Top Tips to Be a Better Communicator and Add Humanity to Your Brand with Alexis Teichmiller
Episode 385: Show Notes
This week on the Strategy Hour, we welcome a great friend of ours. Alexis Teichmiller is here on the show for the first time, which is kind of weird and surprising! We have known each other for over 3 years and we are super happy to have her, finally! Alexis is currently in Texas, although Illinois is definitely her home, and she works at ConvertKit where she creates, explores and inspires entrepreneurs through her position as the manager of ConvertKit's affiliate program. She loves building relationships with influential creators and got in the game as an online entrepreneur and blogger herself! So she knows the game and its frustrations. She wants to help bloggers find the right fit at ConvertKit and how they can be more human in the communication and branding!
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In this episode, Alexis gives us some great tangible action steps. The script she offers can easily be used to do what she does and we guarantee you will see some great results! We can all improve our communication with all those who are close to us; this means partners, friends, family and those we work with. Alexis also shares two amazing tactics that ConvertKit has adopted as a company which are a bit scary but pretty revolutionary! There are a bunch of cool takeaways for your business, as well as some book and podcast recommendations that we know y'all are going to love! We are so excited to be talking about the human element to business and how you can show up as vulnerable, relatable, real and strong all at the same time!
Showing Up Authentically and Vulnerably
Sometimes when we show our vulnerability it can seem desperate or unreal and for Alexis the main thing to remember is the intention behind any content or post you make. She likes to ask herself why she is posting something and what she wants out of it. If the intention is to potentially help someone then the sharing is out of service and connection rather than a desire for validation or attention — that goes a long way! These are questions you can ask yourself too. Alexis admits there have been times where she deleted things she was about to publish because it was not aligned with these ideas and we fully support this kind of self-reflection. Alexis got into travel blogging about 3 years ago and this was her gateway into the online business world. She had sold physical stuff before, clothes and books, but learning to sell digital products was another thing completely. One of the early lessons she learned was about the visual story you have to tell. After getting to grips with this and some time passing, she grew tired of only sharing pretty photos and wanted to do some more meaningful content publication. She asked herself what was missing from the conversation and what holes could she fill with her particular voice. For her, it meant talking about connection, humanity and who she was! She believes beautiful things can happen when you really put your true self out there!
Real Conversations and the Two Tools ConvertKit Uses
Alexis is currently employed by our biz friends at ConvertKit. You all know how much we love them! She reminds us that the more human things get, the more messy they become too. When running a bigger business, there needs to be more lines, processes and boundaries to separate the personal from the professional and she believes ConvertKit has a very special balance of this dynamic. The core values of the company are what make it all possible and seeing the leaders of the company display these values makes a huge difference in the business culture. At ConvertKit they get together twice a year for a company retreat where they have a lot of intentional conversations about where the business is heading, how everyone is doing and some of the mistakes that have been made. They have two particular mechanisms for in-depth communication, what they call the 'listening walk' and also 'unsolicited feedback' sessions. Alexis explains how these work and they sounds inspiring, powerful and also scary! These strategies can be applied to a personal community and relationships as well as in your business. All that is necessary is enough space so that people feel confident to share openly!
Better Ways to Have Conversations Around Sensitive Subjects
Communicating in truly open, kind and honest ways can be tough but almost always produces better outcomes. We have experienced this in our personal lives and in our business together. Alexis asked her husband recently what he wants his mornings to look like, this kind of straight-up question can be disarming but creates space for imagination and open channels of communication. The same rules can be applied when you mess things up with someone, the situation and approach might differ slightly, but in the end you still want to show up in the same way. When you hurt someone's feelings and realize your mistake, acknowledging it and saying you are truly sorry can go a long way. We all know that! We all have different needs and the key is to talk about them with people. There is often a solution you cannot see without the help of another person, so as soon as you ask, you can begin to figure things out together. The other thing that Alexis says is that conversations about feelings and conversations about solutions do not look the same, they have different objectives and it is worth being aware of the type of conversation you are in.
Alexis' Personal Brand and How Authenticity Has Served Her
When Alexis was first hired at ConvertKit, she was blogging and working with different clients on content creation. She started doing a her podcast, The Laptop Lifestyle around this time too. She admits 2018 was her first really successful financial year and before that she did not really have her priorities straight. She was caught up on Insta and too focused on living a lifestyle of appearances. She felt she was running away from her problems by booking trips and staying busy all the time. All this busyness made her feel important but we cannot keep producing and creating without stopping to breath sometimes. A friend's unexpected death late last year took its toll on her heavily and she took some time off for reflection after the funeral. She realized she had not had a quiet break in three years and her struggles with depression and anxiety were becoming quite difficult. Attending therapy and reading the Bible has helped her immensely as well as a healthy dose of journaling. Alexis reminds us there is more to life than Instagram, making money and building email lists; she needed to reconnect with people, read and check in with herself again. This break and the new year served her well and she is happy to announce a new podcast she will be launching in 2020, so keep an eye on her website for that!
Quote This
Whenever you put yourself out there, beautiful things really can happen.
—Alexis Teichmiller
Highlights
Showing Up Authentically and Vulnerably. [0:04:18.5]
Real Conversations and the Two Tools ConvertKit Uses. [0:012:24.7]
Better Ways to Have Conversations Around Sensitive Subjects. [0:28:11.2]
Alexis' Personal Brand and How Authenticity Has Served Her. [0:38:10.8]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:45:12.9]
What kind of conversations are you comfortable having?
What do you feel comfortable sharing?
What is your biggest struggle right now?
Ask for encouragement and help.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Alexis Teichmiller
Houston, TX is Alexis’s current residence, although the corn fields of Illinois are what she calls home. Creating, exploring, and inspiring others are her core life goals. She joined ConvertKit over three years ago and she gets to do all three every day. Her main focus is managing ConvertKit's Affiliate Program and building relationships with influential creators. As a blogger and online entrepreneur, she understands the frustrations of growing an online business and aims to help bloggers find their fit with ConvertKit. You can find her gramming her way through life at @alexisteichmiller or her blog/podcast at alexisteichmiller.com.
KEY TOPICS
Communication, Authenticity, Marketing, Personal Versus Professional, Branding, Humanity
