Master Your Message & Elevate Your Brand with Julie Solomon

Hey Friend!

Have you been wondering how to elevate your brand? If so, you’ll enjoy the interview with our special guest today, Julie Solomon! 

Here’s a little bit about our friend, Julie Solomon: she’s a personal branding coach, best-selling author, and chart-topping podcast host. She’s been empowering lives for over 15 years in her on-demand classes and masterminds. 

Julie has a background in public relations and has worked with some of the world’s most influential musical acts and thought leaders. She launched her online courses and mastermind in 2016 and has mentored thousands of leaders and creatives worldwide. Her passion is helping women turn messages into movements and empowering entrepreneurs to grow, build, and scale creatively. 

She was named one of the top 100 leaders in influencer marketing and has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Weekly, Business Insider, Success, and People, among many others! 

So, let’s meet Julie Solomon and glean from her wisdom as you look to elevate your brand and messaging in your online business. 

Stef: Hi Julie, thank you for coming on the podcast! I’m so excited to see you again. 

Julie: Thank you for having me here. This will be fun!

Stef: Why don’t we start by you telling everyone who you are and what you do. 

Julie: I am Julie Solomon, and very simply put, I help online entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create consistent revenue through very impressionable, magnetizable, and specific messaging so that they can scale without constantly creating content, be on sales calls, or launch new things. That’s essentially what I love to do and how I serve women. 

Stef: That’s not what you’ve always done, right? How did you land in this space? 

Julie:  It’s interesting because it’s not what I’ve always done, but it kind of is! My background is in public relations (PR). I have a degree in journalism and mass communications with a minor in marketing. I have always been in a marketing role. In corporate and agency life, I was a publicist, so I worked in music and book PR. 

Julie Solomon’s Longform Began As Blogging

Julie: I got into the online space back in 2013. My introduction into the online world was blogging.  This was before podcasting and coaching became a thing, and influencer marketing and YouTube were not like they are today. The longform type of content that I dove into was blogging. 

I was a new mom at that time. The blog was meant to be a creative outlet for me; to be able to share my thoughts as I was navigating motherhood. I was still working my 9 to 5 job at that time, and I was dipping my toes into the online space. I learned how to monetize my online blog quickly.

The reason I was able to do that so well is because I’m so good at messaging. I had spent years as a publicist and it came naturally to me, as I am a communicator and connector at heart. When I was able to start monetizing the blog, it wasn’t content creation or podcasting – my medium was pitching. 

How Julie Solomon Went From Consulting to Online Course Creation

Julie: To monetize my blog, I would pitch to businesses, brands, and companies that I aligned with. Then I would promote their products and services on my blog. Other bloggers started to take note of this and they wondered how I could do this without a huge social media following. My views were considerably lower than some of the women who were seeking me out. Again, this was between 2013 to 2015. Hundreds and thousands of followers at that time would be equivalent to millions of followers these days! 

This was so successful because I know how to create messaging and pitch myself. That turned into consulting, which then maxed out quickly. I am only one person and can only consult so many people, so I needed to go to a one-to-many model. Therefore, I created an online course. 

I created my first course in 2017. Mind you, 2013 to 2017 were the years of building, consulting, brand partnerships, writing for media outlets — anything I could do to show people my genius and authority. My first course taught other people how to pitch themselves so they could get media and brand partnerships. That really started to take off in my little corner of the internet. A year later, I launched my podcast, The Influencer Podcast, and started to learn strategies to scale an online business.

Elevate Your Brand By Creating From Your Genius

Julie: I started to invest in myself – I don’t mean downloading freebies, and buying little courses, but I invested in a $25,000 mastermind. Remember, I hadn’t yet made a million dollars in my business. From 2016 to 2017, I was around $100K to $125K per year. I was still doing some PR stuff, but I was ready to go all in with my online business. Having this course was created off of my genius. If you want to do the same, here are the questions you want to ask yourself: 

1. What is my genius? 
2. What do I want to be known for? 
3. What am I really good at that people would find so much value, they are willing to pay me for it? 

I had years of PR experience and some consulting to know that people had already paid me for a version of this, so why don’t I put it in a course? That course started doing well. I knew if I could make $5,000 per month from this course, it would be life-changing! 

It’s also life-giving because it would mean I didn’t have to hustle with one-on-one consulting, PR and brand deals. I came pretty close that first month – around $3,000, and I just kept going. Throughout that year, the course sales mixed with all the other things I was doing were around the lower six-figure mark. That was more money than I had ever made!

