Your Dream Business

This week’s Small Business Superstar is Rebecca from Think Social, Be Social.

A little bit about Rebecca’s amazing business…

Think Social, Be Social offers social media management, and consultancy. Rebecca helps small businesses to promote their business on social media and manages their social media for them too.

What one marketing thing made a difference to their business? Being social! Being supportive, active in the communities/groups, inspiring and sharing. Ask questions, like people’s posts, share things to your stories. If you were at a party, you wouldn’t just talk about yourself.What difference did it make to them and their business? 

Rebecca has never really had to promote her business/services because everyone knows her for doing social media and this has also meant she has regular clients who have been with her from the very start.

Where you can find Rebecca

Website: www.thinksocialbesocial.com

Facebook: @thinkSOCIALbeSOCIAL

Instagram: @thinksocialbesocial

 

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Well, the second podcast episode this week. So welcome to the Thursday episode. Now we've done one of these forte. So you might be getting used to the format. But let me just explain again, what's going to be happening. So every Thursday I am going to be interviewing an amazing small business superstar who has done something brilliant in their business that we can all look at and we can go, "You know what?

 

I can try that too." And what I've asked them to do is pick one thing that they're good at. Oh, one thing that they did, that was really good. And what kind of results they got. So hopefully you can either give it a go or just think that's cool and it might give you some ideas. So on this week's episode, we have the very lovely Rebecca from think social, be social. Rebecca, welcome to the podcast.

 

Rebecca: Thank you so excited to be here. I listen to your podcast every week. So excited to be on it. It's amazing.

 

Teresa: That is awesome. And do you know what that's like? This is one of the reasons I'm loving this Thursday things so much, is I love the fact that I get the opportunity to bring on, like, you know, you don't need to be the size of Michael Hyatt.

 

You don't need to be the important Bills as well, because as people know the reason why I did this is because we need real marketing by real people so that we can do the same. So, Rebecca, do you want to explain to my audience how you got to do the thing you're doing and what it is you do?

 

Rebecca: Uh, so I had a, another business, uh, children's sports coaching business, which we're still continuing until COVID. Um, and then now I have to stop stopped that. But while I was doing that business, the thing that I really enjoyed was marketing and being on Facebook and, um, people would come to other businesses would come to me and say, "Well, how do I do that? how do I check in here? How do I tag that person?", and, um, and then one day somebody said, "Why aren't you doing this as a job?"

 

And that was my light bulb moment of, Oh my goodness. I could do what I love and get paid for it. Um, and so I immediately started my business thing that almost immediately think social, be social. Um, and here I am now.

 

Teresa: Awesome. So you do social media management for other people?

 

Rebecca: Yes. So it starts off as, um, consultancy that I, again, I teach other small businesses how to be using social media for their business.

 

And then I had several people say, "Actually just do it for me. "So then it became management. And I've got six regular clients, I think have been with me from the, almost the beginning. Um, I do their social media for them every month, but I still love the teaching and the consultancy. And I've just brought in a power hour so that I can still help people as well.

 

Teresa: That's so cool. And I think the other thing that's cool about this is one thing I want people to hear as we're having this discussion is that Rebecca is doing it because she loves it. So like, if you're sat there going, "But I flip and hate the session, you get a bit of my business." That's all right. Like you don't have to love every single thing you do. But obviously you couldn't do the job you do, unless you absolutely love doing it because I have been there and done that and have the hats and it's hard work. Isn't it managing social media for other people?

 

Rebecca: It is. Yeah, because also it changes so much every day. We wake up to new news of what's happening in social media. And if that isn't your thing, then you can't keep up with all of those changes. You know, you're focusing on your business, what you're really good at, and you can't be listening. Like I am all the time listening and learning and researching everything so that I can try and break it down and let other people know in bite-size chunks, how they can put it in their business.

 

Teresa: Yeah. And funnily enough, we were just having a very quick chat before we got on here about the fact of, with some of this, uh, some of the things that you can do in the platforms you need to physically do it yourself. I never understood the social media people who never managed social media for other people. Or never did like I saw it. I had a rant on Instagram the other day about, uh, there was an agency that's not many miles away from where I live and they had put on their Instagram, "Hey, we do social media training" and their own social media was appalling. And it's like, in order to be good at this stuff. And we were just talking about reels because Rebecca's really good at reels.

 

Um, and I don't do them as we speak and that might have to change. Um, but like she's got to physically create reels in order to know how to teach someone else to do it. I mean.

 

Rebecca: Yeah, exactly. Everything that comes out, I'm straight on that. Um, and, and like, you know, do it until you break it sort of thing.

 

What, what, how do you do this and learn by mistakes. I did a whole reel and then delete to do so now I know what not to do with things like that. And they are the guides that they brought out, try and create different types of guide so that again, I can show my clients how they would then put that into their business.

 

Teresa: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And also as well, which is a bit like we're trying to do with these episodes is, you do it, did it work? What did you get from it? Was it worth the effort? And then you can give a educated sort of response to your clients and go, well, "actually I got this. If you're looking for more of this and great.

 

If you want it to do this, then it might not do that." So at least you can give them a good kind of understanding as to what they can achieve if they do it.

 

Rebecca: Exactly. And what much is their personality as well? If they're really good on video or want to learn video? Then they can be there if they're actually much prefer writing then diary is going to be really good for them. If they're quite happy to do snapshot, little bits and pieces and reels, it's going to be good. They don't have to do all of that, but at least be aware of what opportunities there are.

 

Teresa: Yes. Such a good point. Okay. So what was your one thing and your business that you've done from a marketing point of view that you think has really helped you.

 

Rebecca: Without the doubt is being social. Well, no, it's not a surprise. Uh, so many people do not do that. You have to be supportive and in the communities, if you're in networks and groups, you have to be an active member, um, you know, answering people's questions, supporting, inspiring, sharing, um, and, and just being social,

 

Teresa: Yeah. And so. In all honesty. I am like, I'm terrible when it comes to doing a, uh, like if I'm in a group I'm not great at groups, if it's my group, it's fine. But if I'm someone else's group, I'm not great at getting involved and having these conversations. So is there a specific structured things that you would do in order to be social?

 

If it wasn't natural or you were nervous of it or you were fearful or you didn't want to irritate people. What sort of things would you do or how would you suggest someone else is more social?

