Unlocking Online Growth: Messaging & Audience Strategies with Julie Solomon


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Feb 09 2025 52 mins   1
I had a fantastic chat with Julie Solomon, an industry expert with over a decade of experience! We dove deep into the world of online business, specifically how your messaging and understanding your audience are KEY to growing.

Julie shared some amazing insights on how the online landscape has changed and how to adapt your strategies. She also talked about her own journey and how she helps others build their online presence. Plus, she what is working for her right now.

It was a super insightful conversation – definitely worth a listen!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST



  1. The Power of Messaging and Audience: Understanding your target audience and crafting compelling messages that resonate with them is crucial for online business growth.

  2. Adapting to the Evolving Online Landscape: The online world is constantly changing. It's essential to stay updated on the latest trends and adjust your strategies accordingly.

  3. Leveraging Low-Cost Strategies: Building a successful online presence doesn't always require a huge budget. There are many effective and affordable strategies available, such as the low-cost training options discussed by Julie.



 

If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

 

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE


Connect with Julie on Instagram, Influencer Podcast

Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook

 

Transcript


Teresa: There are two parts of an online business that can really make or break your success. Those two parts are the two things that I am talking to today's guest on the podcast about. Judy Solomon joins me and discusses the two main areas of messaging and audience. that are crucial to growing an online business, if you have not got the right message, you are not attracting the right audience, which means you don't have a business. Not only does she give us some really valuable insight to this and how we can do this in our business to make sure that we are choosing the right messaging that is attracting the right people, which in turn will just make us more visible, but also she shares insights after being in the industry for over 10 years.

We talk about how the industry's changed and what is working for her right now. And she talks us through one of the strategies that she's currently using, which I think you will find so insightful. Welcome to the Your Dream Business [00:01:00] Podcast. I'm your host, Therese Heath Waring, an international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast.

I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you. and the season of life that you are in. In each episode, I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus we'll be diving into some mindset, tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, and are going to stop you from getting in your own way.

So if you are a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. With your host, as always, Theresa Heath Waring. Now, if you're new to the podcast, one of the things that you need to know about me is I am a numbers geek.

I love anything that's like stats and numbers [00:02:00] and understanding it. And I was doing some research and did you know that 70 percent of the people who listen to podcasts don't actually subscribe to them? So whether you're listening through Apple or Spotify. 70 percent of you haven't actually hit that subscribe button and I would love to ask a favor from you.

I would love it if you could hit subscribe on whatever it is you're listening to this on and in return my commitment to you is to work really hard to bring you the best podcast I can possibly bring you, to bring you the best guests. That inspire you and motivate you and help you move your business forward and also to put together amazing solo episodes that are strategic and give great advice.

So I hope that in return for me putting my all in and making this the best possible podcast that can be, that you would just do me the very small favor of just hitting that subscribe button. Okay. On with today's episode. And today I am [00:03:00] interviewing the very lovely Julie Solomon. If you don't know Julie, she is a personal brand coach, a best selling author and a chart topping podcast host, and she's empowered lives for over 15 years through her in demand classes and mastermind.

With a background in public relations for some of the world's most influential music acts, thought leaders, Julie launched her online course and coaching mastermind in 2016, mentoring thousands of leaders and creatives around the world. Her passion is helping women turn message into movements. And empowering entrepreneurs and creatives to successfully build, grow, and scale their business.

Recently named one of the top 100 leaders in influential marketing. Julie's work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Weekly, Business Insider, Success, and People, among others. She is the author of a bestselling book, Get What You Want, how to go from unseen to unstoppable. Julie has been in this industry a long while, [00:04:00] which was what made, makes this conversation so fascinating.

Cause I really enjoyed picking her brains around the online business, what's working now, how it's changed over time. And then we really get into some great, great content around messaging, how to ensure that messaging talks to your perfect customer and how to use that messaging to get visible. And you will know if you've listened to the podcast a while that.

I am big on visibility and making sure that we are all being as visible as possible, because if people don't know we exist, they can't possibly become our customers. And this is what this whole conversation is about. So I think you're going to get so much good stuff from it. Also, one of the things I love about this episode is that we dig into what Julie's currently doing now in terms of promoting her own business and what strategies are working for her now.

