Empower Your Online Business Through Empowerment

[00:00:07] You gotta be bold. This story gotta be told Own your fierceness gon and glow this the Sonja Empowers Show stay on gold like a lion who on the prowl Sonja Sells help you get it we doing it and doing it now. [00:00:30] Hey empower disruptors. Welcome back to the Sonja Empowers show, where I ignite your online business and help you own your fierceness, embrace your unique beauty, talents and strengths, rise above fear and step into your destiny as you build empires and shatter expectations together. [00:00:50] Today, we're diving deep into a topic that's crucial for any online entrepreneur: Empowerment. [00:00:59] We'll explore strategies to empower both your audience and yourself, ultimately leading to a more successful and fulfilling online business. [00:01:09] Now, you may have heard that word a thousand times, empower, right? It almost seems like it's some kind of fad. But believe me, I jumped on the empowerment bandwagon maybe about 15 years ago, and I never knew why people would use that word with me. Empower. Like Sonja, I feel so empowered around you. You empower me to do more. You know, I kept hearing that word. It was many years later that I discovered that empower was my one word. And it became part of my life's mission, which is to empower individuals to obtain financial and lifestyle freedom through entrepreneurship. [00:01:53] But what exactly does empower mean? [00:01:58] By definition, to empower means to give someone the authority or power to do something. [00:02:05] In the context of online business, empowering yourself and your audience is essential for your success. [00:02:14] When you empower your audience, you build trust, loyalty, and a dedicated following. [00:02:21] When you empower yourself, you unlock your full potential, boost your confidence, and drive your business forward. [00:02:30] So let's first talk about empowering your audience. [00:02:34] To truly empower your audience, you must one educate. That means provide valuable content that addresses their needs. You can do this by identifying knowledge gaps through surveys, website analytics, and even social media. [00:02:55] You can create high quality, engaging content that's easy to consume. [00:03:01] You can distribute your content effectively through SEO, that stands for search engine optimization. [00:03:09] You can distribute your content through social media and even email marketing. [00:03:16] Also, you can encourage interaction and feedback. You can easily do this through surveys, you know, you can easily post poll questions, you know, and you can also respond to any type of comments, feedback that's left, you know, on social media. [00:03:41] So for example, this is just one way that you can empower your audience through education. [00:03:47] Let's say you're a fitness blogger. You might create a series of workout videos for beginners. [00:03:53] Or if you're a tech expert, you could write blog posts explaining complex Technical concepts in simple terms. [00:04:04] The second way to truly empower your audience is to inspire them. [00:04:10] Share stories of success, motivation, and overcoming challenges. [00:04:17] Never be afraid to share your struggles that you are experiencing in life and your business. [00:04:25] Choose stories that resonate with your audience and evoke strong emotions. [00:04:31] Structure your stories effectively with a clear introduction, conflict, rise in action, climax, and resolution. [00:04:42] Sometimes you may just even do what I call free flow. Just the inspiration hit you and you're like, wow, I have to share this story with my audience. [00:04:53] Use vivid language and imagery to bring your stories to life. [00:04:59] Connect your stories to your message and encourage your audience to take action. [00:05:07] For example, let's say you are sharing a story, whether in person or online. You could say, let's take a moment to be inspired by incredible stories of individuals who have overcome adversity and achieved greatness. [00:05:24] These stories will not only motivate you, but also empower you to take action and create your own success story. [00:05:34] Simple, right? Then you can share a story about a person who overcame a significant challenge, such as a disability, poverty, or personal loss. You could describe their struggles, their determination, and their eventual triumph. [00:05:51] That person can even be you. [00:05:54] But by using vivid language, engaging storytelling techniques, and connecting the story to your message, you can create a powerful and memorable experience for your audience. People want a deep connection. They want to know you and to find some type of connection so that they can resonate with you. And the more that they resonate with you and, and not see you or perceive you as, oh, you're just this person that's wealthy and unrelatable, or, you know, you have your business all together. I mean, how do you understand. How can you possibly understand what I'm going through and I'm just starting out, but by you being vulnerable and sharing your stories, you know, and what you have