Episode 28: On Telling Your Brand Story, Content Marketing Tips & Coaching with Laura Langfitt (Equestrian Author Spotlight Podcast)

Episode 28: Welcome to the Equestrian Author Spotlight podcast! In each episode, you’ll hear inspirational stories from horse book authors including writing advice and marketing tips to help you write your own horse book. If you are an author, aspire to be an author writing about horses, or simply love horse books then you are in the right place!

In this week's episode, you'll meet The Word Wrangler Laura Langfitt of Unbridled Content Marketing. You'll learn ...

• About Laura's passion for animal rescue and how it led her to adopt a special herd of animals.
  
• Why it is so important to tell YOUR brand story in order to stand out in a busy marketplace.
  
• How content marketing batching and automation is a great way to make sure your marketing still happens even when life happens.
  
• Why she thinks working with a coach is the most valuable investment you can make while building and growing a business.
  
• And MUCH more!

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Watch Laura Langfitt's Interview on YouTube!

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Or listen to the audio only version.

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About The Word Wrangler Laura Langfitt

Laura Langfitt is The Word Wrangler. She helps small businesses by harnessing their personalities and bringing them to life online.

She's an expert storyteller, and community builder. A tough Alaskan chick who opened her heart to a horse in need and upended her life to save him. 

She's half Alaskan wild woman, half cowgirl. She says it’s an identity crisis in the most wonderful way. She spends her days sharing the stories of equine entrepreneurs in a way that inspires their fans and builds communities around their businesses.  

When she's not typing away behind the computer, she's with her horse, volunteering at the Barnyard Animal Rescue Nest, or working away on her urban homestead. 

People buy into personality. They are attracted to it, and they want more of it. Listen in on how Laura Langfitt can help you craft a story around your brand that will bring your customers running as fast as a horse bolting back to the barn.

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Laura Langfitt Podcast Interview Excerpt

Carly: Tell us about your furry friends.

Laura: MJ is the classic red mare. A massive dose of tough love to cowgirl up and get er done. It’s what I needed. My husband adores her. She is coming along really well and we LOVE HER!

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Laura Langfitt and MJ

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We also have 3 little furries, also rescues. Tank the cocker spaniel who will eat himself to death at any opportunity (It’s like having a 2 year old but he has been 2 for the last 8 years and I don’t see it changing). Grumpy the 3 legged cat, and Trooper the gigantic rabbit (bigger than the cat) with undiagnosed nerve damage who is a total love but will bite the heck out of you if you surprise him. 

Carly: Do you have any stories that people would find interesting or entertaining about your writing or your horse background?

Laura: This is pretty crazy because I’d never heard of another dyslexic writer until I listened to your episode with Autumn Murray. I need to find her and connect with her. I’m also dyslexic, but I didn’t even realize that was my problem until 2 years ago during a lesson on DT. 

My writing is far from perfect, I use technology to the best of my abilities and have a great VA who helps me catch mistakes. I’m not here for perfection honestly. I’m here to show a heck of a LOT of heart and inspire and educate people and I’m not gonna let a typo or two stop me from doing that. 

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Carly: This interview is a little different. You are in the business of helping others help their equine businesses by harnessing their personalities and bringing them to life online. Tell us about your business and how your services can benefit authors.

Laura: So whether they know it or not, everyone has a story worth telling, and everyone who owns a business HAS to tell their story. It’s the #1 way to stand out against the competition. To just be you. That's what I do at Unbridled Content Marketing, I help clients tell their story. 

Let’s look at your books for example. I’m not a romance novel girl AT ALL. I’m a shove those feelings far far away and go rub some dirt in it girl. BUT once I got to know you I knew I had to read your books. The purchase decision was super easy, the books are incredible. I’m flying through them, and REALLY enjoying myself. 

Carly: I loved that we got to know each other when I was a guest on your podcast. Thank you for having me and for giving my books a read! I had such a great time talking horses, marketing, and books with you during the interview. It makes my spurs jingle when equestrians and small business owning women unite.

