Ep. 330: Get Visible (Even if You’re an Introvert) with Visibility Queen Crissy Conner

Shannon Mattern: Thank you so much for being here on pep talks for side hustlers today. Can you share, let me start over. Let me start over. I just changed my format. I used to like pre do intros and now I'm doing them. So that was just like my old intro. Let's try that again. Okay. So we'll get started in three, two, one. Welcome to episode 330 of pep talks for side hustlers. And I am so excited to introduce you to today's guest Crissy, Conner who helps brands amplify their visibility with a rock star, social media strategies that maximize their efforts for greater impact and growth. Crissy is the visibility queen. And I can't wait to dive into that story. So Christie, thank you so much for being here. Can you share a little bit more with our listeners about you and what you do? Yeah,

Crissy Connor: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Um, so as Shannon said, my name is Crissy Connor and I call myself the visibility queen. Um, and I help brands and businesses really create more impact relationships and growth in their business by paid and organic social media strategies, which have a lot to do with the invisible, which has a lot to do with typically video marketing. Um, but there are many ways that we can be visible in our business. And I feel like there is such a link to visibility and building relationship. You know, we've heard of relationship marketing and my goal was to help people become so visible that they're not always going after the sell. They're not always asking for the sell that people are actually coming to them because they feel like they know like, and trust them because they've shown up so much as the face of their business. That there's just that comfort level that they want more from what you have to offer.

Shannon Mattern: I am so excited to talk to about this and dig into that because I feel like, um, I know a lot of times in my audience, people are like, Oh, I'll show up and sell. It feels gross. It feels icky. And it sounds like you have a whole different way that you approach it. But before we dive into that type of strategy and the nitty gritty, I want to know a little bit more about your background. Tell me the origin story of how you became the visibility queen.

Crissy Connor: Okay. Well, we have to go back in time to like 2012 when I owned a skincare company and I literally made skincare in my basement. Like I don't know what a meth lab looks like, but I'm pretty sure that's what my basement looked like as I had ingredients, they were all natural ingredients, but I had fragrances and essential oils and I had glass bottles of things, sitting all over the place and a mixer and all these things, right? So a friend of mine and I started this business together and we sold products and we bootstrapped everything. We didn't have any money. And so we bootstrapped everything. So I took over the marketing and the graphic design and I had to learn how to make a website. I had to learn how to make a logo. I had to learn how to market our business on social media.

Crissy Connor: So we did everything and it was literally DIY. I did not know what a coach was. I did not know what a mastermind or having a committee. I knew nothing, nothing. So I figured it all out. You know, I use Google, I used YouTube and I figured it all out my own. Well, my friend loves to submit us to shark tank and um, the local news station and magazines and I was petrified. Like you have no idea. I'm like, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think I can do shark tank. And she's like, why not? There'll be a little of our business. I'm like, yeah, I don't, I don't, I think I'm good. We're good. You know, I'm making like $500 a month sometimes. I, I, it's fine. It's just a hobby. It's it's okay. I'm comfortable where we're at. So literally I would, I'm not kidding you.

Crissy Connor: I would pray every night that we would not get picked up by a new station and we would not get picked up by shark tank because I did not want to get on video. I was so scared of video. I was so scared about what my friends would think of me. I was so scared of somebody who had been making skincare for more years than me saying that you're not doing it right. Or picking apart my label or something, you know? And I was so worried about everything else except selling the product because you know, I do believe if you are really in it to win it, it's not a hobby. It's a business. And I was treating it like a hobby because I was not willing to get out of my comfort zone because I was warm and safe and I loved it. And nobody heard for me there and nobody said anything bad about me there.

Crissy Connor: And so it was amazing place to be. And I wanted to be there. Well, that business did not last for many reasons, one of them, because I didn't want to get visible, but it's the business. I learned how to do everything wrong in, but after we decided to part ways in that business, well, my friends came to me and were like, can you do my social media? Can you do my website? Can you create me a logo? And I was like, yeah, like, this is a job like I can do. This is so fun. I don't have to like pedal like products and take them to craft shows. And farmer's markets like this is easy. I can do everything from my computer. Well, I learned really fast that actually grew really fast in my business. And I also learned that you can only take on so many clients.

Crissy Connor: At one time, people were asking me for so much support. I wanted to start creating evergreen products. But guess what I was, I didn't have to go look for clients, but I had nobody to buy these evergreen products. So the only way I was going to be able to do this was to do the thing I did not want to do. And that stopped being behind the scenes girl and get out there as the face of my business. Like you don't even understand, I didn't want to even do zoom calls. I, this is how I hated seeing myself on video. I hated seeing myself, like people taking pictures of me. I hated selfies. I thought it was being self-absorbed and you know, I mean, and like all these things I had to get over it. And so I knew that live video was the way to grow my business.