experienced along your journey, and allowing people to see the growing pains, I promise you, they will connect with you on a deeper level. [00:06:49] The third way you can empower your audience is empowered decision making. [00:06:54] Offer clear and concise information. [00:06:57] To truly empower your audience, you must equip them with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions. You do this by. You can prioritize clarity and conciseness by using simple language and visual aids. Many people are visual learners. You can provide relevant information, including benefits, drawbacks, and actionable insights. [00:07:24] You can limit the number of choices to avoid decision fatigue. Surprisingly, people get overwhelmed if there are too many choices, right? If you give them like 10 choices, you know, they may go over and over in their head trying to eliminate which one? Especially if they're analytical like me. So limit the number of choices to avoid that decision fatigue. [00:07:50] Foster informed decision making by encouraging questions, providing resources and engaging in respectful dialogue. Okay, so let's go back to talking about the benefits of, let's say one of your services or programs. You know, for example, I have the fast track, your concept four week course available. [00:08:16] And the benefit, one of the benefits of that course is, you know, it's a self study course. So no matter if you are full time, you know, and you're just trying to start a business on a part time level, whether you have all the time in the world, you know, you can go and study that course whenever it's convenient for you. So that's a benefit. Another benefit is that it's very affordable, is priced at the time of this recording at 97 bucks. I mean, let's face it, you know, trying to feed a family of three on 100 bucks is, you know, sometimes a challenge, you know, especially if you're trying to go out to eat at a nice restaurant. [00:09:02] And so it's affordable, but it still is a high value course, right? It's not a course that's going to take you a year to complete. Another benefit. Also, this course is all about showing you how to lay the foundation for your online business so you can plan and launch your business in as little as 30 days. However, one of the drawbacks is if you need more handholding, meaning that you need, you know, a coach to hold you accountable to that, it does not come with any additional support. [00:09:36] It doesn't come with a private community, it doesn't come with email support in the form of coaching or it doesn't come with video coaching or anything like that because that would drive the cost up. The more access you have to meet, the more the cost would be, you know, would increase. So to keep it affordable yet at a high value, I chose not to, with this particular course, to offer all of those additional bells and whistles. Okay? And so that is a great example of the benefits and drawbacks to that particular course that can help an individual make an informed decision whether they want to invest in it or not. [00:10:22] Okay, moving on to the fourth way that you can empower your audience and that is through a strong call to action. [00:10:31] So nudge your audience to take a specific action. Be clear and concise, using direct language and clear instructions. Create urgency with limited time offers or scarcity principles. [00:10:45] And I just have to say, FYI, if you're going to use this principle, the scarcity Principle, be sure that you do it with integrity. [00:10:55] Don't create a false urgency when you know it's not one that's there, you know. So for example, if you say that this price is only going to be good for the next 48 hours, right? [00:11:10] Then walk in integrity and uphold that. Don't use the scarcity tactic that is only going to be available for 48 hours. And then do what I see a lot of people do that I'm on their newsletters. Then all of a sudden, you know, 72 hours have passed, right, so that sale should be over. And then they come back and say, oh, and I'm seeing this more and more. No kidding. Oh, you know, I've had lots of people tell me that they could not access it or you know, access it or they did not see the email in time. So I'm going to extend it for another, you know, and I'm beginning to see that more and more to where I'm believing that it's more of a sales tactic than actually is that many people that couldn't, you know, access it or didn't see the email. [00:11:57] And I do understand that sometimes things go to spam, but I'm saying it more and more or it may be where they use the scarcity principle. And then after they use the scarcity principle and the door is supposed to be closed on their particular program or whatever it is, then they come back and say, oh, some people really wanted to jump on board and they couldn't. So I'm opening up the door for another 72 hours. But sometimes they also include like a steep discount as well. And I'm like, you're, you're rewarding the slackers, but the people who, you know, was on top of the game, you know. So for me it would make me feel some kind of way if I paid let's say 997 for