuable inside.
And of course, like, I hope it goes without saying, I’m sure it does, like, given what I know about you and your audience, probably, like you deliver on this. You don’t say, Here’s a free guide to this. It’s going to show you exactly how to grow your email list and then not actually deliver on that. That is no way to build trust with your audience.
So you have to deliver on whatever you’re promising, but yeah, I think curiosity and promising value are what I kind of lean toward most. Yeah. I’m going to switch gears on you now to the next question. The, I realized this is sort of abrupt, but there’s really nothing much more to say on AI. So I’m just going to move on.
I loved hearing all of that. I was poking around on your socials and some different content that you had, and you talked about rest is resistance. There was a book that you read and the, or for book club that you are a part of. And I wondered if you would speak a little bit to that, that particular phrase just really piqued my curiosity.
Yeah, so on my podcast, I have a, a book club where every month we talk about a different book and usually they’re business books or self improvement books of some kind that is going to help you in some way, run your business more effectively.
This one was like, not super businessy, but one of the books we’ve read in the two years that we’ve been doing this book club, that Has like really made me think and changed. my, my view on things the most. The book is called rest is resistance. It’s by Tricia Hersey and it’s about basically how capitalism and white supremacy have really made us feel like our only usefulness is our work and what we can Create and offer the world and it’s, the book is really all about in defense of how, how resting and choosing rest and like creating a boundary for yourself to rest, whether that’s sleep, like getting enough sleep or going for a walk or meditating, like carving out this space to just slow down and rest and take care of yourself, how that is actually an act of resistance in a world that has really conditioned us all to believe that like, yeah.
Productivity is what we’re good for, like doing and being busy and staying occupied. And yeah, so it just really explores why, and some of the, like, U. S. history in particular around rest and slavery and capitalism. And it’s, it’s a really, really thought provoking, like, gives me chills book. So highly recommend that.
Okay, good. That sounds very interesting. Are there other books that you would recommend from your book club or even maybe not from your book club? Yeah, oh my gosh. I’ve learned so much and like so much of the way that I run my business now is Based on books that I’ve read. I’d say the ones that I reference the most are Mindset by Carol Dweck and this book is really all about the two mindsets that we all sort of lean toward one naturally or the other There’s a growth mindset where we believe that we can learn and we can get better and that our abilities and intelligence and capacity is Can be improved through practice and hard work and effort.
And there’s a fixed mindset where we think we just kind of naturally believe that our intelligence and capacity and worth and ability are all fixed and they can’t be changed. It’s like, I’m either smart or not smart and capable or not capable. And if you have a fixed mindset, you hate to make mistakes.
You don’t really like to try things that you might not be good at. You have much less. resilience and openness to criticism and like willingness to try again. Whereas if you have a growth mindset, you, you view mistakes as proof that you’re actually trying and learning and growing. And the book is all, she’s a scientist and you know, she’s found that across basically any discipline, whether it’s like sports or academics or business athletics, like literally anything.
The most successful people all have a growth mindset. They’re not necessarily the people who have the most natural talent. They’re the people who kept working, kept trying, kept practicing. And so I’ve, I think I naturally had more of a fixed mindset. Growing up for most of my life, I was like, I’m smart.
Like this is how I do it. But anything I wasn’t good at, I would not engage with. I wouldn’t apply for a job if I didn’t think I would get it. Like I really had a lot of fear around rejection and that kind of thing. And reading this book totally changed my life because I’m like, you know what? Mistakes are fine.
They’re proof that I’m doing something and trying and they’re, they are the only way to get better. So mindset is a total game changer for anyone who. Like hesitates to put themselves out there in particular, or just kind of is governed by fear and that kind of thing. The other one that I talk about all the time is Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Again, neither of these are specifically a business book, but they’re, they’re really more mindset and habits book. And Atomic Habits is about how basically the smallest When repeated consistently over time can really change everything. So just like an atom in the universe is like the smallest particle that everything in the universe is made of.
And atomic habit is like that tiny, small thing that seems insignificant, but if you just keep doing it over and over, it compounds and really expands. And so it’s all about building better habits and breaking bad habits. So that’s really powerful one too. I read that one just a long time ago, so I don’t, I don’t remember a lot of the specifics, but I do like that one.
The mindset one, I haven’t heard, so I’m going to put that one on my list. I do love those type of books. I have a hard time remembering the, , I always tell myself this, so it happens for some reason, the, I forget the titles of the books that I read, even though I love them and I would recommend them to somebody, but, , I feel like I’ve read about a million business books.
So. And there were some really bad ones too. I think sometimes I get really put off when I read a book and it’s like the same old thing or it’s just telling you to take a walk again or it’s like very surface level type story driven without any like tangible stuff. And it sounds like the ones that you read definitely have the tangible actionable things in them.
So. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of picking books, although there definitely have been the ones where I co hosted with someone who, her name is Sherelle, she’s amazing, and she comes on every time we do a book club episode. And so there have been ones where we’re like, yeah, there’s probably something you could take away from this book, but it’s not like our biggest, because we pick them before we’ve read them.