Crissy Connor: And so there is a way to cheat on live video. And so I cheated on live video for about 10 times. And so I went to my personal page. I changed my, uh, my privacy settings to only me. I would go live. I would watch it like 50 times and try to tear it apart. Is this good? Is, is anybody gonna say anything? Did I slur too much? Did I say, um, you know, all these things, and then I would change the privacy to friends or public and people would message me and say, Oh my gosh, you went live. Now. This is like in 2016, when live was really big. Right. And it just came out, Oh my God, you went live. I missed it. I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry. You know, knowing that everybody missed the live video. Cause I cheated. I cheated. So 10 times I did this and I realized, this is, this is dumb.

Crissy Connor: Like, why am I doing this? This is not moving the needle forward. This is not getting my audience to engage with me. And again, I was still worried about what people thought specifically, my friends who would never be my clients. I'm worried about people knowing more than me in digital marketing and saying I wasn't right. And so I decided that my first real life video was going to be something that none of my friends would say, make fun of me over because they all wanted to know this and that. I was the expert in, because I had read Russell's for instance, book. And you only have to be two chapters ahead to be an expert. And none of my friends knew how to make jello shots. So I decided to go live on Facebook and teach my audience how to make jello shots. And it was like the best thing to do.

Crissy Connor: I did not need a script. I did not need, um, I did not need a recipe. I knew exactly how to make it by heart. And I could talk to my audience while I moved my hands. And I didn't have to think about what I was really doing, which was going live with my phone, propped up on a bunch of books. Cause I didn't have a tripod. I did not have a ring light. I did not have anything. I had no idea what I was doing, but he did it. And I just needed something that I felt comfortable with that could get me over that hump. Right. Get me over that hump so that I could actually do it. And then everybody loved it and they were like, this is great. This is great. You helped me so much. I'm going to make jealous shots, which is great.

Crissy Connor: Cause then I knew I didn't have to spend all the money on vodka and my friends could be bringing these, all that to the girls night out. It wasn't just me. And so what I learned from that was, it's not about me. It's about my audience. They don't care what I look like. They just want me to teach them something. And so when I took all that fear of I'm scared, I'm going to get hives. Um, I'm worried about what people think and put it out and said, who am I doing a disservice to today? If I don't show up and teach them something. When I took it from inward to outward, it was a game changer for my business. I didn't make it any easier. It was still scary. But the more that I'd done it, the more I'm able to come out of my shell and do speaking. I said, I would never speak on stages. I said it would never do all these things. And I'm like, never say never because now I like thrive there. And so it's just funny how it's just that mindset shift and that perspective, that was a game changer for my business.

Shannon Mattern: I love all of that. Like when you said, I just like got chills when you said like I had to turn it around and be like, it's not about me, it's about them and helping them. And I hear so much from I mentor web designers to get clients in and run web design businesses. And you're so right. One-on-one clients is way different than scaling and they want to scale with digital products beyond just their web design business. And just any entrepreneur. They're like, I'm so afraid to put myself out there. And when people say that to me, I'm always like, it's because you're thinking you have to put yourself out there and just everything you said like, Oh, I have to be the most knowledgeable and look right. And speak. Right. And not mess up. It's like, no, you're not putting yourself out there. You're just putting out information that can help other people get what they want.

Shannon Mattern: So, uh, I like so resonate with all of that. I remember back when I wasn't even doing live video, I was just record recording my training videos for my free course. And so it wasn't even live. It was just me like, you know, recording an intro of me saying welcome to the free five day website challenge in day one, we're gonna install WordPress. And I probably recorded that 500 times and then edited it till I was like a robot. And even still was like terrified to put it out there. And so like you said, it didn't get easier. It just got, it did get easier. Like I got less scared, less scared, and now it's, it's much more natural, but it was when I had that, that flip, that switch, flip that it's not about me. They don't care. And the people that do care are not the right people. If they're not gonna, like, if they're not gonna learn how to build their website from me, because I say, um, uh, ISA, okay. So let's say that all the time. And I moved my bangs. Like if they're not going to learn from me because they're distracted by that stuff. Well, that's their loss really, really, and truly

Crissy Connor: Well, they're not, I do tell my audience like live video is another great thing because it will qualify and disqualify who your people are and it will turn some people off and that's okay. Figure it out now before you approach them and keep talking to them and trying to get them to be your customer when they really have no interest in what you have to offer. And that's okay because I, everybody's not for me just like I know everybody's not, you know, there's, there's, there's tons of digital marketers, right? For a reason because everybody has somebody that they resonate with. And you know, as far as like recorded video, I, I struggle with recorded videos still as being a perfectionist. And I teach my audience, go live, come in perfectly, be genuine, be yourself, be vulnerable because that's what your, who your audience is gonna resonate with.

