Feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to churn out endless content just to stay relevant? In this episode, Anna Lundberg explores how independent experts and business owners can build a powerful reputation without living on social media. Tune in to discover strategies for becoming known for your expertise – while reclaiming your time, energy, and creative spark.

Key moments:

[00:00] Why social content is exhausting & the importance of redefining success

[01:22] Anna introduces the Business Accelerator for founders who want sustainable growth

[02:45] The pressure to post and why it can lead to bland content (not results)

[04:16] How experts like Brené Brown & Simon Sinek built authority without content overload

[05:34] Questions to define your own point of view

[07:10] What are you fatigued by in your industry – and what’s your alternative?

[09:14] High-impact, low-frequency visibility – making your content go further

[10:14] Guest podcasting, events, and how presence trumps performance

[11:23] When you’re rooted in your perspective, brand-building becomes magnetic (not draining)

[12:48] How to connect with Anna and join her intentional business community

Resources mentioned:

• The Business Accelerator Programme: OneStepOutside.com/accelerate.
• Connect with Anna Lundberg: Get in touch on Instagram or LinkedIn.
• Anna’s article on personal branding: How to build your personal brand
• Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk: Start with Why
• Brené Brown’s Ted Talk: The Power of Vulnerability

Build authority without being always online

This episode is for you if you are tired of trying to keep up with the content treadmill – aren’t we all? – and starting to wonder if there’s a better way perhaps to build your reputation. If you want to be known for your expertise without being glued to your phone, listen up. Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a profitable business as an independent expert. One that works for you and your lifestyle.

Hi, I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider turned business mentor, executive coach and mum of two. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant, I’m here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom, flexibility and the fulfilment you’re looking for. Ready to redefine success and build a business that you love. Let’s get started.

Okay, now before we dive into today, today’s episode, which is, I think going to resonate with a lot of you. It resonates with me and so that’s a pretty good measure, I think, if I’m experiencing it. I’m sure you are as well. And before we get into that again, a quick heads up that the doors are going to be opening for the business accelerator. This is my signature programme. It’s for founders and solopreneurs who want to grow but are doing so differently. We’re doing it without the burnout or hustle.

We’re not trying to apply these one size fits all formulas. We want to grow with integrity. We want to be able to build our business alongside our families, to prioritise our health and enjoy life. And so really coming up with a clear strategic path to build a business that works for us. If that sounds like it could be interesting for you, then get in touch. It’s a great time to have a conversation. You can go to onestepoutside.com accelerate. You’ll be able to fill in a few details when you click on the Apply button and either to join the wait list if you’re later in the year, or if you are now during an open doors period, you’ll be able to actually register.

We’ll have a call to make sure it’s a good fit for you and for me and for our group as well. It is a curated community. We want to make sure the vibe is right for all of us. But again, if you are interested in joining us, we would love to have you. OneSteparsi.com accelerate now we are looking at the content treadmill and let’s be honest, that pressure to show up every day on every platform is exhausting. And when I had a couple of new clients join us in the last few weeks, the first thing they ask is, what should I be posting on LinkedIn? It’s taking up far more of my brain power than I want to admit. And that is generally where we go. It’s the most visible thing that we see.

Right. Um, but especially for us as solopreneurs, one man, one woman shows service based founders we’re juggling already. Hopefully if we have a successful business delivery, client delivery actually doing the work. We’re also doing sales, business development, strategy and life. So, you know, posting constantly without having a clear purpose and without knowing what’s going to work is going to, worst case, lead to burnout. Best case is going to lead to really bland content and very little traction. Because it’s not about the volume, it’s not the quantity that’s building your authority, it’s the clarity. And that sounds very, you know, it’s a meme that you could put on.

In fact, let me put that on a LinkedIn quote right away. But it’s true. You do not need more noise, you need a point of view that’s going to cut through that noise. So to give examples that I’m sure you’ll be familiar with, Brene Brown, heard of her. She did not become a household name by posting seven times a day. And if she does so now, it’s only because she has a big social media team and she really owned a deep, specific point of view that she of course put forward in a famous TED talk on vulnerability as strength, which was a very strong counterpoint to our usual society’s perspective that all vulnerability means being weak and you’ve got to be strong and so on. Right? And this is built, she has built this, I suppose, with everything from books to those talks to, yes, social posts around that point of view. But she’s always leading with that point of view.

