The digital marketing landscape has changed dramatically and it’s more critical now than ever for every business owner to pivot and adapt.

Today, I’m unpacking why this pivot is necessary, the deeper shifts in how people interact and consume content online, and how you can adjust your strategy to truly connect with your audience.

Plus, I’ll reveal why attention is the most valuable currency today and how you can capture it.

Tune in now!

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. As I mentioned yesterday, if you tuned into that episode, my comeback after five weeks off from the podcast, I’m going to drop four episodes and they all are related to me coming back. That was yesterday. I wanted to share that story, especially with those of you who have been here for a while and or enjoy following my journey and learning from it. So if you didn’t tune into that episode yesterday, it was pretty juicy with some behind the scenes details, really deep lessons. I learned um things I went through through the last eight weeks that I promised to share once I was through it and could properly share it. So I would definitely go back and tune into that episode. And now moving forward, I want to focus on this current state and era and time in digital marketing because it has shifted tremendously and I really believe that already we are in a place where the biggest shifts and call to pivot is happening than has happened since I started my business almost a decade ago. 

Like the landscape of business, digital marketing, the economy, all of it has shifted so much and Every business owner every ceo needs to follow that in order to stay relevant to stay successful and to stay serving your audience so today i want to talk about a few things the first thing i want to start with is. Why is this such a huge need to pivot? And I sat with this question and I did this, uh, private training after I hosted it, my embodied CEO challenge a few weeks ago. And so I sat with this because yeah, we can definitely say, Oh, it’s the economy. It’s an election year and people are feeling uncertain, the state of the world, the division, et cetera, et cetera. Right. We can definitely say that is contributing to that, but I actually think there is a deeper shift happening right now that is changing the way people interact online and consume. And therefore that impacts every single one of us, myself, you, every business owner, because here’s the reality.

I feel we’re in a big place, a big transition, a big season of really recognizing the impact that technology and social media has on us as humans. I don’t know how long, so I don’t know when Instagram has started. I mean, it’s not that long ago, right? If the big picture, you know, I am young and I still lived my life without social media and a phone for like a very long time. Like I can remember not having a phone, right? So in the big picture, social media, though, especially the way we use it today, constantly on it, constantly documenting our lives is a drastic change in how it used to be. And I feel we are starting to, uh, experience repercussions as humans and our nervous system and how we feel because of the massive amount of noise and overstimulation that exist because I see that almost everybody, you know, unless you’re talking about probably like the the wonderful 80 plus year olds who don’t engage in any of this, right? 

Right now, myself, probably you, your friends, your family, your audience, people in your circle, most importantly, if we look at marketing, your audience right now are feeling tired, overstimulated, overwhelmed by the constant noise. It’s constant. Most people, unless they intentionally make an effort to do this, never leave with their phone. that It gets always with them, the notifications, the noise, social media, but then you’ve got podcasts, you’ve got audio books, you’ve got news, you have all the social media platforms, X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, like it is an insane amount of noise that we are not meant to be experiencing. Like this is not normal. And if you, I don’t have, you know, numbers, but if you test all of our cortisol levels and the state of our nervous system, it’s not great. And this is why there’s been a huge movement around regulating your nervous system because people are overwhelmed, overstimulated, exhausted, burnt out. They also are unsure about the future right now. And constantly lacking time and capacity. Like we live in a world where we are completely overstacked majority, if not all of the time. 

Like just talk to your friends, especially people who have kids, but really anybody it’s like we overstack and live in this society where it is normal. And I participate in this, like it is normal to get up in the morning and go absolutely nonstop all day long until you go to bed at night. And that is not how we are designed as humans. Like that is not sustainable. And so I believe because of social media and how long we’ve had it. I think the impact is really built and built and built and the noise and people’s attention spans. We have, I just saw a video the other day, like we have an attention span that’s like shorter than a mouse. like Most people can’t stay looking at something for more than three seconds. but That’s crazy. Okay. And that’s because of the noise. So this is very important because everything else I talk about about marketing strategy, I want you to understand the state that your audience, your potential customers are most likely in because that’s a very important connection that you need to have. 