Crissy Connor: It's, it's always going to be better and it's going to be quicker and literally to go live, you've pushed the go live button and you start talking. That's really all you do. It's super simple. Now the fear and the emotions and all that stuff get in our way for sure. But if you can just five, four, three, two, one, and just go live and start talking. It's, it's amazing at, at the content you can put out and how fast you can put it out and you don't even have to really come up with a script and you don't, you just come up with a few notes on a, on a sticky note. And so I don't ramble because I am a rambler, but you know, just get it out there. And don't worry about recording and intros and outros and all that stuff. Just get out there and beat you.

Shannon Mattern: And you went to your audience. I love that. You said that like, literally all you have to do is show up and go live. Because we think about all these other marketing strategies and tactics like Pinterest and search engine optimization and YouTube and Instagram. And you know, all of these things where the barrier is, I have to learn how to design a pen and write a blog post and do SEO optimization and make videos and mess with algorithms and all of that stuff. And while you're over here doing all of that for hours and hours and hours and hustling to create all this content, you probably could have gone live 50 times.

Crissy Connor: Right? And the thing is, if you have a VA, you can take that live video. I call it exploding your content and take that video. They can upload it to a platform called Otter AI. It'll transcribe the entire thing. They can like make it look prettier and sound better and, and create a blog post from it, pull quotes from it, shorten the clips and put them other places you could take that live video and put it on YouTube and IGT V and LinkedIn and even Pinterest now. So it's like, why not go live first and just speak from the heart and then let somebody else explode all that content for you. And I love that process because it's so easy for me to go live. It's really hard to get myself to sit down and type out content because I just have too many things going on and I don't have the capacity, but I can go live and say what I want to say and give my knowledge. And somebody else can create the content for me.

Shannon Mattern: So we met because we are at a mastermind to creep together. And I just interviewed another member of our mastermind, Elisa, Alicia St. Germain a couple episodes ago. And I remember we were all in one of our Friday afternoon, um, Friday afternoon sessions. And I was just talking about like, Oh, I like, I don't do live video. I don't do, I don't do social media. Like I would rather podcast, or I would rather do all of this other stuff. And you know, the more I have heard you talk over our year together, I'm like, I am missing out on such a huge opportunity to really get in front of my audience. And then when I hear you talk about what can be done with this content after I just go live by someone else, it's just like, it clicks for me. Like, it makes no sense for me to not just start with sharing that information that way, and then handing it over to someone and say, here, you're you like you like doing Instagram, you like doing stories.

Shannon Mattern: You like doing, like, I will give you the content to seed that. And you just like run with it and have a blast and make it happen all over, all over the internet. So yeah, like you have inspired me so much, you know, through our monthly time together to like really become a lot more visible on live video in 2021. And so I did like a few lives to promote my upcoming web designer Academy program. And I was like so nervous, even though I do stuff like this all the time, like I'll do live webinars, I'll, you know, go and do presentations for other people. I don't know what it is about. Go. I think here's, here's, I'll tell you my horror story. And I think that this is,

Speaker 3: This is why I

Shannon Mattern: Was going live to promote a, uh, like a web design training that I was doing. And I accidentally went live on my personal Facebook page where, and then I saw like my high school band director watch and say hi, and then my ex-boyfriend from high school say hi. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm on the wrong. I'm in the wrong place. I should have been on my Facebook page. I sent out an email saying I was going live and I gave them a link to my page, but now I'm going live on my personal profile. And so I think that experience like, like I let it scar me. I shouldn't say I let that scar me. So I think I even talking about it right now, I'm getting a little hot, like I'm feeling,

Speaker 3: Um,

Shannon Mattern: You know, the, just the embarrassment of that moment when I shouldn't have been embarrassed at all, they were like, Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I didn't know you did this great video, good information. No one was like, who do you think you are to be going

Speaker 3: Live? But

Shannon Mattern: I think that that's kind of like, you know, that feeling is still stuck in there. And I think it does just it simmers back there. So I get afraid every time I go live that I'm going to go live in the wrong place. But I think about it now. And I'm like at the end of the day, like, who cares? Like nobody remembers that and why am I letting hold me back?

Crissy Connor: I've had so many crazy things happen when I've been live. So I used to have bookshelves behind me and I was talking about Gary V and on the top bookshelf was jab, jab, right hook. And literally in the middle of the conversation, like I'm alive, the book just falls in the floor. And like, it makes us really loud noise. And I'm like, I turned my hand. I'm like, okay, that was really weird. Like, I don't even know why that happened. I was also reading that book one time. It's like a section of the book and my dog starts barking. Um, and then one time I was doing a live interview. Somebody who was interviewing me and my husband set the smoke detector off, which is right beside my office. And it's like, you know, at first these things used to make, they were horrifying. Like they were mortified and I'm, and now I'm just like, it's I video this things happen.