Another household name, Simon Sinek, he’s expanded into all sorts of things. But start with why was his core message, you know, a pretty low quality TED talk that he did and a book he wrote, and that’s his whole message summed up in three words. People still quote him years later. Even when a lot of people say, oh, he didn’t come up with that, you know, this is all from sociology or so. And so did this, fine, but he put a name on it, he stuck that flag in the ground and it became his thing. So you don’t have to be the only person saying something. You don’t even have to be the best person saying something, but you have to be saying it in your own unique way. Anna Lindbergh, have you heard of her? Many chance.

I talk about redefining success. I’ve always said it’s not about quitting your job. I’m now in particular challenging that hustle culture, really focusing on building a business that works, not chasing algorithms. You know, your point of view is hopefully what makes your message stick, even if someone only hears it once. But ideally, you’re hammering that point home and people do need to see it more than once. I have a colleague at the moment who’s really going all in on trust. And it’s a big topic, but it’s through the leadership lens. And she’s making sure every post, every comment she writes has the word trust in it.

So what are the key words? What is your particular perspective? What are you rallying against? What are you standing for? Right, so shifting from volume to having this point of view, that’s going to cut through to having resonance. So how do we define our point of view? If we, like me, are a bit vanilla, perhaps, and don’t necessarily sort of have this really strong, powerful claim that we want to believe in. Now, first of all, I would challenge that because I think actually we do have a hill that we would die on, so that’s important. But secondly, I’ll give you some specific questions you can think of, and either if you can, you can pause this now and grab a pen and paper and work through them right away, or, and I know this is always tricky, come back to it. So if you’re driving or exercising or doing the dishes or whatever it is you do, when you listen to me, perhaps commuting somewhere, then by all means come back to it later, because these are really important questions. You can reflect on them as you go for a drive or a run or whatever it is. So this is going to be your filter for everything you say and do is the lens through which you look at the world, right? So you can ask yourself, first of all, what do I believe about how people should grow their business, lead, succeed? So what do I believe about how people should live their lives? About how people should approach exercise, leadership careers, you know, whatever your territory is, your industry, what do you believe about how people should go about behaving in that sphere? Second question, what am I tired of seeing in my industry? Right? This is one thing. If you find yourself getting frustrated, oh, I can’t believe they’re talking about this again.

And this is wrong that they’re saying they’re going on about this, but it’s not about that. What am I tired of seeing in the industry? And what do I want to challenge, reframe, or offer up instead? Okay, so what’s your alternative? If I’m rallying against this hustle culture, 5am meditation, blah blah blah, and you know, posting content all the time, working 247 because you love it so much and it’s worth it and you can’t have success without sacrifice and all this stuff. Okay, fine, what is my alternative then? What am I proposing? So you might believe that success should be sustainable, not sacrificial. Clarity matters more than consistency. Presence builds more trust than performance. You know, performance and well being are complementary, not opposing each other. And you have to say it in a better way than I do. So write these out, say them often, and use them to shape your marketing, your offers, your content, your client conversations.

If you read a post or a piece of content and anybody could have said it, that’s no good. Especially the kind of AI stuff that comes out, right? It’s generally, oh yes, it sounds amazing, sounds super smart, but I could have written it just as you could have written it, right? So put your spin on it. What’s your particular problem with this thing? If you’re commenting on someone on LinkedIn, let’s say, make sure you’re whether you’re using a keyword like trust. In my case, I might make sure. And I haven’t done this so much, but it sounds like a good idea, I think, to always talk about, oh, we need to be redefining what success means, recalibrating how we’re thinking about this. You know, you can use those words, work life integration over work life balance was the one that I used to write about a lot. Okay, so what do you believe? What are you tired of seeing and what do you want to challenge, reframe or offer instead? And then, you know, the important thing once you have this point of view is that strategic visibility is going to be more important than constant content. You don’t have to post every single day in order to be seen.

You just need to show up strategically. And that sounds okay, I’m going to show up strategically. But low frequency, high impact is what we’re going for. So again, one well written article that gets shared by the right people. I have two examples there. One is, and I’m humble bragging here that I, I have written well written articles, but There you go. And one that I’ve mentioned many times on the podcast is that I wrote about personal branding years ago. And that article still, for whatever reason, performs very well in SEO.

