Audience Attraction with Leanne Elliot - social media training

Dawn Baxter 

Hi, everybody. I’ve got my amazing client and friend Leanne Elliot with me today from The Eclectic Butterfly. I’m going to let Leanne introduce herself because I always think it’s nice when you get to introduce yourself. But I see Leanne as a bit of a thought leader and all-round disrupter, because one of the things that I love about her is that she is not taking anybody else’s rules. We are making our own rules. And she is entirely just totally passionate, and lovely and wonderful. As you guys will probably already know, because those are the people that I work with, those are the people that I attract to my audience. And that’s, you know, lovely Leanne is no exception. And also a massive thank you to Leanne because we were going to have Helen with us this morning. But unfortunately, our lovely Helen is not feeling very well. So Leanne jumped in literally 10 minutes ago to fill the spot so that we could still have this lovely interview. So that’s amazing. Thank you so much.

Leanne Elliot

Good morning. How are you?

Dawn Baxter

I’m actually really good. Yeah, it’s been an amazing week. We basically we spent all week this week, interviewing people and chatting to people about what they want to do with their VA businesses. If you’re watching, I can see there’s a few people on please let us know in the comments. So we can say good morning to you let us know what you’re up to today. Yeah, we’ve just had the most amazing, inspiring week really, you know what it’s like, you’ve watched me launch before. So you know what it’s like during launch week  and how busy it can get. But I think you know me probably better than a lot of people. It fills my cup a little bit to have launch week. I know that it’s stressful, and it can be quite a lot of energy out. But speaking to women who wants to change their business and change their life, and basically make their own rules much like you and just make a decision to add something to their business that will benefit them and listening to people’s dreams and goals and aspirations. I don’t know. I just love it.

Leanne Elliot 

Yeah, but it’s like you said about energy going out. But actually you’re that type of person that this is like you plugging in you know, I always see when you’re doing your launch weeks, it’s almost like it’s like Christmas. It’s like unravelling the lights and seeing you plug in. And, you know, it’s for each person that comes on board on your courses. It’s you just go along and you’re just checking all the bulbs, to make sure that they all work. And at the end of this course you’ve got this beautiful set of twinkly fairy lights. And all of these women that might not have come on board at the beginning, the light might be dull, they might not know where their journey is that it just lights up by the end of it. So that’s my analogy. You know me I love my…

Dawn Baxter 

…that makes me really happy. But I don’t know whether you know, but I’m a bit of a sucker for fairy lights and Christmas lights you probably do though. So that analogy that speaks straight to my soul, that one for sure.

Leanne Elliot 

what to say about me we did say that I do this. So I’m tapping into that.

Dawn Baxter 

Yeah, love that. And then you can pull that out its a superpower.

Leanne Elliot 

Do you know, if I’d have been a bloke I’d have probably had a crystal ball or two.

Dawn Baxter 

So tell us about yourself, Leanne, tell us about your experience of being on audience attraction, and how you felt about it.

Leanne Elliot 

Oh, so I am not great at finishing things. And we know this don’t we because I am, the reason we call me The Eclectic Butterfly is because I’ve embraced the fact that I actually do so much better when I play to my strengths and my strengths are being able to do different things, but audience attraction and you, you actually helped me really understand that it’s okay to not try and fit into a slot. Because that’s part of the issue for me is I’ve constantly looked at other people or listened to other people, even though I teach people not to do that. I’ve still been doing it myself. And when I did audience attraction, it was it was just like listening to you going through what you said. Some of the stats you come out with as well, they are amazing, truly amazing. And when you are trying to work out who your ideal client is, where your ideal client is, how to reach them, the best way to reach them, and then seeing people that cross post, and knowing that isn’t going to work, because your Facebook users are your Instagram users, and just tiny things like that. You won’t believe how much I say that to people now. In actual fact let me share with you, it’s here, it’s within, right my reach constantly, this is the folder. So this is my audience attraction folder, and it’s constantly here. I can grab it whenever I need to and you helped me Friends, my business my call it Friends my business because it was like Ross from Friends pivot, pivot.  Because I realised that what you know, I just needed to like, I’m unique in the fact that my audience where you talk about an ideal client, and we talk about avatars and working out who your ideal client is, and really niching it down, my ideal client, because I break the wrongs is anybody with a heartbeat.

