We recently connected with MONA GANATRA and have shared our conversation below.

MONA, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

My entire business runs on social media.

And I love it.

Digital leverage has allowed me to build a high-profit business, work with people from 30 different countries, and create more impact.

But in 2023, I started noticing something peculiar…

Although there’s an uproar of people using social media to buy products, there’s a lack of connection.

And this rift is growing stronger every day.

I knew that if I wanted to build a leading brand, I didn’t just need customers…

I needed a community of customers who cared, engaged, and advocated for my products.

When your brand connects, your audience cares.

So to build that connection, I started sending personalized videos to every person who invested in my ebooks.

I just popped into their inbox thanking them for their purchase and encouraged them to reach out if they had any questions.

This felt a bit unnecessary at the start. Because rather than spending hours filming 1:1 videos, I could have just worked on my business to bring in more revenue, right?

But after 90 days, the results were wicked:

– 5x more customer testimonials
– Converted several one-off $97 buyers into $3000+ retainers
– Better results because people implemented the course over just buying it

… All because I broke the ice and built a bond (that’s more than a transaction in my bank.)

Case in point?
Go above and beyond while building connection touchpoints.

This is the core principle of my brand and has helped us build a community of raving fans over casual onlookers.

A writer I’m coaching is having a hard time with graphics? I’ll design custom templates and send walkthrough videos.

Invited as a guest on a podcast? I’ll get brownies for the entire team.

A ghostwriting client is launching a course but has a tight budget? I’ll send them resources so they can implement everything themself while moving in the right direction.

Start caring more.

A party is only as good as its host.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Mona Ganatra- I am an executive ghostwriter, content coach, illustrator, and Founder of The Hexagon (the ghostwriting agency behind the fastest-growing entrepreneurs on LinkedIn!)

I started my writing career in 2021.

I was a freelance blog writer fighting the hyenas of Fiverr and Upwork for gigs that paid peanuts.

Plus I spent MONTHS firing 100s of cold emails every week hoping to land a few clients.

Nothing worked.

I was barely scraping by while working myself into the ground. I was tired of pushing through and I hated my business.

So I decided to quit in August of 2021 after wrapping up my final project.

But I had always loved creating content.

Right from uploading 100s of videos on YouTube rambling about books or filming reels on Instagram- creating content and being creative has always been my muse.

On 25th August (that’s 5 days before I was officially going to walk away), my client offered to write me a LinkedIn recommendation.

I quickly built an account, optimized my profile, and put up a few posts.

And that’s when I fell in love with this ‘CV platform’ called LinkedIn.

I kept writing and showing up every day.

In 3 months, I had several entrepreneurs reach out, asking if I could write their content and help them build their personal brand.

Talk about serendipity, eh?

That’s how I started my business.

Typing away at my parent’s kitchen table on my run-down laptop and a LinkedIn account.

No fancy website, no cheeky business plan, no systems.

Today, my content is read by 300,000+ people every month, and I drive over 23 million impressions and >$700k in inbound revenue for our clients.

I now help other entrepreneurs cut through the noise and bring their voices to the world by ghostwriting content on LinkedIn.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I published my first LinkedIn post on August 26, 2021. And then I just started writing one post every day – to a grand total of 0 followers.

7 months later, I hit my first 1000 followers!

Today, I have built a community of 47,000 people and have a booked calendar for both my signature offers.

Here are a few things that have helped me grow:

1) Consistent high-value content:

Sounds boring but as an entrepreneur boring work is your moat. Tap into your story and pull out insights, anecdotes, mistakes, lessons, and your top tips.

Also, stop chasing perfection. Just hit publish and aim to improve by 1% every day. Could be through formatting, engaging, positioning, or adding new graphics.

2) Emulate, then innovate:

Success leaves clues.

Stop the top 1% creator’s content in your industry and take notes.

What grabs your attention? What makes you hit like or save the post? What hook or CTA framework makes the post engaging? What’s helping them stand out? What are the gaps? What do you think is missing?

Study what’s working in the market and then emulate it. Just remember to inject your personality into your content. People want to see YOU. Not another shadowy version of a top creator.

This is the best way to skip 12 months of trial and error.

3) Build a mirror with your content:

97% of content on LinkedIn has great tips. But here’s what most experts forget:

You can share tips more cunning than tax saving Terry but if your audience can’t implement them- then it’s a waste.

Make every tip, strategy, and hack actionable by giving examples and teaching people how to APPLY what they’ve learned.

4) Add mental speed bumps:

2 million posts are published on LinkedIn every day.

That’s 2 million posts demanding people’s attention.

2 million posts sharing the same goal as yours- to build an unforgettable personal brand.

So if you wanna cut through the noise, you gotta add mental speed bumps to grab attention, retain it, and trigger an action.

Write hooks that interrupt the scrolling pattern, share graphics to hold readers, or loosen your tie and inject some humor.

Zig when everyone is zagging.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Stop trying to figure it all out and stop chasing perfection.

I delayed my launch by MONTHS because I wanted everything to hit the spot. Right from my landing page, headshots, email sequences, and ebook covers.

The result?
I was stuck on a hamster wheel polishing an unproven idea.

So, 3 months later, I just packed everything up, pulled up my Google Docs, and built my product.

Then spent a week marketing it and boom- got it off the ground.

I’ve iterated and updated the product thrice in the past 12 months based on the feedback and the market trends- and my audience has appreciated the consistent level-ups a lot more than any cheeky landing page.

Takeaway?

You gotta stop polishing the knob for so long that you forget to open the door.