From Seen to Sought‑After: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything with Alexia Clincy | EP177

What if the real barrier to visibility isn’t how much you post, but how clearly you’re positioned?

In this episode, creative brand strategist and founder of Cap Soc, Alexia Clincy breaks down why so many talented professionals are showing up online yet still feeling unseen, and how “clarity before content” becomes the game‑changer that transforms engagement into actual growth.

Alexia explores the mindset shifts and strategic moves leaders can make to move beyond likes and followers and into meaningful partnerships, clients, and career‑shaping visibility. She also shares one belief about personal branding she wishes every leader would release today to create space for authentic, sustainable momentum.

If you’re ready to stop posting into the void and start positioning yourself for real opportunity, this conversation is your blueprint.

Connect with Alexia: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiaclincy/ 

Website: https://www.capsocagency.com/ 

Let's Stay in Touch!

• LinkedIn (be sure to mention you heard the podcast ;-))
• Website - B.O.O.S.T.® Your Brilliance 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Alexia Clincy 0:48

Pay a little bit more attention to what captures your attention because these algorithms and the platforms they reward attention and engagement more than they reward consistency. So it's really about if you're capturing people's attention.

Kelly Leonard 1:03

That was Alexia Clincy. She's a creative brand strategist and founder of CapSoch, where she helps cultural leaders and purpose-driven brands align their voice, clarify their vision, and turn content into real opportunity. In today's episode, she shares practical strategies to build your brand. I'm Kelly Leonard, and this is the Boost Podcast.

Announcer 1:32

Welcome to the Boost Podcast, the podcast created to ignite your business and career potential. In each episode, host Kelly Leonard, and her guests dive into one aspect of Kelly's signature boost framework, ensuring you get practical, actionable insights, tips, and takeaways to build your brand, optimize relationships, obtain more leads, secure thought leadership space, and tap into new markets. And now, here's Kelly Leonard.

Kelly Leonard 2:03

Hey Alexia, welcome to the Boost Podcast. Thank you for having me, Kelly. This is very special for me. Yes, yes. So for folks who are hearing your name for the first time, tell them a bit more about yourself.

Alexia Clincy 2:15

My name is Alexia Clincy. I'm a brand strategist and I founded CapSoch, which is a strategic firm, going on 14 years ago now when I lived in Washington, DC, and also where I met the lovely Kelly Leonard as well. And what we do is we work with purpose-driven brands and cultural leaders and basically help them to clarify their voice and vision and help them turn that into content. So we all know social media is kind of this big thing now that everybody wants to be a part of. And so now at this point, it's kind of helping people break through the noise so that they can see some success with their business. Awesome.

Kelly Leonard 2:52

And so speaking of noise, Lexi, so we're, I think, in a moment where people are posting more than ever, yet so many people still feel invisible or they feel stuck. So from your vantage point, why are so many talented people struggling to turn consistent posting into really meaningful traction?

Alexia Clincy 3:10

Well, first of all, kudos to anybody actually being consistent because that's mostly the hardest part for a lot of people. It's very easy to get caught up in your work and what you're doing and to not even say anything online. So kudos to you. Now, I would say for people who are looking to see a little bit more traction online, just pay a little bit more attention to what captures your attention because these algorithms and the platforms they reward attention and engagement more than they reward consistency. So it's really about if you're capturing people's attention. So first of all, pay attention to what you like to look at. Then think about your content. Are you adding hooks to your content? Are you evoking particular emotions? A great emotion to evoke from people is challenging something they thought they knew, also giving them something to be in awe about. Everything doesn't have to be negative. I know that's one thing a lot of folks are like, I don't want to be negative on social media or have to say things that are not positive just to get attention, and you don't. But you do want to make sure you're capturing people's attention. You want to make sure your content is clear, it's not cluttered. And another thing is you just want to be a speaker. One of the biggest things we're seeing right now is some of the top content is called yapping. So it's literally just people, they could be in their car walking. You can have, you know, a nice setup if you want, but it doesn't have to be overproduced. But just actually just talking to the camera, talking like you're talking to a person. So I would say just try some new new things with your content.

Kelly Leonard 4:49

Okay, so yapping, I'm not familiar with the phrase. And so at first I was thinking, well, yapping is a bad thing, but you're saying yapping is a good thing.

Alexia Clincy 4:57

Yapping is a good thing because it's sharing your voice. So another thing, too, is that I know we talked a lot before about educating people with your content, right? And giving them something. But now it's a little bit more about positioning. Like what is your position on this thing you're talking about that kind of might set you apart from any other information or other person who is giving this content? And so now the algorithms are rewarding more of video and rewarding more of people. Literally, just you could be in front of your phone like this and just talking, like talking about a story, talking about something that positions your expertise, your credibility, etc. But you just yapping. That's what they're calling it now. So if you go on Instagram and search yapping, you'll probably even see some videos and content about people telling you how to be a better yapper.

Kelly Leonard 5:49

It is so funny. I think I'm just dating myself because I could I swear back in the day, like feel I it feels like my grandparents or somebody would be like, you yapping, like, stop all that yapping. And that was not a good thing, but okay, you've educated me.

Alexia Clincy 6:03

Not to be not to be confused with gossiping or anything else like that, but but yes, like you'll notice when you scroll, you'll see a lot more of just people just talking.

Kelly Leonard 6:11

Got it. And so one of the things, Lexi, that I know you say often is clarity before content, which I absolutely love. Can you break down what clarity looks like in practice and how getting clear on voice, audience, and intention directly impacts revenue or growth? I know that's right.

