Podcast LIVE: Be You, Not the Algorithm: Finding Your Real Audience Janine Coney | EP309

What happens when you build a massive social media following only to discover they're not your ideal clients? Marketing expert Janine Coney reveals her unexpected journey from Instagram influencer to successful business coach on this episode of the Mindset in Action podcast.

After amassing an enviable Instagram following (beyond that coveted 10K mark), Janine made a startling discovery: her impressive audience wasn't translating into paying clients. Despite receiving free products and event invitations, she wasn't leveraging her true zone of genius in marketing and branding. This disconnect forced a pivotal decision that would transform her business approach entirely.

With refreshing honesty, Janine shares the challenges of pivoting away from an established audience to rebuild one aligned with her business goals. She offers practical strategies for entrepreneurs looking to build quality followers rather than simply chasing numbers. From selecting the right platforms where your ideal clients actually spend time to creating content that resonates with them, her advice cuts through typical social media myths.

"People connect with people, and you need to make sure that you are as authentic as you can be," Janine emphasizes, warning against blending in with trending language or approaches that don't reflect your true self. Her three-point action plan provides immediate steps to review your social presence, establish consistency, and craft compelling bios that speak directly to client needs.

Whether you're just starting your audience-building journey or wondering why your large following isn't converting to sales, this conversation offers invaluable insights into creating a social media presence that attracts the right people—those who will actually buy from you, not just follow you. Listen now to transform your approach to audience building and stop wasting time on followers who'll never become clients.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to audience building episode
• 2:10 Upcoming classes and resources
• 4:30 Janine's journey from influencer to coach
• 8:00 Building the right audience strategy
• 11:04 Platform selection for your ideal client
• 13:13 Content strategy and authentic sharing
• 16:29 Three immediate actions for improvement
• 19:43 Q&A on quality over quantity

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:33

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I'm so glad to have you here for this fourth episode in our live podcast series. So these are the episodes that went live on stage with me at the Mindset and Action event that I held at the beginning of April.

Donna Eade: 1:06

This episode is with the wonderful Janine Coney. We were talking all about audience building. Janine amassed a huge following on Instagram. It is one of those ones that everybody would have been envious of, especially a few years ago when you couldn't get the swipe up feature unless you had 10,000 followers and before the link section came in on Instagram. So she built a fantastic following without buying followers, never did any of that kind of stuff. It was all organic. But she decided to make a pivot and move away from the audience that she had built. So we are talking all about the reasons why she pivoted, the reasons why that audience wasn't working for her anymore and what it is that she has done and is putting in place to correct that. So if you are looking to build your audience on social media, then make sure that you listen to this episode.

Donna Eade: 2:04

Before I let you jump into that, I do want to let you know of two classes that I have got coming up very, very soon. So the first one is for virtual assistants. So if you are a virtual assistant, listen up, come back to me. You want to listen to this. So if you are looking to upskill and offer more services within your remit, then I would love for you to come and fill in a survey for me.

Donna Eade: 2:29

I'm doing a little bit of market research. It's donnaeedcom forward slash VA podcast. Donnaeedcom forward slash va podcast. It is seven questions. You answer those questions, fill in that form and what that's going to do is help me create this class. What it is going to produce at the end of it is a va production podcasting workshop. It's going to be fully comprehensive. I've already got a lot of ideas of what I'm going to be teaching in it, but this survey is really going to help me to understand what it is that the audience is wanting in that respect.

Donna Eade: 3:05

So if you are interested in adding podcast production skills and services to your remit, then go and fill in that form DonnaEcom forward slash VA podcast. Three people who fill it in will be getting a free place on the first workshop. Everybody else will get a hefty discount on that workshop, so it's well worth going and filling it in if it is something that you have considered. So that is the first one. The second one I'm going to tell you more about in the coming weeks. If you are on my podcast mailing list, then you will be the first to know. So if you want to be the first to know about that second class and you want more information on the VA one, then go to donateecom forward slash pod squad, sign up for my weekly newsletter and you will have all that information in there.

Donna Eade: 3:51

So, without further ado, let's jump back into this live episode with Janine Coney. Ok, so, jan, janine, before we start, what's your name and where do you come from? Yeah, exactly that's what I was going to say what's your name and where'd you come from. Tell us a little bit about what you do, hello Estilla, and don't, and don't, forget to eat the microphone.

Janine Coney: 4:14

So hello everybody. My name is Janine Coney. I'm a marketing, personal branding and business coach, and I work with female founders and leaders who are looking to stand out from the crowd, who want to build their business and want to be known as the one, the expert in their field and the one that people choose. Yeah, so that's, in brief, what I do. We're going to go into more detail, I think.