Elevate Your Brand With Hard Work and Fine Tuning

Julie: I started my podcast and joined a mastermind group. Within nine months, I had made $1.3 million. Mic drop! That was a life-changing experience! 

People ask me, “What was the one thing?” but there wasn’t just one thing. It was years of refinement, testing what worked, and fine-tuning my messaging so I could be so crystal clear about the following:  

• This is who I am.
• This is who I serve.
• This is how I do it.
• This is why it’s important.

It was years of building up to that, little by little, mixed with the podcast for visibility. I also did media contributions, meaning I would pitch media and ask if I could write for their blog. I was very intentional with where my ideal client was, what podcast she was listening to, what media outlets she was consuming. Back then, we didn’t have the kind of podcasts we have now to engage with. I had to dabble in ALL the things. 

It was a mix of messaging, visibility, and owning my authority and genius that brought me to this point. It was also about having support – putting myself in the right rooms to be supported, seen, and heard by other women who also wanted to rise. That mixed with my faith and having steadfast belief in my dream – it was all of those things that came together for me to have “overnight success.” 

Julie Solomon Had Faith and Invested in Herself

Stef: Absolutely! We could end the podcast right here, you guys! Thank you for sharing so much knowledge from your story. You started with longform, which was blogging for you, and you had to pour years into your craft. Years! When you decided you were done, you invested in yourself, and at an uncomfortable level, too! 

Julie: It was so uncomfortable! Stef, I’m going to be so honest with you. I didn’t tell my husband. Not in the beginning. I knew he would think I had lost my mind. $25,000!? What on earth? Thank you, Jesus, for payment plans!

This is how naive I was: I got on the discovery call for that mastermind. Of course, there wasn’t a price listed on the application. I wondered if I was going to be selected for this “free” incubator. Is this incredible woman just going to bestow onto me her years of wisdom and work for free? Then she dropped the price on me and my reaction was so interesting: my stomach sank, but my heart expanded. 

I talked to God and said, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I know you have put this before me. You will have to tell me how this is going to work, but I know I have to say yes to this.” The payment plan was about $2,000 per month, and I decided I could make that happen. It allowed me to take that leap, and I had unwavering, steadfast faith that what was being put in front of me was for me. 

I knew this was the next step I had to take. I was permitting myself to put myself in the path of opportunity, but also giving myself the gift of faith. Because faith is trusting the unknown – what you can’t see or touch. 

It wasn’t about belief, it was about faith. I am going to be led, protected, and abundant! I didn’t know what the end result would look like, but I had to have faith in that. My ability to trust in that faith is what led to that gift of $1.3 million nine months later. 

Stef: I love that so much! You decided to go all in on something that you’ve done! Many people want to build an offer or brand on something someone else is doing, but that’s where we miss the mark. Julie, you specifically stopped yourself to figure out what you’ve done for the last decade, and it’s been messaging in the PR space. Can we go deeper into your zone of genius and how you refined your messaging? 

Elevate Your Brand by Embracing Your Gifts and Talents

Julie: It’s so important to remember that women don’t give themselves enough credit for what they bring to the table. And because of that, they make it so much harder than it needs to be. At least in my world! I know all these incredible, vibrant, powerful, women with years of experience and accredidations, who tell themselves they must create something from scratch.

They have this belief that what they are bringing to the table isn’t enough. I will never forget that during my growth years, I did that too! I kept trying to put myself into this lifestyle blogger box, because it was popular. My husband would say, “Why can’t you be Julie Publicist?” but I didn’t want to be her, because no one wants to buy what she has to offer. The moment I surrendered and gave myself permission to own my gifts and talents, and embraced being Julie Publicist, is when everything changed! 

I remember writing a blog post when I decided to test this out. It was about the five messaging shifts every blogger needs to make to grow visibility. That one blog post got more hits than the five years combined about lifestyle blogger content. 

That’s the first piece. Are you allowing yourself to be who you are and own your genius? You’re bringing a lot more to the table than you think. 

Julie Solomon on Messaging vs. Content

Julie: Now let’s start by clarifying what messaging is and the difference between messaging and content because they aren’t the same thing. 

Messaging is the foundation of the core narrative that defines how your ideal client perceives the transformation you offer and the depth of your authority. 

Content (your Instagram, podcast episodes, emails, etc.) is the tactical execution of that messaging. If your messaging is aligned, great! If your messaging isn’t aligned, you won’t see the sales growth you deserve no matter how much content you create. It’s like trying to build a house without the foundation in place. 