​Listen in to the episode here: https://reininyourherd.com/carly-kade/

Laura: So, by sharing your story with me and helping me get to know you, you scored yourself a fan who wouldn’t have given you the time of day if all i knew about was that you wrote cowboy romance novels. 

Carly: Your website copy is so horsey! I love the names of the packages (Gelding, Stallion, Chestnut Mare) you offer and how you’ve embedded the equestrian lifestyle into all of your messaging. Tell us about how you learned to master content creation and the skill of copywriting.

Laura: You are going to hate this answer, but it’s just innate. I can tell a darn good story, I can put it down on paper and make it even better. I can’t spell, I don’t always know the difference between weather and whether, but I can put adventures and heart out into the world. 

I was stuck in this box in a cubicle at my corporate day job writing financial articles and I HATED IT. I gave this creative writing thing a shot and was off like a rocket. It just flows out of me. 

The real challenge has been learning the strategy behind social media and Google algorithms and learning how to turn that content into something that pays for itself. 

That’s just a constant learning curve that I don’t think is going anywhere. Things are changing really fast right now and it’s my job to pay attention and make sure I keep myself and my clients on the cutting edge. 

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Carly: Your website says, “People buy into personality. They are attracted to it, and they want more of it.” You help others craft a story around their brand. Tell us why a good brand story is so important.

Laura: There are a million authors, horse trainers, farriers, equine photographers etc out there. I’d say at least 80% of them probably do a darn good job too. But there is only 1 you. 

If you REALLY want to love who you work with, and love what you do, you have to attract the people who align with your values. For me, that’s horse rescue. I’m SUPER passionate about doing it and doing it right. When I speak about that passion people who also have horse rescue on their heart are drawn to me.

We can throw both of ourselves whole heartedly into growing their online community knowing the better we do, the more horses we save, and that common goal pushes us together. 

Carly: You offer a free consultation where you chat with a potential client. You call it a pre-purchase exam, which is so perfect for the horse community! Tell us about the consultations. How do you manage those?

Laura: They are 30 minutes and honestly I’ve been thinking of making them an hour. The questionnaire that people fill out beforehand does a pretty darn good job qualifying people, so once we jump on the phone we have a LOT to talk about and once I start talking horses you may never be free of me. 

I always start with where they are at today. If someone has never put any work into growing a social media platform what I do for them is going to look a lot different than someone who has a huge audience and just doesn't have time to create their own content anymore. 

At that point, I dig a little deeper into their why. That’s the content I really need to create. Helping women recover from trauma, helping riders be safer on the trail because their best friend got into an awful accident and got hurt really bad, inspiring people with backyard horses or rescue horses to show. These are all REALLY important platforms and we want to get the word out there about them. 

Then we talk about where they want to go with that online audience and determine which platform is best for them to put the bulk of their efforts into. From there we take a look at their budget, and where their passions lie. We put together a content plan and get rolling. 

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Carly: You created the Content Coaching Group, a place to give people the tools to batch everything, so when life happens, their marketing continues to work in the background without requiring attention. Tell us about this group. How much does it cost, what services come with membership, where do you host the group?

Laura: It’s $77/month. You can stay 1 month, or 10 years, it’s totally up to you and your needs but the price does go up quarterly as we add more content so the people who have been around since the start are getting an amazing deal.

We currently have 13 units in there that cover your ideal client, your market research, your content plan, how to direct message people without freaking them out, how to create different types of content to sell an offer or get engagement, and how to set automate your email marketing system. I do 1 live training a month where I teach on a topic and give everyone the tools they need to implement the training. Members get to show up and ask Qs so it’s not all DIY like a course would be. 

Then I also do a live 1:1 once a month. I hop on a Facebook live with 1 person and either audit a social site of theirs or just do a Q&A with them. 

