173: Why your content isn't Converting (and how to fix it!)

Are you spending hours creating content but still wondering why it isn't leading to more enquiries or sales?

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I'm joined by Kate Llewellyn, Content Confidence Coach and founder of The Content Consultancy.

Kate helps business owners create content with greater clarity, confidence and purpose and in this conversation we talk about why success isn't about posting more... it's about creating content that supports your business goals and guides your audience towards taking action.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by content creation or wondered whether your marketing is actually working then this episode will help you take a more strategic approach.

About Kate Llewellyn

Kate Llewellyn is a Content Confidence Coach and founder of The Content Consultancy. Through her coaching, programmes and membership, she helps business owners create content with clarity, confidence and consistency so they can market their businesses in a way that feels authentic and delivers real results.

Resources mentioned:

🎟️ Register FREE for the Online Business Growth Summit:

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Transcript

Speaker A [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 173, and in today's episode, I'm delighted to bring you another episode in my special summit speaker series. Now today I'm going to be joined by Content Confidence Coach Kate Llewellyn, and we're talking about content and why creating more content isn't the answer and creating content with purpose is. So let's jump right in and let's get started.

Karen [00:00:36]:
Welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that lifts the lid on what it really takes to turn your brilliance into digital products, passive income, and time freedom. I am your host, Karen, an online business strategist, course creation expert, and your go-to for building a business that works for you and not the other way around. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or maybe you're just ready for a smarter, more sustainable way to grow, then you're in the right place. Because each week I'll be bringing you inspiring conversations, practical strategies, and step-by-step guidance to help you create scalable, repeatable digital products that sell even while you sleep. So if you're ready to stop trading your time for money, reclaim your time, and finally build a business that gives you the freedom that you deserve, hit subscribe and tune in every Thursday. Let's uncover what's truly possible for you starting now.

Speaker A [00:01:38]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is the podcast that helps you turn your expertise into digital products that build income beyond selling your time and creates you a business that gives you more freedom and flexibility. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting the play button to listen to today's episode. Now, if you have ever felt like you are constantly creating content, but you're not seeing results, or maybe you've wondered whether you're posting on the right platforms, saying the right things, or maybe you've been thinking that you're spending too much time on your marketing with very little return, then this episode is for you. Because today I am joined by Kate Llewellyn, who is the Content Confidence Coach and founder of The Content Consultancy. And Kate helps businesses create content with greater clarity, confidence, and person— purpose. So their marketing actually supports their business goals rather than just becoming another thing for them to do. Now, this is a great conversation because we explore so many things, but more importantly, why so many entrepreneurs get caught on the content treadmill, how you can create content that genuinely connects with your audience, and why consistency matters far more more than chasing algorithms.

Speaker A [00:03:09]:
Kate will be joining me at this year's Online Business Growth Summit, where she'll be one of my guest speakers, and she's gonna be diving even deeper into how to build a content strategy that feels aligned, intentional, and ultimately drives your business forward. So grab a notebook, settle in, and let's dive into today's conversation with Kate.

Karen [00:03:31]:
So today I would like to introduce Kate Llewellyn, who is the Content Confidence Coach from The Content Consultancy. Kate, have I done that right?

Kate Llewellyn [00:03:45]:
Smashed it, absolutely nailed it.

Karen [00:03:47]:
Well done.

Kate Llewellyn [00:03:47]:
Sorry about all those Cs.

Karen [00:03:49]:
That's fine. You, like I say, you wouldn't want to be saying that when you've had a few. You get a little bit tangled. Do you want to introduce yourself and just talk a little bit about what you do and how you help your audience, um, just to give the listeners, um, some insight into who you are.

Kate Llewellyn [00:04:10]:
Yeah, absolutely. So thank you for having me. And yeah, so my primary role is as a content confidence coach, which is something some of your listeners probably may not have heard of. But the idea being is that I basically help other business owners to create their own content, to do their marketing, um, because we all know we've got the lovely content treadmill, uh, that we're all sort of stuck on and we've got to keep going. And, you know, my whole reason for being is to support people to do their content, to be there. I like to call myself a bit of a cheerleader for them, and I primarily do this through a group program called Content Clarity, where we really go back to the kind of strategic side of your content creation and why you're doing it. And then also my membership, which is the Confident Content Creators Club, where I'm there in sort of lots of different ways in order to support people ongoing with creating their content.

Karen [00:05:04]:
Yeah, it's, um, I've recently attended one of your workshops and I have to say it was absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend it. Um, as small business owners, the way that we market what we do and the way we reach our audience and connect with our audience is of course through content. Um, so, so it's a really, um, important piece of our marketing activity, isn't it? It's something that I would sort of say most entrepreneurs, business owners need to be doing in some way or another.