a course and everything and that's supposed to bend the reduced price. And then all of a sudden the doors are closed and then I see an email coming through three days later to say I'm reopening the doors at a discounted price of like 697 or 497. And I've seen that that would make me feel like, hey, maybe I should have been a slacker. So I'm just saying that if you're gonna use the scarcity principle, please do so with integrity. Yes, you will have those one offs, but it shouldn't where people make, couldn't have not accessed something, but it shouldn't be where majority of your email list you're saying that it was an issue outside of something technical. So I'm hoping that making sense just whatever you do in business, do with integrity because people are very savvy. You don't want to treat your potential customers or clients like are dumb to sell tactics, you know, they know and everyone wants a good deal. And so I noticed that today's buyers are very, very aware and alert. And so you just don't want to become known as the person who, you know, have sleazy sale tactics, you know. So just be a person of integrity. And one of my core value words of course is integrity. So I really do try to serve in that way. [00:14:08] We're continuing on with the call to action. You can use strong visual cues like eye catching buttons and clear directions. [00:14:17] Personalize your call to action, also known as cta, based on user behavior and preferences. And you can test and optimize your call to actions to find the most effective variations. [00:14:31] So a few examples of effective call to actions. Let's say you have an e commerce shop. You can easily say shop now and save 20%, right? So if you are a person of integrity, you're going to honor that. When they shop, they save 20%. If the code is not working, you're going to honor that. So they can still save 20%. [00:14:56] Another effective call to action. If you have a blog post, it may say subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive tips, a webinar. It may say register now and learn from the experts social media. It may say share this post and inspire others. So those are examples of effective call to actions. I've even had it like on my website where my call to action. It may be something that gets hype up like yes, I'm ready to be empowered or whatever it is concerning that particular product or service that I'm offering. So get creative with it and have fun. [00:15:38] The next way you can empower your audience is through building a community. [00:15:43] Foster a strong, supportive community. [00:15:47] You can do this by creating a welcoming environment with clear guidelines and active moderation. You see this all the time with Facebook communities. [00:15:57] You can encourage active participation through challenges, forums and social media groups. [00:16:03] You can recognize and reward contributions with public recon, recognition, excuse me, exclusive perks and personalized feedback. So I've been a part of groups or communities where you know the most engaged person was the the winner would receive access to one of their free one of their paid programs and I remember I was the winner and and got access to this amazing program and it was right on time because at the time I was in a lean cash flow seasons. I was like okay, I can't believe it. [00:16:39] And so it, it does help when you have that, that type of environment. [00:16:46] You can host events like virtual meetups and in person gatherings. You know, don't forget the power of hosting in person gatherings. Especially if your focus is catered to a more local, a more local group, then this will be great. It may be where it's like you have a local meetup and, or it may expand out and now you have different chapters. Just never, ever, ever despise your small beginnings. A lot of times you will start small and grow big. You can also leverage technology to facilitate community building such as community platforms, gamification and AI powered moderation. You know, don't be afraid to use technology to your advantage to help save you time. [00:17:40] So by implementing these strategies, you can create a vibrant and supportive community that will drive long term engagement and loyalty. Now I do want to say that you may not start out, you know, you are possibly an emerging entrepreneur. You may not start out, you know, with this community, so to speak. You know, for example, right now I don't have any communities on an old business model. I did have a community, but since I've totally revamped everything and basically like starting over with this new business model, I don't have a community right now. But there is a future business venture, a business project where a community, a private community will be a part of that program. [00:18:31] Now we want to shift gears and talk about empowering yourself as an entrepreneur. So to truly empower others, you must empower yourself. You know, we can't be functioning from an empty whale. You know, we need to be full, we need to be our best. We need to continue to strive to become the best possible version of ourselves. [00:18:57] A