Dawn Baxter 

Yeah, you have your own set. But what I love about that is that you are still able to apply all of the learnings, all of the teaching, where general advice would tell you need to niche, just focus on one area, don’t allow yourself to be swayed, all of that stuff, you were still able to look at the teaching that we had together and be able to apply it to what you truly knew was right for you.

Leanne Elliot 

Absolutely, absolutely. And the way you teach it as well, the way you put it across. It’s not teaching. That’s the key to remember it. It’s not, you’re coming into a group, it’s almost like just going out for coffee and discussing what you need to discuss to move forward. And then suddenly somebody says, oh, by the way, we do need to look at the workbook, you don’t do that. But it feels like that, you know, it is structured. But you do it in such a way that it doesn’t feel as though you’re in a classroom. So for those that are concerned about going into any learning environment, it’s not that strict learning environment. It’s that lovely, chilled, friendly, happy learning environment. And let’s face it, like we talked about bread face.

Dawn Baxter 

We talked about bread face.  We talk about all sorts of different things. And one of the one of the main things that always comes up for people who are interested and want to actually join to get their certification is, well, there’s two main things. The first one is I’m not making the kind of money that I want to make. So in this when I’m not making that money yet, which is a catch 22, because if you’re not able to package up your services beyond hourly rates, you’ll never be in a position where you can invest. So it’s like a really awful catch 22 situation. But the second one is always I don’t think I’ve got time, I don’t think I’ve got the capacity. And what I find when we get into it is that hour becomes a joyful hour. It’s not a bind, you know, you’re not going oh my god, I’ve got so many different things to do. I can’t go and spend an hour with these women.  It’s a case of oh, when is the next one because that was amazing. I want to go, I want to have another hour now. And I actually had previously, could you do two modules a week? I was like, no because I have to give you a chance to absorb all of the information, you know, but I think yeah, how did you find it in terms of fitting in around your schedule? I know you didn’t go, you didn’t go the whole way. Because you had a massive pivot, but you were able to resize the small amount that you did, almost immediately, right?

Leanne Elliot 

For me, it was great because you can go on when you need to. So you can join the lives. But also because it’s recorded. That’s brilliant. And then also because you’ve got the group. So if you didn’t make it to the live, then you can just go on to the group and talk to people. And then the support within the group was brilliant because I was actually talking to people on Messenger outside of the group. But inside the group if you know what I mean, so we were still chatting and there was one or two girls, that we were actually supporting each other when we came across blocks because you do come across blocks. It’s there’s no two ways about it. And I found it really helpful to be able to and we were talking about this. I was at our local college the other day with the senior management team doing their self-assessment report. And we were talking about how important it is for educational establishments to realise that when you’re teaching, I’m an ex teacher so I know this, in a classroom, you can see when a student loses it, when that moment when they go, don’t get it, and they switch off. But because it’s recorded, if there’s a moment where somebody doesn’t get it, they can go back to that recording, and they can just watch it over and over until they get it. Yeah. And if they don’t get it, they can go into the group, and they can ask the question, and the brilliance of that is, there is no stupid question. No, in life, let’s just face it, there is no question that is stupid in life. And we really need to programme ourselves to understand that, no question is stupid. But in your groups, that’s, that’s almost like your ethos, you know, you’re allowed to ask anything. And I love that about you. I love that about the support that you have in your groups. So I find that amazing. And should I say, how amazing I found audience attraction?

Dawn Baxter 

Yes, please do tell them, please do.

Leanne Elliot 

So for those that are a little bit worried about whether you should or you shouldn’t. I’m a coach. That’s one of the things I do, because I’m an Eclectic Butterfly. One of the things I do as a coach, I’ve spent around between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds over the last 15 years on coaching qualifications. And when the pandemic hit, lots of people suddenly became coaches, you know, business development managers suddenly became coaches. And the market seemed to be saturated with coaches. And I lost a little bit of my fight to be a coach. And I started applying for jobs. Oh, no, that’s just not me. I’m just I’m not a worker bee,  I’m a queen bee. And I realised that I’ve actually got an awful lot of talent there, on my CV, so I pivoted a little bit. And I turned myself from a coach to an executive assistant, I started off by calling myself a VA, I’m an executive assistant. And now I’m going back to being a coach. When I started with Dawnie, I was earning 400 per month. And in June 1^st,  I said, in the group as that’s it, I’m no longer going to be a romance coach. I’m pivoting , I’m changing, I’m going to be a VA, EA, whatever you want to call me, I don’t care, I’m doing something different. And I am now doing 4000 pound months, 4000 pounds, solid months. So we’re now in November. And in actual fact, one of my clients has just paid me in advance Dawnie, it’s November, so June, July, August, September, October, November, and she’s just paid me for December, she’s paid me in advance to make sure that I’m around because she’s not going to be. So she’s given me her compliance stuff. And she’s asked me to look at that, and to do her reviews with advisors, which is like executive level, which is brilliant. It’s that belief, but that’s the key. What you’re trying to say to people is come on and do this course. But what I’m trying to say to people, is, you’re not just doing a course, ladies, you’re doing so much more than that.