Kate Llewellyn [00:05:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. We really do. And I think what I found is many small business owners want to do it. They're excited to do it. But the joy of the digital online world that we live in is that it's actually quite overwhelming for most people. And a lot of us, you know, we maybe haven't had lots and lots of training or, you know, and/or can feel very worried about experimenting in the area. Because at the end of the day, you know, you have to be super visible. You have to put your content out there in front of, you know, the big wide world, quite literally.

Kate Llewellyn [00:06:13]:
And, um, and it can be really, really overwhelming. But as you say, it's also so important for so many businesses that you are using that content to educate, to engage, to connect with your audiences. So for me, it's really essential that we are doing it in a way that feels really good for us and is bringing in the results that we want.

Karen [00:06:34]:
I think that is really important to kind of pick up on because you can end up spending a lot of time on social media platforms and not get results because you can end up sort of getting caught up in looking at other people's feeds and, you know, the doom scrolling and all of that and not get that return on the time that you're spending. And actually what you do that I think comes across really well is that it's all about being strategic. It's all about looking at what your goals are and how you can leverage content in order to get those results that you're looking for in your business.

Kate Llewellyn [00:07:17]:
Yeah. Yes, exactly. So I give a lovely example of— I always remember speaking to someone and they proudly told me how they were posting on Instagram every single day. And I was like, you know, fantastic, good for you. I said, so, you know, and how many sales have we made? And, you know, are you getting lots of follow-up calls or leads, you know? And she was like, oh yeah, no, not as many as I'd hoped, she said, but, but I did get somebody message me, direct message me the other day about my services. And I said, oh, that, you know, that's fabulous. So what, what happened? You know, where did it go? Oh no, I haven't replied yet. And I thought, this is, this is what happens is we get so obsessed with that kind of what I like to call that content commitment of I have said I will post every day, that we then sort of lose sight of the bigger picture that actually, you know, She should have been straight in there sending a message.

Kate Llewellyn [00:08:07]:
And if that took the time that it would've taken to do that extra post, you know, for the following day, that's okay. And I think that's exactly what you've said, you know, that sort of strategic nutshell of always thinking about why am I posting or why am I creating this piece of content? And particularly, what do we want the consumer of that content to do? Because we always, especially with social media, we often say social media is often the very first step on that sort of customer journey. Mm-hmm.

Karen [00:08:35]:
Isn't it?

Kate Llewellyn [00:08:35]:
It's like they're getting to know who you are and what you offer. But there's always gonna be next steps, whether it's visiting your website, getting in touch, you know, via DMs, clicking on a link, signing up to a mailing list. There's gonna be other bits. So again, as a business owner with limited time, we wanna be making sure that we are, we are sort of covering that whole pathway. And importantly, we're spending time, energy, effort, potentially money where the conversion is actually gonna happen and not just at that very big start point. Yeah.

Karen [00:09:07]:
Yeah, I, I agree with you. I agree with you. I think it's really important to look at the full customer journey so that you can work out how you're going to be leveraging social. What, what is, um, the goal? And, and if you're attracting, um, an audience but you're not doing anything with it, the danger I think with social media is that, um, there's a lot of noise and, um, it is really difficult to stand out and be noticed because you're vying on busy platforms where other people are trying to be seen and heard as well. So we have to be strategic in a way of, yes, let's leverage social media, but let's use it as a way to bring people into our world. And what I've noticed is quite often it stops at social media and that ongoing pathway hasn't quite been figured out, you know, and that could just be simply, you know, downloading a resource where, whether they're then coming into your email Alice, but, but, you know, we know these platforms, we have no control over them, and literally overnight you can lose your audience. You can lose your audience.

Kate Llewellyn [00:10:24]:
Yeah, yes, it is terrifying. You can.

Karen [00:10:27]:
It is. I— it's interesting because I, um, I've been on Instagram for, for so many years, and I went on to my Instagram account yesterday and I got a notification to say that my account has been limited, which means at the moment I can't share links. Now, what's obviously happened is that probably a bot has picked up on a word that I've said. Now, I don't do anything shady on my Instagram. My Instagram, I don't sell, I don't, I don't talk about money, I don't talk about anything like that. So, so it's really surprising to me that they, they've, they've obviously flagged something. But what it has done, it's limited my reach, it's limited what I'm able to do. So if my entire business strategy or my marketing strategy was to build an audience on Instagram, right now I'm in trouble because I can't get the reach that I would have got before.

Karen [00:11:26]:
I think it's until the end of July and then I think it goes back. I have, I have applied for a review because I can't imagine any of my content would, would need to be flagged. But I guess the point is that happened yesterday and if I had a high reliability on that platform, where do I go from there? You know, somebody, somebody like the Instagram gods are telling me that, that we're now gonna stop, you know, pushing your content out for, for something that— and, and I think this is the danger. We rely so heavily on social media without realizing that it's not a given that it's always going to be there. So we need to look at other ways in which we can connect with people and bring them into our world so we— they can then continue to nurture that relationship.

