how to add more of your personality within your content: THE LIFESTYLE PILLAR

Listen, if there's one thing I want you to take away from any of my content, whether it's this episode of whether you've seen any of my other content, is if the personality isn't in the strategy, I don't want it. I'm Alyssa and welcome to the Inspired Media Podcast, a space for creators, creatives, and entrepreneurs who know they're meant to do more than just stop the scroll. So we're putting the spotlight on the unspoken truths and unconventional takes on how to truly build a standout brand online. Now let the show begin. So we've been talking a lot about how to create you coded content on here. So much so that some of you have actually requested you coded merch, which love the idea, let me get through taxis and then we'll come back to it. But if you know me, if you've been hanging around for a little bit, if you're an OG, you're probably going to be sick of me after this episode. But if you're new, you're going to love me because I am going to walk through the easiest most seamless, yet super effective way to create you coded content. And what I mean by that is to finally create content that shows more of you and your personality. And that is to create a lifestyle pillar. Now, if you've never heard of a lifestyle pillar before, that's okay because we're going to craft this together and talk about what it is. Why it's so effective, even though it sounds almost too good to be true and how you can do it for yourself with your own content, literally right after you listen to this episode. So what is a lifestyle pillar? Super, super simple. A lifestyle pillar is made from three to five elements of you, your authentic self. I say three to five because that's a sweet spot number for myself and my clients, but there's no magic number. I just say three to five because usually that hits with my clients that I'm working with. It's elements of you that have nothing, nothing to do with your niche, your industry, your job title, literally when we say show up authentically, here's a sure fire super easy way to do that. Now, why would you want to post about that? Why would you want to post about the boring mundane little things about you? Who cares, right? Well, here's why. So the lifestyle pillar was actually something I created with one of my very first clients. And I'm so grateful for this client because she really trusted me to lean more into her personal brand. And it wasn't something we were seeing in her space and other people in her space. She was an in person service provider. And honestly, we were looking at the content. Okay, we were having an honest conversation and we were like, it's boring. It's giving boring, it's giving bland, it's giving everybody looks the same. And this client had the personality. Like she had so much personality. She was so fun. And we weren't really leveraging it in her content. So that's how the lifestyle pillar came to be because I was like, okay, well, let's implement this in your strategy just like how we would your traditional content pillars. Let's add a lifestyle pillar that helps you keep accountable to making room for you in your content. Now, why is this so effective? Same reason why movie producers and movie creators, film creators put Easter eggs in movies. It kind of creates that if you know, you know, effect, you're not necessarily going to create posts specifically about your lifestyle pillar elements, but they're organically and subtly ingrained in your regular content in your other pieces of content. So the people that really know you spotted or and or people can catch on to those subtle elements within your content. Something we talk about a lot here and on my socials is having a humanized approach to content. It's exactly what I'm talking about, even though it seems so small and so mundane, like, okay, who cares about my favorite drink? This is a humanized version of content because think about it. Think about when you're scrolling on the FYP or the Explore page. You might see a creator's content that you really like, but if you haven't been following them, you may not know their name. You may not remember their handle, but if you really like a video or you see a creator pop up a few times and you want to share it with someone, you may just describe their vibe, their tone, the elements in their video. So you already know, you're already going to be thinking two steps ahead. You already know that these are visual platforms were on and people will remember you through your visuals. So why not strategically place visuals that are so you coded that actually represent you so that people can remember you for you within your content? That is why the lifestyle pillar is so incredibly powerful. So now you know why you know a little background of how the lifestyle pillar was built. Let's get to actually building it. Now I have an entire freebie document on this to walk you through this whole thing, but I thought it would be really helpful whether you've gone through it already, you're going through it right now. It's right in front of you. You're an A plus student. Okay, taking notes or if you want to read up on it because I'm going to link it in the show notes afterwards. I want to walk through how to build it. So creating your lifestyle pillar, you have your three to five elements, but it's not just enough to have the three to five elements. Okay, because I want you to get specific. I don't want you to just talk about, okay, I love coffee and this is my morning coffee. Like been there done that we've seen that before, we can add a little spice. I want you to niche down within yourself, get really specific with each pillar. I'm going to use the Adrian example. It's the example that I have in the freebie, but in the Adrian example, Adrian is a fitness coach who uses social media to build a community, build brand awareness, attract leads and book clients. Her lifestyle pillar elements are she's a dog mom. She loves to wear her hair and braids. She loves matcha over coffee. So let's just take one element for example and then niche down within herself. So yeah, she's a dog mom. You could just post cute videos and photos of her dog and that's fine, but let's go a little bit deeper and niche down within herself. So her dog is a German shepherd named Duke super active. What rituals and routines, what cute little tricks can her dog do? How can she invite us into the lifestyle of having a super active dog, almost treating her