Stef: Exactly. This is where I see so many of my students get tripped up at the beginning of podcasting. You often don’t see so clearly in your own lives. We’re trying to be lifestyle bloggers in our business content when it’s not about you. That’s the mindset shift I’d love for you to talk about. How do we get to the verbal processing we need to comprehend how our ideal client perceives a transformation because it’s not what we think it is. It’s about how they are perceiving it. 

Julie: Yes, and this comes down to a few things: 

1. An irresistible offer: make sure your offer is solutions-focused. You need a clear pathway from Point A to Point B, and your offer is the thing that gets you to Point B. It must be crystal clear! If you confuse them, you lose them. They must feel like it’s the absolute perfect fit for the transformation they’re looking for. 

2. Niching down: I don’t mean content pillars. This is related to a subset of people, not content. You need to be speaking to exactly who your offer is for. How do you do that? You have to know who they are. You must go out and start talking to them. Ask people to get on calls, do surveys, and get in front of them any way you can. What most of us do is make things up in our heads. We have this idea in mind of who they are, their challenges, their dreams, or what they would move mountains for. Many times we miss those nuances that make someone move from feeling inspired by you, to I want to work with you right now, here’s my credit card, how do I pay? 

Stef: I can attest to this so much, Julie. The market research calls are fantastic, especially as you are new. Don’t lose sight of that as you grow! We message-mine our Facebook group answers, chat boxes, and group coaching calls. We are constantly looking at what our people are saying, how they’re saying it, and the problems and excuses. We’re looking for recurring themes you can pull into your content: your Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, etc. Now you’re mirroring their problem. 

Elevate Your Brand With the Magic of Messaging

Julie: I’ll give you an example because I was working on this with a client recently. My client is in the health and wellness space; more specifically, the weight loss space. She helps women over 40 lose weight and feel their best. She was wondering why her content wasn’t making sales for her. That’s what I teach, too. The whole point of content is to be a marketing and sales driver for you. We don’t create content just to create content; that’s a hobby and a waste of time. I want my clients to create content that moves people somewhere and creates conversions so we can make money. 

We noticed her content wasn’t moving anyone. She had the call to action, she knew exactly who she was speaking to, but she was too general. Instead of being specific, she would say things like, “Are you ready to lose weight?” “Are you ready to drop those last ten pounds?” “Are you tired of your hormones being out of whack?” I told her that was missing the mark. Her ideal client didn’t just want to lose weight, and her approach wasn’t specific or visual enough. 

So, I walked her through a process and explained what her client wants: 

She wants to be able to open the door of her closet and go to the very back, where there’s a pair of her favorite jeans. This woman hasn’t been able to fit into these jeans for three years, but she can’t bring herself to give them away. She is waiting for the day she opens that closet door and puts on those jeans, and not only do they fit, but they make her feel something that she hasn’t felt in a really long time. 

That’s what she wants. And that’s messaging, my friends. That’s what I mean when I say, do you really know the desires that your ideal client has? Because it’s not just about making more money, losing weight, or working from home. You’ve got to understand what makes them tick, move, cry, or laugh. That’s what creates the messaging. 

Elevate Your Brand by Starting Small

Julie: When you’re first starting your business, you aren’t being flooded with thousands of leads, so it’s not hard to keep organized. If you have two leads in your DMs, those are two human beings and potential quality leads that you can start data mining! You can get real-life feedback and put it into content. 

That’s what my client did. She used the example I gave her and put it into a post, and from that post, she had three people ready to sign up for her $3,500 program. Boom! That’s over $10,000 right there by making that one shift in her messaging. 

Stef: That is so powerful! And we think we’re being too specific. The reason people aren’t doing this is because it feels too specific and they want to cast a wider net. But going deep with my one person has better success. The more nuanced you get, the better results you have. Sometimes we use the exact wording they used! Feel free to title your podcast with the exact way they phrased it because they’ll feel like you really know them and understand their problem. That’s the best compliment! 

Elevate Your Brand by Gaining Visibility

Stef: So, Julie, you just gave us so many tactical tips about messaging, specifically. Can you talk to us about visibility? As podcasters, what are some of your visibility tips when we’re looking at scaling and getting featured in more places? 

Julie: You can take my own story as an example of what my biggest tip is. Start before you’re ready! But, I want to get more specific than that. 

I got into the online space in 2013, but I didn’t start a podcast until 2017. Which means I didn’t wait until 2017 to become visible. In 2013, I did anything I could to become visible, meaning getting in front of brands, getting featured in media, networking events, small women’s groups, masterminds, in-person retreats, and any place I could speak, I would try to go speak. 

I knew from years of being a publicist that visibility is not the byproduct of success (of launching a podcast or being featured on a podcast) it’s the catalyst for all of that! 

