How To Use Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Impact With Cloris Kylie [Podcast 251]

Influencer Marketing.  What is it? 

In this episode, my guest, Cloris Kylie, explains how to use this form of brand and business building to build connections, authority, grow our list, and increase profits.

Cloris is a Marketing MBA and an influencer marketing specialist.

She is also the bestselling author of Beyond Influencer Marketing, the host of the Beyond Influencer Marketing podcast, and has been featured on network television, top-ranked podcasts, and more..

If you are looking to uplevel your business, then pay close attention to her valuable insights and actionable strategies for building authority, while increasing profits.

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Listen to the podcast here:

How To Use Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Impact With Cloris Kylie [Podcast 251]

Have you ever said to yourself, “How is it I can go out and develop relationships with highly influential people and/or how can I create a long-lasting relationship? What do I have to offer? How could I go ahead and do that?” Some people call this influencer marketing and the idea of it is how do you get connected to these influencers that can help spread your message out there? It might be easier than you think especially once you learn from our expert. Her name is Cloris Kylie. She’s a marketing MBA. She helps coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, maybe like you build authority and attract the right clients so you can have an amazing business that produces amazing impact and grow your revenue. She’s been a media contributor in all kinds of different paths. Cloris, welcome to the show. How are you?

I’m excited to be here, Dan. Thank you for having me.

We’re privileged to have you here. You talk about going beyond influencer marketing. What I love about you is you have a fascinating way of conveying things visually and connecting the dots. I love that about your approach. I appreciate the simplicity and also the entertainment of it because you learn quickly. It’s impactful. That’s who you are. What is that you’re excited about, Cloris? I’m curious.

I’m excited because I am re-launching my book, Beyond Influencer Marketing. I’ve added some updates. The field is always changing. I want to deliver the most updated information to people. That’s what I’m most excited about. I want to inspire more people to think about connections with influencers in this way, which is a very different way from what you see out there. Everybody is trying to meet the social media influencers on Instagram or YouTube and pay them $1,000 to do a shout out. That’s what people think of when they think of influencer marketing. My mission is to help you see it in a different way. In a way that is sustainable for you in the long-term. That’s what we’re here for. It’s not for the next shout out, but because we want to be in business for the long-term.

Are you looking for a way where you can create connections with influential people to help build your authority, grow your list and also grow your revenue and profits? If so, you’re going to love what Cloris has to share with you as well. Cloris, we use the term influencer marketing and it gets thrown a lot in the marketplace, left and right. What is your definition of influencer marketing?

My definition is an ability for you to connect with people of influence in your field and to collaborate with them to then bring value to their audience through your expertise. If you connect with a social media influencer, you could do a shout out, but it’s not about the shout out itself but about the relationship you have with that person. Also, it’s about going beyond those social media influencers. It’s about seeing influencers who might be in your local area such as a small business that has a perfect audience for you and the business owner could become your long-term partner. It’s about connecting with coaches, trainers who have a group program, full of paying clients. If you could be then an expert introduced to that group of people, you could see results quickly.

It’s about new media. It’s about podcasts, contributing to blogs and to be a guest on TV. All those things that not necessarily consider influencer marketing. I see them as influencer marketing because all of these people who lead these platforms as large, as small they might be, they are made of captive audiences. That’s the key here. It’s not about having a million followers. It’s about having a group of people who believe in you. Once you’re introduced to that audience, which means you, then people listen. It’s about that perception. When you go in with that without authority already, you can create an impact versus if you do an ad on Facebook or Google ads, people don’t trust you yet. They don’t know you yet. These are people who maybe grab the gift that you offer and leave. I saw it. I run a live webinar and all of the people who are subscribed so far came from Facebook ads. The rest of the people stayed and will stay because of the fact that they were introduced by an influencer.

Would it be worth it for you to speed up your sales cycle, your relationship building? Would it be worth the speed up, the level of trust that you get with a potential influencer or someone of influence who has a captive audience and many times a large audience? It’s quality, not just quantity. That’s critical. What are some of the mistakes that you see a lot of people make when they go, “I’m going to work to tap into these people of influence in the market.” I’m sure you’ve got dozens of them.