Donna Eade: 4:39

Yeah, yeah. So the reason that I asked Janine to come to talk and if you follow her on Instagram, you'll know she has a rather large following on Instagram and it was when I looked at it I was like, oh, that's what I want, that's what I want. And then I spoke to Janine and I was like, oh no, that's not what I want.

Janine Coney: 4:57

That's not what I want.

Donna Eade: 4:58

So, janine, tell us about your audience and how you created it and how you got it to where it is, and then we'll jump into all the reasons why we might not want to do it like that Exactly.

Janine Coney: 5:11

Well, it will all unfold as I tell you. So I worked, as I've said to you, in marketing and events all of my career, and HR as well, and then I made a massive pivot in 2018 when, after losing both my parents and I think somebody said earlier, actually it's at those times where you really do look at your life and think, what am I doing and I actually then retrained as an image consultant and I thought at that point, wow, this is what I really really want to be doing. So I set out on Instagram at that point and, although I built brands for other people, I've got to be honest. I didn't set out at that point thinking, oh, I'm building my brand here. I was just thinking I need was easier to increase your following, and I literally was posting after what we've talked about this morning, kind of like morning, noon and night really and it did really grow my following as well.

Janine Coney: 6:19

What I didn't do I know we're not going into that, but I people's minds might go straight away did you buy followers never bought followers. I never got engaged in any follow pods or whatever you call where people like follow me, and we all have to comment on everybody's posts at seven o'clock in the morning. But I did get very, very caught up in the world of influencing at that time and that might look really super lovely to you and, yes, it helped build my audience, but what it wasn't doing is it wasn't building my audience with the customers, with the clients that I wanted. I was building my audience as an influencer and, as I said to Donna which you were quite surprised I then quickly realized that I wasn't using all of my skills. If you want the shortened version, just tell me. I quickly realized I wasn't using all of my skills.

Janine Coney: 7:07

If you want the shortened version just tell me I quickly realized I wasn't using all of my skills and I really missed the marketing, I missed the branding, and I was going out and about to lots of networking meetings and meeting people and I was thinking I could help you do that, I can help you do that. So it was that point I thought, actually, and going on, I think from this morning's conversation as well, I think that was the point I realized and really realized where my zone of genius was and we all have that and we were talking about that this morning the place that really makes you fired up and really excited to to be in. And that, for me, was when I was coaching people, when I was really helping them get truly, truly visible in what they wanted to do. So at that point, without going on too much there, I decided that it was time to pivot my business and it was at that point where I had grown my audience and I had grown my audience.

Janine Coney: 8:00

But obviously my audience had to change at that point and I realized that at that point, as that growing an audience as an influencer is very different than growing an audience as somebody in business, and I had to, at that point, make that decision what route I wanted to go down and I knew that I had wanted my business to actually go in the direction I wanted it to, not as an influencer, because being sent stuff although it was lovely and working with the brands is stuff although it was lovely and working with the brands is lovely, but it wasn't paying the bills.

Janine Coney: 8:32

So if you weren't getting paid for it, even though I was being sent things and I was going to events and having photographs taken, you know, wonderful and it built my audience, but at a certain point I realized it wasn't building it in the way that I wanted it to. So I think the clear lesson from that, from my point of view, even though I have a very large audience of engaged people is make sure that you're building your audience for your clients, because I then had to pivot and I actually lost a lot of followers. Am I going on too long now, donna?

Donna Eade: 9:04

I lost a lot of followers at that point but I just want to get this out.

Janine Coney: 9:08

so I lost a lot of followers and then I gained them again, yeah, so I had to lean into that at that point too.

Donna Eade: 9:14

So what should we be focusing on when we're looking at building that right audience? You?

Janine Coney: 9:19

need to be focusing on who your ideal client is.

Janine Coney: 9:23

Now I bet everybody in this room is going to go.

Janine Coney: 9:24

I know that, janine, but how many people are actually making sure that they are engaging with the people that they want to work with, without worrying about what anybody else thinks, without thinking about what your peers think and definitely without thinking what the latest trend is?

Janine Coney: 9:44

People connect with people, and you need to make sure that you are as authentic as you can be and you are showing people your point of difference, because if you're trying to blend in with everybody else, then you're not going to have any point of difference for anybody else to want to follow you. But that then doesn't mean you've got to be the loudest and it doesn't mean you've got to be the person jumping around on wheels or doing something that doesn't feel right for you. But it does mean having an opinion and it does mean being, as I say, authentic and making sure that you're speaking to the right people, because they will listen, you will call people in and you will repel people away, and that's fine too to so when we're looking at all the different platforms where we can build an audience, what would you say we need to consider when we're focusing?

