This week on The Whin Big Podcast, Katie speaks with Abi Sea from Sea Change Creative Content.
In this week’s episode, you’ll hear Abi and Katie chatting about keeping momentum during a launch, why Abi’s moving away from Instagram as a marketing tool and how she sets about creating a brilliant video newsletter every week.
Abi and Katie also talk about unconventional book recommendations and lots more besides. As always, all resources are available as links in the show notes.
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Abi is a launch content collaborator and a content writer. She works with women launching new services, memberships, programmes and products into the online space. She helps them pull together sales content to help with their launch strategy or content for their digital marketing.
Abi’s business journey
Before she became self-employed, Abi had faced many setbacks as an employee. She had multiple redundancies in the early 00s as she raised her two children and took on part-time, flexible work to fit around the family.
The uncertainty of the funding for her last job helped her decide to navigate the stormy seas of entrepreneurship! She spent an entire year as a freelancer before starting Sea Change Creative Content.
“I work with women who want to make the world a better place with their skills and services. More beautiful, more colourful, more clever, healthier… I love breathing life into people’s ideas and give them a burst of energy to keep going forward with their launch.” – Abi
When it comes to qualities in clients, Katie is curious about what’s important to Abi.
Abi’s main passion is to work with women who want to do good with their work. She recognises that women who are driven and passionate to serve often get tangled up when marketing their services and products.
Growing services beyond content and copywriting
When Abi first started working with clients, it was mostly writing work. By working on her launches – and supporting clients working through theirs – she was able to pull together additional services that helped clients launch.
She now helps clients in several areas through their launch plan. Including:
- Identify their launch message
- Designing a marketing plan to target their ideal audience,
- Create a launch content plan and timeline to keep on schedule
- Writing all supporting content and sales copy
- Keeping clients motivated and accountable to reach their goals
If clients need additional support such as graphic design, photography or video creation, she will pull in her trusted and talented peers and colleagues.
“It’s all about collaboration for me, and I don’t want to over-promise and under deliver. Other people are better at photography and graphic design than I am – so why not work with more great people?” – Abi
Finding the key to unlock the best launch approach
Abi has tried herself so many times to launch a programme or membership idea but has found the launch process so hard to do alone. She calls herself the ‘queen of sunken launches’, which puts her in a great position to help others.
For Abi, she knows only too well there are so many hurdles and blocks to get past. Launching can often feel impossible.
Katie’s keen to learn how Abi supports clients through the challenging parts of a launch. For Abi, it all lies in working out the unique message that customers and clients need to hear to act and buy.
Often clients come to Abi if they’ve had a failed launch or they’re feeling overwhelmed with the whole process. They have a great idea but struggle to pull it all together, and Abi says it’s often because they’ve forgotten to focus on the transformation they offer their clients.
In Abi’s experience, the launch momentum shifts when you re-focus on what transformation you offer people. The whole tone of your content changes, as does the planning and day-to-day activities. You move away from a money-based, commercial focus to one that’s around values.
“We expect to see personality on Instagram and something more personal. You’re right – this year has been so challenging for people. If you don’t have a lot of yourself to spare – putting it up on Instagram for people to judge and comment on is terrifying. On LinkedIn, there’s none of that expectation.” – Katie
Instagram and Sea Change Creative Content
As always, Katie’s curious to hear how Abi uses the platform for her marketing and gets a surprise when Abi talks about moving her focus away from Instagram altogether. Even though it pains her to walk away! Instagram is always changing, which makes it hard for Abi to gain momentum with any one strategy or content plan.
One of Abi’s key goals in life is to stand out and offer something different for people who follow or subscribe to her newsletters. She recognised pretty quickly that LinkedIn is a great place to do that because it’s still classed as a corporate platform, so adding personality, creativity, and colour is so much easier for her.
Katie thinks it’s so helpful to recognise where your energy is best placed on social media.
A week in the life of Abi’s marketing
Abi’s taking life easy, after a very difficult year. When recording this episode of The Whin Big Podcast, the school summer holidays are on the horizon, so Abi’s focusing on posting once a week minimum on LinkedIn and in a Facebook group.
She plans to get more structured in creating longer content and articles for LinkedIn that can be repurposed in smaller ways throughout the week.