So it’s like, we think this is going to be good, but. We’ll see. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And you work with a lot of small business owners and a lot of companies and you have a couple of companies yourself, not only this business making good, but I know you have a correct me if I’m wrong, but like a small product shop and it’s like tangible products called good Sheila.
Is that right? So I have, yeah, I have Good Sheila, which I’m actually in the current stages of rebranding. So I haven’t announced the new name yet, but probably by the time this comes out, I will have. But yeah, that’s a stationary line based on my watercolors. And so it’s greeting cards, vinyl stickers, art prints, things like that.
A lot of like gift wrap. Gift tags. So yeah, that’s in the middle of a rebrand. And I also own a physical store in Seattle called station seven. That sells a lot of locally made products and handmade goods and small batch, amazing things made by amazing small business owners, but I’m actually in the process of selling that store.
So as of July 1st I’m passing that on to someone who’s been my right hand woman for a long time and just freeing up my time for, you know, what What I feel most excited and passionate about, which is really the marketing coaching and marketing for small business owners. So yeah, I have. My background is in corporate marketing and then I quit, burned out, quit, started playing with watercolor and then it’s kind of all come back for a full circle where I’m like, well, actually, I do love marketing and I love teaching marketing.
It just has to be in the right context. Like I didn’t care that much about the corporate marketing I was doing and I really care about helping small businesses do better marketing. So. What do you think is the biggest thing holding small business owners back from doing their marketing?
I mean, I think you kind of nailed it with the question. I think people do a lot of researching and thinking and taking courses and planning and. Making lists of things they want to be doing and very consistently with most of the people I’ve worked with, like struggle to execute consistently. So to show up consistently on social media, if that’s your plan to consistently send emails to your list, to consistently release a podcast episode or a blog post or whatever it is, that’s part of your plan.
No one has to do any of these things. But when you figured out what your plan is showing up to do it over and over again for a long time is what actually creates results. And it’s really hard to do actually. It’s simple, but it doesn’t make it easy. And I would say the biggest. challenge that I really help people with is finding a way through that stuckness of just not doing it.
So you know, I think one of the biggest keys is accountability. So many of us are super accountable and have a history of being very accountable when other people are involved. So we always turned in our homework or like we do what we did, what our boss told us when we worked for someone else, or You know, if we told a friend we’d meet them to go for a walk, we show up.
But when it’s just us, it’s very easy to not do it. So, you know, this is something that I personally struggled with a ton when I started my business. I was like, why am I not doing things? Like I’m such a doer usually, and I’m just not doing it. And. I realized like I don’t have the boss. I don’t have the people around me that, that I’m letting down.
It’s just myself. And for some reason I feel okay. Letting myself down. I don’t love that about myself, but I have found a workaround, which is I need to involve other people. So that’s probably my biggest tip for anyone listening who, if you just find yourself not executing struggling to be consistent is find ways to build in consistency to build an accountability.
where other people know if you’d show up or not. So just a couple examples of this for my podcast, for example, it has come out every Tuesday for many years now. And I know that people are expecting it on Tuesdays. And so actually today we’re recording this on a Tuesday and I had all this travel and my schedule is a mess and I hadn’t recorded the intro for it yet.
And so I literally just did it before this and we’re getting it out now. And so like, you know, if I didn’t have that accountability of people expecting it, I would have just been like, it doesn’t have to go out today. Like whatever I have other stuff, but because I know people are waiting for it, like I made it happen.
So having your audience know when your content comes out and consistently tell them like this comes out every Tuesday, it’s Tuesday, the podcast is coming out, like kind of force that accountability for yourself. You can also join some kind of program or even just create a group of your own friends where you’re like, let’s meet once a week, say what we’re going to do before next week with fellow small business owners.
You can do co working either in person or on zoom where you’re like, for the next 90 minutes, this is what I’m going to be working on. And someone knows if you do it or not. So really just finding ways to involve other people in the process I think is so, so powerful. Yeah, that is a good point. The accountability and just, yeah, making yourself accountable.
I think that was A great piece of advice to find some other people to work with and help you along with that. So kind of along those same lines, like I think there’s some, a lot of talk around like motivation, like, Oh, I’m not motivated or I got to wait till I’m motivated to do something. What is your perspective on how motivation fits inside of all of this?
Yes, such a good question. And my answer is like just straight from Atomic Habits by James Clear. And I won’t get his wording exactly right, but it’s, it’s basically if you wait for motivation, you are setting yourself up to be inconsistent. Like motivation is not always there. So if you only are going to do it when you feel motivated, then you’re you are not going to be able to be consistent.
So James clear is all about building the systems and just like the habits where whether you feel like it or not, you do it. I’m not saying there’s no exceptions. Like if I’m sick or like, if something comes up with my kids, like whatever, I definitely have the times where I, or I don’t, but For the most part, I cannot set myself up where I only do it if I feel excited and motivated because that’s not my reality all of the time.
