Julia Cha Of Cha Global Coaching On How To Cultivate Connection & Community In A Click to Connect World
An Interview with Karen Mangia
RESPOND — Listen to what people say, and give them what they want. This is why I love reading the comments section and responding to people. I also get tons of ideas from reading what people think about my content. I also look at other creators’ comment sections and get ideas. Give people what they ask for, and do it in fun, educational, and interesting ways, and you’ll naturally build a following.
We often use the term “Influencers” to describe people with significant social media followings on platforms like Instagram, Twitter TikTok, Youtube, Linkedin and Facebook. Influencers have become today’s media titans, sought after for everything from product placements to timely trends. What’s the difference between influence and impact? Fans and followers? Sizzle versus staying power?
In this interview series, called, “How To Cultivate Community In A Click to Connect World” we are talking to influencers about how they define success and what we all need to discover about the true nature of influence. As a part of this series I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia Cha.
Julia Cha is a business and leadership coach for entrepreneurs and founders in the coaching, training, and consulting industries. She is a power dynamics advisor for 6 and 7-figure entrepreneurs to increase their profitability with their personal branding, copywriting, and sales. She advises accomplished individuals on executive presence and on how to successfully navigate business relationships and partnerships. www.juliacha.com
Thank you for making time to visit with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. How did you discover your career path and what got you to where you are today?
10 years ago, I started out as a single mom working in retail because that’s all I could find for a part-time job. I had a nursing baby and a preschooler and I had to provide. That kind of pressure pushes you to do whatever it takes to make it. What I realized very early on in my career is that people who don’t know how to be popular are the most miserable and broke. I needed to learn how to become influential, and being in sales was the perfect platform to practice this in real-time.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned along the way that influences how you operate now?
People skills will make or break your life and career. This is even more true when you’re in business. Your people skills and your ability to influence and lead determines 100% of your financial success, and your ability to maintain that success.
To achieve your greatest goals, you have to stop defending your problematic people skills with, “This is who I am.” Instead, learn. Excuses never helped anyone. Become a version of yourself that is capable of creating the success that you say you deserve. Your personality is only your personality as long as you hold onto it. If your personality doesn’t help you, change it.
We’re all searching for some good news. How are you using your platform to make a positive social impact?
I teach people who are ready for radical honesty to heal their mindset to create the life and business they want. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, but those who are ready for change love my content. I have a very niche loyal following, especially on TikTok. My audience members often tell me how much my content woke them up and changed their lives for the better, just by listening to me over and over and being in my energy.
When we speak of power dynamics and how the laws of power and unconscious biases influence us at such intricate levels, we have to involve conversations around race, gender, politics, and socioeconomic issues. Empowering people to own their power creates social equity and it creates a positive social impact.
Many of our readers are influencers as well. Others have tried and have yet to succeed. What words of advice would you offer to aspiring influencers, knowing what you know now?
Work on your people skills. You need to know what people want and need and stop projecting what you think they want, just to get attention. If you go viral, you have to go viral with content that’s relevant to your cause and offerings, not with a random cat video. You also have to remember that being on social media is a form of performance. Be interesting, be entertaining, and bring lots of energy. If you’re not successful, that means you’re not giving enough value. Be enlightening AND entertaining. You need both.
Success is often a matter of perspective. I’ve always resonated with Henry David Thoreau’s quote, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” How do you see success — or define success — for yourself now?
How I look at success is two-fold: “How much am I making a difference?” and “Am I reaching my financial and personal goals?”
Growth in both areas has to amplify each other. That’s success to me.
What are your strategies to make room for who and what matters most?
Every person in your personal and professional life has to contribute to something. Even paid clients give you joy and satisfaction, and if they don’t, it’s not a fit. Money alone doesn’t make the cut to take up my time and energy.
Every person has strength and value and they must contribute, including my own kids and friends. It’s a leader’s job to propose and lead them to contribute. If someone doesn’t want to, however, I cut them out, because I know I have plenty of value to give, and I require people to give back as well to maintain reciprocal balance.
How do you reduce or mitigate stress?