One of them is to go after the wrong influencer. You have to do your research ahead of time and not try to connect with anyone who has an audience or a large audience. Even if it feels if that audience is perfect for you, you’d have to get to know the influencer’s value, style and exactly the challenges and goals that the audience has. On the surface, it might seem that they’re perfect for you, but they’re not. I could connect with somebody who reaches entrepreneurs, but most of them are eCommerce entrepreneurs, which is not a great fit for me. I want to help people who have a service business. If I connected with them, it wouldn’t be a good fit. If I connect to somebody who has a completely different style from mine and that audience is introduced to me, there’ll be like, “There’s something about Cloris we don’t like.”

It’s because they have a style that clashes with that other influencer. It has to be the right people, people who you truly believe, and you believe in their message, you can relate to their message so you can then form those long-term connections. I would say that was another mistake to go into this. I was trying to collect connections and say, “The more the better. One of them will help me see what sticks.” You send out mass emails to all of these influencers. In most cases, you will not hear from them. It’s about reaching out to people who you want to connect with for the long-term, to take the time to customize your approach and to deliver value to them first. If you go into this whole process with a desire to get something out of it, which is true, you will get something out of it. If that’s your mindset, the influencer will see right through it and they will not connect with you and want to help you.

Beyond Influencer Marketing: Create Connections with Influential People to Build Authority, Grow Your List, and Boost Revenue

Would you like to have a path of the right way to be able to go about it? Would you like to avoid some of the biggest mistakes that Cloris shared with you? There are many more. The less time you spend doing it wrong, the more time you spend doing it right. There are probably a thousand ways to do it wrong and a handful of ways to do it right. You mentioned what influencer marketing is. You talked about some of the challenges and mistakes. Most people have their reason why they’re doing what they’re doing on their journey. Why is this your sweet spot? Why are you compelled to connect with people about this idea of influencer marketing?

Dan, I feel like that’s what saved my business because I had an offline business for many years. I’ve been an academic coach for high school and college students, which was working pretty well for me. I went through these tough times in my life. I wrote a personal development book. I wanted everybody to read this book. I wanted to empower people to reveal their magnificence. That’s when the whole thing about magnificence started. Soon I realized that it wasn’t as easy as publishing the book and people will find it because it’s so good. I learned that the hard way. It was taking time away from my other business to do this and it wasn’t working. I said, “Maybe I need to spend more time on it.” I would work fourteen hours a day and wake up exhausted.

I had a blog that would publish every day and a radio show. I was on social, pretty much every platform I could find trying to share this message. It was still the same. A month would go by, I still had a handful of readers on my blog, a handful of listeners to my show, and it was frustrating. My other business was suffering. I remember waking up one day and saying, “I’m going to give up. This wasn’t meant to be, too bad.” It was frustrating and depressing. It’s a long story how I figure that out, but basically, I said, “What if instead of trying to do it all on my own, I build connections with people who have been there before, people who already have an audience. What if they helped me promote my stuff? What if I learned from them?” That’s when things started to change.

The moment when I started to see those results was when I started to post articles on Tiny Buddha, which is one of the largest personal development sites in the world. All of a sudden, I had all these people checking out my blog, joining my list and that people are reaching out to me via email wanting to work with me. It was amazing. That’s when I said, “I have to take this to the next level.” I know that many people out there feel the same. They’re working hard and nobody is there to listen. This is a way for you to get out of that or even if you feel like you’re making an impact but it’s not what you would like it to be, this is a way for you to take things to the next level.

You found yourself in a place where you were able to get on one of the largest personal development sites in the world. Fast forward, you’ve done hundreds of media appearances. You’ve been on TV, etc. If you’re reading this, you’re like, “How do I do it?” What steps would you recommend? What would be a handful of steps that someone could take to be able to connect with an influential person or influencers to help broaden their impact, broaden their reach and grow their business?

What I would say first thing is connecting with the right influencers is key. If you haven’t yet go out and ask your ideal prospects where they spend time-consuming content, what podcasts do you listen to, what blogs do you read, who do you follow? Those are great places to start because these leaders have an impact on the people you want to connect with as clients. It’s a great way for you to start building relationships with those leaders. Maybe there’s somebody who you followed for a while, you know them well, another person to focus on. The key is to have a way to condense all that information into a small group. I would say of no more than twenty people to start. You start reaching out to them. The way to reach out to them is by figuring out per person how you can best deliver value to them.