Crissy Connor: It's okay. You know, I tell my audience, I will never, I'm a recovering perfectionist. First of all, I will never do a perfect interview. I will never do a perfect video. It's just not me. And I honestly don't want to come out and pretend like I'm this perfect person, because anybody that's struggling to get visible. If they see me show up with this perfect background and I never say, um, and I always have like the perfect script, they're going to look at me and say, I'm never going to be able to do that. She is perfect. And I don't want them to feel that way. I want them to feel like to come as you are, be who you are. Sometimes I do like to say, let's two, three X, maybe 10 X who we are, but we're still true to who we are. Right. We're just trying to grab our audience in, but I don't want you to be somebody else. And so I am always going to show up as that genuine person in perfectly because that's how people are going to resonate with me.

Shannon Mattern: Uh, so, so good. So I want to kind of touch back on something you said earlier about, you know, just showing up every single day, you know, even when you don't feel like not, not when you don't feel like it, but when you're scared, like what is your, how, how do you, how do you coach people or how do you, how do you encourage people to kind of get over, get over that fear?

Crissy Connor: Sure. One of the things I just, I think I said this earlier is I think about who am I doing a disservice to if I choose not to show up today, um, and who am I going to miss and an opportunity to start building a relationship with. I think a lot of times we get so hung up on likes and comments and all these things we have to realize they're literally more lurkers than likers out there. And we S and I always say, I create content for both. And the reason that I know this is because I've had multiple people come up to me and Kroger at my daughter's birthday party who started talking to me and they know who I am. I have no idea who they are. And I have to pretend like I know who they are. I don't want to say, like, what's your name?

Crissy Connor: You know, like, I'm like, yeah. And they're like, I saw your video and, or I saw where you at Ava were sick, or I saw this or that. And I love what you put out. Somebody came up to me at a birthday party and said, I love your Nellie stuff. Like, Oh my gosh, you guys inspire me so much. And I just so happened that she was a neighbor of one of my friends. And so she has, Oh yeah. Her name is Heather. And I was like, okay, she's never liked my content. She's a lurker. And that's okay. So, um, so I think we get so hung up on, on the fear of nobody showing up and I want, this could scare you too, but I want you to, somebody is always watching. People are always watching what you do, whether they engage with you or not, people are watching.

Crissy Connor: And a lot of times you can even see this, and I'm sure you know, this and like analytics, it'll say you have all this engagement. And you're like, no, I don't have like, one person commented on this. As long as you stop, people's scroll, that's considered engagement as far as Facebook and Instagram are concerned. So you actually had viewers. And, um, and so, yeah, so I think it does get easier, especially when people do come up to you or people message you through messenger and say how much you helped them support them. You realize you're really doing this for a reason, but I just want whether you get instant gratification or not, you've just got to keep showing up because you are helping serve and support someone, whether you get the instant gratification or not.

Shannon Mattern: So we talked a little bit earlier, too about, you know, one thing that holds people back, not, you know, of course worrying what people are gonna think or being scared. They're gonna like show up on your ex-boyfriend's like Facebook feed or whatever, whatever it is showing up and just, you know, showing up versus selling. So can you share with me a little bit more about your philosophy about like, when it's appropriate, not appropriate, but like strategically when it's time to sell versus when it's time to just, you know, show up and engage?

Crissy Connor: Absolutely. I hate selling, not going to lie. And people are like, people come to me all the time. I don't want to be salesy. I don't want to feel icky about it. And I agree. I agree. I have, I have worked for network marketing companies where I did copy and paste. Hey girl messages, I've done that. I've done that. And it does not feel good. Um, and I truly believe that building relationships is one of the main ways to sell without selling. Well, I believe by showing up so much and being so visible, people do start building. Um, there is a term for it, but it's a one-sided relationship and it's called Paris social interactive. And if you think about, um, celebrities, if you think about singers, you've never met them. But if they're, you're like a major fan girl and you've watched them, or you've watched them grow up or come onto the scene, you feel like, you know everything about them.

Crissy Connor: You feel like if you were in front of them right now, you could start a conversation cause you know that much about them. And so people actually start building this relationship with you, whether they've actually talked to you or not, whether they actually comment with your stuff or not because you up so much, it makes the cell cycle so much easier. And you know, one of the things that I've always struggled with was any call to action in my videos, even a free call to action, but I've learned if I can just get them in my community. If I can just get them on my email list, I can nurture them so much more. Like the more times we can quote unquote, touch them, right? The more I have influence over them to say yes to my product. And so one of the things I'm actually, I've been working on myself and I teach my, um, my students or anybody that does my boot camps.