In addition to this, Abi also sends out a weekly email on a Friday to her small but lovely mailing list. It’s called Sea Change Cinema. The email includes pictures, recommendations, advice, a thought piece, as well as a 10-minute video. In the video, Abi shares a training or coaching idea, a learning tool or some advice around the practical – and mental – aspects of running a business online.
“I find being an entrepreneur lonely at times and I really want Sea Change Cinema to be somewhere that other people can tap into feeling connected, and understood. I love the idea of engaging with real people.” – Abi
Finding an anchor for accountability in your business
Katie’s keen to learn more about how Abi pulls together a weekly 10-minute video. She’s sure there’s a super streamlined process in there somehow, but Abi’s quick to admit it’s not always as strategic as it could be.
For Abi, creating the video has really anchored her into her business. She feels she knows her own audience really well, so always has ideas on how best to connect with them through the Sea Change Cinema.
Abi keeps the videos informal – one of her followers described her videos as ‘sitting down for a cup of tea with someone who actually gives a shit about my business’ and that’s the feel Abi’s going for with her content. She knows how lonely it can be – just you and a laptop – and wants people to feel that being part of Sea Change is bigger than that.
Putting valuable content into the noise
Katie and Abi talk about the importance of creating valuable content for people at all points of their business journey.
For Katie it’s about being real – and recognisable – to give advice that’s useful to real, live humans. And Abi entirely agrees – it so helps to find a community or a resource that helps you feel connected.
Inspired by the Whin Big Podcast
Abi talked about how delighted she was when she discovered The Whin Big Podcast starting out. Before Covid hit, she was a freelancer – taking on projects and clients who needed her to write for them. When the pandemic took hold, she needed to catch up quickly on what it meant to be a fully online business – and The Whin Big Podcast was her go-to.
“The Whin Big Podcast was my go-to marketing tool. It felt like there was someone real at the other end of the mic who understood where I was and what was helpful for me. Once you find that it’s like a real treasure. You want to hold onto it for as long as possible.” – Abi
Abi’s best post online
Abi is not strategic with her marketing – she doesn’t focus on numbers and avoids the concept of chasing likes for no good reason. So ‘best post’ for Abi isn’t about going viral or being shared hundreds of times.
She talks of a post she shared on Instagram that was thoughtful. A black and white image of her at the dining table, wearing her favourite ‘Choose Love’ refugee t-shirt. The post was a reminder to people to think about the news that lockdown restrictions were changing.
She wanted her followers to be considerate and tolerant of people who the lockdowns had personally impacted. For Abi (who lost several loved ones over the past year) and so many others, 2020-2021 was about personal tragedy, significant loss and challenges that went way beyond missing being in the pub.
The reactions she received from that post changed her whole perspective on social media marketing – in much the same way, she helps shift her own clients’ perspectives with their launch focus.
“I’ve always described myself as a collector of excellent people. I might not be able to keep up with a smooth, strategic marketing plan but I can keep up with is real, purposeful conversations with people.” – Abi
What’s on Abi’s business bookshelf?
Feeling frustrated by the bigger (male) named business and self-development books being at the top of the reader charts, Abi set her resource page up on her website with loads of great resources, all written and produced by women.
*The 4 Tendencies – Gretchen Rubin
All about finding your way to dealing with expectations – internal & external so life is easier to negotiate.
Helps you look at how you view your strengths and think about what success looks like to you, so you can adjust how you’re doing things.
*This Naked Mind – Annie Grace
The whole premise is to let you get into a conversation about your relationship with alcohol. Abi stopped drinking for two years and used that time to get set up in business and life. It opened up the whole notion of operating on auto-pilot, so this book helps you be more present in life.
Audiobook – The Beastie Boys Book
Furthest book you can ever imagine from self and business development. The audiobook is completely different from the book – with different narrators, cool voices and delivery and a total surprise from what you would expect.
Keep the conversation going with Abi
Abi’s website: Sea Change Creative Content
Join the Sailing (sic) List for Sea Change Cinema
Abi’s ‘What’s for LAUNCH?’ Facebook group
Resources from this week’s Whin Big Podcast
The Whin Big Podcast episode 77 with Suse B Bentley
Abi Sea guest appearance on Gen X Women Podcast
Gretchen Rubin’s Happier Podcast
* Links marked with a star are affiliate links to Bookshop.org. When you buy through these links, a small portion of the cost of the book goes to support your local bookshop, and a small amount comes to The Whin. So the books won’t cost you any extra!