Many people think, “I don’t have a multimillion-dollar business yet. Maybe I’m not ready to deliver value to influencers,” but there are so many ways you could do that. For the influencer, ask yourself, “What is it that they have going on that I could do to help them?” Do they have a book out that I could post a review on Amazon? Post a picture of me with a book and tag them on social media and say, “I posted a review,” or do they have a podcast out that I could then post a review on? It’s the same thing. What is it that they have to go on that matters to them? Do they have a course that I could join and be the star student, be there every coaching call and create a relationship? What is it that I could do? Post a review on LinkedIn or a recommendation on LinkedIn and start a conversation, what could I do to deliver value?

After that, you’ve got to figure out what is the objective you want to achieve with this influencer in regard to collaboration. What is your short-term objective? What is your long-term objective? Maybe short-term, you want to feature them on your podcast, on your platform. Long-term you would love to do a JV webinar with them or you would love for them to send referrals your way. What is it that you want to do? Because once you have a short-term and long-term objective that you have it all organized. You should have a system to organize all this data and follow up and take the next step as you reach that goal. To start, select the right influencers, find the number one value you can deliver to them, and start by documenting your results and have those objectives so you slowly but surely get to that.

How important is it to look at this as a long-term model, not as a short-term tactic?

It’s important because 1 of those 20 people that you start with, there will be probably 5 or 6 who you resonate with. Once you interact with them, once you feature them or they feature you, you will have that connection and you will know when that happens. They will become part of your top connections. Those who become supporters and allies for the long-term. Those who are you staying in touch with several times throughout the year, maybe every month or even more often. They will introduce you to other influencers. Some of those influencers will become part of that small circle. Some of them want. It’s impossible to stay in touch with everyone, but at least you have that close circle of supporters. When it’s time that you need a referral, you need to promote something, they will be there for you. They will lead you to the resources you need to make your goals happen and to grow your business.

Influencers want to deliver value to their audience just like you. If you have that expertise to offer, that’s a lot of value and it’s enough.

It’s critically important. What would happen for you if you follow Cloris’ simple blueprint? Number one, you’ve got to do some research. Narrow down your top twenty, identify the number one value. What’s your short-term objective? What’s your long-term objective? Don’t overcomplicate it. What are some simple things you can do to help add and contribute value to them? Is it the book that they’ve got? You could go post that review on Amazon or go review their podcast, which many top influential people will have or go even comment on a blog post. You market that back to the person and say, “I was able to do this.” I’ve got a letter from somebody. They sent an email.

They sent a video and they sent a physical letter by priority express mail. I got the letter and it essentially says, “Dan, I’ve been following you all the way back since one of your original programs, which was called Prosperity Based Living.” I started that program back in 2001. On online years, that’s 100 years. You can give some specific takeaways of what they got out of the program and they want me to come out and do an interview on their show and they’re starting and they’re launching. I feel a deep obligation frankly because he took all this time and physically say, “You did something that most people aren’t willing to do. Most people too cheap and they’re too lazy to do some of the simple steps.” The fact that he did an email, which was great. He did a video through email, which was awesome.

When I got the physical letter, I was like, “This is someone who gets it.” I share that story not to pound my chest. It’s to share an example of how simple it is that you can open the doorway by being a human being in providing and adding value to people. Ideally, I imagine you can go spin. In your book, Beyond Influencer Marketing, you talk about dozens and dozens of strategies, how to get on TV interviews and many other things too. What would you add on to what I shared in sharing that letter with me and insights?

That’s a great story, Dan. Sharing with somebody the impact they have made on your life is powerful. That’s how I first connected with Dr. Wayne Dyer, who passed away a few years ago, but he’s probably one of the most influential people in the personal development field. When I first did it, I didn’t do it with the desire to, “What can I get out of this?” I did it because I felt that he had been a mentor from afar through his books. I sent him a handwritten note explaining exactly how he had helped me with his message. There was an event in New York City I was attending put together by Hay House Publishers, which is a house where he used to publish all his books. He was going to be the keynote speaker.