Crissy Connor: I teach them that we are going to do call to actions because when we teach our audience and people need to be told what to do, sorry. When we teach our audience comment below, if you agree with this, um, let me know where you're from. Do hashtag replay, check out my YouTube channel, subscribe here, join my free community, grab my free download here. When we teach them to do what we ask them to do. It's a lot easier when I say, Hey, my bootcamp has coming up next week. I would love you to join. It is a small cost, but it will help you so much, you know, with, with, um, expanding your visibility. It's a lot easier for them to go click because they've clicked so much for you or they've done the things you've told them to. And they've gotten so much value out of it that it just makes that cell cycle, you know, I'm, I've messaged people and ask them to buy stuff from me. And I'm not saying that's never, you know, you're never going to have to do that again. Cause you will. But it just, it just, it just makes the cell cycle at the, like so much easier. It's like, they know you, they trust you. And it's just an easier, smoother process that you don't have to feel icky about because you literally show up so much that it's a no brainer for them to say yes to you. I love

Shannon Mattern: Of all of that. And I think, you know, it's, it's this, when you show up so much and you're not always selling, you know, that the people are there are there to learn all of the things that you're always talking about over and over. So when it is time to say, here's how I can help you on a deeper level than what I am able to do in the format of me speaking one way to you, I've on a, on a video, it kind of feels like the natural next step to invite them to go deeper with you and into a different format, into something more where you can help them. One-on-one. And when, when you have been showing up in that capacity for them, it's not just like, Oh, you're only calling that friend when you need a favor, you know, it's like, you're giving just like jab, jab, jab, right hook. And you're giving before you're asking and the ask almost feels like, Oh, Hey, I'm doing you a favor because I know you're here to learn about this. And I have a way that I can help you, that I can't help you in this. I love this Paris, social interactive one-sided relationship. Like you can't help them. Right. And in that way,

Crissy Connor: An ask a call to action should still value. Like it's valuable to you, whether it's a free thing or a paid thing it's going to, up-level your business. It's going to Uplevel, you know, whatever you're trying to get them to do. And so I think whenever you spin it like that, I'm, you know, I'm here to support you even more. Yes, this is, this is this cost. Right. But you know, you've gotten all my free stuff. You love it. You've told me, you know, you love all of this stuff. So it makes it just so much easier to get that sell.

Shannon Mattern: Yeah. Like if you thought my free stuff was good. Wait, so you get my pain stuff.

Crissy Connor: Exactly. Exactly. I do also love, I'm sure you see, you've talked about this because it's easier for me to do this too. A lot of times I'll just add a trip wire at the end of a free thing. And they've gotten so much value for me. It's an easy, and I don't even have to ask for the sale. Like they literally go get the free thing. Then they download my tripwire, which is like a, typically a $27 offer. And it's a great way to make money. And they still feel like they're getting a ton of value because they download the free thing. Now they're buying something off of you. They see they've watched your videos. They know the value that that is there. Um, and then, you know, once they spend a little bit of money with you, you know, that the next logical step is to buy a higher ticket offer.

Shannon Mattern: Yeah. So I want to circle back to talk about your business model. Cause we, you mentioned a little bit earlier, you were doing one-on-one client work, um, social media marketing work for, um, you know, people, word of mouth friends coming to, you got to a point where you were maxed out what, you know, how did you, how did it occur to you that like, okay, I need to do a digital product. Had you seen other people doing this? Um, you know, where did you come up with that idea as like, this is my next step. Like you could go agency model, right? Or you could go digital products. Like how did you make that decision?

Crissy Connor: Well, first of all, I wasn't making a ton of money cause I wasn't charging my worth. So that's one thing

Shannon Mattern: That's a good topic to talk about.

Crissy Connor: Yeah, exactly. So I knew I can only handle so many clients, so I needed another way to make money. Um, so it was the logical step to do things, you know, to create something one time and sell it multiple times. So that was definitely, um, part of the mindset. Um, obviously I've figured out how to raise my prices, probably still not to where they should be, but you know, I figured that out along the way, but it's, I love helping the small business owner. I mean, and I think that's the other thing. They are the ones who see the biggest results when they take action. And I tell them to do something and they're the first ones to come back to me and be like, it worked like, and they'll send me screenshots of their analytics and be like, look, look, look, look, going live did for my business, look like creating great content did for my business.

Crissy Connor: Look, you told me to do it. And I listened and this is what happened. And that to me is so rewarding. I'm totally a words of affirmation girl. So, so rewarding to see their excitement. Whereas as a client, I mean, they're like, they're paying you, they expect results. You know what I mean? It's not like they're getting all giddy about it, but like these other people when they do it themselves. And I think that's the other thing they're themselves because you're giving them the steps to do it. Yes. It's their time, but they're getting the results and they feel really good about it. You know, what is it? Is it like give somebody a fish and they'll eat for a day, but teach him how to fish and they'll eat for the rest of their life kind of thing. And it's kind of like that mentality. Um, if I can teach them to do it, then they can build on that and continue to grow their business even bigger.

