Open Instagram, pick five female coaches or founders in the same niche, and cover their names. Now read their last ten posts. The same carousel about the five mistakes that are “stopping your growth”. The same hooks reiterated. The same Manychat call to action. You can barely tell who wrote what, if not for their usernames.
Most of these women started out with a voice. It was a little messy, it held opinions, and it was unique to them. Then life got busy, or their accounts grew, and they did the obvious thing: they hired a social media manager, or coach, or strategist, however you call it. The posts started going out on time, the feed looked pretty and put together, and somewhere in all of this, she disappeared.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a social media marketer myself, so I am not against hiring one. I am against hiring one before you know what your voice is, because a manager can only copy what you hand over.
Here is what goes wrong, and how to avoid it.
What goes wrong
A personal brand sells one thing no competitor has, which is you. Your opinions and your stories are the product. When you hand the account to someone who doesn’t know them, that person fills the gap with what works in general: the same hook formulas, the same “5 mistakes” carousels, the same borrowed phrases. A manager who writes for several clients in one niche will also reuse what worked for the others.
The posts end up fine. They will likely perform, if the social media manager knows what they’re doing. But nothing in them is yours. Followers and viewers scroll past without remembering who posted what. Whoever’s serious about buying, will buy from the person they feel is most familiar to them. The one most memorable.
There is also a second cost. Once you stop posting, you also stop replying, stop reading comments and stop noticing what your audience reacts to. That daily contact is how you learn what your people want, and when someone else takes it over, you lose the information along with the work.
In my experience, this is rarely the manager’s fault. Nobody gave them your voice in a form they could use.
Your voice can be written down
Voice sounds vague, but you can pin it down. It is the opinions you hold that others in your field disagree with. It is the three or four stories only you can tell. It is the words you use all the time and the words you would never say. It is how you speak to your audience, whether like a friend, a teacher or a coach who tells it straight.
Here is what that looks like. A nutrition coach wants to tell her audience that eating breakfast late is fine. One version of the post says “Breakfast myths, debunked: 5 things to know.” The other says “My grandmother ate breakfast at 11, after the bread was baked and the kitchen finally went quiet. Nobody ever called her unhealthy.” Both make the same point. The first could have been posted by fifty other accounts this week. The second could only have come from her.
In my experience, this is rarely the manager’s fault. Nobody gave them your voice in a form they could use.
The OWN IT method: own your voice before anyone touches it
This is the order I use with the women founders I coach. It runs over 90 days, and the steps overlap a little.
O: own your personal brand
Weeks 1 to 3. Write what you believe that most people in your niche don’t. Pick your stories, list the words you use and the ones you ban, and fix your bio so a stranger understands what you do in five seconds. Then build your Personal Brand Bible, which holds what you believe that most people in your niche don’t, the stories only you can tell, and the words you use and the ones you ban. Finish with a bank of hooks written in your voice.
W: warm your audience
Weeks 2 to 5. Post and sell nothing. Reply to every comment and message the people who already follow you. This is where you learn which of your opinions and stories land, and your first buyers are usually people who already know your name.
N: name your offer
Weeks 6 to 12. Now you can ask. Tell people what you sell, how to book it and what happens next, and follow up with everyone who showed interest. A lead is someone who asked a real question about working with you. A like does not count.
I: improve what works
Weeks 6 to 9. Check your numbers and find the three posts or conversations that brought the most leads. Look at how they sound. They are usually the ones that sound most like you, and that tells you what to protect.
T: take over
Weeks 9 to 12. You write your own posts and run the routine alone. You now have a voice you can describe, proof of what works, and a clear sense of the weekly workload. That is the right moment to decide whether to hire.
If you hire, protect your voice
Hand over the Personal Brand Bible and your ten best posts in your own words. Send voice notes instead of briefs, so the manager writes from how you actually talk. Approve every post for the first month and mark the lines that don’t sound like you. Keep the personal parts for yourself, such as replies, stories and talking videos.
Where to start this week
Give yourself 30 minutes and run this voice check.
First, open your last ten posts. Highlight in one color every sentence that another account in your niche could have written. Highlight in a second color every sentence that only you could have written. If the first color wins, you have found the problem.
Second, record a five minute voice note answering one question: what does my industry get wrong? Talk like you would to a friend, without notes. Get it transcribed and read it back.
Third, underline the three sentences you have never seen on anyone else’s page. Those are the start of your voice. Write them at the top of a blank document, add the words you always use and the ones you would never say, and keep that page open every time you write a post. If you hire a manager later, it is the first thing you hand over.