If you want to be more successful and truly make an impact, then you have to gift yourself the permission to place yourself in the path of opportunity. There’s no opportunity too big or too small based on where you are today.

Start today! Stop waiting for the podcast, interview, client, money, or the book deal. If I had waited, I wouldn’t have gotten any of that! I had to create that momentum myself, no matter what that was. So, that’s my biggest invitation to those listening today.

Julie Solomon Helps Us Dream Big and Take Baby Steps

Julie: Being a publicist for years, I would have a new author come to me and I’d ask her, “Where do you want to be featured?” and they would say, “Oprah!” I love dreaming big, but that’s probably not going to happen tomorrow. So, what can we get featured in tomorrow that will be the stepping stone to Oprah? 

You can have your big dream list, but I also want you to have a list of where you are today. You can ask yourself:

• What is my expertise?
• What are the podcast episodes that my ideal client is listening to?
• What media outlets are they consuming?
• What rooms are they in?
• Are they attending networking events?
• Are they attending virtual conferences?

Start to pitch yourself for those opportunities. I promise you, those will open up so many more doors than sitting back and waiting for someone to pitch to you. You need to be your own publicist and toot your own horn. 

This also goes back to what you said earlier, Stef, about being too specific. The fear that if we get too specific then we’ll miss out on something. People who believe if they don’t serve everyone, they’ll lose out on money and opportunity. Those are the same people who are saying I’m not ready, I’m not worthy and I’m not enough yet for visibility. 

They’ve got to wait for their externals to change to prove to themselves and everyone else that they’re ready for the opportunity. But you have to create it! The more you put yourself out there, the more people will see you through the noise, and opportunities will come your way. 

Stef: Another mic drop! For anyone nervous about this particular area right now, I was nervous too, and so was Julie. I started with virtual things. My goal was to get on one podcast a week, and that exploded my podcast growth. And then I looked around for local events. 

Then, I got my first speaking engagement. I was terrified! No one wants to do that – do you know the number one fear is public speaking? Over death! I did it and it wasn’t hard or scary anymore. What’s the one thing you’re going to start with? Go do that and do it yesterday! What this will do is raise the bar for you and your fear. Your capacity will grow. 

Elevate Your Brand by Doing It Scared

Julie: It has to begin with you. If you don’t believe you’re ready and worthy of what you want, no one else will believe it either. You have to own it and embrace it. Speaking of public speaking, I have been on huge stages, but I also spoke in front of a smaller audience, and they did NOT like me. I was publicly annihilated and humiliated, so a fear of speaking along with being publicly shamed came true for me!

And here I am, still speaking. It wasn’t the right room and they weren’t ready for that message. Good to know. Moving right along. It doesn’t stop me from showing up and sharing my message, because that’s what I’m here to do. I’m not here for everyone to love me, I’m here to speak on a stage and impact one person in that room. Sometimes I show up with hard truths and not everyone wants to hear it. 

You are the main character in your movie. If you don’t like the way the movie is going right now, you get to change the script. When you change the script, the script changes. It has to begin with you. That’s my biggest reminder for people. Give yourself the fear-based and faith-based permission to do that and you’ll get some really incredible gifts from it. 

Stef: This has been so encouraging and motivational, Julie! Let’s go book a stage, I’m ready! I hope you took a lot of notes, friends. Tell us where everyone can find your podcast and your incredible messaging framework. 

Julie: We know each other because we said yes to an event a friend of ours was leading. If we hadn’t said yes to that, we would have never met. If you’re not seeing those opportunities around you, create them yourself!

I have a podcast called The Influencer Podcast. I spend most of my time on Instagram and sometimes LinkedIn, which is lots of fun. If you want to learn more about me, visit my website. There are a ton of links on my Instagram bio as well. 

Stef: Thank you for coming and blessing us today – I’m so encouraged. 

What an Eye-Opening Interview with Julie Solomon!

Alright friends, let’s recap all the incredible wisdom Julie Solomon shared with us today. I hope you took notes! Here is a high-level view of what we discussed: 

• Choose a long-form content method – Julie started with blogging. 
• Figure out what your zone of genius is and embrace it.
• Julie went from consulting to online courses to a podcast for visibility.
• Invest in yourself – not necessarily freebies or small courses.
• Put in the hard work and fine-tune. 
• Have faith and believe in yourself and your skill set.
• Give yourself permission to be you – your degree, experience, and talents.
• Understand the importance of clear messaging and work it into your content.
• Place yourself in the path of opportunity.
• Dream big, but remember where you are today – take action based on today.

I hope this blesses you, friends! 

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

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