If you want to learn how to put more of yourself and your personality into your business to gain confidence, comfort and cash, then Episode #474 of the Marketing Mentor Podcast is for you!
I talked with my two excellent collaborators and good friends, Danielle Hughes and Lisa Mullis, about how we each think about and practice bringing more of ourselves into our work -- and how you can too.
With this podcast, we are launching Profit from Your Personality: The ultimate toolkit for attracting and landing more clients you’ll love working with.
It's a big bundle of bundles -- one bundle from each of us -- that is designed to show you how to do just that.
With a soup-to-nuts approach — including a dash of Oreo cookie — this bundle of resources covers how to craft your brand positioning, write a great bio, communicate your value through click-worthy one-liners, and write a winning proposal that lands clients you love.
By infusing more personality into your professional message you will…
… differentiate yourself from your competitors.
… get clear on your message or your audience.
… land more clients and charge them fees you feel great about.
Listen to the episode here (and below), then check out Profit from Your Personality here.
Read the complete transcript here:
# 474 - Profit From Your Personality: Danielle Hughes & Lisa Mullis
ilise benun
Hi there. This is ilise benun, your Marketing Mentor, and this is the podcast for you if, and only if, you are ready to leave the feast or famine syndrome behind, and I mean for good.
Do you want to know how to differentiate yourself from everyone else who does what you do or offers the same services as you? The answer is simple. But as with most simple things, easier said than done.
The answer is you. You must bring yourself into every nook and cranny of your business, from your elevator pitch and the headline on your LinkedIn profile, through the copy and messaging and all of your marketing materials, and even into your proposals, if you want to win them, that is.
That's how you will get the best work with the best clients. Or as Danielle Hughes, Lisa Mullis, and I like to say, “that's how you gain confidence, comfort, and cash.”
But we know it's easier said than done, and that's why we have come together to collaborate on a new bundle of bundles. It's called “Profit From Your Personality: The Ultimate Toolkit for Attracting and Landing More Clients You'll Love Working With.” And on today's episode, the three of us had a very lively conversation—and if you know any of us, you'll know it can be lively. We talked all about what it actually means to infuse your personality not only into but all the way through your business. So listen and learn.
All right. Welcome, Danielle and Lisa, back to the podcast.
Danielle Hughes
We're so excited to be here.
Lisa Mullis
Yes, thank you, thank you.
ilise benun
Yeah, this is fun. This is new. I invited Danielle and Lisa—and I'll have you introduce yourselves, of course—because we have something really special that we're collaborating on and we wanted to talk about it together. So before we get to that, Danielle, why don't you give us your elevator pitch?
Danielle Hughes
Absolutely. Danielle Hughes, the chief personality officer of More Than Words Marketing. I work with individuals and organizations to put more personality into their bios and their communications so that they create stronger connections with the right audience so they can repel the wrong one.
ilise benun
I love “repelling the wrong audience.” That's the best part.
Danielle Hughes
Bye-bye. See you.
ilise benun
Bye-bye. And Lisa, please tell us your elevator pitch.
Lisa Mullis
Yes. Hello, my name is Lisa Mullis, and I'm with Paraphrase Communications. I am a brand strategist and copywriter. And I work with service-based professionals to help them clarify their messaging and streamline their marketing so that they work with better clients, regain their time, and take home more money.
ilise benun
Awesome. And both of you, obviously, have honed and refined your elevator pitches, as you should. And also the thing I notice is that they're both infused with your personality, so I imagine you are each profiting from your personality in this way, right?
Danielle Hughes
Ding, ding, ding.
Lisa Mullis
Yes.
Danielle Hughes
Ding, ding, ding.
ilise benun
That's a nice segue to this new product that we have collaborated on. It's called “Profit From Your Personality: The Ultimate Toolkit for Attracting and Landing More Clients You'll Love Working With.”
So maybe start with Danielle. Each of us has a product within the product—it's basically a bundle—and we want to talk a little bit about what's in it. So Danielle, we've got an order: Danielle, Lisa, and ilise. So Danielle, why don't you go first? Tell us what you've added.
Danielle Hughes
Sure. This is my “Personality Light Bundle,” and it includes two of my most popular downloads, which is my Brand Positioning Worksheet—because you cannot create your framework without knowing who you are, who you serve, what they need, and what you do better than anyone else. And my “About Me Mad Libs”—which allows you to, therefore, infuse your personality into your bio, and it gets you out of your head, makes it easy for you to have a starting point because nobody knows where to start and that's why they don't work on their bios. And it has companion videos that walk you through with real examples on how to fill each of these in and then put the two of them together so that you get this amazing bio or “About” statement.