Donna Eade: 10:34

because some of us are everywhere and scrambling and trying to be everywhere and are exhausted. Others of us are on a platform because we like it, but we're speaking into the abyss because our audience actually isn't there, and then others of us just don't even want to even look at it because my god, it's, it's enough already. So how do we sort of make sure that we're focusing on the right platforms and I know that you've had a bit of a change recently with that as well, so talk about that yeah, exactly, I've um, obviously, I built my personal brand and my business on Instagram and I'm still very prolific on Instagram and I love it.

Janine Coney: 11:09

But I also realized that the businesses that I work with and a lot of the people I work with now on LinkedIn, so I've obviously now taken my focus over onto LinkedIn, which isn't easy when you start again, especially from my point of view, but I think for anybody, you, if you are starting out, then you need to start on one platform and build that up and make sure that you're happy, but make sure the platform that you're on is the one again where your ideal client is and your audience is.

Janine Coney: 11:36

There is absolutely no point being on TikTok or on whatever other channel just because maybe you're 15-year-old is and tells you it's amazing if that's not where your client's going to be seen. So you're going to be seen by your ideal client and I think, although that's an older piece of advice, I think it's something too, and what I mean by that is you know you won't have heard that won't be the first time you've heard anybody say that to you, I'm sure, but still very, very true, and people do get sucked in by new trends and new things that are coming out and feel I mean, how many people still use threads now? So don't be sucked in by everything. Make sure that you are literally going where your client goes.

Donna Eade: 12:18

Threads actually annoys the heck out of me. Anybody else Like I'm on Facebook and I see something that's interesting and I click on it. It takes me into threads. I'm like that's not what I wanted. Why am I over here? It's me into threads. I'm like I didn't that's not what I wanted. Why am I over here? It's really annoying. So what do you actually?

Janine Coney: 12:38

talk about to your audience on these platforms, and how can we work out what we need to be sharing? Okay, so you want to be. You want to be giving people an insight into you we were talking earlier and you can't just be selling all the time. Nobody wants that, you know. People will just scroll on by if all you're doing is buy this. This is what it's going to do for you.

Janine Coney: 12:54

You need to be engaging with your audience so that they can understand who you are and why they should be picking you. But what you want to be doing is going in with a particular subject that you want to talk about and let people know where they are, and you want to let people know where they can get to. So you're kind of calling people out. In a sense, you're saying I know you're here, but you want to get to here and this is how I can take you there and that's what you want to do. And then you can talk about some of your own experiences as well. So you should be sharing exactly what took you from where you are to where they want to be, because most people are have walked where their clients are walking. So you want to be sharing that as well. You want to be sharing the good things and you also want to be sharing the bad things as well. You want to make sure that you're letting them know that you're a real person, that things happen to you like you probably wouldn't believe that years ago I suffered so badly, with panic attacks, even being able to sit here and do this.

Janine Coney: 13:56

Well, I just wouldn't have been able to do it. In fact, I couldn't have even sat in the front row for any length of time because I'd have had to be known I can get out the room. So for me it's a huge thing that I can come and do this now. Some people would say why would you talk about that? And I'm not in the pain of it now, so I can talk about it. So I do believe in sharing a struggle. What I don't believe in is sharing the struggle when you're going through it. That day, nobody wants you coming on going.

Janine Coney: 14:24

I'm having a crap day today and la la, la. The next day you're back on going bye from me. Bye from me because that's a bit, but you know you can talk afterwards of things that you've been through.

Donna Eade: 14:35

Amy Porterfield says share the scabs well. Porterfield says share the scabs Well, share the scars not the scabs.

Janine Coney: 14:40

Don't talk from the pain, yeah exactly so.

Donna Eade: 14:48

do you have a strategy when it comes to your social media and how have you kind of worked on that over?

Janine Coney: 14:51

the years. Okay, my strategy sometimes goes out the window because I do change my mind quite a lot on things.

Donna Eade: 14:57

We're allowed to change our mind, aren we?

Janine Coney: 14:58

let's keep it real however, it's definitely not a throw a spaghetti at the wall, um and see what sticks scenario at all. Obviously, my marketing brain kicks back in and you have to have a strategy, you have to have a plan. It's as simple as that. You've got to know where you're taking your business and when. You know where you want to take your business and you know what you need to sell, then you can plan back from that and work out exactly what you need to do to get you there. And I make that sound simple, but really, in reality, that's what you've got to do. So, if you know, you've got something coming up, you know, and what I do say is most people don't give themselves the right amount of time to do the marketing for anything or to advertise or to promote something. They're not thinking about how they're getting visible afterwards.

Donna Eade: 15:45

So, yeah, these are really important things, yeah so when we go home today and we're looking at all of the social stuff that we're doing, what are? Three things that we could do to start moving us towards being in the right place, showing up for the right people and attracting them okay, three things you can do is, first of all, have a look at your feed and see what what it's telling other people.

