[Case study] How Nicola got clear with her message and who she serves

Nicola Humber knew her message wasn't having the impact she knew it could have.

Just like Rachel, Nicola was craving more impact and could tell she wasn't having that magnetism with her future clients as sales weren't flying in.

We worked together in a Brilliance Reloaded group, using my tools such as the Power Paradigm Baseline, 10 x 10 content creation hack, and a raft of other goodies you find now in my Brilliance Hub.

I interviewed Nicola about the results she saw, which, as you will hear, were HUGE.

Listen in as we chat about the process in this Facebook Live replay, and read the transcript below to hear about how we did it and how you can apply the same tools to your biz.

Find out more about Nicola visit her website right here.

To go through this process yourself in my Brilliance Hub, click here.

~ Jo xo

Transcript from video

Hi everyone. It's Jo, and I'm actually here now, with Nicola Humber. We're just laughing because tech often throws us curves balls. Curves balls? It's curve balls, isn't it, Nicola?

Absolutely. It certainly does. I'm used to that. We weren't going to let it stop us.

Oh, never, never. That's the thing. Sometimes, you just need to go to [inaudible 00:00:15]. It's one of those days and you either leave it or keep trying and it comes back, so I'm really thrilled you're here with me today. Thank you so much, my lovely.

Oh, I'm really excited.

So, I was giving a massive, free-style kind of introduction [crosstalk 00:00:40]. But, essentially, what I was saying, was that we work together and you experience bit of a shift. And it wasn't even a massive seismic shift; It was a little tweak in your messaging that really helped you. So, what I would love is if you could just set the scene with who you are and what you do for our lovely viewers and listeners. And then we can delve into what happened and what we did.

We can. And you say that it was a little shift, and it was a little tweak, but it created a big shift for me. So, I just wanted to say that. Yeah, the impact of that has been massive.

So, yeah, Nicola Humber. I work with unbound women or women who want to unbind themselves from all of the stuff that we've picked up throughout our lives. So, all of the ideas about who and how we should be in the world. Limiting beliefs, sort of those "shoulds", and so that they can be their fullest, freest selves.

My shoulders actually unhunch when you start describing being unbound. I absolutely love your message and what you do with your work. It's like permission washes back over you. You go, "Ahh, it's all right."

The word "unbound", I think it really ... Well, it, obviously, resonates with me. That's why I've chosen that word. It actually comes from doing work around my core desired feelings with Danielle LaPorte, and I came to that word, "unbound". And I think that sense that have you previously been bound and weighed down by all of this stuff, and the freedom from that. Yeah, that kind of-

Yes, absolutely.

You can feel it physically.

It's a really impactful word. And that, in itself, really speaks to how choosing your language for your message so carefully has that immediate effect. And you'll see when you watch back the video, when you mention unbound, you were literally seeing that it has that emotional response. And I know when I first found your work with you it' like oh my gosh, yes! And as someone who is your ICA,  that's exactly what you want, is to have that hell yes, I understand this, this makes sense to me, I'm attracted to this, because you could have called "Unbound" anything else, it could have been "permission", it could have been "Let loose", it could have been a number of things. Each of which would have had a slightly different connotation.

Well, I knew because I've got my new book is coming out in a couple of days, which is called "Unbound", and I'm really, you know clear about that aspect of what I do, like the whole "Unbound" thing. But, I knew that my message...it was kind of not as compelling as it could be.

And it felt like I was having to work too hard to be able to share my message. It wasn't connecting with everyone I wanted it to connect with. So I knew there was a-

That is so powerful in itself, the fact that you felt like you were having to work too hard so you felt like your efforts felt really like "My God, I'm having to hustle a bit here maybe, I'm having to push more than I feel I should".

And there was that feeling of people weren't connecting with what you were saying.

Exactly, exactly. Not to hustle than to grieve I wanted them to, and you know I'm so ant-hustle, and see part of my message is like you're cyclical, you know working in line with your cycles and so anything that feels like pushing to me I just really noticed that, that really impacts me negatively. So, it's like no there's something missing here, and the, you know you send out the details of brilliance related and I think I sent you an e-mail back about thirty seconds from reading it.

Because you know, I know the power of the container like, coming into a container of support like that. You know, sometimes I can get these insights myself, but I wouldn't of taken the time to do that, and it took your eyes on everything I do to go, to just pick out those key pieces, and I was like "Ohh, okay", 

That is so true, the power of the great container, because we can read a book and it can be really powerful, we can watch a video and it can be really powerful, but sometimes those deepest transformations come from having someone with those fresh eyes to see you. And being seen and heard is actually what we all want when we work by ourselves, like can someone just check if what I'm doing is batshit crazy, or is it...

And I think that a big one for you was we did a piece of work in the group that we were around, getting a one-liner, can really hook in your clients. We use one-liners, post on our Instagram bios, on Twitter, on Linkedin maybe, on Facebook. Wherever we're pitching ourselves, representing ourselves, and we always have that formula of "I helped certain people to do insert here" and result. Which is great, and that gets us started, but if you switch around those words to be really resonating with your brand, you get a really big result, and I think you have now helped. I was on a Facebook live feeding back for someone else.

Yeah, I did and I can really resist the whole idea of a one-liner sometimes it makes me resist all of that stuff, I know exactly. I'm not saying it, but you know I resist, and I'm like oh you know, I can't bring down what I did into my mind. Of course I can I'm a multi-fast being, but actually, thinking back I think it as to Rachael in the group, and I just completely had a light bulb, I don't even know it's just complete download.