Delegation is the way to go. Also, regular exercise and eating well. Taking plenty of walks. Getting sound sleep. They are all essential. Having a community you trust matters.
Being online is very stressful. If you don’t have a good community, you’ll crumble under the stress of negative comments and unmet expectations. I get called all sorts of things on my content. I get called a narcissist, and I get told I’m old and expired because I’m an elder millennial. You have to grow a thick skin, and part of that process is doing your inner work, and another important aspect is having colleagues in this arena and other relationships in your personal life that you can count on.
I’m going to try a few of your tips, and I’m hopeful our readers will, too. Now it’s time for the big reveal — the moment our readers have been anticipating. What are your “five strategies to cultivate a large & engaged social media community?’
- BE A PERSONALITY — We live in a fast world. You have to shine in your uniqueness. I noticed from early in my life that my loud, matter-of-fact, and direct personality got a lot of attention in a family where girls were expected to be agreeable and soft-spoken. I noticed over and over that this is a persona that works well for me because people also like it when I wear this character. I noticed the same in school, how my peers were magnetically drawn to me when I amplified this assertive part of my personality. My own siblings have also given me that feedback. When I was 20, my older brother described this charismatic character as “my presence.” Your social life is a small testing lab. You can take the same element that works and amplify it on social media, and it’ll work. Amplify that aspect of your personality that has worked well for you in the past. That’s your brand personality and your magnetic online persona.
- BE ENTERTAINING — Don’t just teach. Be fun. I used to be a dancer. I used to perform and teach. So now I incorporate dancing once in a while. I also teach clients on how to become bolder in their presentations by teaching them how to walk, stand, and command power with their body language. All of this knowledge and experience comes from my dance background, but also, it’s a big part of my assertive persona. Leverage everything you’ve been good at, and what you’ve learned. Combine it all to create a very unique offering.
- GIVE VALUE — Instead of repeating some lessons, give your unique perspective on those topics. For example, I’m not going to just talk about executive presence. I create an interesting mood with my tone of voice, facial expressions, and stories. People learn the best when they’re engaged. A great creator knows how to retain attention from the moment someone lands on your page. It takes less than a second whether someone decides to stay or go.
- RESPOND — Listen to what people say, and give them what they want. This is why I love reading the comments section and responding to people. I also get tons of ideas from reading what people think about my content. I also look at other creators’ comment sections and get ideas. Give people what they ask for, and do it in fun, educational, and interesting ways, and you’ll naturally build a following.
- CREATE A NICHE COMMUNITY- When you have a lot of followers, you create a movement. That’s the goal. It’s important to start with a niche community. This has become harder now because people’s attention span has become so short. Also, nowadays, social media, such as TikTok, is so fast-moving that as much as it’s a great discovery platform, it isn’t ideal for building a community. You need to build a community where people can speak to you directly. Facebook groups were that place for a long time. Now I use Discord because many people have abandoned Facebook. People can join Discord for free, and we discuss all sorts of topics related to executive presence, social elegance, influence, leadership, and persuasion.
What do you do to create a greater sense of connection and community among your fans?
I strive to understand them. I ask them questions. I respond to their needs. I pay attention to what they respond to the most. Observation and nurture are what create a sense of connection. We use fun terms to describe something like people-pleasing and call it the Good Girl syndrome, and the leadership growth is to become a Bad Bitch. We bond over this journey of transformation, the “Good Girl Gone Bad.” Even though we all come from different backgrounds, we are one, because this specific transformation is a specific journey, and those who are on it get each other at the soul level.
As an influencer, you are, by definition, a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d love to see them become their version of a Bad Bitch.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you’d like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He, she or they might just see this. 🙂
I’d love to spend a day with Arlene Dickinson. She’s the OG Bad Bitch that I came across 14 years ago. She influenced me greatly in embodying my power persona.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliajcha/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@juliajcha
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/juliacha
Thank you for these thought provoking insights. Here’s to your continued success!
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Julia Cha Of Cha Global Coaching On How To Cultivate Connection & Community In A Click to Connect… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.