Okay, now even though people are tired, people are overwhelmed, people are scared maybe, unsure about the future, maybe even financially struggling right now, your audience and people in general are also looking for support, wanting to solve their problems, wanting to fulfill their dreams, seeking connection, seeking validation validation, and desperately wanting to be seen, and especially those last two. Your audience is dying for connection, dying for validation and to be seen because we’ve lost so much of the authentic connection that we used to have because of digital assets, marketing, social media, all of those things. And again, I feel there is going to be a massive shift in how people consume and also what they seek out that they want because they’re really seeking this connection. So that’s also important to remember because no matter the economic state or how saturated the market is because of all the noise or any other factor that you put in your head and you say, oh, my business can’t do well because the economy sucks or there’s so much noise, I can’t attract attention, whatever belief you have maybe said before or thought.

You have to remember that no matter what happens, people are always gonna want to solve their problem, fulfill their desire, feel connected, and that’s never gonna change. And people will also spend money to make that happen. People will find the money if they believe that the payoff is bigger than the investment. Okay. So if we understand, okay, we’re connected to the state that people are in and we understand that they still want our help. They still want our support. Now, we have a choice, all of us as entrepreneurs right now. We can face this economy and the market with fear and question if we’ll be successful and allow us to become a victim of it and say, oh, well, because of the economy, that’s why things aren’t going well. And and while that might be true, what I’m trying to say is even if something shifts because of the economy,

There is still a solution. And so the other option is to face this current state of business and the industry with certainty that you can and will do whatever it takes to serve Your audience. Because if we boil everything we do in business down to one single thing, why does our business exist? It’s not for the money. Yes, that’s a byproduct. That’s a part of the game. It’s not for you. It is to serve your audience and your potential customers. And what I’m saying is they still want to be served and they will still pay to be served but you have to be so connected to what they’re going through in their current state and you have to understand what that means and how you may have to shift what you’re currently doing in order to serve them in the best possible way.

Imagine if I gave you and I said, okay, there’s two people. There is one individual who’s extremely overwhelmed, completely overstimulated, never has enough time in their day to get done the things they want to do, feels like they’re failing, feels like they are trying their best, but are not getting where they want and therefore questioning their ability to do the things they’re trying to do. They’re exhausted. They’re burnt out. Imagine if I said, okay, that’s person one. And then over here you have person two. They’re crushing it. They’re not overwhelmed. They’re happy. They feel like they’re doing a pretty good job. Like, yeah, they sometimes have busy days, but they’re really not overwhelmed. They’ve got it figured out. They’re not burned out. They’ve worked through that and they have limited the amount of noise in their life and they’re doing well. If you compare those two people and then I said, okay, now for both of them, I want you to come up with a plan to serve them in the best possible way. You’re not going to do the same exact thing. And most likely your audience is person A.

Maybe some of your audience is person B, but most likely it’s person A. And so maybe your audience was person B five years ago, four years ago, 10 years ago, but now they’re person A. They’re overwhelmed, they’re burnt out. You see what I’m saying? You’re going to do something different to serve that person in every aspect from your content to your strategy, to the experience you create, to the way you communicate with them, to your offer itself. And that is why all businesses right now are feeling the desire to pivot and the need and the pressure almost and the pull. That’s the root of it in my opinion. So sit with that for a bit. Sit with what is my audience? What is my potential customer truly going through right now? And how can I adjust the way that I show up as a business in every aspect from my free content to my lead generation, to my offer itself, to trying to convert them into the offer to help them even more? How can I adjust it to meet them where they’re at today and see what ideas come through? Now, another point I want to make here that’s very important.