And then there's a bunch of bonus stuff, so my coveted “Out-of-Office Email” freebie—which shows you how to infuse personality in your out-of-office emails, because I like to say “every place is a place for personality.” And then I also have my “Personality Brand Checklist”—which is 10 quick things you can do to make sure that your bio is on point. And I think that's it.
ilise benun
Awesome.
Danielle Hughes
I think that's it. Yeah, it's a lot.
ilise benun
Yes, and we'll talk about this idea of personality momentarily, but Lisa, tell us what you contributed to our bundle.
Lisa Mullis
Yeah, so I have “Copy Camp for Headlines” in this bundle. This is all about these one-liners, these very important one-liners, like headlines and email subject lines, calls to action, subtitles, titles ... all of those one-liners that actually are what stop the scrolling. Right? So they're the scroll-stopping headlines. They are what catches people's eye and makes them click.
So when you're out there, putting your stuff out there that's infused with your personality, this is such an important area to also insert the personality so that you can have some powerful one-liners that really grab people's attention so that they'll actually read the things that you're putting out there.
So inside “Copy Camp for Headlines” there are several modules. It's like a mini course, essentially. We talk about naming, and how to do calls-to-action buttons and links, email subject lines, and then we kick it all off with just kind of some foundational concepts for high-converting copy.
And I've included, similar to what Danielle has with the brand positioning, I also have a guide called “Define Your Brand Star Power Blueprint.” It's another way to look at your brand positioning.
And I love that Danielle and I both have these two pieces in the bundle, because sometimes you need to look at that in a few different ways; in a few different angles. It'll help every time you sort of see it in a different way, it'll kind of bring forth some new ideas or make you think about it in a different way, so it'll round out what you're doing with your positioning.
ilise benun
Beautiful. My contribution to the bundle is called the “Proposal Oreo Strategy Recipe Book.” I'm very excited about this because I hired an illustrator to basically create an illustrated version of my course that I did for Domestika called “Writing a Winning Proposal.” And we turned it into an ebook that's illustrated with this Proposal Oreo food metaphor. So it's easy to read, it's beautifully designed, and I'm very excited about that.
Plus, there's a video—that ‘got left on the cutting room floor,’ as they say—from the course with a successful web designer who I interviewed about how she leads the qualifying call with confidence.
And I'm also including two new sample proposals that won the projects: one from a web designer and another from a videographer. So there's definitely something in there for everyone.
So all of these three things together make up our bundle of bundles, basically. And maybe we can chat a little bit about this idea of profiting from your personality, because I've been thinking about this a lot lately, actually, and I love Danielle's idea of bringing your personality into your work in all the different ways that we possibly can. And we see examples of people doing it, all of us doing it, for example, and it works.
But I've also been thinking, often people think, "Well, you have to have that kind of personality in order for it to work," or, "How am I ever going to do what Danielle does, or what Lisa does, or what ilise does, if I'm not them?" So I know you deal with this, Danielle. How do you respond to that, let's say, “objection” or “resistance’ to the idea of personality?
Danielle Hughes
Well, I mean, I like to say that that is the beauty of personality brand—is that you are in control of how much you put into your brand and your messaging. It's not an all or nothing. You don't have to show up as a raging extrovert and a cheerleader and be like, "Here I am. Come look at me. Shiny, shiny, shiny.” You can be very measured.
And I would argue that between the three of us, I'm the most extroverted and I would think that Lisa and you, ilise, are more on the introverted side. But it's also honing that ability to show up in front of people, but you do it in a way where you're comfortable.
I think this just takes time. But it's also figuring out what is that one thing that you are comfortable sharing. What is that one piece of your personality that you can bring into your message that will just let you feel like yourself, and will let you make those connections? This is not something that happens overnight.
I go back ... I listen to previous presentations I've done, or podcasts I've done, from two, three years ago, and it's monumental difference. You think you're confident in one way, and then you reflect back, and the growth just happens for all of us. Even if we are seemingly so confident and seemingly so extroverted, it doesn't mean that we aren't working on this every single day, and you just have to give it time to get better so that you get more comfortable with who you are and how you want to show up in the world.
ilise benun
And Lisa, I'm thinking about “Copy Camp” for headlines, subject lines, and other pieces of copy where there is kind of a right way to do it, or a better way to do it, and I'm curious how you think about integrating one's personality into that kind of ... not that it's a formula, per se, but it does feel like a balance. How do you think about that balance?
