Ep 08: Make Sure You Have this Person on Your Team

[00:00:00] Who is the number one person you should have on your team? Well, it might surprise you to find out that that number one person should be your reader. But wait, you might be saying, Aren’t I writing the novel for my reader? Aren’t I serving them? Aren’t I doing all this world crafting, plot outlining, character developing for my reader? How are they gonna be a part of my team? Well, that’s all true, but your reader is a really crucial part of your team, and we’re gonna dive into that in today’s episode. But first, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Rachel Fahrenbach. I help Christian writers craft and publish a novel with an engaged audience ready to buy it.

So let’s get into it. Last week in episode six, I talked about the importance of a CommuniTEAM. I know it’s a cheesy phrase, but I really think it’s important to stop worrying about building a platform and instead invite people to be part of your CommuniTEAM. I talked [00:01:00] about this idea of having a sense of belonging. That when you have a CommuniTEAM mindset, you’re creating a community to invite people into, including your reader. Now, when your reader finds you and the stories you create for them, they feel like they belong to something. It might not be the extreme of a Harry Potter fan, but it’s still there.

Book clubs exist because of shared experiences, and your book gives that to people they feel seen. So your reader is a key part of this CommuniTEAM because they are part of the community. They add to it, they experience it. And quite honestly, because you’re crafting this community with the intent to serve them, you want them to be part of your CommuniTEAM. They bring to the community the thing that it needs the most. You need the reader for every other component of your CommuniTEAM [00:02:00] to work.

So here’s the thing, You’re building this community around your work and the work that you do as an author, and you have people on your community team that are helping you accomplish that work. You have your inner circle, you have your writing community, you have, um, the helpers that we talked about. You have all those things, right?

And those are people helping you make it happen. And then you have the connectors on your community team. These are the people who are helping you connect to other communities, other audiences, but then you have your reader and they make up the bulk of your community team. These are the people that are making your community a reality.

So these are the people that participate in your community. These are the people that engage with your novel. These are the people that experience the community that you are building for them. And because they participate in the community, the community thrives.

So you need your reader and you need them to be engaged with your community and a part of your community [00:03:00] team.

When you serve your reader well with the content you’re producing, and I’m not just talking about your book, I’m talking about even the small form content, uh, such as, uh, your sample content or your supplemental content that you’re putting out on your blog. Your social media is your podcast, your email list, whatever, wherever it might be going out when you serve your reader well with that content, your reader feels like they have been just handed something of great value. They feel seen. They feel a part of something. They feel like you have given them gold. They wanna give that gold back.

And this comes into play in that whole word of mouth marketing that we talked about in the last episode. They become fans of yours. They become engaged members of your community, and they help spread the word. They help you succeed because they know if you succeed, it benefit them. It’s this reciprocal relationship that you have as team members. You [00:04:00] provide content and value and they reciprocate by spreading the word about you and engaging within your community and because of that everyone benefits.

Next we’re gonna talk about how to invite someone to become a reader in your community, to become a part of your CommuniTEAM in just a moment. But before we do, I’m gonna remind you to hit subscribe on either YouTube or Apple or Spotify or wherever you’re watching or listening to this episode so that you don’t miss future episodes where we plan. Dive deeper into this idea of how do you even reach that person to invite them to be part of your community team.

But today we’re gonna focus on just how do we invite these people? We’ve reached them, we’ve gotten in front of them, but how do we invite them to become part of our community team? Well, the first way is to provide value. Like I was saying, we are going to craft a novel to the best of our ability.

We’re going to create sample content and supplemental content, and we are going to serve our [00:05:00] reader while they wait and we’re gonna deliver it to them through various platforms. But we’re gonna make sure that we’re serving them in the time that they have to wait for our novel, right? And we’re gonna show up consistently.

We’re going to give updates. We’re going to give out content on a regular basis so that they can feel like they, so that they begin to trust us and they begin to know that we see them and that we belong in this community with us. So we’re gonna continue today that we’re gonna show up, we’re going to show up and serve.

Early and often so that a individual begins to understand that we want them on our community team, and then we’re gonna stay in touch with them. We’re going to have a website. This is the house. This is where everything, this is where people know they can find you. This is your address on the internet, right?

Is your website. So you’re gonna have a website. So if they need to show up at your house, they can, And then you’re gonna have your socials. These are your business cards. This is where, um, they [00:06:00] connect with you to get all the details right. They, you, they land on your Instagram to kind of get to know who you are, and then it directs them to where they need to go.

And then you have your email list and this is your weekly coffee date with them, or monthly, depending on how often you wanna do your emails. But this is your touchpoint with them. This is to continue the relationship building aspect. This is where we are getting to know our reader and they’re getting to know us on a regular basis.

And we’re gonna invite them, like I said, early and often. We’re gonna show up in the spaces they already hang out in and we’re gonna give them a chance to become accustomed to us and the work that we do. I heard recently that it takes about 20 touch points before a person really starts to engage with the offer that you have 20 touch points.

You don’t wanna be tho doing those 20 touchpoints after your novel releases. You wanna do that beforehand so that when your novel releases, they’re ready for you, They’re ready to buy it because they become accustomed to you, the work that you do, and they have [00:07:00] already heard that invitation to come join you on your community team.

They already know that they wanna be a part of this, this thing that you’re building. They already know that they wanna be a part of the work that you’re doing. They want to experience the work that you’re creating for them. So the more that you show up on your socials, in your email, in the optins that you’re creating, in the speaking events that you do, in the online summits that you’re a part of, the podcast interviews that you conduct, The podcast interviews that you do when you show up in these places, give the invitation to the listener, to the reader to say, Hey, come be a part of my community team.

Now, you don’t use that verbiage, but you give a call to action. Follow me on my social media, check out my website, download this opt-in created for you. Get a, uh, a sample chapter. Hey, I’ve created a list of 10 books that are similar to mine that I think you’re gonna love. Do those things to invite your, the reader that you want to [00:08:00] be on your community team.

Do it early and often. 20 touchpoints people, 20 touchpoints. You want these people ready for when your book releases. You want them on your CommuniTEAM you want to give them value. You want to have that reciprocal relationship with them. You want them to engage and experience the community that you are building around the work that you do as an author.

Now you’re probably wondering how to make an email opt-in, how to get on a podcast or even how to balance everything between creating stuff for social media and also working on your novel. And I wanna make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast because we will be talking about that in future episodes.

And so I don’t want you to miss those. And if you have a writer friend who is also wondering about all the things, like how do you even create this optin, How do you even make it and what do I even create for my audience? What do you mean by sample content and supplemental [00:09:00] content? Like how do I do these things so that they’re ready for my novel? I would love for you to send this podcast to them so that they too can benefit from the conversations we’re going to have in future episodes. Until next time, happy writing. Bye.