The community aspect of the group was unexpected for me but it’s such a huge selling point. The women in there really step up and help each other. Feedback on email content, help with graphic elements, you name it people are asking for help and getting it from each other. 

Learn About Laura's Content Coaching Group!

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Carly: What do you wish you had known when you started out?

Laura: I wish I would have been a lot more intentional with my packages and had the confidence to tell my clients what they needed instead of asking them what they want from me. I’m the expert here, not them, and I got myself into some situations where I was doing a lot of work that wasn't having the right impact because I was doing what the client wanted instead of what they needed to reach their goals. 

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Carly: You have recently started a podcast. Tell us about Rein in Your Herd, your co-host, and what listeners can learn there.

Laura: I KNEW that audio content was the next big thing and I needed to start a podcast, but I’m not a techie person AT ALL. I always tell my clients I can make magic happen in a word document but If they ask me to touch their website they will probably regret it. 

April Hardeman with Make It Rein approached me about how she wanted to start a podcast but was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up with it and we ended up launching the Rein in Your Herd podcast together. 

It’s the perfect partnership. She does all the techy stuff. I have NO IDEA what happens to that file after we are done talking, and she created the website and all that. I just write and make pretty graphics which she can’t stand doing. We do our jobs and the show goes on. 

We give tips on how to grow your online audience. We talk about everything from Facebook Ads to Email Marketing to just taking messy massive action even when you have no idea what you are doing and you’re terrified to get started.

It’s really just a real life window into our business journeys and our guests business journeys and how different people in the equine industry leverage the internet. 

Listen to the Rein In Your Herd Podcast

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Carly: Do you have any advice for equine authors on how to market their books?

Laura: Absolutely! Equine authors will always have a really strong why. We talked about that when you were on our podcast. You don’t write a book because you kind of care about something. You write a book because something is on your heart so much you just can’t get away from it. 

Sharing that why, for you your equine lifestyle and Sissy, and everything you stand for with supporting other authors and encouraging people to independently publish books. All of that matters and makes the world a better place. 

Sharing that stuff about yourself will make people want to read your books. If you grow an audience of people who love you, you’ll become an unstoppable force. I’ll officially buy every book you ever write now, it’s a done deal for me. You just need about 500,000 more of me and you’ve got it made.

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Connect with Laura Langfitt

Website: https://unbridledcontentmarketing.com/
Blog: https://unbridledcontentmarketing.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewordwranglers/
Podcast: http://reininyourherd.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unbridledcontentmarketing/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/unbridledcontentmarketing/

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Interested in writing about horses?

Gallop over to carlykadecreative.com/wisdom to have author advice delivered instantly to your inbox. This free resource includes words of wisdom and tips from equine authors on writing, independent publishing, traditional publishing, book marketing and more!

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New equine author interviews each Wednesday!

Make sure you never miss a show by subscribing on YouTube or Apple Podcasts. This podcast is made possible by listeners like you. I appreciate your support! Thank you for joining us this week on the Equestrian Author Spotlight podcast I hope you enjoy these Q&A sessions with wonderful equine authors who love all things horses and writing just like me. 

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If you are an author who writes about horses and would like to be spotlighted please let me know. Visit my contact page to fill out a request. I'd be happy to have you on the show, too.

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About Your Host and Author Carly Kade

Carly Kade is an award-winning equestrian author and the host of the Equestrian Author Spotlight podcast. Creative writing makes her spurs jingle! She writes fiction about horses, horse shows, Western pleasure and a handsome cowboy or two. Her books are for people just like her — crazy about reading, horses and cute cowboys!  
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In the Reins, the first in Carly's series of novels inspired by the equestrian lifestyle, has been an Amazon best seller for more than 10 weeks, is an EQUUS Film Festival Literary Award Winner for Best Western Fiction and has earned two Feathered Quill Book Awards in the Romance and Adult Book featuring Animals categories. The In the Reins equestrian romance series is available now in Audiobook, Paperback and eBook on Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks and Kobo.

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