 

Rebecca: Um, so an easy way to do it is when somebody has written something, try and reply with a question.

 

Teresa: Okay.

 

Rebecca: So spent how much time you've got, even if the one who's spending all your time doing this, but trying to take out some time in your day where you're just interacting, engaging.

 

So liking posts, sharing to your stories. If you think your followers would be interested, as I said, if they make a comment, if it's on your stuff or, or in a group you're in try and respond with something. That's interesting. So. You know, because that's like an assistant notice you and say, "Who's this person?" um, look in and hopefully follow you and see what you're doing and share your stuff and be around interacted with your thing.

 

But we all know that that one person that is always talking about themselves, they're never interacted. They're never in the group unless they're promoting and talking about themselves. Um, and it just doesn't work anymore. You're better. Like with my business. I've always been that social helpful person because I like helping people.

 

Um, and I've never really ever had to advertise my business. Um, because people just know I do social media and if they need social media help, they come to me or somebody will refer me.

 

Teresa: Yeah, absolutely. Like the other thing as well, when you're doing the more group thing. And in the social media world, there are lots of groups. But in any world, actually.

 

So no matter who, what industry you're in, as you're listening to this, like the group thing and helping and being social in the groups is really, I think, and I know you are very good in our group, in, in the Academy group. Is that a lot of the success as well? Do you think, do you think groups are part of your strategy with that?

 

Rebecca: Um, I think groups help in so many different ways. Yes. You've got a sort of little team of people who are each cheering each other on and supporting and inspiring, but also as a small business, it's, it's quite lonely just being yourself. If there's only you to talk to. So to have a group where you can share ideas and it's a safe space, um, to be talking about, um, things that have worked, haven't worked.

 

Um, advice that you need and, and you know, if you're at a party, you don't want to just be talking about yourself all the time. You want to be engaging within the people and you want to feel like you've come away and you've helped somebody or inspired somebody or supported somebody.

 

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

 

And I think what you just said, there was a really good point. If you're a party, you wouldn't just go and speak about yourself. And for me, that's what we have to remember about social media is that it's social. It's a, it's a social interaction. It's a conversation it's not about just shouting at the world.

 

Okay. So hi, you, do you make this happen? Do you set an amount of time in the day? Do you have certain tasks that you do. Because I know what some people are going to be thinking is I'm going to get on and I'm going to be social. And I'm literally spend all this time just having conversations with people.

 

And as if social media isn't time-sucking enough, uh, this is going to do it a bit more. So how, how do you structure that?

 

Rebecca: So here's I think don't have a particular strategy that I'm following. But what I like to do is be obviously in the groups that are going to be useful to me work-wise and supportive, emotionally supportive as well.

 

Um, and anything that is, is it's, um, either not making me happy or feeling a bit spammy. Uh, just get rid of the group and leaves the group. Um, and again, the same with your newsfeed, that people are coming into a newsfeed. You can pay him to that. You can be following people, unfollowing people, hyping, snoozing.

 

You know, if you click those three dots, there's lots of different actions you can have. So then, you know, the people that are in front of you are your, in the kind of people or people that you want to attract to your business. And so what I'd love to do is if I'm posting, I'll then spend 5,10 minutes after I've posted, just going through my newsfeed liking, like I said, sharing to my stories.

 

If something really amuses me or I think it's going to be good for my audience. And just yet build that interaction into the time that I spend posting or the beginning of the day and the end of the day, then I'll do that. And I'll focus on just going online to have a look and see what else everybody else is doing.

 

And at the end of the day, and then the middle of the day is kind of my work time.

 

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah.

 

And I think as well, the conversation and the comments and the, I remember Chelsea Pouts, uh, once said something like on Instagram you find yourself doing like a swipe by liking where it's just like, like, like, like, like, and, and therefore you need that more conversation and comments and, and like I said, sharing onto your stories and that I have to admit on some platforms I don't share at all. So Facebook, you won't see me very often share something to my feed, to my personal and work one I'll share works, obviously, just cause that's not how I use it.

 

Twitter I'll happily retweet anything. Um, and again, on, on stories and Instagram posts, I will share certain things. But like you said it, that interaction is so, so good. Okay. So and...

 

Rebecca: And from that point about sharing the stories, make sure you always tagged that person as well. Make sure that they know you've mentioned them in your story, whether it's a post or their story, we can't share their story in a short tag, but a post you can share and tag them and then, you know, say something as well in there about why you're sharing it.

 

And hopefully they will share it back to them again. And then their audience has seen you. And then you've just got eyeballs from a whole another group of people.

 

Teresa: Yeah. And that's again, other than the being nice and having conversations, being social, that's the other thing, your, your name, your profile, your business is being seen in various other places.

 

And as everyone knows, if they've listened this product as well, I'm a big advocate of sharing anything that anybody tags you in because they're essentially doing your advertising job for you. So what kind of results have you seen then from doing this kind of proactive social side of social media?

 

Rebecca: I get a lot of people say, well, you're everywhere.

 

Teresa: That's nice.

 

Rebecca: And I'm not everywhere, but here's like every, because I'm not one of those, um, lurkers, I try and make sure that my face is out there or my name's out there.

 

I've just changed on my emoji to have pink hair like I have now. Um, so that when they see my, my emoji, they sort of relate back to me again as well. Yeah. Um, and then, like I said, But I've never really had advertise my business because everything's referral word of mouth and my clients stay with me for a long time.

 

Teresa: And you satisfied in our discussion in the notes. And we were, when we looked at this, was that people often then tag you in. So like when someone asks a question or when someone asks for someone's advice or does anybody know anybody can do this, then that's when people kind of go in a group or on social media, because this is such a good point as well, because we are posting this up, but we need to remember that there are lots of different people watching. And although the person that you're interacting with may not be your perfect customer, someone else they follow might say, who do you know that does this? And then, there we go.

 

Rebecca: Exactly.

 

And a lots of people get that wrong in networking groups as well. They go to the networking groups thinking they're selling the people in that group, but you're not. If they happened to use you, then obviously that's brilliant. But what you're trying to do is tell those 30 people you exist so that each of those 30 people, if they come across someone that needs social media help, they're gonna suggest you.

 

Teresa: And it's exactly the same as socializing exactly saying. That is awesome. Thank you so very much. Rebecca how can people come and find you and support you and follow you and what your stuff where is best to come and find you?