What I've realised is the missing piece for me , I think talking a lot about "Unbound" actually, and my first book was called "Heal Your Inner Good Girl" and I wrote that and then I kind of thought "Oh I'm done with that, I'm focusing on Unbound". But "The Inner Good Girl", the idea that we have this part of us that just wants to fit in, and get it right, and making mistakes is just the worst thing that could happen to her. And she's just weighed down by all these "shoulds".

That was the part of my work that I wasn't really speaking about, and I felt like I'd moved on from it, so it's like don't talk about "The Good Girl" too much. But actually, that's really important to show. It kind of shows the transformation from "The Good Girl" to "Unbound", and I think you just used that phrase "Good Girl Unbound", which I've started using/

What happened if we unpack it, because my messaging was attracted to the right people, ie: you, then therefore I would understand your brand. Because essentially everyone who works with me I'm usually in tears with their work because it speaks directly to me and we understand each other because if I was presenting myself in a very different way, then I wouldn't be attracted to the people who are in the fields of work that they are. And so therefore, my messaging attracts you, you work out of my group. There is full of other people who are like us who's messaging has impacted like I'm saying that sort of stuff.

And then I understand your method because It speaks directly to me and I can work out how to tweak it to have that resonance, and it's you know it could have been any number of people doing that for you, and I'm honoured that it was me at that point in time. And I think that it's a really good example of choosing the right container for the right time and knowing when it's a good fit.

You know that the people within that group totally got your message when as opposed would've been like what the hell are you doing, that's really crazy you know. It wasn't for the corporate peeps in nylon suits and stuff.

Right, right. And you know, you really get the power of words, like individual words as well. And for me it's part of my one-liner rather than saying how recovering "Good Girls" I chose the word "Activate" because that just really has to have that sense of, it's just not passive, they hear something when I work, then they feel kind of activated to create a transformation and some interaction. So, I don't think... it would have taken me forever to get that really compelling one-liner which I'm using everywhere now. It's on the back of my book, it's going in my bio, in whatever I'm doing it goes there.

What have you seen from using that, the tangible and intangible?

Yeah, just when I'm speaking to people about my work or I'm pitching myself, asking people to be guests of their podcast, or to do guest articles, it's, I just know people kind of tap into...They get "Unbound", but the fact that it goes with "The Recovering Good Girl" as well they're like "yeah".

People immediately get it. I can see how it will help them if they're thinking about working for me as a client, or how it would appeal to the audience if I'm kind of pitching to the entities or something. So it's just, yeah it's [crosstalk 00:11:52]

Well done. And has it changed how you feel with your message? I mean, you're comfortable with your work anyway, of course, but it feels to me as if you're like..."yeah!"?

Yeah, and I really feel like I'm...This sense of embodiment, you know I'm just so confident in my message and who I'm here to serve and the impact that I can make through that. It's just so incredible.

Honestly, but it just shows the part like you said it was a small tweak, you know being seen as a small tweak, but the impact...I got tingles now talking about it, because I got this real felt sense of what I'm here to do.

Could you give us your one-liner in full?

I activate recovering good girls to embrace their imperfections and shake off the tyranny of "shoulds". So they can be their fullest, freest, most magnificent, unbound selves. I think I added in a couple extra words there.

You can add in you are unbound, you can add in word wherever you'd like.

Beautiful, and I'm sure that lots of people watching this and this thing will really really resonate and your work is so, so needed. I'm so grateful for your work in this world, and what I love to see is that someone who's created work with impact and legacy tweaks a few words and stepped into embodying that message in such a confident way.

It's allowing you to put it on your book, to own that statement, to- and just that one-liner as well. I get the sense that that one-liner is helping you clarify how you serve as well.

Yeah, definitely. Having that understanding, just because I wrote "Heal Your Inner Good Girl" a couple of years ago, the themes in that book and the work from that book, and all of this stuff about you know, really letting go of that need to kind of be seen as perfect and nice and, all of these things.

It's really kind of key to the women that I'm working with. And it can show up in lots of different was as well. Even if I'm working with someone and she's just a real incredible unbound woman. Those good girl tendencies can still show up and it's really important for me to be speaking about it. My inner good girl shows up all the time.

Yes, so it's really important for me to stay connected with that part of my work. And it's a really great entry point for a lot of women as well, because I think everyone gets that idea of the inner good girl, and how we can be in recovery from being the archetype good girl.

Those words actually has been chosen to have such an impact, so "Unbound" we talked about having that huge resistance, "The Inner Good Girl" we can understand that. Even the recovery we immediately, our brains associate that with like a rehab and undoing of habits, and all of that peaks volumes of your work in a really short statement. And that is one of the things we so easily forget to spend a little bit of time on.

And it's something that could evolve, you know my statement evolved over time. My manifestos evolved, because we evolve as humans. And actually, what I expect by the end of this week is that your audience will come with you on that journey. If they've been with you from the start, then they see your character arc , and they see you moving with that, and they see your various parts of your box set and they can't wait for the next instalment.

If they're joining you right now at this part of your refinement, that's awesome because they'll have a shortcut speedy version of understanding who you are, and they'll still come with you. And that magnet that you described, that feeling of embodying your message in that now bringing that right people to you is just so powerful. So powerful.

It is, and it's, like I said it's coming through in everything. I really, I think getting that one-liner, it's really powerful to share I with others, but the impact it's had on me I think that's probably the most important thing. Because, rather than me... when somebody asks me what I do I'm thinking of how do I put this into words, you know?

Yes, okay. I know, I know exactly what I do and exactly what I offer.