dog like a character in her movie that is her page. Another thing, matcha, everybody loves matcha, everybody loves coffee, but one thing I really like to do is have inside jokes with my audience, even if that means kind of trolling them or kind of irritating them a little bit. So maybe for her, it's like she will always choose matcha over coffee and she will fight anybody that chooses coffee like coffee lovers. I'm going to fight you. I've actually done this before on my own page when I said red isn't the color because if you know me, you know, I'm a neutral girl. Okay. I'm a neutral girl. I love the neutrals, but I also love red. But here's the thing red doesn't give the same vibe as other colors like orange or blue or green like those are color colors. Red is different. Red is in its own category. I said that on my Instagram stories one of my but online busties literally sent me an entire presentation proving me wrong. But that's what I mean about niching down within yourself, getting really specific and then letting your lifestyle pillar be conversation starters, be self identifiers, be those connection points because yes, you'll have your main content pillars that have to do more with your business or with your niche. But if you have something that's just dedicated to you, then conversations can start starting with you and how you connect to other people. So when you are doing this on your own, get your lifestyle pillar elements down and then get specific on why and how you go about living your life with these elements. That's going to be the real conversation starters. And again, that's just one way to implement them. Another way you can implement them is just subtly within your content, whether that is your dogs just make guest appearances in your content, whether that's the way that you do your hair, a favorite pair of glasses. Like it can be really subtle and I know, I know, I'm willing to bet that you have seen a creator. You didn't know the creator's name. You couldn't remember their handle. But it's like, oh, you know that girl with like the really big glasses and like the slick back hair or oh, you know that girl with the little braids or oh, that creator, they always have like really bright colors on or something along those lines. Like any little thing that is more you coded in your content to help people remember you. That is what the lifestyle pillar is all about. Another example I gave is in your photoshoots, whether you are an influencer content creator who's shooting content regularly or your business owner who's doing more higher production professional brand shoots, I always love to sprinkle in the lifestyle pillar elements there. And two of my more high production photoshoots I've done, I have boba there because why would I have boba? I'm addicted to boba. I love boba. Why would I not have it there? I guess I could do like a regular coffee, but what's more you coded coffee or boba for me? It's going to be boba. Okay. So you have your lifestyle pillar elements. You've niche down within yourself. We've talked about different ways to implement them. And again, there are so many ways to implement your lifestyle pillar elements. But what I have found after working with my clients is usually they like implementing these on stories a little bit more, whether that's Instagram stories or TikTok stories. That's because it feels a little bit less pressure. There is no right or wrong way to start out like this. But if it's kind of daunting to you to show up online and you're still not super comfortable, stories is such a great way to do that because it's less pressure. They're going to expire in 24 hours and you can really get it. of yourself time to play and start those conversations. And again, a little pro tip for you, starting those conversations by kind of aggravating and irritating and creating those inside jokes with your audience is a really good way to start. Listen, if there's one thing I want you to take away from any of my content, whether it's this episode of whether you've seen any of my other content is if the personality isn't in the strategy, I don't want it. And if you're here, I know that you don't want that either. So if you have not already create your lifestyle pillar, and if you do, whether it's that you download the freebie or you're just kind of doing it from listening to this episode, please keep me updated, keep me updated on Instagram stories, keep me updated in DMs, keep me updated in your emails. Like I truly do not want you to turn into a textbook or an AI robot. We have enough AI robots. I want you to truly leverage your personality and your authenticity within your strategy. Like we don't have to over complicate things. We can literally just do three to five elements of you to make room for you in your content to help people remember you for you and start from there. Because if you want people to get to know you and build that cult like Best G vibes community, allow me to get to know you by making room for you in your content. Okay, so wrapping up this episode, we have your three to five lifestyle pillar elements. We're going to have you niche down within yourself and get specific with how and why you do those elements. And then you can implement those elements within your strategy either subtly by sprinkling them in within your brand shoots within your content days, just within the overall visuals of your content or and or I should say you can bluntly talk about those things. And usually what I find is easiest is doing this on Instagram stories. So when you bluntly bring these things up, bring them up with the intention to start conversations to use them as connection points to build community and have real conversations with your audience. And if you're like, okay, wait, so I got to start talking about me in my content now for people to get to know me. Yes, it sounds too good to be true. It sounds like, okay, it's so simple. Like does that really work? Yes, this is my experience with not only my own account, but with my clients's accounts as well. You just have to make room for you in your content. If you want to build a community, you want people to get to know you, you have to make the first move and a lifestyle pillar is the perfect tool to help you do that. And it is literally something that you can start doing today. I'm so excited to see your lifestyle pillar come to life. Again, there's a freebie down below if you want to smack that and that's for today and as always break a leg.