 

Rebecca: As I said, I am everywhere. So whatever your platform of choice, you will find me there as think social, be social or Rebecca Ward, but Instagram is my fave. I ended up going back to every single day I'm on Instagram. And that's also where I'm putting stories, tips, reels tips. I've written a guide for how to create reels and to be social. Um, and then over on my website thinks thinksocialbesocial.com.

 

I've written blogs about reels and guide. So if you want to just understand a bit more about how to use them, and they're real quick blogs with images as well, because I'm not aware.

 

Teresa: That's wonderful. That is amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your amazing tips with my audience.

 

That's cool.

 

Rebecca: Thank you Teresa.

 

Teresa: No worries. Okay. So if you enjoyed today's episode, then please do go check Rebecca out. We're going to hook up to everything in her show now in our show notes, sorry. Uh, where you can go and click and go and have a look at her stuff. And obviously this is new, what we're doing. So let's show everyone lots love.

 

If you can share this, if you can go in like a post or do whatever you can, that would be so good to know that you guys are really enjoying these new types of episodes. Okay....

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with the amazing Angela Henderson. Angela is an author, small business consultant, blogger, and mental health clinician who helps women to grow their business without burning out in the process. We talk all about human to human marketing; what it is, why it’s important, and how you can do it in your business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Women shouldn’t just continuously hustle, we have to do things at a pace that is in alignment with us.
• It’s okay to go slow because none of us are overnight successes.
• Sometimes the content we create is not necessarily selling the product we sell, it’s understanding who the person is we are talking to and what they are doing at the time.
• Never underestimate who is watching you/reading your content.
• Don’t underestimate the affect you can have on people when you choose to write based on value vs transaction.
• Human to human marketing is the experience and interaction one faces with a particular brand.
• Human to human marketing is important because your customers are HUMANS - they want connection and to feel valued. It is also important to be able to stand out – how are you positioning yourself in a place that is so noisy? Finally, emotional motivators drive consumer behaviours and when you drive consumer behaviours, it equals sales and you will become profitable.
• Conversations = Connections. Connections = Conversions.
• We need to be having genuine conversations with our consumers.
• People will forget what you said, forget what you do but they won’t forget how you made them feel.
• Have conversations to evoke a feeling.
• When you treat people kindly and add value to their lives first…good things will happen.
• Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than take in payment.
• Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
• Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
• The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
• The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
• We have to appreciate the small stuff.
• Don’t outsource your inbox – your audience want a reply from you.
• It’s not just about nurturing people at the beginning of the buying cycle – what about the end?

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Sprinkling a little kindness and care doesn’t cost you anything, and it goes a long way!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• An introduction to Angela 06:57
• What is human to human marketing? 18:36
• Why is human to human marketing important? 19:25
• Examples of human to human marketing 23:26
• Loving your audience and creating fans 31:53
• Human to human marketing online 39:30

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Join my academy!

Book – The go-giver

Check out Angela’s website

Join Angela’s FREE Facebook group

Follow Angela on Instagram and go chat!

This week’s Small Business Superstar is Toria from Wild Iris Boutique in Ironbridge.

A little bit about Toria’s amazing business…

Wild Iris Boutique is an independent shop in Ironbridge stocking jewellery, fashion, and gifts. On top of being a beautiful shop full of amazing products, Toria has also added an “Artist of the Month” feature where she promotes local talented artists and they also hold special evenings such as book clubs, well-being evenings, craft evenings, and many more, creating a real sense of community. Toria also works closely with local charities to give back and help those who need it.

What one marketing thing made a difference to their business? Going live on Facebook! Showing products and more of the boutique. Then a virtual shopping event featuring local artists and all the products available.What difference did it make to them and their business? 

People interacted and watched all the content. So many orders! Created an income whilst the boutique couldn’t be opened. Took one weeks’ worth of takings in ONE NIGHT!

Where you can find Toria

Website: wild-iris.co.uk

Facebook: @wildirisironbridge

Instagram: @wildirisironbridge

 

Transcript below

 

Hello, and welcome to the very first Thursday, proper Thursday episode. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm really excited about this. So I have told you what it's about, but let me just briefly go over what the scenario is here. As I said to you, my little special episode last week, and my small brands that I was tired of seeing lots of examples of marketing that wouldn't necessarily work or worn as realistic to small business owners. And when I talk small business owners, I am one of those small business owners. Like there is a huge percentage of us who were there at that small business level. So I wanted to bring in amazing small business owners who are doing phenomenal things and not like the crazy, amazing stuff, but like just showing up and doing something and it's having an effect in their business. And also I wanted to bring in people who were doing things that I wanted to give you the confidence to do them as well. Now, at the time of me thinking about all this about feeling fed up about all these people going, Hey, I am seven figures in three minutes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, rubbish.

 

Um, something else happened in my world and the two things together inspired me for this. So one that happened where I kept getting all these people irritating me. And the second thing that happened was an amazing member of my Academy did a Facebook live and basically blew my mind in terms of what she got and how she came across.

 

That inspired me, that I had to bring her on. And there we go. Out of those two scenarios came this new Thursday episode. So today it is my absolute pleasure. So welcome Toria from mild Iris in Ironbridge. How are you doing Toria?

 

Toria: Not too bad. Thank you. How are you?

 

Teresa: I am really good. I'm very excited about this episode.

 

I am super excited to hear what you did and what results you got. But first, let's start off by you sharing with my audience, who you are, what is it you do, and how you got to do the thing you do.

 

Toria: So I opened Wild Iris boutique in Ironbridge last year, so July, 2019. Um, I've spent about 15 years in retail prior to that working for the big boys started on the shop floor as a sort of part-time job at U-day. Fell in love with sales, worked my way up the ladder, and eventually ended up running, um, the whole retail estate from the operations perspective.

 

And however, after two redundancies in the space of three years, I just decided enough was enough. Um, I, wasn't going to have my heart trampled on again, and I've got that much experience working retail operations. It really gives you a sense of every single aspect of retail. It's one of the few jobs that touches every sector, every section of the sector.

 

Um, so I thought, okay, I'm going to do this on way, and I'm going to try this on my own. And if it fails it fails but I can do this on my own, on my own terms, um, and create something that ticks all my boxes.