strong foundation of self belief is essential for any entrepreneur. [00:19:01] I'm telling you, if you don't believe in yourself and your dreams, you're not going to get very far on this journey. [00:19:09] By cultivating a deep seated confidence in your abilities and the viability of your business ideal idea, you, you'll be well equipped to overcome challenges and achieve your goals. Because I'm telling you, challenges will arise on this entrepreneur journey. [00:19:28] But it boils down to how bad do you want it? [00:19:32] How bad do you believe in what you want the world to believe in? It starts with you empowering yourself. Dreams are powerful, but they remain just dreams until you take action. [00:19:46] The journey from aspiration to realization begins with a single step. Start Small. Celebrate your wins and gradually build momentum. Here are some tips to help you empower yourself as an entrepreneur. 1. Set clear goals. You first want to identify your big picture goals. You can do this by first looking at long term vision. Ask yourself, what do you ultimately want to achieve with your business? [00:20:15] Next, your core values. Ask yourself, what are the values that will guide your business decisions? [00:20:24] Oh, it's so important to know your core values because when you start having people come at you from all four corners of the earth with all these opportunities that seem so good and sound so good, I'm telling you that if you have your core values in place, it will help you easily make a business decision whether you want to partner with that or have your reputation associated with that. [00:20:54] So please take the time out to create your core values. [00:20:58] Next, break down large goals into smaller manageable steps and track your progress. Set those deadlines. [00:21:07] Hold yourself accountable. [00:21:12] 2. [00:21:13] Continuous learning. So in today's rapid, rapidly involving world, y'all see how fast paced it is. Continuous learning is no longer just an option, but a necessity to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive. Which, that's the word I use very loosely because I really don't believe that there's no competition. But many people, their mind need to be reprogrammed. So that's why I put it in there. You must commit to lifelong learning. [00:21:46] Stay updated by taking online courses, attending webinars, reading books, listening to podcasts, and seeking mentorship. [00:21:55] By embracing a continuous learning mindset, you will not only stay relevant, but also unlock your full potential and drive innovation. I'm telling you, when I was an executive assistant, my clientele stayed full unless I chose for it not to be full. [00:22:10] And one of the reasons then is because they were like, you are very, I heard this time and time again, you are very rare in the virtual assistant industry. You are very rare, you know, because I had so like a diverse skill set to where if I was working with a startup company, they didn't have to just worry about just using me as an executive assistant. Even though that was nice. [00:22:35] But oftentimes I worked in a cross functional capacity. You know, I heavily educated myself and I started looking at the type of companies I was working for. I started looking at, you know, ways they were bottlenecking themselves, ways that they could expand to generate more revenue coming in. Like I was there, I wasn't just like, okay, I'm just going to be used to schedule meetings. You know, I was like, no. You know, if I'm sitting in on a meeting and they're stuck on something and it's like, you know what? Hey, I just want to suggest something and I may wait until after the meeting is over to do it with my CEO in private. But I was never afraid to have a voice, you know, But I would have not had that confidence if it would have not been for me continually educating myself like certifications or not everything. But it was things that I saw that was needed. I was like, okay, so I beg. I got certified as an online event manager, a product launch specialist. I'm a master life coach. Because believe it or not, those CEOs, just because they have these million dollar businesses, they are human too. They have meltdowns too. Sometimes they need a sounding board that they can trust and it may can't wait to that mastermind or until, you know, they have their meeting with their coach. And so I decided that I would get these certifications. I have a certification as an online business manager, as an online course creation manager. I mean, I decided that I was going to invest in myself because I know that the more that I invest in myself, the more visible I can remain. People see me as an asset, you know, and I'm able to empower others through the knowledge that I'm, I have, have obtained. Okay? [00:24:27] So it's just very important that to embrace the continuous learning mindset so that you can first and foremost unlock your full potential, which is going to do wonders for your confidence, you know, but so that you can come on the scene and remain on the scene and let people know I am here to stay no matter how long it takes me to