Lisa Mullis
Well, I think where you can really look at that is how you would say something. So there's different concepts that you may want to put into your headline or your subject line. But you might, because you are you, will say it differently than somebody else would. So I'm trying to think of a good example off the top of my head. One might come to me here in a minute, but ...
ilise benun
Actually, let me just jump in, if this will help, because often, I think people think they're supposed to be a certain way: more official, more formal, more professional. And then, what they write ends up coming out kind of stilted and rigid and not how they would say it. So, I don't know. Work with that.
Lisa Mullis
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So for example, I use the word "folks" a lot. I say, "Hey folks." Or sometimes I even say “peeps” instead of people. That's just the way I say it. So whenever I'm using a word like “people” or “humans” or whatever, then I will just say “folks” or “peeps” or something like that. So that's how I say it and that's part of my personality coming through. But the concept of people is still the same. So that's one way that you can infuse personality into these shorter phrases, like a headline or a title.
ilise benun
Yeah, I guess that makes me realize that my “y'all”—I say “y'all” constantly, right?
Lisa Mullis
Yeah. “Y'all.” Right.
ilise benun
That's me and my new personality, because until I moved to Savannah, that was not part of my personality.
Lisa Mullis
Exactly.
ilise benun
Interesting. All right. I'll say in terms of the proposal piece, how we bring our personality into that, there's a little secret in the “Proposal Oreo Strategy”—which is not really a secret, but which is really working for people who are doing it—is that you present your proposal in person, in real-time, and/or on a video.
That is such a beautiful opportunity to bring yourself into it. And part of the problem, I think, is that often people don't want to, or they don't like the way they look, or they don't like the way they sound. But I feel like it's really important—Danielle, tell me if you agree with this—to put all of those criticisms of ourselves to the side, if possible, because we're the only ones who are so focused on it, and really, what we want to do is bring ourselves through so that we can relate better to people.
Danielle Hughes
Absolutely. I mean, they are not looking at your hair or your makeup or your lack of hair or whatever, right? They're looking for your expertise.
Do you have the chops to do this job? Have you laid it out in a way that says you understand what the client needs? And then I always say the most important piece is, what are you going to be like to work with? Right? Because the expertise is almost always presumed. If you are putting together a proposal, they have come to you for something; you have a skill set. Now it's: we're going to be in this thing together for weeks, months, years. Am I going to like talking to you on the phone? Are we going to gel? Is there going to be connection?
So that is the most important thing, I think, to come through. So that's why having a proposal where there's a little bit of you in there, and is very clear and specific as well about expectations, deliverables, et cetera, is going to make someone get a fuller picture than just: "Here's what you get"—which feels very prescriptive.
ilise benun
Yeah and actually that reminds me also of the fact that often people think, "Well, they're going to choose me because of my work," whatever that is, design or copywriting or videography or anything. But I agree. I really don't think it's mostly the work, or even the quality of the work, because often they can't tell. It's who you are as a person and how your personality aligns with them.
Danielle Hughes
Yeah, 100%.
Lisa Mullis
Absolutely.
ilise benun
Right?
Lisa Mullis
100%. Yeah. One of the things I wanted to mention too, when Danielle was talking about the degree to which you can share your personality or have your personality come through ... to distinguish that from being personal or too personal in your communication. So I think sometimes though the two can get conflated: the personality and being too personal.
So I can see sometimes where the concern is that, "Well, I don't want to give too much information." Right? “I don't want to have to be too personal about what's going on with me and have that be how my personality is coming through.”
That's not it at all. You can choose to share as much or as little about what's going on in your life with your potential clients or your audience, but this is more about how you are as a person and how you show up. Circling back to the importance of that coming through, especially in that stage in which you're presenting a proposal or somebody's considering hiring you.
Danielle Hughes
Yes.
ilise benun
Yeah, I know, Danielle, you talk about this a lot. What would you add?
Danielle Hughes
I mean, yeah, I talk about it as like a dial, right? You dial it up and you dial it down depending on who you're interacting with, right?