 

Teresa: And do you know, let me just pause you there for a second. I have my own business and I know how scary that was.

 

I could not imagine the fear in getting a business that has a building and you have to buy products to put into that building and everything that comes with that, because that feels like way more risk than what I took. You know, because ultimately I just sold my brain and that was as much investment I needed really. Whereas this, for me, this feels really scary. Was it terrifying?

 

Toria: It was beyond terrifying. I was absolutely paralyzed by fear for so long and the whole run-up, you know, I, I, I found out about my redundancy in the April. I didn't leave until the May and I didn't open the boutique until the July. And that period in between was such a roller coaster of emotions.

 

One day I was absolutely flying high, going to networking meetings, meeting suppliers, thinking, "Yes, I've nailed this. I've got something really special." And the next day my inner saboteur is just crushing me. So yeah, it was my husband I felt sorry for to be honest.

 

Teresa: Yeah. It's not bad enough for us. Like they have to be able to receiver of the whole thing. So just explain about the shop and about what's the things you sell in there and your kind of ethos around it.

 

Toria: So I knew when I was creating a brand, I wanted it to be different. I wanted to stand out from the crowd and I wanted to be an independent, independent, you know, there are so many independent businesses and so many can fall into the trap of becoming a carbon copy of another shop they've seen in another part of the country and they just want to replicate it.

 

And I didn't want to do that. So, um, Originally, I never really wanted to go into fashion. However, it seemed to seem to be very much desired in the area. So there was, there's no way really for clothes in the immediate vicinity. So went into fashion. My longterm passion is in jewelry. That's what my, my many, many years of retail experience were in.

 

Um, so knew I wanted to focus on jewelry, but knew I wanted to be so much more than that. I wanted to be a destination. I wanted to create a tribe of loyal followers who enjoyed coming to see the boutique can see what was new. So I came up with the concept to dating an artist of the month focus as well, because I really wanted to promote local talented artists who were creating amazing things, but didn't know how to get them to market.

 

So I created the artist of the month focus, um, and I also created a lot of groups within the boutique as well. So we have, um, regular. Well, when it's not COVID we have regular, um, book club meetings. We have regular wellbeing evenings, and craft evenings and different things like that. Um, and always have something different going on.

 

So, um, and then having spent some of my career in the charity sector as well, giving back to society is hugely important to me. So before I even opened the boutique, I made. Um, relationships with local homeless charities and offered my services to clothe any women who were ready to get back into the world of work to actually clothe them ready for their interviews and give them mentoring and support, um, and mock interviews and things like that as well.

 

Teresa: That is just, that is so good honestly, like, and this you're literally like, I'm literally in the very beginning of, of doing these interviews and you already have prove to me why this is so valuable. Because in your world where you are, and the difference you're making is huge. Like that is massive. That also you've took something and thought of how else can I add value around this? Which is great, because ultimately you could just look at this as a I'm a shop you can come in and buy stuff and. Instead of just doing that, it was, how can I feature local artists? How can I then create more of a tribe around it?

 

Because already, like, I love the fact that the book things, I love, the fact of, you know, coming in and obviously, you know, that is, is huge. Because as a small business and as an independent shop, you need that tribe. Because you're also very lucky, by the way, if you're listening to this, I know my biggest audiences in the States. I want you to Google Ironbridge because you're just going to love it. Like it's a very historic, it's a beautiful time. And it also happens to be literally minutes from where I live. So that means I can go and physically go and have a look at things which is ace. But so let's just talk about COVID because you are a retail shop where people go in and buy. So COVID here. Tell me where your head was at.

 

Toria: Um, at the point when COVID hits, they locked down starting on the 23rd of March. And that was approximately three weeks after we'd reopened from two weeks of closure due to flooding in London bridge as well. Um, we were already off to a really shaky start this year. Locked down here, and obviously nobody knew how long it was going to be for.

Um, we didn't have a clue. So I allowed myself a bit of time to get a bit depressed and process what was going on and feel really bloody sorry for myself. Um,

 

Teresa: Well reason to, absolutely, because like that, I'd completely forgotten that you'd have the floods, which I shouldn't have because I very much knew about them, but your, your shop is on the front of a river.

 

And basically we have the same problem every year where we live in structure, but it floods a lot, but of course, so that was disastrous then to have this, so, right. So you sat and when I'm allowed to be sad and annoyed about this that's okay. Which it is. And then what happened?

 

Toria: Then I picked myself up and I was just like, right. Okay. What can I do? What can I do differently? People can't physically come in. Yes. I have a website. Now I've never really put much effort into it. If I'm honest, I've never really make, make made many sales through it, but it's still got potential. So first thing was strip the website back to basics and really try and focus on how I wanted it to look and function and how I would shop on that. Um, and then, and then came the bit I hated, which was taking photographs of loads and loads of stock. I am not, I am not a creative person in my mind. I am a really creative person, but you asked me to do something physical and tangible and it all goes out the window.

 

So for me, taking photos was just like, "Oh God", But I've got it done. And then slowly sales started trickling through and I thought, okay, I can survive this. We can do this. What else can I do? So I came up with the idea of virtual, personal shopping consultations, because the thing about my business is that it's not just a boutique it is me. And it's taken me 12 months to realize it. But people come into the shop, not just for the project, but for me as well. Um, and so I wanted to give them the chance to have that at home, to have someone there going "Okay, I see you. I know what you like. I know what your tastes are, how about this? It will fit you well, because of this, that, and the other little tick, all your boxes, because you like to do X, Y, and Zed," and still give them that level of personal service.

 

So we're still able to do that. And then lockdown finished and there was still a huge amount of nervousness from the general public about coming out and shopping footfall was way, way, way down. But I have heard as well, like you say, it's a, it's a, it's a UNESCO world heritage site. So it's a huge tourist destination.

 

We have no foreign tourism. We have no coach tools, no coach tools for the last crisscross.  Yeah. Yeah. Like midweek, you were just like. It's a ghost town. What is going on? This is somebody, you know, locked down, lifted on the 15th of June. It was just unbelievable and slowly.

 

Teresa: Great time for you

 

Toria: Should have been manic, but slowly but surely by the time we got to August, we kind of felt like. Things were feeling a little bit normal. Yes. You were having to restrict the amount of people come in. Yes. We were having to sound like a broken record and ask everyone to put gel on their hands. Yes. You were having to deal with a very small minority of the public who were not very happy with you asking them to do such thing.