Kate Llewellyn [00:12:19]:
Yeah, it's so important. You know, one of my kind of key, um, goals and things in life is to do what I like to call put social media back in its box. Like, it is a tool, it is just a platform. Um, and I often say to people, no social media platform was set up for small business owners. There's no board meeting with Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or whatever sat around going, Can we make the lives of small business owners in the UK much easier? Let's help them to advertise. They always are looking out for themselves, rightly so. They're a huge business, why wouldn't you? And so you've got to remember that. And what I really love is working with people to give them back that sort of sense of control.

Kate Llewellyn [00:13:02]:
Um, and you know, what's happened to you is, you know, terrible. It happens a lot. People even further than that, you know, they get locked out of their account completely.

Karen [00:13:10]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:13:11]:
But what we can do is we can take back control to a certain extent. The other thing I suppose I should just say is to remember that unfortunately, not even when you feel like you're smashing it on a, um, a certain platform, they change the rules, they change the algorithm, they do something else. So that's another thing. But what I would say is that with any social media platform, even in the situation like you're in right now, there is still a lot of gold in there. there that gets missed. So we focus so much on like, yeah, we need to put out another reel or another post, but actually just looking back at, you know, who has liked posts in the past, who has, you know, been in your DMs that maybe you've missed, or you sent that original, you know, reply but hasn't, you know, got back in touch. I, you know, I'm all for following a little bit of analytics and data, but don't just look at numbers, look at actual people, because that is the— like, the benefit and the value of social media is are real people seeing your content that you would never usually reach, you know, in like locally, or even, even if they did live locally, they might not have known you exist, but they do because of social media. But it's up to us as the business owner and as part of that mapping that journey to reach out, to find them.

Kate Llewellyn [00:14:24]:
And as you said, you know, invite them to take that next step and get back into your world. And I certainly agree that, I mean, I always sort of say to people, you want kind of a visibility platform. You want to kind of a platform where you're actually nurturing those people that now know you, and then you're going to lead obviously onto sort of the conversions and the sales. And ideally we want those 2 separately, you know, the visibility stage and the nurturing stage. Obviously a classic example being like a mailing list or what have you.

Karen [00:14:52]:
Yeah, definitely. I, I've heard so many different things where people have, especially on Instagram, where they, they, like you say, they've been locked out their account or You know, they— and, and it's just awful. Um, I'm in Etsy jail at the moment, funnily enough, because—

Speaker A [00:15:08]:
Okay.

Karen [00:15:08]:
And I— and again, I have no idea what I've done. Can I get in contact with Etsy? No. So now when people are like, where do I sell my digital products? It's like, don't, don't even— you know, Etsy is, is obviously one of the well-known platforms, but honestly, you have no control. And again, a bot has obviously picked something up, and— but there's no human on the other end to go and review. So you end up— and, and, you know, that was one of my income streams. So now I can't even use Etsy, but it's the same principle of relying on these third-party platforms to grow our businesses only for the control to then be taken from us. So then we have to be like, right, okay, what is it I can control and how can I grow that so that I get direct access to my audience and the people that matter? So yeah, it's one of those, um, things, isn't it, that I think, you know, by all means use, but use with caution and know what can happen.

Kate Llewellyn [00:16:15]:
Um, Yeah.

Karen [00:16:16]:
So yeah, it's, it's, it's such an interesting thing because I see people all the time, you know, sort of focusing in on the metrics, but, but not really getting anything like, like tangible from it. And we need tangible. We need to know.

Kate Llewellyn [00:16:33]:
Yeah, absolutely. Another example from my world, I always remember, they came to me and they were like so proud of their like open rates on email. And I was sort of like, okay, who has opened the email? You know, give me the names, give me, you know, are they, are they the right, you know, sector? Are they the right location? And then, oh, I don't know, but I got a 70% open rate. And like, it's great. And there is a certain element that we can use to evaluate our content on that. But actually we want to know, want to go deeper. We want to find out who those people are? Is it worth following up with them directly? You know, perhaps they've clicked on the same sort of area of— I don't know, say you're sharing blog posts or something, but they've picked on it every time. Maybe they're interested in that.

Kate Llewellyn [00:17:13]:
We're all so busy, you know, we sometimes need that little nudge. And I often say that to people, actually, with that kind of taking those next steps. Those next steps can feel the scariest, the biggest, because you're like, oh my gosh, I'm actually going to reach out to a real human. Whereas actually, as much as as some people I know find marketing, and particularly like putting themselves on social media, terrifying. Flip side, the thought of actually direct messaging somebody or picking up the phone, you know, even more, you know, making them feel sick. But, you know, it's sometimes as the buyer, oh, there's nothing better than somebody just messaging me and saying, oh hey, you know, did you want that thing?