The number one currency out there today is attention, is people’s attention. It’s not money. Because you get their attention, you will be able to get the money. The number one currency in business, but also out there today is attention. And so your business success relies on the ability to garner attention. And when you look at, this is why influencers are doing so well. You find these influencers who all they do is create content and they have all this attention and they have this platform. And then companies and brands want to go to them and have sponsorships and have them promote their product because it is not easy to get somebody’s attention, especially recurring attention, and especially a longer than five to 10 second span of attention. Attention and time is the most limited resource we all have.

Right? We all only have so much time in a day. And so when we make a decision to give a brand and a business our attention, that’s a big deal. So your business’s number one priority is to garner attention. And I don’t just mean like views, you know, video views and followers. I mean actual loyal fans who come back and back to your content, who are invested in what you have to share, who feel inspired by you, who feel connected to you. If you just made that your number one priority in your business for the net for the rest of the year, I guarantee you’d be successful. So if you sit with the question of, your number one goal in your business is to get quality attention. Quality, engaged, connected attention. What would you implement? What would you change about your strategy? And this is where I believe It is so important for every one of us to tune into our own magic, our own ability to garner that attention, our ability to connect, to have an impact, to stand out and to essentially be ourselves so that we can authentically connect. Because that’s the only way to be successful today. The only way.

And this is the one thing that I know there’s more than one thing. This is the final thing that I want to get across in this specific episode. And I want to talk about how to make sure first I want to talk about how to make sure your marketing gets attention. And then I want to talk about why over time. This lie has, has become more and more important that you don’t feed into it, but now more than ever. So first, here’s some ways that you can make sure your marketing gets attention. Number one, constantly innovating within your strategy, authentic authenticity infused in everything, which is how you innovate, which, how do you show up authentically? Like if I asked you, Hey, you have to show up as authentic as possible for the rest of this year. What would you do? My answer to that is the only way to show up authentically is to be extremely connected to myself, to my authentic self and what that looks like for me to show up authentically.

Next one is deep connection in your messaging. If you go scroll any social platform right now, 85 to 90% of what you’re going to see in terms of the ads, but also a lot of times the content, depending on who you follow is surface level. It sounds the same. It’s the same shit. It’s like everybody online has tried to replicate what everybody else is doing. And 85% because there’s like 15% that don’t do this, right? But it actually makes me annoyed when I go scroll my feet because I’m like, oh my God, another. The three steps to da da da. I did this one thing and I made six figures. Like nobody believes that anymore. Nobody does. They know that it’s not true. So you have to go so much deeper in your messaging, which really isn’t as hard as we make it if we can just find the connection. Another way to stand out and make sure your marketing gets attention is creative experiences created at all levels, your lead generation, your nurture, your sales. This is hands down why I’m so good at marketing. 

This is my one Like number one strength, I see everything through the lens of it’s an experience. Everything from my podcast to my social media, to my webinars, to my challenges, to everything. And I see it as an experience and I want to know how I’m going to make people feel.

when they participate or they consume it. And that’s how you get people to come back because people make decisions based off of emotions. So if I consume your content and I feel inspired, I feel seen, I feel connected, I’m going to keep coming back. If I feel nothing, and it sounds like everybody else out there, I am going to ignore it. Depth versus width. This one is one that I go against what some of the experts out there say, or industry leaders, whatever, but.

I don’t think that making your goal to post as much as you possibly can on all the platforms is the answer. Personally, I’d rather you post less and put more heart into your content, more heart into your copy, more heart into everything you create than be everywhere. And I actually read Alex Hermosi’s book, his new one. And he says to posts like three times a day on Instagram and all the platforms and like, that’s his advice. And I just love him as an entrepreneur, respect him. He’s extremely smart, but I don’t actually agree with that because that’s coming from somebody who has an entire content team and puts out only excellent content. Like he does put out a high volume, but it’s excellent.