 

Um, but all in all, it was a much, much better summer than I thought we were going to have given everything that was happening. So we were moving in the right direction and then getting excited for Christmas and then bomb lock locked down 2.0, and my God, you know, if a retail in the 10 weeks running up to Christmas, we do 40% of our annual turnover.

 

So for me to find out, I've got a close for the whole of the month of November has been terrifying.

 

Teresa: So. You did a couple of things that I just think like when I, when I speak on the podcast or when I train or tell people, "Hey, do you know, you should try this." I genuinely think they're like, yeah, no, like, you know, they might think that's a cool idea that not for me.

 

I just want to give them it. Which is why you were so key to bring you on because the first thing you did or one of the first things you did, cause there's two things that we talked about in particular was you went live. So tell people about that live. How was it?

 

Toria: How did you describe it? I think you described it to me the other day. I was not a full blown production and I thought that was possibly the kindest way

 

Teresa: to I was trying to be nice. Like I said, I didn't want it to sound like I was being mean about it because you have a great, but I wanted to show you or prove to people that like. It, it, it wasn't, it wasn't like the lights cameras action, but it was perfect.

 

It was perfect because it doesn't need to be. So, so you're basically there on your phone, on you I'm guessing it was your phone?

 

Toria: Yes, it was my phone. Yeah, the shop I'm in the shop and it's, uh, I think it was. Uh, dial two before lockdown was going to start, uh, it was, we knew lockdown was coming, but it happened quite started.

 

So in my head, I am in absolutely panic mode. How the hell am I going to support myself and how the hell am I going to support myself for Q1 next year? Because the sales I make in November, December, I have to see you through till the end of month. So I am properly capping it at this point. And, um, I think, well, Okay.

 

Stocking fillers. That was the first thing that came to my head. Stocking fillers. I've got loads of nice stock in let's show the people what I've got and if they like it, they like it. And if they don't, they don't. But quite frankly, at this point I have got nothing to lose. "So hi everybody. This is me. Um, so weak.

 

I'm new to look down. It's fine. I'm going to take you around the shop. I've got some really nice things to show you. Oh, now I need to turn my camera around. Oh, uh, how do I do this? Um, okay. Yeah. Yeah." Like literally I'm like, I'm one of these people that when I get an idea in my head, I just steam roll with it. Whereas normally

 

Teresa: And don't necessarily planning it all out.

 

Toria: No. No. It's so stupid. Like when I was, when it was an employee, I was like the planner. I have lists of the list of the list. And then for me, for my business, I'm like, "Oh, that's a really great idea. Let's do it now." It's like, I'd lost that team around me who go "Well hang on a second."

 

Teresa: Yeah. Let's just, how are you going to do it? Do you know how to do it? But you know what? Right. The thing that I love the most about this is that fear of, so basically it's like the fear of doing it was smaller than the fear of, Oh my God, I need to make money. That then made you do it because let's say like, you know, and I, I don't know. Well, I know you and you did lots of amazing things, so you might be different, but like, there are a lot of people out there who think.

 

Oh, well, I would, I would do that, but the, but the fear is too great. And there's no real motivation. Whereas for you, you had no choice like this was coming. So, so you went and did this live and you were great. You were, you, you had your camera facing away, um, or showing a lot of stuff. There's a few points where you turned it back round and you kind of held things up, especially if it was like, I think see sizing and whether that was intentional or not.

 

I don't know. But what happened, like how did you feel as you were doing that live? Was there anybody on at the time.

 

Toria: I felt like an idiot. Now I think about it. It was, it was a Sunday morning. It was a gloriously sunny day outside. And there was nobody about that. Like first thing in the mornings in Ironbridge. Right, right, quiet. So I was like, right, I'll do this now. I'll get it over and done with, and then I can chill out for the rest of the day and just serve customers. Sunday mornings. I don't normally say anybody. Do you know how many people walked in while I was filming that. Five, five people and I'm like, "I can't, I'm live on the internet.

 

This isn't a recording. I can stop and pick up again. I'm on live on Facebook." I can see that there's a tally of how many people are watching me. And I've got people in the shop and I can't just, "Hi, sorry. I'm on Facebook, please. Excuse me." So I just kind of have to kind of motion to them and they kind of figured out what was going on.

 

And I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I was so embarrased.

 

Teresa: The point is you didn't stop and you didn't.

 

Toria: I didn't stop.

 

Teresa: And one of the reason or whatever you want to just, I want to talk like this, but, but generally, How, what you got from it, but like, You bought up some socks, right? It's called bee. And there were these lovely bees socks with real bees, not the Herbie.

 

And, um, and anyway, I was like, "Oh they're perfect." So, because I went and watched this video. And saw the socks I messaged you and said, can I have some of these socks please? And you sent me photos of what was available. Cause you showed me there was a few different ones. And then I went, yeah, great. Sort...

In today’s episode of the podcast, we are talking all things email. I talk to you about why it’s important to have an email list, using automation for your email list, the systems I recommend, and how to assign and use tags.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• We do not own our social media following and any of their information – your profile could be taken away at any point.
• Building your email list also gives you another way to contact your audience.
• Our audience does not see all of our content on social media.
• Your email list is one of your biggest assets in your business.
• People are interested in seeing more if they do join your list.
• Email lists are a numbers game – the more people you have on your list, the higher the amount of people converting to sales.
• View your email list as altogether – one list with everyone in.
• View your email list surrounding the person, rather than the action.
• You need a level of automation when getting people on your email list.
• Recommended systems to use - Convertkit, Active Campaign and Kajabi
• A tag is a label – every time your subscribers do something, it automatically gives you a tag.
• Giving people a tag helps to see what people are interested in and how you can help them.
• Quality over quantity – filter out those who don’t open your emails.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…You own the information on your email list and nothing can take that away. So, if you don’t already have an email list, you should really start building one!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• Why is it important to build an email list? 02:25
• The basics of an email list 06:09
• Automation in email marketing 09:23
• Systems you can use for email marketing 11:51
• Assigning and using tags 13:04

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Work with me - Become a 90 day member!

Let me know what you think about my course idea on Instagram or via email.