One of my favorite movies is “This Is Spinal Tap.” They take the amplifier and they put it on 11, and everyone's like, "What do you mean 11?" He's like, "Well, it's not just 10, it goes to 11. It's beyond 10. It's so much extra.” So I feel like you don't have to go to 11; you could go to two, right? You just have to be above one.
And we're always showcasing parts of our personality no matter who we're talking to. You may think you're hiding it, but you're not. So at least this puts you in control of: do they get two or three of you, or do they get eight, nine, or 10 of you. I think that that comes with comfort as well, and building that relationship and how you feel about this person.
Certain people will just bring out more personality in people and certain people won't, and that's also an indicator, right? I think the thing with the proposals that we probably could talk about, ilise, is, it's not just about you wanting to win the business, it's do you want the business? Is this the right client for you? Is this the right fit for you?
ilise benun
I was just thinking that, actually, that when you present the proposal, that is obviously an opportunity for them to see what they're going to get, but also for you to see how you're going to be able to relate to this person. And is it someone you want to work with? And is there a chemistry? And as Lisa said, do they bring out the best in you? Because we want to work with the people who bring out the best in us, and yet we don't know, if we do all of our communication on email, if that's going to be the case.
So there really have to be these opportunities to be in real-time with people and to let our personality come through, and to sometimes make mistakes and sometimes say the wrong thing and learn from it or see that it really didn't matter because they weren't listening in the first place, right? All of these things that people seem to be so afraid of happening and kind of hiding behind email and text and all of those things.
Danielle Hughes
And I think if we look at the end of the descriptor of this product, right, it's to work with people that you like. To get more clients that you like. That is such an overlooked thing for so many freelancers and solopreneurs. You want to like the people you work with. That's why you are working for yourself, so you don't have to put up with the BS and the nonsense of somebody ordering you around. So this allows you to find more people that you actually like working with.
ilise benun
Yeah, I love that. All right, so we're going to do two more things before we wrap up here. We're going to add some baby steps. We're going to make some suggestions for baby steps. But before we do that, let's just talk about the magic of collaboration, because this has been really fun to work on together and I've never done it like this before, especially with two other people. Sometimes it's easy to collaborate with one other person, but two, that just changes the dynamic. So I don't know, Lisa, do you have thoughts about what it's been like to collaborate?
Lisa Mullis
Well, I am all about collaboration. In fact, this has been the theme for me this year is collaborating with other experts. So for me, this has been an absolute joy. Plus, I have so much respect for both you, ilise, and Danielle. So to bring it all together, this has been wonderful.
And it's not without its challenges, right, when we've been trying to coordinate our schedules to talk about all of this and bring all of this together. But we've each got different skill sets that we're bringing to the table too, which has been lovely.
And I will say that if you are collaborating with someone, to definitely have a central location for the communications around that and any of the materials that you might be developing around that. That's so key. So that's definitely helped us.
ilise benun
Excellent. Danielle, what about you?
Danielle Hughes
Yeah, I mean, speaking of working with people that you actually like, I mean, I think I love both of you. And also, this is my first ‘tri-laboration.’ I feel like it's not a collaboration, right? When there's three of us. I don't know if there's a word for that, but I was just thinking about that.
I think it's the beauty of people who truly complement what you do, but do other things in your universe just better, right? And again, we each have a skill set, but our skill sets also sort of overlap in a lovely way. And even just sort of figuring out what are the things we're going to all put into this was very thoughtful and intentional. And I think working with experts you get different perspectives that are so helpful to think about the approach, and to think about how this should work, and like Lisa said, the timing.
And there's just also something about collaboration that it makes you more accountable, but it also takes less ... It relieves the pressure, because it's not just you. You're not isolated. There's connection, there's dialogue. But then also somebody is holding your feet, so to speak, to the fire, because we have specific deadlines and timelines to meet. So it's all the best ways of having a team without having a team.
ilise benun
That's so true. And for me, this year, and last year a little bit too, it's all about collaboration and getting help and letting other people do what they do best, and not thinking I know everything. So I've really enjoyed this collaboration, even though the three of us ... we do kind of have big personalities, right? So bringing all three of our personalities together, I think, has been really interesting. And also the timing of it. I love the fact that we've just given ourselves time and not rushed into it, because that's a big priority for me these days as well.
Danielle Hughes
Yeah.