Karen [00:17:49]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:17:52]:
We're all so busy. And actually, you know, I do think far more often that is the reaction. And, you know, for anyone listening, you know, positivity, I I genuinely think, you know, when you're doing it in the right way, that you're doing it based on that knowledge that you've garnered, that you can sort of see, oh yeah, they seem to like those things, or maybe need my help with that particular thing, reaching out can be sometimes your absolutely the best thing, you know, you can do. And one of the things I was always told was like, sales is literally like helping to buy. And I think that's so true.

Speaker A [00:18:21]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:18:21]:
It's like no different, is it, to if you walk into a shop and someone would say like, oh, phew, that's all you are doing. But for some reason in the digital world, it can sometimes feel a bit icky.

Speaker A [00:18:30]:
And I really, you know, I do appreciate that.

Kate Llewellyn [00:18:32]:
But genuinely, sometimes you can get some really lovely reactions where people are like, wow, you have like stepped in just at the moment I needed you. And there's, there's nothing better than that feeling.

Karen [00:18:43]:
Yeah, absolutely. And we are here to serve, and that's what, what we're selling is doing— it's serving. So I agree with you, as long as it's done in the right way, um, it can be really powerful. And, um, as you, you know, it's so true as a buyer If you are time poor and somebody gives you— if something that you need lands on your lap and gives you what you need in that moment, you're not going to be judging them. You're going to be so appreciative of it. So, so I think there is power, like you say, in reaching out and remembering that even though you are marketing online, the recipients are, are still human. Like, we're dealing with humans and we have to be human.

Kate Llewellyn [00:19:28]:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Karen [00:19:31]:
I did even forget that.

Kate Llewellyn [00:19:32]:
You know, yeah, people do. They absolutely do forget. They forget that real people are behind the likes, the shares, that, you know. And actually, I think we've also— the, um, the numbers game has got so distorted. Like, I often say to people, you know, they come to me and they'll say, I don't know, like, a post got 50 views or something. How many people stood in front of you, like, in the local village hall Delighted, probably. Be like, just to tell you or to educate you on this thing, probably be delighted. But in this world, a sort of influencer world of 10K views or whatever, you know, we've really forgotten that actually that's fantastic that we've even got the 50 views.

Kate Llewellyn [00:20:10]:
And, you know, and again, the more we nurture our audiences, and whether it is 10 opens of an email, you know, hopefully they are 10 people who are literally waiting to hear from you. And I think the other thing I just just quickly pick up on with the sort of follow-up or the sales sides of things is, you know, for me, from a confidence point of view, we can create so much content so that it's just ready. There's no big buildup, there's no like, oh, you know, what am I going to say? You're like, yeah, it's templated, it's there, it's ready to just, you know, be tweaked and sent out. And, and that can really help as well to build people's confidence. Like, just make your follow-up, your, you know, your kind of offer to, to buy, your help to buy content, you know, all there ready and waiting. And the more and more you use it, the more natural it becomes, the more you get positive results, and the more your confidence. So, you know, do give it a try. I think you'll be really shocked by the result.

Kate Llewellyn [00:21:05]:
And often a couple of follow-up messages have a lot higher conversion rate, if we're going to look at it, than 75 Instagram posts Yeah, absolutely.

Karen [00:21:16]:
They do say that, don't they? The, the gold is in the follow-up. Um, so what's one of the biggest mistakes or misconceptions that you see other business owners making when it comes to their content?

Kate Llewellyn [00:21:31]:
Um, I think, I think the biggest mistake is a little bit of what we've talked about, which is missing the opportunities that do present. Um, I think so many people focus a lot on the content creation, which obviously is really, really important. Important, but they're often creating more and more and more new every time. And actually what I would say is sort of bring back a bit of a balance of, yes, creating new, but also repurposing, reusing content where you are— where you can, sorry. And then when you are doing that, hopefully you might have a little bit more time to do some of those things that we've been talking about. Check back and actually see who has liked like, who engaged, who has interacted. Spend a little bit more time on your chosen platform interacting yourself, you know, engaging, seeing what other content is getting the comments, the likes that, you know. But educate yourself in that way.

Kate Llewellyn [00:22:25]:
And as I've said, you know, look for those potential leads that maybe you are missing because all you're looking at is the numbers. Start finding those real people. But yeah, I think the more we can do— I often call it like the mass marketing, so where are almost, you know, shouting out loud what we do and hoping white people see it. That used to feel as simple and easy. And I think, again, using the content treadmill thing, you know, we want to make sure the content treadmill's on a really flat gradient and we're just able to keep up and keep going and stuff like that. So yeah, looking at little ways of, yeah, reusing, repurposing, making that bit of your content creation as easy and therefore hopefully as enjoyable as possible as well.