Convert Kit

Active Campaign

Kajabi

My launch checklist

Leave me a review on iTunes

Today I have a special episode because I wanted to share something exciting coming to my podcast very soon!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• There is a lot out there at the moment that makes running an online business sound so easy and they only tell you about the good stuff – this is unrealistic and can make us feel like what we are doing is not good enough.
• I am all for people being successful, but you have to be understanding of when you first get going – it takes a lot of hard work.
• It’s not always about fame and money, it’s about understanding your business and what you want to achieve but also why you want to be successful.
• Monday podcasts are not going to change – they will still be interviews and individual episodes where I teach. On a Thursday, I’m adding another episode and I want to interview YOU!
• I am going to bring on small business owners to talk about the one marketing thing that had a result in their business.
• I want to focus on real, tangible things you can do in your business.
• I want to celebrate you, I want to bring you onto the podcast and I want my audience to hear from you!

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…If you are a small business owner and you would like to be interviewed on my podcast, I want to hear from you! Simply fill out the questionnaire in the link below and we will be in touch.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• The problem with the online world right now – 01:34
• My new podcast series – 07:01

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Want to be on my podcast? If you are a small business owner, I want to hear from you!

In this week’s episode of the podcast, I have an interview with the lovely Adrian Salisbury aka The Video Guy. Adrian started as a photographer and then took his passion and skills to build an online business offering advice on video set up, photography, and using YouTube for your business. We talk all about Adrian’s career so far, taking your business online, why being on YouTube is a must for business owners, and how to keep showing up.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Sometimes you have to let one side of your business decrease slightly so you have more time to start something different, like an online business.
• Video is so valuable in your business – you can show your audience so much more of you.
• You have to be consistent on YouTube and show up regularly.
• YouTube is an incredible shop window to position yourself in front of your audience.
• You have to keep practising with video to get it right.
• Don’t worry if your videos only get a handful of views – each time you do it you will be more confident.
• Think about what your audience will like to see, what pains do they have? Answer what they are struggling with.
• You can create videos in batches to help you be more consistent on YouTube.
• YouTube is a marathon, not a sprint.
• The suggested videos section of YouTube is a lot easier to get into than the first page of google.
• You can really connect with brands you are familiar with on YouTube.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Video is a very powerful tool when it comes to showing your audience who you are and more of your business, so make sure you are using it!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• An introduction to Adrian – 06:35
• Taking your business online – 10:55
• Adrian’s photography business – 14:30
• Marketing your business through video – 16:45
• Adrian’s ecamm academy – 24:45
• Working with family in business – 32:00
• Using YouTube for business – 40:10
• Should I be on YouTube? – 48:33

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Join the waitlist for my academy!

Check out Adrian’s YouTube channel

Follow Adrian on Instagram

Check out Adrian’s Academies!

Want the transcript? click here!

This week’s podcast carries on from last week’s topic of creating content and staying consistent on social media. I talk all about Instagram and how I come up with my content for Instagram, as well as how to come up with engaging captions.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

 

• Instagram is more personal and aspirational so your content may be different on this platform.
• There are two places you can post on Instagram – your feed and your story.
• Instagram stories is great for showing more of the reality behind your brand – showing your personal side. It is also great for promoting what you are up to.
• Your Instagram feed is your highlight reel.
• Instagram is a great place to share more about you and your life, allowing people to see more of your family, home, and you.
• You can separate your content into different categories on Instagram.
• Choose categories that sum you up and also what your community will enjoy.
• When you know your categories, you can start to batch your content so you have a bank of images to use.
• Your Instagram captions should be helpful and informative.
• Give people a reason to respond to your Instagram posts. Ask a question or start a conversation.
• Make sure your caption explains who you are or what you do – it should tell your followers more about who you are.
• Think about the story you want to tell for each of your posts on Instagram.

 

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

 

You don’t have to post every single day to be consistent, you can decide on your own posting schedule and then stick to it.

 

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

 

• Instagram content – 07:00
• Content categories on Instagram – 11:00
• Instagram captions that engage your audience – 24:52
• A quick recap – 30:10

 

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

 

Join the waitlist for my academy!

Come over and follow me on Instagram

 

Transcript below

 

Hey there, how are you doing this week. Okay. Now we haven't had an interview for a couple of weeks and I'm afraid we're not having one this week either because I got so kind of, um, into the conversation about content creation and how I do it and what we do and all that sort of thing. And we've had some really good feedback from last week, from the episode that talks about general content creation and how I stay consistent that I wanted to talk to you about Instagram and how I do that, because as I mentioned to you last week, I do that a bit different. So that's the reason why I've chosen not to do an interview again this week, because I wanted to finish off that kind of story of where we were and helping you focus on Instagram this week. The alpha reason I haven't got an interview for you is because in all honesty, I've really struggled finding some right people and some good people to come on the podcast.

Now, as you know, I get lots of requests, which is lovely when you've had a podcast. Now, as long as I have 140 something episodes, and I've had some pretty amazing people on it means that people come to you and go, "Can I come on your podcast?" But the truth is, I am so tired of having people come to me going, "I can help your business, help your audience, learn how to make a million dollars in five minutes."

 

And I'm just like, no, I don't think so because I'm getting a little bit tired of these crazy claims that people are making in terms of online marketing and the online marketing space. Now I've given this a lot of thought over the last couple of days, it really has been bothering me from a, am I being as authentic and credible as I should be being, which I hope the answer is yes. I'm positive the answer is yes. I am being very honest as I always am. And I think I've always been really realistic. Like, don't get me wrong. There are really amazing successful people who are doing this and doing it well, but it wasn't easy and it wasn't quick and it wasn't simple. So. I think for me, I try and be like, provide you with the motivation and the inspiration, and I want to be inspired and motivated.

 

However, I'm also really aware that this is a lot of hard work and not everyone is going to make it. Not everyone is going to have the million dollar online business. So anyway, I'm getting completely fed up, seeing these things coming to me, I'm getting so fed up of someone, applying to come on the podcast.

 

I then spend some time I go through, I look at them. All I see is absolute rubbish. So I've been really, really picky about who's coming on and that's kind of given me a bit of a block in terms of getting people on. However, I have a number of really good episodes lined up for you guys. Don't worry. You don't have to keep listening to me drone on and on, on my own, but I have some really good episodes lined up some great peoples, a few different things that, you know, trying something new on one thing.