And I think that the chase to do more, more, more is one of the single reasons that all of you guys are so burnt out. So what if we just did a little bit less, but everything that we did had like 10%, 15% more heart and more depth in it. Your copy and your messaging should move people. If everybody’s going to start moving to AI and the surface level messaging and like, let’s be so productive and get done all these things and hack all the systems. Why don’t we say, screw that. We’re going to actually not use any of that. We’re just going to bring authentic connected messaging. I’m not saying you can’t use AI for some things, like it can be useful, but it is not even close to a place where you could use it to write your copy. It just doesn’t produce the quality. It doesn’t produce the depth. It doesn’t have the heart in it. It just can’t. And I think we are moving in a direction where a lot of people are going to try to do that.

Because they are feeling left behind by the volume that people who are doing that can create. And they think that’s the scorecard when really it’s the depth, it’s the connection. It’s the deep, intentional, connected, copy-connected strategies. So all of that, I can blend into one huge takeaway, and this was the title of this podcast. Stop believing this lie, which the lie is that somebody else has the answer for you in how you should market, how you should talk, what your offer should be, all those things. And this is why so many of you and so many entrepreneurs chase the one size fits all the blueprint, the, let me replicate this strategy exactly how somebody else did it. And it’s going to work for me. And while there are definitely needs for support from experts in marketing, obviously that’s what we help people do. And it makes a massive difference and helps them get results way faster, but you have a super power. You have magic in you and this industry has programmed so many of you to believe that you need to stop listening to yourself because you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know what you’re doing. 

You’re not good at it. And you need to listen to so-and-so and implement this perfect webinar three step one, two, three strategy. And that’s going to create success for you. And then you go chase it and it doesn’t work. And then you think, Oh, it must be me. It’s working for other people. What am I doing wrong? I’ve talked about this before. I’ve been talking about this for the past year. This is why I implemented and in our offer my identify and align process because I actually changed the entire process that we use and added this step before because I realized how important this was, which is to identify your superpower, the thing that you can do so easily that other people cannot. so The way that you connect your art, you will find it in the things that come easy to you, that excite you, and that you do better than other people. For some people, this might be writing. For some people, this might be showing up on live video and just answering questions. For some people, it’s talking about certain content, certain topics that you just nerd out on because you love it so much, you could do it all day. like It’s going to be different for everybody, but you have it. And likely, it was present when you started your business, like the very beginning days because that’s how we started business.

Like we have this passion and this bigger impact vision and we leverage that and then we get lost in all the noise and all the mentors and all the coaches and all the podcasts and all the books and all the things and we lose that. So here’s what I have to say. Screw all the templates, screw all the one size fits all stuff, screw all of the strategies that are intended to pull you away from who you are and your unique skill sets, and why don’t you just go all the way in on being yourself. Like who cares if it’s long form or short form or a 45 minute webinar, a 30 minute webinar, whatever the heck you want to do. Like give yourself the creativity over the next several months to just go all the way in and be you and not overthink it and see what happens. There are 100% marketing principles that are always going to be true. Yes. But at the end of the day, if you go analyze any business, every single one of them that has been successful, even in this space who are teaching one size fits all blueprints. They all leveraged their unique gifts, their talents, their superpower, their magic. And I want to tell you a story really fast. So one of my mastermind girls, she has been in our essential program. She joined our, my mastermind this, this round and we did our first one on one call and she came to the call and she had a bunch of questions. And one of her questions was when should I start a podcast?

Should I do YouTube? And it was like, should I do all these things? All these things that through her, you know, even observing me and other people that she’s learned from and Amy Porterfield and all these people, she’s been like, oh, well they have these things. And so, hold on. So loud. She’s like, they have these things, so I must need them. But as I dug into her business, I realized something and I said, you know what? You have a gift for creating very authentic videos on Instagram that are these recipes that she creates. And it’s like a whole thing. She goes to the grocery store, she just puts so much into these that she creates, but they’re so good and they get so much traction organically and as a visibility as when she puts spend behind them. And she and I asked her the question and I said, what would be like the one thing for you that would be really easy for you to do? And she’s like, oh, create those videos. I love it. I don’t have enough time to do more of them, but every time I do them, they do well. I love creating them. I love doing the recipes. I love going to the store.