Dawn Baxter 

Oh I’m speechless, what do I even say to that? Yeah, I think it’s always a difficult when you’re in a position where you’re in a little bit of a catch 22 or whether you’re in a situation where you’re trying to actually build your own business, or you’re trying to build your own client list, you can get in your head a little bit about what you should be spending and what time you should be associated. But I think you can work in your business or you can work on your business. And if you’re not doing both at the same time, then you’re always just going to be under a pile of tasks. And you’re never going to advance yourself in terms of being able to give yourself more opportunities for income, and more opportunities for freedom within your life. Because there is a way of working smarter, not harder. And that’s the thing that I’m trying to bring to women specifically, is the opportunity for us to earn good money and have that autonomy and everything that you did. It was amazing to see you. But when you messaged me and said I’m going to be a VA and just to let you know I’m having a 4,000 pounds month I was like I was so shocked but pleasantly shocked in the right way because obviously people take audience attraction and they go and they implement pretty much straightaway and they start earning their return on investment. Not everybody, of course, because it’s personal choice. But those who understand it and want to go and apply it immediately can. So there’s nothing to stop you.

Leanne Elliot 

Absolutely not. And one of the things that audience attraction taught me, surprisingly, and I don’t know if you know this, but just through doing the course, you taught me to change where I look for my audience as well. So I’m based in Cornwall, and with no disrespect to the business people in Cornwall, they didn’t want to pay what I wanted to charge, then it’s bearing in mind I used to be, and I still do coach people. And I have a, an amount that I charge for business coaching, and business mentoring. And it’s definitely not the same that you charge as a VA or executive assistant. Yeah, there’s a definite difference. But the price that people in Cornwall will want to pay for a VA is definitely not, I’m worth more than that. And it’s understanding what you’re worth. And I understood what I was worth. So what I did, purely through being with you, is I researched the seven most affluent areas in the UK. And then I advertised in those areas. And that’s where I advertised my services, I didn’t advertise in my own area, I don’t work for anybody in my own area. And in actual fact, two of my clients don’t even live in the UK.

Dawn Baxter 

Yeah, it’s a powerful situation now. So why are we putting ourselves down to just our immediate doorstep location, because like, you know, I don’t really work with anybody local to me, its the same thing.

Leanne Elliot 

It was a terrible, the pandemic was a terrible thing. But it was also a way to actually realise that some of us had been doing what we’re doing now, for much longer than before the pandemic came along. I’ve been doing zoom coaching calls for three years, you know, because I always said, you can open up anywhere and if you’ve got relatives that live abroad, then you understand that this was normal to actually do this was normal. I miss hugging, I miss people. But actually, from a business point of view, this is normal. So get your background sorted out, but getting your office behind you sorted out? And making things look lovely? That’s actually just normal? Yeah. You know, and, yeah, so cupboard be it, get yourself in your cupboard under your stairs, sort yourself out girls. Get yourself certified and get out there. Because let’s face it, that’s the way it’s going everything, look how much we suffered, the world suffered, oh, God, when Facebook went down? How do I loved it personally, it was like a couple of hours of bliss.

Dawn Baxter 

I lot of people did enjoy it yeah. I think what they’ve said recently is that there’s something, I had a statistic the other day, and I’ve lost it out of my brain. But there’s something like it was somewhere in the region of 200%, more small business enterprises have opened since the pandemic, because I know 2020, it was more than that. What since even 2021, we’re still seeing people not want to go back to their jobs, not wanting to go back to corporate, there’s massive vacancies at the moment. There’s so many more opportunities. And, you know, our agency we are fully booked until we can train somebody up and bring people in and all of the friends that I have, in that arena, we all of us we are saturated. People want social media support, but they don’t want just any support. They want support from somebody that they know can actually do it and give the strategy and have the full shebang. And what I really want is I want for people to be able to go and do what you did, and turn a 400 pound income month into a 4000 pound income month and sit with a beautiful smile on their face. Like you’re sat with the beautiful smile on yours with all of these opportunities opened up because essentially, yes, know, like and trust. Absolutely. It’s such a massive thing for people to know who to trust online as well. So you have to have that social proof. You have to have that. I want to say seal of approval, but I’m not even talking about just the certification now because I know that sounds salesy, I don’t mean it like that. Obviously, the certification does do that to some degree. But I’ve I’m not showing my qualifications when people work with me that seal of approval comes from something else. It’s not just that badge. It’s something else. Just people knowing that they can be trusted, you can be trusted and that they can give you that that kind of work to do.