 

And, and then I've come up with a new idea, which I'm not going to tell you about it at this point, but it is to do the podcast and I hate it when people don't do that technique. And I didn't really intend to do that, but I have come up with an idea in terms of helping you with real marketing and making it feel much more tangible for you.

 

So anyway, leave that with me. I promise you, I wasn't trying to do that horrible. Oh, something's coming. You're going to be so excited. I genuinely just need to work out how it works and then I'll let you know, but it won't be long, next week or so. Okay. So this week, like I said, no episode, no episode, no interview.

 

Just me talking about Instagram content and how I come up with my content for Instagram. Now, the first thing I want to say before I get started is I don't schedule my content to Instagram. Not because of any particular reason, not because like it's not good or the reach or anything like that, because I think the reason I schedule is because like I am so concern with the way the grid looks. I'm laughing at myself. Yes. I know this is ridiculous and I really do need to have a word with myself, but I'm so particular about how the grid looks that I feel like scheduling too far ahead means I lose that control. Now I know there's loads of apps out there and I'll tell you what apps I use as well, but it's just like a mental block I have in my head.

 

But the reason I'm telling you that I don't schedule is because the one thing that happens because I'm not scheduling is that I am very inconsistent and I hate that. I hate that I'm so inconsistent on Instagram. Now don't get me wrong. I am, I'm not horrendous. Like a few days might go by and I haven't posted.

 

And then I post and then maybe I'm consistent for a couple of days, but I am certainly not showing up every single day as I would like to, but that is my own kicking myself at the backside. And like I said, there's a lot of like, besides that it's like a therapy session. There's a lot of issues around Instagram in the sense that I procrastinate about what I'm putting out, because I wanted to look perfect and brilliant, and that I need to get over.

 

I need to just go that's enough now. What's more important is that you're showing up. Not one, I don't want to go on Instagram stories because my gray hair is coming through. Yes. People I've got gray hair, like I'm sure you've seen it on a story. It's really bad. I'm really dark. And basically like the gray shows up terribly.

 

So yeah, it's hashtag personal problems, isn't it. But, you know, so I don't want to show up because of that or I don't post because I can't quite find the right picture to go up. So I seriously, know I need a word to myself about that. And I'm, I've tried really hard to improve, but like I said, the reason I'm telling you about the scheduling is because that is one of the things that contributes to me not being consistent.

 

So again, if it means being consistent and you schedule then great do that. Okay. That was just a side. Really? So let's talk about Instagram. The way I view Instagram is different to how I view the other platforms. When I talk to you about my categories for the other platforms in last week's episode, I talked about categories that were really practical from a business sense of view.

 

Like I talked about testimonials and frequently asked questions and your core content. I see Instagram much more personal lifestyley aspirational, whereas maybe I see, and I'm not saying this is right or wrong or whatever. This is just how I view my stuff. And maybe I see kind of LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter as more factual supporting, adding value.

 

Whereas I do feel like when I look at Instagram, I like looking at the nice pictures. I like I'd say simple, you know, I just liked looking at nice pictures. Um, but like, I, I like seeing things that look nice. I like seeing things that are attractive, that it's a good photo. That it's a nice location or whatever.

 

So for me, that's how I try and do my Instagram. So let me talk about the two different parts, I guess. So obviously you've got stories and you've got the feed. They predominantly today I'm going to talk about the content for the feed when it comes to stories. The idea of that is that's the realness.

 

That's the, in fact, if you do follow me on Instagram, you to see me the other day that I blew up my computer, not overworking it. I, I, the fuse went in the house and it upset my computer an awful lot. And I was having a bit of a breakdown. So I thought I was going to buy a new Mac. You know, that's what Instagram stories is about.

 

It's about the kind of like. Here's the realness, haze me with my gray hair showing up. Cause it's and it's thrown up in a bun or it's looking very messy or here's me telling you that, uh, the dogs drive me insane or they won't stop barking because the fireworks or, you know, it's, it's that kind of real personal side. But also it's, it's work side, as in here's me coming on going, I've got a great new episode of the podcast or I'm doing a free training. So the Instagram story content is different to the feed. The feed for me is like the highlight reel. The feed is like the, the trailer or the, um, It's like the more perfect version of what you're showing to the world.

 

So for instance, you will see me with my hair thrown up and not looking perfect on Instagram stories. However, the photos that go on my feed, I want to look good. And I, you know, I'm not sorry about that. I'm not kind of like embarrassed or shaming myself for wanting to look good on social media.

 

Absolutely. I want you to see me the best I can be, but I'm not showing you a falseness. It is me and it is real life, but it's the best version of me. And I've had a nice photo taken and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So, like I said, I tend to see my feed as the highlight reel, the images that go up there are good quality images.

 

There is a mix of my images and photos that I've taken or photos taken of me. And there's some stock images, but we're going to come to that. And there's also a few images that are created in Canva. So. Like I said, if you've not gone and had a look at me on Instagram, go and have a look at my feed and see what I mean when I talk about kind of the highlight reel and the really nice looking stuff.

 

So it is the good stuff I do spend time making sure the images that there are good because of the fact that Instagram feed is very personal. It's very aspirational and people want to see things that they think wow, or great or lovely or whatever it is. Okay. Also on Instagram, I tend to share a lot more personal stuff about me and my family and my life.

 

Because again, like I said, it is a more lifestyley type sort of platform, or I see, I see it like that. So you will see stuff on there that you won't see in other places. And I'd say actually, most of the stuff you see on Instagram, you will not see in other places. So I still use the same tactic in terms of categories on Instagram, but I have different categories because as I've just said to you, it's a, lifestyley personal get to know me and my life and what I love and what I do and that sort of thing.

 

So my categories are different. So I still have between 9 and 12 categories. And I'm going to run you through what my categories are. And then I want you to go and have a look on my Instagram. If you don't follow me, come and give me a follow. You know, you've been you've been listening to me anyways for a while now so come in and look at my Instagram, come and see what my husband looks like.

 

And my, my daughter, I don't think I've put a picture of her for a while actually. And you know what a normal Friday night looks like in my house, which is normally cocktails. So that basically I come up with these categories. So my categories for Instagram are. My first category, this is going to sound like I am so egotistical.