Lisa Mullis
Well, I think it's going to be fun to see for folks, to use my term that I like to use, for folks to see our own personalities coming through in the different resources that are inside this bundle. You'll definitely see that.
ilise benun
Absolutely. All right, so let's do the baby steps. Danielle, do you have a baby step in mind that is related to your piece of the bundle?
Danielle Hughes
I mean, I think that the first baby step for me is always just remembering that you have ... the baby step is the control. That everything about you in life doesn't need to go into your message and your bio. It's okay to discard what's no longer valuable to you, and to just think about how do you want to show up versus how you think you should show up.
In other words, getting rid of all of the things that you don't want to do anymore, no longer serve you, in your descriptor of who you are, and really leaning on the things that you want to be known for and that you want people to recognize in you.
ilise benun
Excellent. Lisa, how about you?
Lisa Mullis
What comes to mind for me is understanding the power of a name, of naming something. So when we name a service that we have, or a resource, an approach, a process ... anything that you're doing in your business or creating ... the power of the name of that instantly is going to elevate its value.
And then the fun comes into what are you naming it? Right? So inside “Copy Camp for Headlines,” they're going to get a lot of ideas for that and some formulas. But just thinking about ... just looking across your body of work and the way that you're working with people ... and again, if you've got a particular approach or process and just thinking about naming—naming those things.
ilise benun
I love that all three of our baby steps ... I'll give mine, but I know it's also related to a mindset shift. And I do think that's important, especially as it relates to bringing ourselves more into our work, we have to think about our work differently, and we even sometimes have to think about ourselves differently.
So to me, the mindset shift for the “Proposal Oreo Strategy” is just this idea that I'm going to see if this is a good fit for me, this prospect or client, and then I'm going to engage with them over a proposal.
The proposal is kind of like just a catalyst. It's an excuse to get to know someone. And out of it may come a project, now or later. But if you can go in, in a very detached way, without an agenda, without trying to grab at them, I think it can be much more fruitful for everyone and really build a stronger relationship for whatever comes out of it.
So that's my baby step. It's simple, but it takes time. So I don't want anyone, for all of these, I think, to think, "Okay, I'm going to wake up and it's going to be my new mindset." It really does take time to make these shifts. So anyone want to add anything before we say goodbye?
Danielle Hughes
I was just thinking about the potential for people to sort of maybe feel a little uncomfortable about the term "profit from," because I think so many people get uncomfortable, when they're creatives, about making money, even though we all, of course, need to make money and should want to make money. And I didn't know if maybe we should just really quickly talk about the fact that give yourself permission to dream bigger. It's okay to make as much money as possible. It's okay to want these things. It doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't diminish the value of the work that you bring.
ilise benun
I love that.
Lisa Mullis
Yeah. I would say too that profit, if you broaden your definition of what profit really means for you too, it's not always about the money. It is, like we've been talking, so much about the joy that comes from working with people you really enjoy working with and doing projects that you feel very rewarded by. You feel like you're making an impact through your work. That's also, for me, part of the profit.
ilise benun
Yeah.
Danielle Hughes
Love that.
ilise benun
I love that. All right, well, I would like to end by reading the blurb that we wrote together, that we collaborated on, because I think it really sums everything up beautifully. So, “Profit From Your Personality: The Ultimate Toolkit for Attracting and Landing More Clients You'll Love Working With.”
We wrote, "Learn how to put more of yourself and your personality into your business to gain confidence, comfort, and cash with a soup-to-nuts approach, including a dash of Oreo cookie. This bundle of resources covers how to craft your brand positioning, write a great bio, communicate your value through click-worthy one-liners, and write a winning proposal that lands you clients you love."
Beautiful. I love that. That was a collaborative effort.
Danielle Hughes
It was. It was. So good.
ilise benun
I'm happy with it. All right, ladies, thank you. We're launching the week of May 22nd, so watch for this in your email box, and hopefully we'll see you soon.
Danielle Hughes
Bye, everyone.
Lisa Mullis
Bye-bye.
ilise benun
I hope you'll try those baby steps we recommended in this personality-infusing process. And if you want to check out our new bundle of bundles, “Profit From Your Personality: The Ultimate Toolkit for Attracting and Landing More Clients You'll Love Working With,” you'll find it in the shop, at Marketing-Mentor.com. Or you can sign up for my Quick Tips, and you'll hear all about it when we officially launch the week of May 22nd. I'll see you next time.