So yeah, I found that so often actually what gets me motivated is. having already done some work. So momentum is actually really motivating. Keeping going, like having been showing up consistently is motivating, but just waking up at point zero is not always. And so I think I would go back to accountability, like building in accountability so that even if you don’t feel motivated, You at least don’t want to let people down or like you want to keep showing up.
And that, that just kind of keeps you going. So yeah, I think motivation is a hard one and I try not to rely on it at all because at least for myself, it’s not something I consistently have access to. And that’s where batching comes into play. A lot of the time I think, and I, I, I would guess that you would agree with that.
Do you do much batching? I’m still not great at it. Like I’ve been doing batching in small chunks versus like bigger chunks, but. Yeah, I do a little bit same like you like, you know, there’s the people who say on Mondays, I only do this on Tuesdays. I only do this and I’m not to that point. But wherever I can, I try to do more than one, like piece of something at a time.
So especially for my private podcast where I have an episode that comes out every day for my membership. I almost always do those in batches. They’re short. So they’re like five minutes each. And so I almost, I almost always do like many of those at one time. I think that, that’s a really good point.
And then the other thing I’ll say around this topic is just Putting it actually physically into your calendar. I guess this is kind of speaking to the motivation question, like putting into your calendar, exactly what you’re going to be doing. So when I first started batching, I would, I thought I was batching.
I thought I was trying to batch. I wasn’t because I wasn’t doing it right. I would put into my calendar for two hours marketing. And then I sit down and I’m like, I don’t know what that means. Like what. Am I supposed to be jumping? I don’t know. So I think it’s super important to like, have your marching orders really clearly articulated.
So if I put something like that into my calendar, I’m going to batch work on something. I’ll say, write podcast episodes for June 12th, you know, like super, super, super specific so that when I sit down, I’m like, okay, I know what I’m doing. That’d be my tip for anyone who wants to try it a batch is like, Make sure that when you sit down to get started, you know exactly what you’re doing because otherwise it’s so easy to just Get lost and waste your time.
Mm hmm. I wholeheartedly agree with that. Yes For sure. Yeah. All right, I think What I’d like to wrap up with is ask you to share a little bit about your business and who you help, who your sweet spot is, and anything that you would like to direct the audience to. And even, specifically like one takeaway, it doesn’t even have to be necessarily what we talked about.
I’m thinking now out loud, you could have it be just anything that you want them to walk away with. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me. , My main business, I, so I talked a little bit about station seven and good Sheila, which is being rebranded. But the main thing I do actually is I have a membership program for small business owners who struggle to do their marketing consistently.
You probably gathered that that’s kind of my, my passion is yes, the education, helping people learn how to do marketing, make a plan that makes sense for you, but most importantly actually show up and do it. Over and over again, consistently. So that program is called making good happen. It’s a membership.
And we have all kinds of marketing training, accountability, co working, all kinds of stuff in there. And then I also kind of like the free version, the free version of that would be my podcast, making good, which talks a lot about marketing mindset procrastination, perfectionism, all of the things that come into play when it comes to doing our creative work and marketing it.
So those are my two. Places I’d send you would be making good happen or making good the podcast. As for like a resource, if anyone with marketing just feels like really stuck on what to say in your marketing or what to create it about, I have a list of 100 free content prompts where. It’s just a PDF you download and if you’re like, I need to put something out there, I need to write an email, I need to post something on social, you can go look at this list and like guarantee there will be something there that is easy to do.
So that can be found at makinggoodpodcast. com slash 100 prompts. As for like the final takeaway I would give I am going to go with something we haven’t talked about yet. And that is to put you front and center in your marketing, whether that’s your face, whether that’s your voice, whether it’s video, like it doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to take any specific form, but just don’t hide, like you speak the way you speak.
Share what matters to you. I mean, show your face at least, like even if it’s just a photo be a human, like be as you, as you can. And that is what really makes your marketing stand apart. That’s the only thing you have that no one else has or can ever have is you. So putting that front and center is so important and so powerful.
You are not boring. Your life is interesting. Like. Even the small moments people are interested in. So just don’t feel, don’t feel any kind of way about like putting yourself and your life and you into your marketing. Cause it’s only going to help you. It’s only going to help people connect with you, build that relationship and ultimately hopefully decide to decide to work with you or, or buy from you.
And so put you in your marketing. You are your business’s biggest asset. That would be my final takeaway. Great takeaway. I love it. That’s awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today and sharing your expertise with the audience. Thank you so very much. Yay. Thank you so much for having me.
This is fun. All right. And that wraps up today’s episode. Stay tuned for more episodes to help your business thrive online. We’ll see you in the next sweet spot. Cheers.
Thank you for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you’re looking for SEO and content marketing help, consider joining the small business sweet spot. It’s a group coaching program where you can get answers to your questions about your business directly and clarity around the marketing strategies that you would like to implement in your business.
You can find all kinds of information at compassdigitalstrategies. com. And if you liked the episode, please tell a friend. Cheers.