achieve my goals. I didn't come to play, you know, and you have to have that mindset because people are starting businesses every day in your particular niche, you know, so sometimes it just boils down to likability and the knowledge that you have. I'm just being real. All right, Number three, embrace failure. Failure is inevitable on your entrepreneurial journey. Let's be real. It's gonna happen sooner or later. [00:25:23] But rather than viewing it as a setback, embrace it as an opportunity to learn, grow and improve. By adopting a growth mindset, you can turn failures into valuable lessons that will propel you forward. [00:25:38] View failure as learning opportunities and develop resilience. [00:25:43] Reframe your perspective. Instead of seeing failure as a personal shortcoming, view it as a temporary setback. It's just a setback, okay? You will bounce back from that setback. Don't let the fear of failure paralyze you. [00:25:59] Take calculated risk and learn from the outcomes Part of being an entrepreneur is you have to be a risk taker. I mean, just starting a business, an online business, that's a risk all by itself. And so it's already in you, right? [00:26:17] So remember, every failure is an opportunity to learn, grow and become stronger. By embracing failure as a natural part of the process, you can increase your resilience, build your confidence and ultimately achieve your goals. [00:26:34] When you view failures as learning experiences, you become more adaptable, innovative and resourceful. [00:26:43] Embrace the challenges, learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. [00:26:50] Remember, it's not about avoiding failure, it's about how you respond to it. [00:26:58] Lastly, and we're talking about how to empower yourself. Seek support. Surrounding yourself with a supportive community can impact your entrepreneur journey. [00:27:10] Build a strong support network. Through entrepreneurial communities, mentorship programs, networking events, accountability partners and therapy or coaching, a strong support network can provide guidance, motivation and accountability, helping you navigate challenges and achieve your goals. [00:27:32] By building a strong support network, you'll have a group of people who believe in you and can offer encouragement, advice and a fresh perspective. Remember, you don't have to go at it alone. There are times where I jump on social media and I see that someone, you know, they're not having the greatest day in their business. I may just jump on and give them some encouragement. You can do it, keep going. It doesn't have to be, you know, where I'm passionate about that product or service, but they're trying to do something legally with integrity and they're going after their dreams and their goals. Okay? And so I'm empowering them by simply saying, you can do it, don't give up, it will get easier. Okay? [00:28:25] So by implementing these strategies, just remember, you know, you can create a powerful online presence that not only empowers yourself, you, but your audience as well. [00:28:36] Empowerment is a two way street, y'all. [00:28:40] Remember, when you empower others, you empower yourself. [00:28:45] All right, so now it is time for your FAB assignments. Yes, your fierce Action breakthrough assignments. [00:28:54] Exercise 1 Self Empowerment Assessment. All right, so first you're going to reflect. [00:29:02] Take some time to reflect on your current level of self empowerment. [00:29:07] Consider factors such as your self belief, motivation and ability to take action. [00:29:15] Identify strengths. List your key strengths and skills as an entrepreneur. [00:29:23] Set goals. Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound goals, also known as smart goals for your online business. [00:29:34] Create an action plan. Break down your goals into smaller actionable steps. [00:29:42] And lastly, visualize success. Spend a few minutes each day visualizing yourself achieving your goals. [00:29:53] Fab assignment number two. So Exercise number two Audience Empowerment Audit first identify your audience. [00:30:03] Clearly define your target audience and their needs. [00:30:07] Content Audit Review your existing content. Is it informative, engaging and valuable to your audience? [00:30:17] Community Building Explore ways to foster a strong community around your brand, even if it's for a future project. [00:30:28] Consider creating a private Facebook group or community, hosting live Q and A sessions or organizing online challenges. [00:30:39] And lastly, Feedback Loop Implement a feedback loop to gather insights from your audience. [00:30:47] This could be through surveys, comments or even social media interactions. [00:30:55] All right, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Science Empower Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share and subscribe. For more business empowerment resources, visit sonjasells.com and for additional resources on personal growth and inspiration, Visit chakeletdrapinspired.com that's C H A K E L E T D R A P Inspired dot com until next time, Empower Disruptors Own your fierceness.