Shannon Mattern: Uh, I love that. I, you know, I didn't, I just don't think until you set it the way that you said it, that it ever clicked for me, that even though I teach people to DIY their website and all that stuff, like how rewarding it is for them and how proud of themselves they are when they accomplish something that they did not think that they were capable of doing. And so that is, that's huge for those of us who, you know, are thinking like, why would someone ever want to do this themselves? Or why would someone want to pay to learn how to do this themselves? When you know, they could hire someone or whatever. And I do think that there's that whole, that there's that piece, there's the piece of empowerment, right? Like we want them to be able to like get their results, but there's also that pride that people have when they are like, put, go live on that website. And they're like, I built my own website. I went live. I like got new clients from social media. I did this myself. Okay.

Crissy Connor: Yeah, totally, totally. And they always, they always like come back to you and I think telling you what you did for their business. And I think that's good. I had a, um, so I give a ton of stuff away for free and I'm sure you do too. And I had two friends who went to a network marketing convention of whatever their company was and they had somebody come in and teach them social media. And she said, people were asking questions and we were answering the questions because the person they brought in for us had no idea. And we learned everything from you. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like, that feels amazing. Right. And so just again, I'm totally words of affirmation. I would do this job for free if I could, because that's how much I love that's through my reward.

Shannon Mattern: Like when you give that much value, I call it like, when we give that much value away for free and you have like really great opt-ins that solve problems and, and are just so valuable. I call that the share-worthy freebie effect. It's like, you put something out there and you're the people who sign up for it. Like do the marketing for you. Yes. You're going to keep showing up for those people. And you're going to like do your part, but like, it goes exponentially. Cause you have all these other people out there. Like probably those people went to that network marketing convention and were like, y'all need to go check out Crissy because she was way better than this person. Like she'll teach you so much and they just spread word for you. So when people talk about like, Oh, I don't want to give away too much for free.

Shannon Mattern: Um, you know, people, I give away so much for free people. Not enough people are buying from me. I'm like the people who, there are people that are never going to become my customers, but they tell everybody about me. And that is so that's valuable to me too, because they're bringing me my warm leads in my next customer. So I don't necessarily need every single person to buy from me eventually, you know, I'll figure out a way to serve everybody. But like they all have a place in the ecosystem of, of our business. The people that consume our free content, the people that pay us just at the surface at the 27 $49 level. And then the people that go all the way and want to work really close with us. So they all, they're all equally valuable to me in my business

Crissy Connor: Leaders who don't spend any money, I'm okay with that. They will, they share, like I have people who have never bought a thing off of me. Matter of fact, I've bought stuff off of them, but they're such big cheerleaders that it's like, I feel I'm fine. You have given me so much free advertising. I will totally buy something off of you. You know? So yeah. They all have a place. I totally love that.

Shannon Mattern: So let's talk about your boot camps. So you have your digital products, but you mentioned that you have boot camps. Tell me a little bit about those and, um, w how you offer those.

Crissy Connor: So, um, they happen, um, last year was like every quarter, this year, it's every two months. Um, and basically it's a called the visibility explosion bootcamp. I love that. So it's not like, and I called it a bootcamp for a reason. And, um, I want to push people. Um, I want to push them for 10 days to really get out of their comfort zone, to do things that they normally wouldn't do to go live every single day. And I give them a scorecard. And so they literally rate themselves every day. Did they ignite or do they explode their visibility? So depending on the points they get, you know, and I tell them if we can ignite it every day, that's still good. But if we can explode it, we're going to see crazy things happen. And I want to teach them that even on busy days, you can still ignite your visibility.

Crissy Connor: It doesn't always have to be about exploding it. Cause I want this to be like a lifestyle change for them basically. So that they're, they get used to doing this in their business. I push them out of their comfort zone. I make them ask for interviews. I make them reach out to people that they admire. You know, I get them to, um, look for PR opportunities, not just going live on Facebook and all the platforms, but like how much more can we put yourself out there? How can we post more pictures? How can we post your story? How can we get more emotional with our audience, anything to build that relationship faster with our audience. So that when you do ask for the sale or you do ask them to do something, they're more inclined to do it because you have shown up so much and you're so dependable and they know that you're going to be around that. It's a no brainer for them to say yes to you.

Shannon Mattern: I love all of that. So can you share, share with me some of your favorite, like client transformations or, um, customer transformations from the people that, that have worked with you?

Crissy Connor: Yeah, absolutely. So I have a friend, um, who is in the UK, she's actually in the mastermind with me. She, they do like all backend systems and stuff like that. And she was always afraid of getting visible because a lot of her clients are in the United States and because of her accent and she was so concerned that they wouldn't understand her. And so she went through my bootcamp and she is like, she was so happy to see her, um, analytics change and how much people were watching. And, you know, if you're going to be on Facebook, like live video is going to get you more views than anything else. They promote video. And it's just always going to be more. But, um, so yeah, so she is one of my favorites because she just like started showing up everywhere and it's like, I got her over that fear of, you know, and I told her, I was like, if they're bothered by your accent, then they're not your people.