And people still come to me to work with me, helping them with their personal brand because of that one article. Right. A second article around redefining Success, in fact, was shared by Ariana Huffington. And then I got a massive influx of traffic that came to me. Right. So one article shared by the right people on the right platform is going to do so much legwork compared to daily posts on whatever platform. A guest podcast, interview. And I’m such a fan of these, where you’re speaking directly to your ideal audience, you’re already automatically trusted.

There’s a shortcut there. Because they already listen to this particular host and because they’re bringing you on, you automatically have sort of borrowed credibility from them. And so that’s incredibly powerful. More so than having my own podcast. Right. Going on another podcast will bring in new traffic, and that trust is almost immediate. And running a workshop, a keynote, a roundtable, where your thinking gets remembered. I’ve organised a session.

I’m trying to think when this episode going out, pretty much, I think it’s just happened. If I’m correct with my dates for my community, I’m not publicising it publicly. I think publicising basically means publicly promoting. But there you go. And it’s just for my existing community, we’re talking about the trends, the things that are working right now, the things I’m seeing that aren’t working, and how we can really stand out. So I’m bringing my experience and expertise to that topic as a kind of briefing for what’s working in expert businesses at the moment. Okay, so what happens when you’re rooted in a strong point of view? My goodness. Marketing becomes easier.

You don’t have to guess what to say. You’re like, oh, my gosh, yes, this is my perspective. Content becomes more effective because it’s landing with the right people, the people who share your values and beliefs and like, yes, Anna, this is exactly it. I don’t want to do this lazy, manipulative sales. I don’t want to be working into the weekends. I don’t need to be building an empire and making millions. I want to be building a business that, yes, gives me financial freedom and lets me live the life I want. But in exactly that, I want to live the life I want.

Working three days a week, taking school, holidays off, whatever that looks like. Right. So marketing’s easier, content’s More effective and your brand becomes magnetic. Dare I say it, this is the Holy Grail that I’m still chasing. I don’t say chasing, that sounds a bit extreme, but I’m certainly still aspiring towards to be seen as the go to. You’re not just an echo. You’re not just one of the many career coaches or leadership experts or speakers or whatever. You are the only person who talks about this, in my case, I don’t know, recalibration methodology or you’re the only person who talks about fill in the blank.

Right? You’re creating depth here, not just reach. You’re building trust, not just traffic. And the good news is you can do it. You should do it without having to be on all the time. So I hope this convinces you my point of view. Convinces you to have a point of view. I’d of course love to hear what your point of view is. And if you want to bounce some ideas back and forth, then go ahead and book a call.

You can do that at onestepoutside.com forward/call1step outside.com call. We can have a bit of a chat about what your point of view would be. I’m certainly not going to influence you, but it does help to have a sounding board to go, oh, this is what I’m saying. So happy to be that person for you. And of course, if you’d like more comprehensive strategic support with building your business in a bit of a different way, then you can apply to the business accelerator. You can do that at one step outside.com forward slash accelerate. I will see you next week. Best of luck with putting that flag in the ground.

Go on, put a post up there. Now, I dare you. Go out there, say what you stand for and, and don’t worry if. If you get thousands of views and shares and whatever, it’s one little breadcrumb of many that’s going to lead the right people to you. I’ll see you next week. In the Business accelerator, we do things a little differently. This is my signature programme for independent experts who are ready to grow sustainably, strategically and with integrity. If you want more income and more freedom, but without the hustle, the hype or the one-size-fits-all formulas, then you can learn more and join us at onestepoutside.com/accelerate. Register your interest or join the waitlist at onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

In the Business Accelerator, we do things a little differently. This is my signature programme for independent experts who are ready to grow sustainably, strategically and with integrity. If you want more income and more freedom, but without the hustle, the hype or the one-size-fits-all formulas, then you can learn more and join us at onestepoutside.com forward/accelerate. Register your interest or join the waitlist at onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

WORK WITH ANNA

Let us help you design a business and a life that gives you freedom from the 9 to 5. There are several options for how you can work with us. Choose the programme that’s right for you.

The Outsiders Business Accelerator

A mastermind for service-based business owners, freelancers and online entrepreneurs who are ready to achieve success on their own terms. onestepoutside.com/accelerate

The Outsiders Business Academy

A self-paced course for you to work through in your own time, to learn – and implement – the foundations of building a profitable business that lets you escape the 9 to 5. onestepoutside.com/course

1:1 Coaching & Mentoring

If you’re looking for one-to-one support to help you achieve your specific life and business goals, Anna has a limited number of spots for individual coaching and mentoring. onestepoutside.com/coaching