Karen [00:23:09]:
Yeah, I think that's really important. I think we have a tendency, don't we, to overcomplicate everything, to think that something needs to be harder than it actually is. And doesn't matter whether you're creating content, a course, whatever. I just think, um, we go to that place, don't we? But, but actually keeping something simple means that it's doable and you're more likely to be consistent. And I think when it comes to content, and sharing content with your audience, I think consistency is everything. It's— I think it's more important to be consistent with your content than, than anything else. So it's kind of finding a way just to kind of, you know, keep it simple. I know you talk about what is your minimum content plan, so to speak.

Karen [00:23:58]:
And I think that's really powerful because it's like, right, okay, if I only had time to just do whatever, what does that look like? And start from there.

Kate Llewellyn [00:24:08]:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Like, okay, how much content do I need to create to make this amount of money or to sell this amount of things? And the truth is, we can never work that out. You know, there are too many variables until we do something consistently. If we do that thing consistently, then we've got half a chance of then saying, okay, so when I did this amount of— you know, we've got really hard and fast number on that minimum content commitment, we can then go and, you know, what were the results? How much of this thing did we sell?

Karen [00:24:36]:
Mm-hmm.

Kate Llewellyn [00:24:37]:
And as well as that, we could also then, you know, we've talked a little bit about customer journeys. We can find the leaks. We can start to go, okay, well, it seems like, you know, we're getting great views maybe of this reel or this Instagram, but when they get to my website, they're not doing the next step, right? What can we do to help with that next step? And yeah, I think again, like you've just said, it's so easy to overcomplicate that or to keep changing. You know, we sort of— we put out an idea, it doesn't quite have the effect we wanted, so we move on. But actually, I think there is a real power in the consistency, in that understanding that it takes a little bit of time to get your message across, even for you. You know, sometimes we need to sort of tweak and work it so that it's really clear for our audiences. But yeah, I think there might be something, you know, another little bit of advice which is sometimes just stick with something that little bit longer and be, you know, really quite fanatical, I suppose, in a way about like, this is the marketing I'm doing in order to achieve this goal, and see if you can sort of marry up the two.

Karen [00:25:35]:
Yeah, yeah. And track it and give it time. I think, I think that's something that I've seen a lot from people, from people, and, and to a point myself as well, sort of like in the past where you come up with an idea, you, you build it out, you release it, and then you move on to the next idea. And, and certainly what I've I've learned over the years of doing what I, I do, um, it is about rinse repeat and, and improving. So taking one idea that you want to run with and then sort of working with that and building that out, and then, you know, kind of, um, building the consistency around that. And I think that's how you start to build that attraction of other people coming into your world and, and, and creating just really simple pathways that, that sort of feed off what you're doing and stuff. I think, I think that thing of keep reinventing the wheel, um, it just keeps you in that state of busyness but not necessarily progression, you know.

Kate Llewellyn [00:26:35]:
Absolutely. And I think it does potentially, it does confuse your audience, you know. There's nothing worse than sort of when you say to somebody, isn't it, like, what do you do, and you can't sort of nail it.

Karen [00:26:48]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:26:48]:
Equally, it's horrible when it happens the other way around, you know, where if you overhear someone and they go, oh yeah, don't I've told so-and-so that you do this or that, and you're thinking, oh no, I don't. Oh, that's, you know, and but it does take time. Like I say, it takes time for us to kind of really nail what it is sometimes, or even, you know, a new product or a new service, you know, the best way to present it. And yeah, so I think there is a real sort of power in sometimes just sticking with something a little bit longer until it absolutely feels, yeah, really clear in your head and therefore will become really, really clear in your audiences as well. And I think the other missed opportunity with kind of switching changing up stuff all of the time is that our audiences are— even if we've got quite a niche and we know exactly who our ideal client is, within that audience there will be people ready to buy, but there'll also be people there where it's not quite the right time. And actually what you're missing by keep changing is those people who were just moving towards it being the right time. And, you know, and I think there's quite a comfort in that as a business owner, that, you know, whether it's the algorithm shows that post to that one person that, you know, they'd never seen it before, even though you feel like you've said it 3 or 4 times, and they see it on that day. And I think, you know, holding on to that, that yeah, if someone— the right people will see your content at the right time.

Kate Llewellyn [00:28:05]:
So, you know, giving them as many chances as possible is absolutely a good thing to do.

Karen [00:28:10]:
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. Last year I run a program, it was, um, it was about how to launch your first podcast. Class, um, and I had a cohort of, um, ladies come on. And it was really interesting, um, because, um, I had a couple of, um, insights that I thought were really quite powerful. So one of the ladies sort of turned around to me and she was like, I've been in your world for years. So even when I had my branding studio, when I, and I traded under Pink Lemon, she's like, I've been following your content, I've been following exactly what you've done. And, um, but wasn't ready to buy from you. And then you put out about the podcast plan, which was my program.