Crissy Connor: I mean, that's plain and simple, but you sound amazing. And, um, so yeah, so getting her out of her comfort zone, I had one client who, um, she, I do a free video challenge, typically two that leads up to the bootcamp. And so she, um, she started out her free video challenge reading, and I hate that, but I'm like, if I would have read my first video and somebody said something to me, I would have never done another video ever. And I was like, I am not gonna say anything to her because I know she needs to get in her own comfort level. And I don't want her to feel like she's not doing, she's not good enough. And I, I left it alone and I noticed the next video was not as much reading. The next video was even less reading. And now she like goes live all the time and she never reads anything.

Crissy Connor: And it's like, just seeing that transformation that they're so concerned about, you know, missing something that sometimes they're just like, you know, looking down reading and it's, it's very dry and just letting them get that confidence themselves and building themselves up. And competence is hard to measure, but you can totally tell when someone is a nervous wreck, right? And then they blossom and they blossom. And you know, the thing I tell everyone is even, I mean, I've been doing this. I've been doing live video for four years now. And I even look back at my video six months ago and I'm so much better. Like I'm so much better than I was six months ago. And the only way we continue to get better is by doing it over and over and over. So I do have to tell you a story. It's my, it's my case study, but I did this crazy thing in July called 100 lives in July.

Crissy Connor: I needed something besides focusing on money that could still move the needle forward in my business. So I thought I was going to do this crazy thing. Go live a hundred times. Well, I did only go live one time a day on my business page. I went live on my personal page, my groups, Instagram everywhere, but I could take the numbers from the business page and I measured it over four weeks. So Facebook in particular will recommend your videos in fate, what they call Facebook, watch they'll put them behind other people's videos. And so on week one, only 4% of my videos or being recommended. Now, when it says recommended, they are not your followers, they are not have not liked your page. There are people you do not know. Week two was 9%. Week three was 14% week four because I had been consistently posting a live video.

Crissy Connor: Every single day was 57.7% more people that didn't follow me, watched my videos. Then people that followed me because Facebook saw I was consistent, which is why I preach being consistent with things. They, I was so consistent that they were putting that behind more and more videos because I had so much content out there. And so that is why I, you know, we can go live once every month if you want, but it's not going to move the needle forward like three to four times a week. Yes. But I love you to go live every day. Yeah. But I don't even go live everyday anymore. It's just not something I can do. But I do go live five days a week. Typically, at least on my business page, probably other places. I mean, I'd probably do like 10 videos a week, but everybody's not gonna be able to do that. But if you can get consistent to do three to four a week, it's going to change your business so much with the visibility aspect. Because again, you're going to get shown and it's all organic. I didn't pay for any of that. That is organically Facebook doing that because I decided to show up and be consistent.

Shannon Mattern: I'm just sitting here, you guys just like, Oh, tell me more like that. That is the, and I was just sitting here as you're talking, I was thinking, and you're not writing blog posts and creating 15 graphics that you're literally just showing up and going live. It seems so much faster than everything else that, that, you know, I would say introverts like to do. Right. They like to write blog posts and they like to hide behind, um, search engine optimization. And I'm, and I'm saying that because I am one, so

Crissy Connor: I'm totally an introvert. That's why I couldn't go. I was like, hi, I'm an introvert that I can do this. Yes. But it's how bad do you want it? Exactly. I wanted a business, not a hobby anymore. And I had to really ingrain that into myself. And again, I love to help people. And so just helping people, knowing I could help more people by showing up on video, it was a really a game changer for me.

Shannon Mattern: Yeah. Making it all about helping other people and not about you for an introvert is like, okay, I can do that.

Crissy Connor: Totally. So

Shannon Mattern: I want to, um, ask you, you mentioned, you know, when you were doing your, your age or one-on-one social media work about you weren't charging your worth. I also was not charging nearly what I was worth. Um, back when I started doing webs web design, it was like completely unsustainable, but I thought I'm self-taught who am I to charge more? I don't have a degree in this. I, um, you know, all the things that we think that keep us, you know, not charging our worth. What was it for you? What, what was that transformation like for you that you're, you've gone through? And it sounds like you're continuing to go through to, to value your skillset.

Crissy Connor: I think I'll always have money mindset. Like I'll always need money to make, for sure. Um, so I joined a mastermind where everyone told me do not charge less than a thousand dollars a platform. And I was like, Oh my God, I can't do that. Like, I would never pay that. I would never pay that. You know, that's, that's what I thought nobody's going to pay that for me. I would never pay that. And um, so about nine months, I mean, and I was, I was investing about 20 grand a year on my knowledge because social media changes so much, you know, how to run a business, all these things and masterminds and coaching. And I was like, okay, I'm just going to try it. Like, I'm going to try it. And if it doesn't work, then I'll go back to my old prices. And I quoted somebody something and they're like, yeah.