I said, “I would love to say thank you in person,” that’s all. I’ll probably never hear from him because I sent it to the publisher. I didn’t even have his address. A couple of days later, I go to the mailbox and there’s a letter from Maui, Hawaii and it was from Dr. Wayne Dyer. He said, “Thank you so much. I appreciate what you said. I’d love to meet you in person. Find my assistant, here’s her name, let’s make it happen.” I went to the event. We connected in person. He became a supporter. After I was staying in touch, I continued to deliver value and he offered to have his daughters be on my show. I had an online radio show on Blog Talk Radio back in the day and they were all guests.

He inspired me to keep going. It all started with a letter. That’s all it was. For example, when I was a guest on EO Fire with John Lee Dumas, I didn’t have a huge business. In that case, the value that I want to do to offer besides review in the show and all those things was my insights on mistakes I have made in my business. At that point, I had learned a lot about making big mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes I had made was exactly the same mistake that John had on his About Me page as the thing to never do. When I watched that video, it was a video by Jimmy, his avatar and you needed to know who you wanted to serve. I said, “That’s like me, I didn’t do this. I failed miserably.” I said that to him, “I want to share this story because I believe that people should have a clear avatar like Jimmy.” I got an email, “We’d love to have you on the show.” It’s something as simple as how can I deliver value to this audience that is different, that will inspire them because all influencers, what do they want? They want to deliver value to their audience like you. If you have that to offer your expertise, that’s a lot of value and it’s enough.

This is a topic that’s deep in my heart and I feel like it’s been the cornerstone of how I built most of my career and the backbone of all of my success in business has been off of this simple approach. What I love about you, Cloris, is you make it simple and easy to understand. You put it into a practical guide that people can use, reference, model, blueprint and use as a template, a checklist to be able to work with. Ideally your excited, inspired, and you’re curious to go, “How can I do it even better? How can I get started?” If you’re not using and leveraging this strategy because it is when you do it right and you do it from here, to begin with. The more you give, the more you get.

If you go into it with, “What can I get out of this relationship,” people will also feel that too. If you have a short-term approach, especially at this. I can tell you from experience, I’m sure you’re in a similar boat. The hundreds of requests a month that I get, I smell it out when I can smell that they’re in it because they’re looking for a short-term promotion and not a long-term relationship. Do you want to solve that? Do you want to learn and discover how to create connections with influential people and influencers to build your authority, grow your list, grow your profits? I encourage you to go find out what Cloris is doing on a much deeper level. Cloris, where can people go to learn more about what you’re up to? You’ve got a wealth of resources, many fun videos and entertaining pieces, tools and resources they can work. Where can people do that?

Thanks so much, Dan. If you go to ClorisKylie.com/GrowthToFreedom, you will get my influencer guide with 15 Ways to Get Noticed by Influencers to Grow your Business. I created this mini-guide because that’s the main question I get like, “How do I get noticed? How do I deliver value first?” Those are ideas that you can implement right away to get started. Check out the Beyond Influencer Marketing podcast. We have weekly interviews with top experts such as you, Dan. You shared how you have connected with influencers and how you have leveraged the strategy in your business. Check out Dan’s interview.

Would it be worth if you had a breakthrough approach potentially for you? If this idea of influencer marketing isn’t working for you, something’s missing. What if this could be the bridge for you that helps solve that problem and helps you open more doors than you ever thought possible and gave you fifteen ways to connect to influencers the right way with the long-term approach? Get that resource. As we wind down our time together, you have such a unique background. Can you remember back being a kid a little bit? Being a kid, what would you say was your most important early influence?

The marketing strategy that will never stop working is building relationships.

I have a lot of memories of being a kid. I would say my earliest influence was my mom. She is still a big influence. She has sacrificed a lot to raise me. My dad died when I was young, I was only eight years old. She raised me the best possible way she could. It’s like that love that is unconditional. I do hope everybody in the world gets to experience that unconditional love. That is the beauty of being alive in relationships.

What do you recall is the first book when you were younger that had the biggest influence on you?

I always remember Your Erroneous Zones by Dr. Wayne Dyer. I was young. I was in high school, but it was the first book that made me think in a different way. I’ve gone to a Catholic all-girls school. There were a lot of rules that I was instructed never to question. When I read that book, I started to question everything. People were like, “What’s wrong with you?” I realize that I don’t have to follow all the rules. That’s when things started to change. It’s a big book for me.