Leanne Elliot 

It’s a bit like, when you open up any business. Yeah, it’s like giving birth, isn’t it? I mean you’ve suddenly got this baby. And for somebody to come along and say, I can look after your baby. I’m a certified social media manager. I can look after your baby and you’re like, oh, but can you? Are you sure? Are you you’re not Mrs. Doubtfire are you? Can you definitely look after your baby? You know, you’re not going to be in my kitchen any minute now doing this.  I don’t want to see that on my Facebook group for somebody putting them yeah, let’s not go there. But so you actually want to know that somebody is going to look after what you’ve nurtured. And I always say when somebody said to me, what is a social media manager, and people come up, and they say, it’s somebody that posts for your, it’s not somebody that just posts for you. It’s somebody that nurtures what you’ve created. It’s somebody, it’s like taking a baby, a plant, it’s something that you have grown from a seedling, and then they look after it, and they nurture it, and they cut it back where it needs to. And they make sure it’s, you know, they take out the sunshine, they put the shade screen over it, they put suncream on it, they feed it when it needs to, they water it when it needs to, they’ve got to understand your business, they’ve got to understand your ethos, they’ve got to be able to do that research. So anybody that’s thinking, oh, I want to be a social media manager. Because I’m great at social media. It’s not just about that. It’s actually about being able to understand people and their passion for their business. And then adding that to your passion for social media, marrying those two together. And that will make you a social media manager that people are going to really want. That’s why you’re good at what you do. That’s why you’re excellent at what you do. And that’s why people should sign up for this course. Because you’re just going to create lots of brilliant social media managers.

Dawn Baxter 

Yeah, yes. Exactly. And the way I see it, is that we have this opportunity now to work together and get them to that level. And it’s the same with you, Leanne, I felt exactly the same. How many people have you helped? How many lives have you enriched in the last six months? Since we did audience attraction? A massive amount, right?

Leanne Elliot 

Yeah, I yeah. Probably about 16 – 17 in one business, about 10 in another business, and about 22 in the other business. So yes, ladies, I’ve got three businesses.

Dawn Baxter 

But this is the thing. So like, you have this area of diversity, but that ripple effect of enriching and helping, I’ve always said, you know, you can’t give, what’s the word like discount female ripple effects, the effect that we have on the economy?

Leanne Elliot 

You can’t and in actual fact those aren’t, those are, when you said that, actually, those are people that I know that I’ve helped. Yeah, but the ripple effect, so when I’ve gone in, and I’ve just said something in a group, and it will be something that that you’ve said to me, that you’ve taught me that I’ll just put that into words in a group. And in actual fact, I did it the other day, somebody, we go full circle to where we started, somebody said something, he was doing a presentation, and it was Why are you posting on social media? And he said, you know, post on Facebook and put it on Instagram, and I was like, I was immediately all over it. And I was like, no, don’t, don’t do it on Facebook and Instagram, because…

Dawn Baxter 

But this is the thing, because the general advice that is out there, it’s not horrendously bad. It’s not going to sink your business, but it’s not effective. So what it will do is it will keep you ticking over doing a lot of nothing. Yeah. Not actually growing, not actually getting more clients, not actually, you know, gaining customers, for your clients, all of those things. And unfortunately, many people are trying to teach what is Google-able free advice as courses and actually that’s just not the way, that’s just not the way.

Leanne Elliot 

What about the day that you’ve got? Like, we all started to do a little bit of reels. Yeah, remember? And then we were all going up. I’ve got 2000 views on my reel. Nobody wanted to do a reel, like none of us wanted to do. We just didn’t want to be on there. And then it was almost like oh, well, I’ve got I’ve got 500 views, I’ve got 1000 views, I’ve got 1500 views. Wow. And then yeah, I didn’t do my Pie Face today.