Crissy Connor: And I was like, they're like, send me an invoice. And I'm like, seriously, like I should have charged more like, Oh my God, like people are going to pay this. And then I started like messaging my clients. My prices are gonna go up in 30 days and I still didn't put them to where they should have been because it was too big of a jump for them to go. But, you know, I increase them by about 15 to 20% and nobody quit, no buddy quit. They said, yeah. And I was like, okay, they know my value. I don't know my value. That's the problem. I didn't know my value. And I love to, over-deliver like, I've still probably do more than what's quoted in my contract. You know, that I'm going to do. Um, because I am such a yes girl, but you know, I'm working on that too, but yeah. So, um, so yeah, so it was, it's still a learning thing for me. Um, even when I do proposals, I sit on them like, Oh my God, where are they going to think? But I've gotten to a place now that I have so many clients, it, I don't care. It is what it is because I have three team members that help me. And I can't support them if I don't charge what I'm worth and what I should be doing

Shannon Mattern: Well. Yeah. And I totally agree with you. I was, I was always afraid I had, I don't, I could, I probably couldn't even pinpoint what I was afraid of that they're going to be like, how dare you send me an invoice with this dollar amount on it. But it's, it's every time you inch up and you charge more in charge more and your clients probably knew that day was coming. They're probably like, Oh, Oh, she's been under undercharging was just thinking like my assistant, um, that I recently brought on last September when she told me her hourly rates. And I was like, okay, well, we'll do that for the first 30 days. And then after the first 30 days, she just like blew my mind. And I was like, if she doesn't tell me to, if she doesn't tell me she's raising her rates, I'm going to tell her that she needs to, because what's going to happen is she's going to burn herself out. This is going to be an unsustainable price point for her. And she's going to quit offering these services and I'm going to lose her. Yeah.

Crissy Connor: Say, um, I charge $10 an hour and I'm like, okay, I'm not paying you that, like, let's start at 15. And let's reevaluate. Like, that's ridiculous. That's like minimum wage. Like it goes through it, you know? And so, yeah, I totally get that.

Shannon Mattern: And I think that like, she was young, she didn't understand. I was just like, you need to charge sustainable. You need to be able to pay your living expenses, pay taxes. Like, let's talk about this. Cause this is not. But even, and then just like her, she sent an email in January and was like telling me her new rates. And I wrote back, I was like, I'm so proud of you. And she was like, I was so scared I was going to lose you. And I'm like, I've already told you 15 times you don't charge charge enough. Right. You know? Um, but yes, I totally agree with you. It is just a constant, um, working on the mindset of, you know, it's not only like the value, like what we invest in ourselves to be able to serve our clients at a high level. It's like, what are they able to do because of what we're doing for them?

Shannon Mattern: Like, we're enabling our clients to make thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that they would not be able to make if they weren't working with us. And like, we know that they're in the very best hands that they could possibly be in. Like, if you're so bought into what you bring to the table, you know, that they shouldn't be working with anybody else. And that's like, when I work with web designers, I'm like, I'm going to get you so bought into what you bring to the table as a web designer, that you're going to be sad when your clients choose not to work with you. Cause you know, it could have been so amazing for that. Exactly. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Okay. Just a couple more questions for you before we wrap up, what advice would you give to a new entrepreneur who is struggling to get traction in their business

Crissy Connor: Show up as the face of your business, stop hiding behind a logo, stop hiding behind your website, get out there because nothing, you know, I think one of the misconceptions I had is I'm going to put out this product and everybody's going to run it by it. Cause it's so amazing that does not work, does not happen. And you probably don't have a ton of money to spend on ads. So you get to show up and organically grow your community. And that's one of the best things I wish I would have done it sooner. I could be so much further ahead if I had, we all have to live and learn. So, so that's my best advice for sure.

Shannon Mattern: Oh, that's so good. And my final question that I ask everyone that comes on the podcast is what belief about yourself? Did you have to change to get where you are today

Crissy Connor: That no one is perfect and perfect. It doesn't exist because that was a big struggle of mine. I, you know, I want everything to be perfect. I want it to be beautiful and all these things. And I have learned that being imperfect has grown my business more than being perfect ever would.

Shannon Mattern: Ooh, that is the perfect place to wrap up this interview. I'm like, that is a quotable. That's the perfect place to wrap up this interview. Crissy, thank you so much for being here. Can you let everybody know where they can connect with you? Learn from you, get on your list, attend your boot camps, all of the things.

Crissy Connor: Yes, absolutely. So you can always find me@thevisibilityqueen.com, by the way, visibility is all eyes. Don't put A's in it. Some people do. I know it's a hard one to spell, but, and then I'm Christy Connor creates on pretty much every other platform. So

Shannon Mattern: Awesome. Well, I will link all of that stuff up in the show notes. So you guys can go to Shannon mattern.com forward slash three 30 to get your hands on all of that and connect with Crissy. And thank you again for your time and all of the amazing things that you shared with me.

Crissy Connor: Thank you for having me.