What’s something I should have asked you, Cloris, that I hadn’t?

What is a marketing strategy that will never stop working? The answer is not the bots that you have on your website. It’s not the Facebook ads. It’s not live streaming. It’s relationships. Regardless of when or where you have a business, your relationships will allow you to stay in business and to grow your business. Keep that in mind as you go along. All these shiny objects are distracting you from your main goal to make an impact. It helped me pull out relationships with what matters most.

If you’re inspired a lot by Cloris’ message, I encourage you to go check out her resource, get 15 Ways to Get Noticed by Influencers to Grow Your Business. It’s free. She’s making it available to you. You can go to ClorisKylie.com/GrowthToFreedom. What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Most people don’t know that I love to write. I know I wrote that personal development book. I wrote Beyond Influencer Marketing. People don’t know I love to write fiction as well. I’ve written six young adult novels and someday when I have the time, I will publish them. I consider myself an artist at heart. That’s a side of me that people don’t see often. You got to have an artistic outlet. Even if you’re not good at it, do it. That’s something that challenges you and that allows you to be creative and have fun.

You want more of that, pay attention to what Cloris has to share with you. Go check out what she’s doing as well. What is one to three action steps that you hope our readers take as a result of our time together?

The first thing is I’d like you to realize that this is available for you, it’s possible for you. All you have to do is to take action. The first action was to identify the influencers you want to connect with and to find that one way you can deliver value to them. It doesn’t have to be huge but do it now because if you wait until whenever you have time or X or Y happens, it will not happen. The last thing I would like you to keep in mind is this has to be a deliberate effort. That would be something that you do when you have time. When you think about it, you have a system. It comes from the heart, but we need a system is because you know how busy you are. When things happen, you will not do it if you don’t have a system.

I encourage you to take action. Identify your influencers that would be the right fit for you. Decide what you want. Who are they? Number two is not 100 ways, not 50 ways, not 20, what’s 1 way that you can help open a door of impact for them? Add value to and for them and have a deliberate system. Why? Because you want to manage all these relationships. You want to be able to follow up with them because it’s not the first touch that many times will make a difference. It’s sustainability. My first book when I got on a radio show on NBC happened because I had a solid follow-up system, one-touch a month for approximately seven months. Had I not had it and I said one thing, “They’re not interested,” what would that have cost me? It would have cost me millions frankly and a lot of client development, a lot of relationships and a whole lot more. I don’t want to see that happen to you. Don’t risk making that mistake. We scratch the surface. Do you want to go deeper? You’ve got fifteen other ways that you can connect with influencers. Cloris, it’s been a pleasure to have you on the show. I know I always learn something from you and I know our readers will too.

Thanks so much, Dan. It’s been a pleasure.

I encourage you, take action with what Cloris has shared with you. Go get her resources. Take the simple steps that she talked about because think about it. What would happen for you if you took action, you were able to identify the influencers that matter to you and you share one thing to each of them? You had a handful of them reach back and say, “Let’s figure out how we could work.” How would that shift your business? How would that impact your business? You cultivated the other relationships that hadn’t responded over the next few weeks, the next few months. It’s a game-changer and it can be a game-changer for you if you take the time to take it. If that’s what you want, by the way, do nothing. Go find another tactic. Go find another shiny object. Put another bot on your website. You could do that too. However, this is one that not only will pay you in goodwill short-term, but it will pay you for a lifetime when you develop the right relationships or what it is you have to offer. Seize the day, make it a great week. Go apply what Cloris has shared with you. We’ll see you next time.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Cloris Kylie
• Beyond Influencer Marketing
• Tiny Buddha
• Prosperity Based Living
• Cloris Kylie on EO Fire
• ClorisKylie.com/GrowthToFreedom
• Beyond Influencer Marketing
• Your Erroneous Zones
• https://www.ClorisKylie.com/tv-and-media/
• https://YouTube/0hS6iYQXMMw
• http://Traffic.Libsyn.com/influencer/DanKuschellFinal.mp3

About Cloris Kylie

Cloris Kylie, marketing MBA and influencer marketing specialist, shows you how to create a strong marketing foundation and tap into connections with influencers to grow a magnificent business that thrives over the long term.