Okay. Without further ado, here is the very amazing Julie Solomon. Julie, I am so excited to welcome you to the podcast.

Julie: Teresa, thank you so much for [00:05:00] having me. I feel like when we got to meet in person, so lucky to have you on my side of the pond. It was like this instant kind of connection. We, we vibed with our stories, our histories, our, a lot of stuff in our personal lives, our humor, like all of it was just great. So it's so great to be here with you.

Teresa: It was. It was so, so lovely. It was a great evening. We met at Amy's and Julie, amongst other things that she's amazing at, was our like, aficionado for caviar tasting. So, is that, is that just a little hobby or is that something you're really good at or?

Julie: Well, you wouldn't know, I mean, if you're actually, I don't know if you're seeing this or hearing this, those that are tuning in, but if you're seeing this, you're probably like, she doesn't look like she would be a caveat, but she, Anatta with her hat on and her, and her sweats, I've, I've had sick kids at home, but it's something that I do love luxury and I love the finer things in life and I love things that make me feel.

Fabulous and Parisian, and that's one of those things and I just make no [00:06:00] bones about it. So yeah. I love caviar. I love the, the just it's, they're really good on a baked potato you've ever, I know.

Teresa: Doesn't quite seem like something they normally serve it with, but

Julie: Right. But it's really good. So yeah, there's all different kinds of ways you can enjoy that. But no, it didn't grow up eating caviar, but I definitely have loved it in my adult life for sure.

Teresa: I love it. I love it. But that was such a cool evening. It was really, really good fun. And like you said, it was so good to share stories and have conversations. And, and I think doing that in person is there's just no way we'd have made the connection and on with an online thing.

And obviously this was a personal thing anyway, but that's why, even though it was over in Nashville and I'm here in England, coming over and doing those sort of things are kind of non negotiables for me in terms of spending time with people, because. You just can't replace it. Can you say, but anyway, so I, we have so much good stuff I want to talk about and so much that you're expert about, but the one thing I wanted to start us off with is the fact that you are like an OG in the online space [00:07:00] and that actually is quite rare. I would say there is probably a handful of people that I have known about for a really long time that have been in this space. And I'm interested to see what you, what your take on it is now, because obviously the online world, just to kind of put it in respect of other people that probably, you know, they want to be in it.

People want the online business. They want their work from the beach, make money while you sleep, dream, don't we all? How has that changed? And what does it look like now?

Julie: Yeah. So I S I started in this online industry in 2013, not with the business that I have now, I actually started as a blogger. And what we would now call content creator. And that was my thing for about three years. I really focused in on how to monetize my content. So I would, my background is in PR. So I knew how to pitch. So I came into the online space pitching my heart away. Like, can I [00:08:00] pitch myself for a media opportunity? There wasn't even podcasts really back then. I mean, it was just like Amy and Dave Ramsey.

So. So I wasn't pitching myself a podcast, but for media opportunities, contributing posts, that's really how I started to gain, if you would say some sort of kind of visibility for my website, I would pitch myself for contributing articles and I would write them. I would also pitch myself for brand deals and brand partnerships and sponsorships.

And so. That's how I started in this industry. And then when that started to kind of take off, because I am really good at messaging and pitching, pitching is just a form of messaging. I had people starting to ask me like, how do I do this? And people would come to me cause they would say, Julie, I don't mean to sound rude, but you have like no following and you're monetizing your content better than I am. And you're getting the, this media and you're getting these brands to pay you money to talk about their products and services. How are you doing this? And so in [00:09:00] 2016 is when I really kind of stepped more into the online education space and I created my first course, which was. teaching people how to pitch themselves to get brand deals and media opportunities, because that's what I had been doing successfully for three years prior. And then from then, I really kind of built the online education business that people now see. I started my podcast in 2017. After that course really took off, it became a seven figure course in a matter of a year.

I started to create more courses, masterminds, hire to get coaching programs, and, and then that's evolved to. now, which is, you know, what year is it? 2025? Where, where are we? So I have been in this game for a long time, and I've also been a part of the evolution of myself in this game and then this game in general.

And so to answer your question about really what has changed, you know, I didn't really realize it at the time, but I, I feel like. Not a whole lot [00:10:00] when you compare it to, I compare things to pre COVID and post COVID when it comes to this online industry. And when I really think about 2013 to 2020, a lot had changed in my business because of my growth.