Dawn Baxter 

You did in the group didn’t you?   Yeah, I’ve never shared that video, let’s just stayed between us.

Leanne Elliot

It was quite disturbing.

Dawn Baxter

I loved it, I loved it. I’m so happy that you embraced it. And you know, if anything, ever have a lean month, I’m sure you won’t now ever, but if you ever we’re going to, there’s always an opportunity now.

Leanne Elliot 

Yeah, I think anybody wants to know what that is, they’re gonna have to message us and find out.

Dawn Baxter 

Well, anybody who joins, will hear a little bit about bread face.

Leanne Elliot 

Yes, but I won’t be checked off Hollyoaks will I for doing…

Dawn Baxter 

What I love about this one, as well as the people who I’ve spoken to this week, all of the ladies I’ve spoken to this week, when they have been taken on social media jobs, quite often, it’s been just posts. So there’s seven different income frameworks that you can add to your business with social media. It’s not just about posting, you know, once you’re a certified Social Media Manager, you can actually you can sell market research. You can sell content creations, you can write blogs for people, you can do all sorts of different individual packages, you can do community management.

Leanne Elliot

Can I sign up.

Dawn Baxter

Everybody that’s come off. Everyone that is come on had these interviews said, Wait a minute, Dawnie can I come and do it again, but yes there’s a lot that is, is just going to immediately give you a new, I call it a service suite. So it’s not a product suite is it, it’s a service suite. So when somebody comes to you and says, okay, I need a VA, and I need some help with admin and I need some help with my email campaign and I need some help with social media. You can go back to them and say, okay, do you want just posting? Because that’s this package? Or do you want market research, hashtag research, community management, content creation, all of these amazing frameworks within that you then can add to your remit.

Leanne Elliot 

I love it. How much is that? You’ve got me now I’m leaning forward.

Dawn Baxter 

It’s actually half price this time round? I’ll send you the details after we’d been live. But yeah it’s very similar to what you did, but it’s just got another arm to it.

Leanne Elliot 

Oh, yeah. But I might finish this one and heck corporation tax has gone up to 25%. So I need friends and money.

Dawn Baxter 

Somebody with me instead of Boris.

Leanne Elliot

That’s not a good tagline.

Dawn Baxter

I think it is a good tagline. Actually.

Leanne Elliot 

We’ve got to share it then.

Dawn Baxter 

Okay. So before we go, if you were to give one piece of advice to anybody who’s sat on the fence right now thinking, should I or shouldn’t I? What would you say to them?

Leanne Elliot 

As The Eclectic Butterfly, there’s one thing that I say to everybody, there’s a butterfly effect. Yeah, you can’t change things without changing things. So it’s the smallest little thing that will change the biggest things in your life. So you just got to make that small change to make big changes. Why not make a small change, and do this, invest in yourself. If you don’t invest in yourself, you’re never going to make the change. For those that are worried. And I know that it’s a difficult time, when I signed up for audience attraction. And I know that Dawnie, don’t tell me off the time people this, but I did put it on my credit card. I did think, oh, maybe I shouldn’t have done that. But I put it on my credit card. And look, I went from 400 to 4000. It’s not just Dawn that did that there has to be something within you. There has to be a fire within you. That makes you want to do it. This isn’t a magic formula. Nobody is selling you a magic formula. The magic has to be within you as well. But if you’ve got that magic within you, if you’ve got that fire within you to change what you want to do. And then you sprinkle the fairy dust and you have those magic lights that come from Dawnie, then this is the formula you need.

Dawn Baxter 

Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on today. You know, I absolutely adore you. And hopefully I will be able to see more of you. We’ve got a few lovely ladies that have signed up over the last couple of days and I cannot wait to start. And of course if anybody wants to have a chat with me, I do have some slots available. You just have to let me know we can get on the phone and have a natter we’ve had I think four people now who perhaps it’s not the right time for so you will never ever get from me oh yes, it’s perfect for you just come on it.  If it’s not we don’t do that we will tell you if you’re not at the right stage or if you need to wait till next time. But yeah, if you want to have a chat with a nutter, a natter with a nutter, then you can let me know and we can sort that out. Thank you so, so much, Leanne. I adore you. Thank you for jumping on last minute. But also just thank you for coming and supporting me it means a lot and I really appreciate it.

Leanne Elliot 

No problem. Take care of yourself.

Dawn Baxter 

Bye everyone.