Alexia Clincy 6:28

You always would get straight to that money, which is very important. Um clarity before content in practice looks like creating content that has a clear point. So, one thing a lot of times people will do with their content is you're trying to say too many things at once. Um, you're all over the place. Perhaps your grid, and when I say grid, I mean like your Instagram profile. Let's say if I look at all of your posts, it's like I don't, you're all over the place. And so people don't act on confusion, they act on what they can understand and very quickly because people's attention spans are so short now. And so it's important that your content has a clear point, that your profile kind of gets to a clear point, especially if you are a business or you have a product, service, etc. The more you can kind of stick to that thing, the easier it'll be for people to grasp. Um, and when it comes to making revenue and having growth, um, clearer ideas are just easier to follow. So if it's easier to follow, they're gonna trust you more quickly. If they trust you, they're gonna invest in you. So it's really just shortening the gap between people seeing your content and then actually taking action.

Kelly Leonard 7:40

Okay, and then the action, the idea is to turn that into some sort of opportunity because I think a lot of professionals have visibility. So they've got the likes, they've got followers, they've got engagement, but they're not necessarily closing business per se. And so what are some key shifts that leaders can take to turn their online presence into some real partnerships or clients or career door openers?

Alexia Clincy 8:03

You know what's funny is that even though a lot of my work is in social and online and digital, the real opportunity still comes in shifting from online and your posting to positioning yourself to working with people and talking to people in real life. Like there's nothing that tops that. And so you want to use the visibility you get online to get into rooms. You want to use the visibility you have online to maybe have webinars or workshops, places where people can hear you speak, talk to you, kind of go back and forth a little bit. How can you go from engagement to actual conversation, turning these likes and people commenting, et cetera, into those direct messages and then getting into real spaces or getting on the phone, email, et cetera? I think that a lot of times people downplay the importance and the benefits of this real life connection with people, and yet it still trumps everything. So I think that's really where the opportunity is how quickly can you get from people being like, oh, this lady's cool, to let's set up a call or let's see how I can work with you.

Kelly Leonard 9:14

I love that, Lexi, because yeah, I do feel like so many people hide behind the screens and just think that, oh, okay, if I just keep engaging on social media, that it's all gonna come together. Folks are, you know, just the windows of heaven are gonna open up and the money's gonna pour out without actually picking up a phone or going to meet someone, going into an office or what have you. So um I definitely appreciate you calling that out. And so um, what's one belief about content or personal branding you wish every leader would release? So, what is some sort of thing that you think is holding people back that you're like, you know what, let that go, let it go.

Alexia Clincy 9:54

It's actually what you just said. I would say number one, content will not solve everything. And a lot of folks hide behind the content, like you just said, or they focus more on the content than they do on the impact they're actually making in real life, so that now when people do meet up with you or do want to do something with you, it's shallow. There's no foundation. Content is powerful, but it's not a replacement for real relationships, for real value, for a real world presence. And so a lot of times when we're working with folks, a lot of our work has to do with okay, what are you doing in real life and how can we make that more impactful so that there's something to talk about on social or so that other people have something to talk about on social about you, which is even better. Um, so definitely if your offline life isn't strong, your content doesn't really have much to pull from. So that's really, really a big thing to remember.

Kelly Leonard 10:47

You know, Lexi, that's a word. Because really, like, especially when you think about like how many people are creating AI creating content using AI. And so they're relying on the tool to create something, and because they don't have the depth themselves, so that when you do meet them in real life, it's like, wait a second, is this the same person that I experienced online because that person seemed really deep and knowing and all this, like had was like you know, just this sage advice and all this stuff, but you can't like parse two sentences together right now.

Alexia Clincy 11:21

Yeah, and and probably in the future we'll be able to tap our ear and Claude and Chat GPT will tell us what to say. But until then, yes, like it's never good to hide behind your content and remember that content doesn't create the value, it reflects it. So you really have to focus on on this offline real life.

Kelly Leonard 11:39

Love it. Okay, so if folks are listening in and they want to tap into your genius and the capsoch way of doing business, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

Alexia Clincy 11:51

Oh, please do. So yeah, I'm a I'm a fan of Kelly Leonard's LinkedIn blueprint. So find me on LinkedIn. Um, you can definitely email me at Alexia@ CapSocAgency, C-A-P-S- O-C Agency.com. Um, and of course, check out capsocagency.com where we lay out our premier service, which is the CapMap. That's what we start with everybody. It basically is us doing a strategic blueprint that turns all your ideas and goals into a clear plan. And that's the first thing we do with all of our clients. So if you're interested in how to keep your content from feeling so scattered, that is the first step.

Kelly Leonard 12:30

Excellent. And all of that information will also be in the show notes, good people. So, Alexia, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Thank you.

Alexia Clincy 12:40

And can I say one other thing?

Kelly Leonard 12:42

Absolutely.

Alexia Clincy 12:43

I would like to take a moment to edify you and your impact because when I lived in DC 14, 15 years ago, you were absolutely a blueprint for me in all of the LinkedIn training that you were doing to see you teach and to just provide for other people. And I've taken so, so many lessons from that as I've built my company and my business. So I want to thank you so so much. And I'm so sure that all of your audience learned so much from you from this podcast and everything else that you're doing. Oh, thank you so much. Love you, dear. Love you too.

Kelly Leonard 13:22

Thank you for tuning in to the Boost Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and rate the show and share it with a friend. Also, don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Every other week, we'll empower you with practical, actionable insights, tips, and takeaways to boost your success.