Karen [00:28:54]:
She said that it was just the right time and the right thing. And she said, I was, I was ready to buy. And I thought that was really interesting because then the week after I had another lady in my group that turned around and almost said exactly the same thing. And I thought that that just goes to show that you can be building an audience. You can have people in your audience that follow you year after year after year, and they're just not ready. But the moment that you put out something And for them, if it's the right time and they know you, they've been following you, they will buy. But you might not know that. This is the compound effect of consistency and showing up, is that things are working in the background and you don't know what's working in the background.

Karen [00:29:37]:
Your job is to show up, be consistent, and, and take action. It's almost like releasing the, the worry of if what you're doing is working, because as long as you do what you do in the background, down, it's that compound effect. It will be working. It's just you won't know it until a certain moment in time where you will then put something out and you will get those conversions. And it was just interesting. I think I had 2 or 3 conversations with, with different members on my program and it was like, this is, this is really interesting to me because people are consuming. We may not feel it, we may not think it, But I read people's content and I don't always reach out and comment because especially if I'm time poor and I'm just consuming on the go. But, you know, but I am, but they don't know I am because I'm, I'm not making it obvious.

Karen [00:30:36]:
And that will be exactly the same to creators that are creating content for their business. It's just about having the faith that, that what they're doing is working. They just don't know it.

Kate Llewellyn [00:30:48]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:30:48]:
it until they take action and, and, and then things happen off the back of that. I just thought that was really interesting, you know.

Kate Llewellyn [00:30:56]:
No, absolutely, absolutely. And I think it's like happening out there so much more than we all realize. There are people talking about us right now, you know. There are people who have seen that post from 3 days ago that you think was a complete flop that is still resonating, you know, in the back of their minds. So yeah, keep the Yeah, definitely.

Karen [00:31:16]:
It's when you, uh, rock up at a networking event and so— and I've had this a few times where they've said, um, oh, I, I've just listened to one of your episodes. And they'll say what episode she said, and they'll be like, it was absolutely brilliant, I loved it. And I'll be like, so, so I've— I'm meeting them for the first time, but they're listening to my podcast. So, so, so they, they, they kind of know me, but I don't know them. And then, and then it's like, oh wow. Yeah. This content that I'm creating is obviously, it's having the reach. I just don't see it.

Karen [00:31:48]:
You know, I do what I do. I show up, I record, I deliver content. I don't— I can see my downloads, but I can't see who's consuming it. It doesn't give me that level of data. But then somebody will say to me about it, I'm like, oh, that's when you know your content is working for you because that trust is already there. Yeah, you, you're almost accelerating a conversation towards the sales, and that is where I think content does become powerful.

Kate Llewellyn [00:32:17]:
It absolutely does. And I think it's always worth sort of imagining like flip side, which is that if you didn't put that out, you know, if you hadn't done that podcast, you hadn't— then that, that, you know, that pathway would never have been set, you know, in place kind of thing. So I think— and this is, you know, I think you're gonna ask about it anyway, but this is what, you know, I really wanna talk about at your summit is, yes, we need to know what we're gonna create, what the content's gonna look like, all of those things. But the most important bit is the why, because the why is what gives us the foundation to keep going. Because if you believe in your heart of hearts, and eventually you will see the results, but you believe this is going to get my people to me, then it suddenly makes it a lot easier to do.

Karen [00:32:59]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:33:00]:
When you don't know why you are doing something.

Karen [00:33:02]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:33:03]:
And you focus a lot more on the kind of the numbers, you know, that I'm just gonna put out 3 Instagram posts. That's great. Why? What do you want your consumers to do with that content? What do you believe will happen by putting those 3, you know, why Instagram even, you know, why not LinkedIn? Why not TikTok? Why not Facebook? And you know, there are lots of answers to these questions, but ultimately it's got to come back to you as the business owner utterly believing in what you're doing and why. And if you don't, putting systems in place like we've been talking about to help you get to that point where you're like, yeah, yeah, this is working. And I think the other just last bit I want to pick up on is I think we so often forget when we've got our clients in front of us that, like you say, they just suddenly woke up one morning and they just bought from us, and that was easy.

Speaker A [00:33:51]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:33:51]:
And yet actually, I'm sure for like all of your listeners, if you had a little chat with every single one of them, you'd hear about that different journey through your content that got them. And like you say, for some of them, it could have been an overnight thing. You know, a friend recommended, it sounded like the person, and they bought. For others, as you said, it could be months if not years. And I hear stories like that all of the time. You know, people say, oh yeah, I followed this person and I've eventually bought from them. And it's true, you know, it's why showing up, um, and, you know, consistently putting out our message and sharing what we have to offer is so important. Because, you know, you just don't know how long those different customer journeys are gonna be.

Kate Llewellyn [00:34:33]:
And we can do everything we, you know, we try to do as much as possible to contract them. But yeah, you know, you've got to, you've got to believe that, yeah, in, in your why, basically.