Janine Coney: 16:13

Have a look at it and if it's on instagram, look at the last nine posts that you put on. And if I didn't know what you do, would I look at it. And if it's on Instagram, look at the last nine posts that you put on and if I didn't know what you do, would I look at it and know exactly what any of you do from that. If you're not posting consistently, ask yourself why and what can you do. That fits in with you and your business. It doesn't mean that you've got to be posting three times a day or even every day. You need to post. You need to post consistently. Now you can be consistently. Am I allowed to swear? Yeah, you can be consistently shit.

Janine Coney: 16:45

So when I say be consistently, I was going to say Kat didn't ask, so make sure that your consistency is obviously shit and you are, you know, showing up when you say you're going to show up for your audience. That's number two. Number three is please ditch the boring bios, the boring I help statements, and remember that people want to know exactly how you're going to move them from A to B.

Donna Eade: 17:14

I'm going to do a little name drop now because, just as you were saying that, I thought, oh my goodness, like knowing what you're going to post and having the strategy and how is it going to fit in with you? I had a conversation with Denise Duffield Thomas the other day look out for it on the podcast coming soon and she said that she's already done her social media for the year. Done it already done it why? Because she doesn't like to spend days. She's very much like andrea she doesn't want to spend days and days on her business. So she has set things that she does on set days.

Donna Eade: 17:45

Thursdays is her podcasting interviews day. She gets dressed up, she does her hair, does her makeup. The rest of the time she's not got her makeup on and she has already done her social media posts for the entire year. So that's how far her strategy goes. That she's sorted out. She knows when she's doing launches, whatever it is that she's doing in her business, it's done. She doesn't have to think about it anymore. And I was like, well, that's amazing. Um, I'm not quite that good, but this is sort of stuff that we can implement, isn't it? Whether it's to that degree or whether it's just making sure that the next month is sorted. Sit down for half a day and get it sorted, and you know we can use chat gpt to help us.

Janine Coney: 18:21

Um, as long as we make it our own the other thing is is people don't blow their own trumpet enough. You know, especially women, we don't blow our trumpets enough. So if you do something, then tell people you know you've got a. You've got to get comfortable doing that. It's not showing off, it's letting people know you're brilliant. Yeah, well've got to get comfortable doing that. It's not showing off, it's letting people know you're brilliant.

Donna Eade: 18:40

Yeah, well, that was my first drop, for just for julia, because she told me she was going to come after me if I didn't tell people that I'd interviewed this woman so okay, so I'm going to come to you guys for questions in a second, but one that I did get dropped into the q a was um.

Donna Eade: 18:56

We've covered a little bit of it here, but maybe you can go over some things and drop something else. How do you make sure that you are building an audience that isn't just about a numbers game and that we're getting the followers of people that might actually buy from us?

Janine Coney: 19:10

Again, I think I've probably covered it, but I think getting really crystal clear on who your ideal client is and I'm not just talking about you know, personas. I'm talking going really much deeper than that. How do they wake up in the morning, what are they feeling, what are they thinking, and then talk to that person? I'd say the other thing is never buy followers. I don't think that's such a big trend, but it was a massive trend at one point. And be you know, be yourself. Be yourself. It's the biggest thing.

Janine Coney: 19:39

There is nobody else that does you other than you. But what everybody else tries to do is blend in with other people. They try and take on other people's language or other people's way of doing things, like if you don't use like everybody loves using af in their statements at the moment and it's like a bugbear of mine, because if that's not your language and you don't talk to me like that, you don't need to start including that in your posts, in whatever you're doing so make sure the language that you use and, coming back to the ai side of things, make sure, if you are going to use chat, gpt to create anything for you, that yes, you're taking it and and you're looking at it and then you're putting your, your thoughts, your opinion, you you it up.

Janine Coney: 20:21

You know, be the one that people choose. Don't just take it because you will be getting. Everybody's copy is just starting to look the same and it's your opinions and your experience that's going to make you stand out from other people yeah, I think we all need to lean into us more.

Donna Eade: 20:39

One of the things that I like to pull on when I'm talking about that is a lady called Corinne Crabtree, which some of you may know. Some of you won't. She is a Texan and she does the no BS podcast and she's a weight loss coach and she swears like a mofo in everything And's like if you don't like it, I'm not the coach for you and that's it. And that's how she differentiates herself, and the people that want to come to her will come to her, and the people that are turned off by it won't work with her. And that is a way to stand out in the crowd is to be you. That's her it's not.

Janine Coney: 21:13

She's not putting it on repelling because they weren't your people anyway exactly, exactly.

Donna Eade: 21:18

Do we have any questions from the audience? Katherine got to run around anywhere. Oh, we've all got fabulous audiences, we don't need any help, okay, well, thank you so much for coming, janine. I really appreciate having you on the stage. Thank you very much, you. You may take a seat.