Misfit Entrepreneur March 2021 - 242: Authenticity Wins, How to Grow Your Brand and Business by Becoming Your Authentic Self with Krista Ripma

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Dave Lukas Chats with Krista Ripma

242: Authenticity Wins, How to Grow Your Brand and Business by Becoming Your Authentic Self with Krista Ripma

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Krista Ripma. Krista is the founder of the digital marketing agency, Authentic Audience, which helps transform clients’ businesses by implementing innovative marketing strategies focused on authenticity, storytelling, and selling the truth. She is also the host of the Authentic Audience podcast.

Krista and Authentic Audience have been featured everywhere from Forbes to Entrepreneur and her passion for helping others tell their stories and share their truth through radically honest marketing is un-matched.

Radically honest. We don’t see that as much as we should these days, and it’s important to make sure we are being true to ourselves and our businesses, so I asked Krista to come on the show to discuss what it truly means to be authentic and honest in today’s world.

www.AuthenticAudience.co

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Show Notes

Krista has always been in to sharing stories and sharing stories. She studied communications and film in college and went to work in film in LA. But the whole industry was inauthentic. She loved the stories, the scripts she read, but the world around her was fake. She did all sorts of jobs and learned what it meant to work hard.

From there she went to working with TV networks in health and wellness. During this time, she met a Yoga star who needed help with her brand and Krista helped her grow the brand. She loved it and realized that is she is what she wanted to do. Help people grow their brand in an authentic way.

Define Authenticity…

It is something that really cannot be taught.
It is when you are in alignment and you know when you are.
It is when you are walking your talk and being the person or brand, you want others to think you are.
It is the lack of fear or doubt – just truth.
There is a big difference between transparency and authenticity. As leaders, we have to pick the appropriate time to share things and be transparent – but we can always be authentic.
Authenticity is standing in your truth and opening your heart up so others can do the same.

How does someone transform their business through authentic? What do they do?

You have to answer the 4 most important questions.
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why does it matter?
- What’s in it for me? (your dream client)
Anonymous brands are dead. People want to know who is behind the companies where they spend money.
We have to create personal brands within our bigger brands to thrive and succeed.
The X-factor that sets your product or service apart is you.
Customers want to “be seen” by you and feel like you see them.

What is working and what is not in marketing strategies and launches today?

The biggest mistake is taking someone from awareness straight to the sale.
The best part of marketing is the “consideration phase” which is the time you take to share who you are and what the value of your product or service is and establish credibility.
What is working is a longer warm-up/consideration phase where you provide a ton of value before ever giving an offer.
Consideration used to be about 7 days, now it is more like a month to do it right.
Best practice is a longer warm-up and shorter buying timeframe.

Is there a formula that you use for launches?

Krista has an e-book called the 90 Day Launch plan which breaks it down week by week of what needs to be done.
You can get it at AuthenticAudience.co
She discusses her process at the 20 Min-mark, and it is best to just listen.

How does someone get leadflow and build a list to market to?

You don’t have to have a big list, but you need to have a way to build a list.
You will have to invest, and you need the confidence to do so.
Lead gen campaigns on Facebook work well – you have to give something of great value for free to be successful. Something that really speaks to your dream customer.
LinkedIn is another great place to get leads. It has the most opportunity.
YouTube is also a place to be if you create content.
Growing your email list is by far your best investment.

At the 31-minute market, Krista gives her best advice on selling, both online and in general..

Get your money mindset right
Understand the abundance of money around you and be careful not to let a scarcity mentality stop you.
There is so much money out there, it’s everywhere and we are deserving of the piece of the pie as long as we work hard for it.
After money mindset is the seller’s mindset
This is the confidence in what you are selling.
Your dream customer is why you created your product and service, how can you not sell to them? If you don’t, you have failed them. They need it and are ready to buy.

At the 38 min mark, we discuss “asking for the business.” It’s best to just listen…

Shifts in online selling?

Major algorithm shifts. Much more pay to play. A lot of throttling happening.
We have to pay to reach our own audience.
Engagement is the secret sauce. The more engagement you have/time spent is the big X-factor right now.
For paid media, the market is super saturated, and the competition is fierce. It’s also not more expensive to compete.
In order to do well, you have to stand out in a bigger way and you have to innovate and figure out how to do it – even if that means being controversial by being authentic.

Best advice for entrepreneurs in today’s world?

Get one customer. Launch the thing!
Get real eyes on your site/product/service and get feedback.
Forget about your logo. Focus on your product and service and the way you make clients “feel.”
If you create an amazing customer experience; customers will tell others and you will grow by word of mouth.
Pivot as needed because you will have to.
You are always launching and pivoting – don’t rest.

Best Quote

Authenticity is standing in your truth and opening your heart up so others can do the same.

Stay in your uniqueness. It is your superpower.

Stay in service. Shift your mindset to that of service.

Self-care. Burnout is around every corner. Establish self-care rituals that help avoid burnout by any means possible.

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