Karen [00:34:43]:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And reinforce that in your content. I think that's really important. I had, I recorded an episode with Jodie Newman, who is absolutely brilliant, and she, she's all about ideas. And we were talking about brand story and infusing that in the content that you're creating. And, and, and because that's the differentiator. So, so like you say, it's creating that content that connects and, and it starts to build relationships with people.

Karen [00:35:15]:
And, and, and when people talk about content, you don't think that— you think, oh, I'll just put a post out on all— but, but content has the ability to just really— it can be so powerful when, when you create the right content. And, and that's what you help with essentially, isn't it? Which, which is so essential, you know, to any small business owner.

Kate Llewellyn [00:35:39]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that, I mean, there's 2 real things to pick up on there. One is, first of all, is that content, or even your whole marketing, it is a sum of its parts. I think we so often get hung up on that individual post, that one email, even that one podcast episode, isn't it? But actually, it's not about that. It's about the message and, you know, and what you're putting out into the world as an absolute whole. Because yeah, most people are not just going to see one post or listen to one episode, you know, they are going to see see lots of it. Um, but I think, yeah, the other point is that, yeah, we can tell, you know, that in the world of AI, we can tell when a human is passionate, they believe in what they're doing, they're genuine, etc. And that comes across again in our content.

Kate Llewellyn [00:36:20]:
And like picking up on like what Jodie was saying about telling your story, sharing your beliefs, you know, it is about connecting with people and, and helping them to resonate. Um, you know, with what you offer. And I am a big believer in kind of content is the best thing to help you attract, of course, but also repel. You know, make it really clear who you work with, what you do, how you help, so that people can self-identify and go, yes, that's for me, or even no, that's not for me. Because actually the worst thing we want to do, um, is try and, you know, be all things to all people, and then we, you know, we don't— we spend more of our time sort of saying, oh yeah, actually this is a benefit than we do being, you know, just welcoming people in with open arms.

Karen [00:37:03]:
Yeah, absolutely. So for everybody joining us at the Online Business Growth Summit, um, what are you going to be sharing, um, in your session? I mean, I see your session is going to be amazing, and I would highly recommend everybody to attend, but do you want to just share with the listeners exactly what they're going to be, uh, walking away Yeah, absolutely.

Kate Llewellyn [00:37:28]:
So the plan for the session is to really get a sort of a step back opportunity, you know, just in those minutes to really think strategically about the content and the marketing that you're doing. And not just what we're doing or how often we're doing it, but absolutely nailing that why, getting really, really clear on what I like to call like content content purposes. What do we want to achieve with this piece of content? What do we want our consumers of the content to do with it? You know, what is that next step? So it's just making sure that everyone at the summit, before we go and talk about— I think it's, um, some of the other sessions which are lovely are going to be focusing on specific platforms and things like that. But before we start thinking about that, we can just really, really nail down our why. And then that is really powerful for moving forward.

Karen [00:38:23]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think it, it gives context to, to, to why you're spending time. There's nothing worse than, than sitting on social media, I think, and doom scrolling. And, you know, we've probably all done it, haven't we, where we're just so caught up in— I mean, for me, it's like funny dog videos that I love consuming, um, just because at the end of the day it's a bit of light relief. But you know when you're just wasting so much time on social, looking at other people's posts and, and, and spending time creating content, but there's no anchor to it. So you're wasting all this time when really you could be using it and leveraging it in order to, you know, get the results and meet the goals that you're setting for yourself. So, so your session sounds absolutely brilliant. And I think with anything, especially in business, I think it does have to start with why are you doing this? I know when I, when I work with my clients and my members about creating scalable offers, online courses, memberships, things like that.

Kate Llewellyn [00:39:26]:
Why?

Karen [00:39:26]:
Because there's going to be a ton of work involved. And when you go through those moments where you're doubting everything, which let's face it, we, we all do, your why becomes the anchor. It becomes the reason why you continue when everything just feels so challenging. So I think, I think that sounds like a really great session. I'm really excited. Got amazing speakers, honestly.

Kate Llewellyn [00:39:50]:
Me too.

Karen [00:39:51]:
Yeah, I literally— I'm just going around telling everybody. Yeah, no, thank you. I'll just literally go around saying this event's going to be amazing, these speakers are incredible. So, um, thank you, that, that does sound really good. So, um, before we finish up, I've got a quickfire round, um, just a few questions, um, just, just say what comes into your head. So, um, coffee or tea? Most important question.

Kate Llewellyn [00:40:14]:
Favorite Coffee. Coffee. Black coffee every time.

Karen [00:40:20]:
What's one business book you think every entrepreneur needs to read?

Kate Llewellyn [00:40:25]:
So my absolute favorite is called The Art of Enough by Becky Hall. It's fabulous. Oh, amazing.