And one of the other questions she had was like, should I outsource this? Should I outsource my social media? And I said to her, you know what, forget about the podcast, forget about YouTube, forget about adding all of these different content, additional things, and don’t even think about outsourcing that. That is your art. That is your magic. You need to set up your business and your marketing strategy so that you get support in all the other things that take you a ton of time. One of them for her was copy and writing because she’s dyslexic. I said, you need to go get support in all of that so that you need to create the capacity so that you have as much time as possible to leverage that. It wasn’t even a week. And she was like, oh my gosh, I’m so clear. I just did a video. I had so much fun with it. I put extra creativity in it. It got half a million views. And I added like 4,000 followers in a week on my Instagram. And then I’m adding I’m making it into a visibility ad. And she’s like, and I don’t feel stressed. I’m just like not even thinking about doing a podcast and these things.

And I said, that’s your art. Every one of you has a creative expression that is unique to you. For me, it’s my podcast. It’s my webinars. It is sometimes my writing. It is my content that I can create, right? But there are things that slow me down and I shouldn’t be doing any of those things, but this is going to be unique to you. So ending this podcast, I just want you to really sit with what would happen If I said, screw the rules, screw all of the marketing rules that I’ve put in my head of what I should be doing and how much I should be posting and how much I should be showing up. Because even this example that I just told you, I’m talking about organic marketing that she’s leveraging. She’s putting paid ads behind it, but it’s organic marketing. 90% of the time, that’s not going to be my recommendation. I think organic marketing is very slow process most of the time, not for her.

So if she followed a one size fits all template, she’s going to feel like she’s doing something wrong and she should be doing something else when really she’s crushing it and she should do more of that. So if you sat with the question of what would happen if I said fuck all the rules, screw all these ideas that I have in my head about what my marketing should look like, what my lead generation should look like, what my offer should look like, my content, the platforms I show up on, should I do a podcast, should I not do a podcast? And I asked myself, how could I make this as easy and fun as possible for me to show up and connect with my audience? How could I show up as me? Maybe that means being more silly, maybe that means adding in a certain amount of content, maybe it means taking out stuff that is making you feel so drained and it’s taking away from something else. It’s gonna mean something unique to you but sit with that. And if you said, I’m just gonna go all in on this. And I told this to my challenge group and someone came back and she said, oh my gosh, I just had the most easy conversations with so many people because I realized that I could just be me. I didn’t need to follow a template, a script and all of these things that I was trying to follow before. And I just had the most connected, best conversations in my DMs with potential clients.

Because I wasn’t worried about a script or a template and all these things I was thinking about before and over complicating it. So stop believing the lie that you do not have the answer in how to connect to your ideal customer. A good marketing strategy or marketing expert that supports you with this is going to amplify and elevate the connection that you build. They are going to take that authentic gift of yours, that magic, that art, and they’re going to elevate that. They’re going to amplify that. They’re not going to override it, but you have to be clear on what that is. That’s the magic and the power in your business. It’s the key to success. It’s the key to standing out and it’s the key to being successful in this current market. All right, everybody. I keep forgetting to mention this until the very end, but if you would like to join my new free community on Telegram, this is going to be a place where we can be very connected and support each other where I’m going to show up behind the scenes in a different way than I do on social media, as I’ll be probably stepping away from social media more and more, at least like me physically on there, the main requirement is that you come in the community and you engage and it is filled with incredible entrepreneurs. So if you go to embodiedmarketing.com/businesscircle, you will be able to be taken to a telegram group there’s no opt-in nothing you just request to join in the group and will welcome you in and i’m super excited this was actually a group that i had for paid clients only but i opened it up now for my entire audience and i will only have for paid clients, I’ll do a monthly workshop still as a part of the embodied business circle. So I am really excited to be creating a space for this deeper, deeper connection and honored that you’re here. I’ll be back tomorrow.