You know, I became a seven figure online education business. I had started a podcast. And so there were evolutions with the opportunities that we who were in this game early on. Add to get more reach, get more visibility, get out there more. But really during COVID is when we saw this just massive insurgence of everyone and their dog wanting to kind of dip their toes into this industry and.

I think that's a beautiful thing because I believe that that shows that there's abundance in this industry, there's money to be made, there's collaboration to be made, people want to create an impact. Um, the, the competition is, you want competition in an industry that, that shows that it's, it's a healthy market.

You don't want to be in a dying [00:11:00] industry. Um, but with that did come challenges, you know, and the way that I kind of put it as simply as I can. And this is no judgment to anybody. I think this is just part of the evolution of an, of an industry that's so in its infancy. But I think during that COVID era, I think that a lot of people came into the industry and kind of got lost in the glossy glamour of, Oh, laptop lifestyle.

I can work from anywhere, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And. That's really why they were interested in being this industry. It wasn't that they were really interested in being a coach or being an online educator or creating curriculum and support that really help a client get from point A to point B. They just wanted this freedom of, of kind of the shiny things that a lot of us, including myself, market, right?

Because that, that really is and can be one of the results of, you know, having an online business is that you do get to work from anywhere. But because of that, you had a lot of people [00:12:00] that either had no business being coaches coming in and saying, I'm a coach now because I took a course for three days that told me that I was.

And so now I'm going to start this coaching business or I'm going to create a course or whatnot. And I think that you had a lot of people, consumers, if you will, that really had no business being consumers of the. The online industry that started to consume a lot of that and so what happened is that it, it left a lot of people with like a sour taste in their mouth, you know, a year or two after the COVID boom, so to speak in the online space is the first time Teresa, and I don't know if, if, if you recognize this either, cause you've been doing this for a long time as well.

It was the first time I ever heard people say like, Online coaching is a scam. It's a pyramid scheme. It doesn't work. These people don't care about you. They don't create anything of value. Because when I came into the industry and, you know, 2013 and 2016, and, and there were, you know, people like Amy [00:13:00] and you know, at the time I remember, you know, Marie Forleo on YouTube and these women who had really built these incredible businesses that not only gave them maybe quote unquote a laptop lifestyle, but.

It, it gave them this ability to create impact for a community and also as I got into the industry and I really started to invest in the industry and, and learn it because that meant that was important to me. I also realized that this laptop lifestyle just doesn't come like you have to work really, really strategically, really.

Uh, smart and really hard, especially during those, those growing phases. And I just think that because people either didn't want to do that or they didn't know how to do that, they kind of chalked the online coaching industry off as being this, you know, scam. And, and since then, I think for the last few years, what we've had to really bear witness to and really kind of be work through, [00:14:00] even if.

I wasn't part of the whole scam language myself, me and my business, we had to kind of wait out for that dust to settle, so to speak, and really to for the cream to rise to this to the top. Um, and kind of, um, the, the universe, if you will, kind of took care of maybe some of those people that had no business being here in the first place.

And so cut to 2025, I think that hopefully, even though this year has started out come really weird, especially here in the States with the fires in Los Angeles. And, you know, we had an election several months ago and I mean, there's just been a lot of crazy stuff happening globally, obviously, and here in the U S it started a little unstable, but.

I just do, Teresa, I have this really good feeling about 2025 and this really good feeling about, I think that consumers of the online coaching space are very, very discerning with who they work with right now, as they should be. And I think that the market has gotten, has gotten more sophisticated, thank [00:15:00] goodness, because we want that.

And so it's, it means that. Coaches and online educators like you and myself, we have to be really flipping good at what we do, and we have to really care about the results of our clients. And we have to be able to be resilient and be adaptable and to meet clients where they're at, because it's not a one size fits all.

And I think that for those listening, if you're in this space or want to get into this space, that's really the biggest gift that I could give you is to, to, to come in it, whether you're refining or whether this is your first time in the game. To really be honest with yourself about your intentions and to really be truthful with yourself about why you're here, who are you meant to serve and how do you do that in the most impactful and effective way possible to really help that person get a transformation.

And so I'm excited for that. I think the discernment is a great thing and I think that we're going to see just a beautiful evolution and strengthening of this industry as a whole.