Karen [00:40:32]:
I'll check that one out. What's the one tool or app that you couldn't run your business without?

Kate Llewellyn [00:40:41]:
Do you know what, I'm gonna have to just say my phone. I, I— is that, is that clichéd? But honestly, I just think it's incredible that, you know, whether an email pings in, whether, you know, there is like social media content to be made, you've got your phone, you can do it all.

Karen [00:40:56]:
Absolutely. I think we'd all agree with you there. Um, what's the best piece of business advice you've ever been given?

Kate Llewellyn [00:41:08]:
I think, I think for me actually, it's weird, this is going to sound a bit clichéd, but it is understand your why. And, and that's, you know, anything— why you want to do it, why you want to help people, what is the motivator behind your business. Because exactly what's the saying of like, you know, find something you love and you never work a day in your life.

Speaker A [00:41:26]:
Yeah.

Kate Llewellyn [00:41:26]:
And I, I believe that if you're doing what you absolutely love and you know it sort of fulfills your purpose, I I suppose is the best bit of it, you know. Do something that helps you fulfill your purpose, that you enjoy, that you want to jump out of bed for every day. What's better than that?

Karen [00:41:40]:
Yeah, absolutely. And I have to say, when I'm in your company, that's exactly what I feel. I feel that you are doing the very thing that you love to do, and I think that comes through in the way you deliver your own content, but also how you help others as well. So yeah, I absolutely agree with Um, in one sentence, what does, uh, building an online business mean to you?

Kate Llewellyn [00:42:07]:
You know what, this ties in so beautifully with what I've just said. It just means by being online, I can help more people around, you know, certainly nationally, if not, hey, internationally. And what a wonderful time we live, we can do that, you know, thanks to online technology that we have. I don't just have, you know, I— it's not once upon a time I would have only been able to help maybe the local businesses in my village or in my town, or, you know, with lots of travel. But no, this I can reach. And genuinely, you know, within my membership, I've got, I've got someone in France, I've got someone based up in Manchester, I'm down in Hampshire myself. What a wonderful, you know, opportunity. And I just love that.

Kate Llewellyn [00:42:44]:
I just love that, you know, the people that need me can connect with me, even if it is, you know, on screen.

Karen [00:42:50]:
Yeah, that's, that's what I, um, I, I didn't realize, um, But for the summit, I've got people in America, I've got somebody in Canada, I've got somebody in Australia that's delivering a session. Also, I've got people in the UK. Amazing. Building a community globally where we can all come together with a shared belief and a shared purpose, where we can come onto the screen and really support and impact other people. We are living in an amazing time, and, and being able to that is incredible.

Kate Llewellyn [00:43:26]:
Yeah, I completely agree. I've, you know, I, I've obviously worked as a content writer in the past. I've written websites for people in America, for out in Dubai, Australia. Like, it's just incredible. And you think really it's in such a short timeline that that has been made, you know, has been made possible. And, um, yeah, I think we're really lucky. And like I say, if it means that I can help more people around the country that otherwise, you know, I wouldn't be able to reach out to And even like, I think, you know, I live in quite a rural area as well, and the way that, you know, we can connect together, um, you know, across rural, um, sort of settings as well, I think is really, really powerful. You know, everything isn't just happening in the town centers or the big, um, sort of metropolitan cities anymore.

Kate Llewellyn [00:44:07]:
Um, we can all get involved, and again, I just think that's so awesome.

Karen [00:44:11]:
Yeah, absolutely. I 100% agree. Okay, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Um, I really appreciate you coming on and and just having a chat with me. Like I say, your session sounds amazing and I honestly, I encourage people to attend. And if you have enjoyed this conversation, then you are going to love the Online Business Growth Summit because this is just a small taste of what is to come. Alongside today's guests, you will be hearing from over 18 incredible experts covering everything from digital products to marketing to sales to visibility, audience growth, and so much more.

Karen [00:44:53]:
And it's all to help you build income beyond selling your time. Now you can register for free using the link in the show notes or underneath this video, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Online Business Uncovered. Thank you, Kay. It's honestly, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Kate Llewellyn [00:45:13]:
Thank you so much. I'm so looking forward to being a speaker, but also just participating in the whole summit. Yeah, it's gonna be fantastic.

Speaker A [00:45:21]:
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I really hope it's given you something to think about and perhaps inspired you to look at your business a little bit differently. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, then I'd be grateful if you could share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur. It really helps more people discover the podcast, and you never know who might need to hear this message today. And if you're ready to start building a business that gives you more freedom, then I would love to invite you to join me at the Online Business Growth Summit. 

Now, this summit is taking place on the 6th to the 8th of October online. It's completely free to attend, and it's going to bring together over 18 expert speakers who will be sharing practical strategies to help you create a business that you love, a business that truly supports your lifestyle. You can register your free place today by visiting www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com.

Speaker A [00:46:23]:
I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.