 

My promise, I'm not, is me. Now. The reason my, my first category is me, is that my business is me. I am the thing that people buy into. It's my knowledge. It's my experience. It's my kind of like, You know, personality and that's the same reason people won't like me and that's absolutely fine, but my business is me and therefore I have to show my face.

 

Now I know that people will look at this and think, I obviously like showing my face, but you know what? I, I don't always, I don't always like the look of the photo or the face I'm pulling or how I look in photos. Now I don't think we need to go down the route of talking about weight and whatever, whatever, but it's not that I love having my photo taken or love putting my face out there.

 

I just know I have to, and I know I have to show up and I have to be an example for other people. I have to show you that this is okay because you know what, if I didn't show my face and I kept saying to you like, you need to put your face on it. You know, social media, then you might kind of look at me and think, well, you didn't do it.

 

So. So I do it because I have to, because I am my business, but also I do it as a way to show you guys, look, you can do it too. But as I've just said too, at the beginning of this episode, I have nice photos taken off me. So I don't put up the horrendous ones of me looking like I've barely done my face and done my hair.

 

So I obviously put up ones that I'm much happier with. Don't get me wrong if you go through my feed, there are definitely ones that my husband has taken off me very occasionally, very occasionally there might be a selfie. But on the whole, it tends to be a kind of professional type photo. But it's still very much me.

 

Okay. So that is actually three of my categories. So what you'll find on my Instagram is one in three or one in four images is of me because I need to share my face more. I take someone like Jasmine Star, nearly every single image is of her. Amy, the same sort of thing. So. I'm not quite at that point yet where I want my face to be up there 24/7.

 

But the other reason you want to pick you as a category, people like faces and again, go and have a look at how many likes I get on my posts and have a look at how many likes I get on pictures of me. I get many more likes, a much more interaction when it's my face, as opposed to when it's a picture of a desk.

 

So. The face ones really do work, but I'm just not ready at this point. Like I said, to be putting my face out there every single post, and I don't think anybody else wants that quite frankly. And I'd run out of photos within about two weeks. So I definitely can't do that. And maybe that's the reason they can, maybe they have so many photoshoots that they can actually put their photos up all the time.

 

Anyway, so category number one, me and I, and I kind of say that's three categories because I'm putting up lots of pictures of it. Okay. Another category is coffee. Now you're going to think "What's an earthy you talking about? Why are you talking about coffee?" Well, the truth is I'm not really talking about coffee, but it's a category in terms of the type of picture I might put up.

 

But the reason I put coffee there is because, like I'm a business owner. I'm a step mom. I'm a mom. I'm a dog mom. Whether I want to be, or not. Sometimes I definitely do not want to be the dog mom. Uh, I'm a wife. I do all these roles and honestly, like, I love a coffee and I need a coffee in the morning to get me going and that is kind of part of my world and part of my routine. So, and it's an easy, nice picture to put up there. They, lots of these coffees that you'll see are real coffees that I've had. And then some of them will be stock images. I'm not afraid to use a stock image when actually someone has got a perfect image that I can use.

 

I don't profess to say, that's my image. I don't even talk about whether that's my image or not. I just basically talk about the thing I'm going to talk about, but we'll come to captions in a minute. Okay. Next category, cocktails, wine there's gin. And I joke, and it is a bit of a joke, a little bit of a joke, maybe a bit serious, uh, that if I'm not drinking coffee, I'm drinking one of the others.

 

So it's like, I know what time of day it is based on what drink is on my desk. I just want to let you know, is I was just gone 12 and I'm drinking water, but yeah. So I like a drink, right? This is kind of fairly big in my world. God, that sounds awful. But as in like, you know, Paul and I, we make cocktails, we love gin and we we've been gin tasting.

 

We go wine tasting when we're in California. Like we like. That part, that is like something I enjoy. So therefore, I am going to talk about that. Also. I talk about celebrating and your business and often celebrating for melby. That's having a glass of champagne or, you know, it's a Friday night, let's relax with a gin and tonic.

 

Now that's not for everybody. And that's absolutely fine, but that's just the category that actually is very truthful about my world and what I like to do. Like I said, especially during lockdown, we love making a cocktail because we can't go out for cocktails. So, you know, we have a lot of fun doing that in our house as well.

 

So this is kind of a personal thing for me in terms of, I like to show what I would do on a weekend and that's what I'm doing on a weekend. Okay. Another category is family. So I will occasionally post pictures of my husband and my daughter and the dogs and my home. Just to kind of talk about, you know, "This is what it's like as in, I am a mom and I do have to juggle all these other things and just trying to show some reality of that."

 

So sometimes I will post pictures of all of that and talk to you about what it's like to try and do all those things, but I'm just scrolling down my feed and I haven't got picture of my daughter for ages. I don't do it very often. I have to say, just because...

In this week’s podcast I talk about how I post content consistently on social media, post varied content, plan my content in advance, and how I manage my own social media platforms. I will also be sharing some content ideas and time-saving strategies for your own social media content and management.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• In an ideal world, you would create different content for each platform – but you don’t HAVE to do this as it may be unrealistic for you.
• It is better to have something go out than nothing at all.
• You do not have to be on every single platform – pick your favourites!
• Curated content is usually an image created in Canva or photoshop which can then be used on social media.
• The three main buckets of content are; entertain, educate and call to action.
• Come up with content categories you can group your content into – think about what you need to talk about for your business (eg. Testimonials, FAQs, Blog Posts, Products).
• Schedule each of your categories to be posted 2 or 3 times each week.
• Just because you have posted a piece of content 4 times, that doesn’t mean you can’t post it again – it is very rare someone will have seen it every time it has been posted.
• Decide on your publishing schedule – plan out your week with different content categories.
• Organic reach on social media is really low which means very few people will actually see every single piece of content you post.
• Make sure you have enough content in each of your categories and work out how often you want those categories to go out – this will create your structure.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Scheduling and planning your content in advance not only saves you time but also ensures you are consistent across your social media platforms in terms of posting and look.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• Managing each social media platform – 04:32
• Creating content – 11:11
• Creating a specific look for your content – 19:04
• Using Agorapulse for your content – 20:20
• Creating a content structure – 28:49

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Join the waitlist for my academy!

Get Agorapulse FREE for two months

Listen to my podcast episode about lead magnets

 

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How the devil are you? I hope you're having a great week. So it's really funny, actually I feel like I'm winding up for the end of the year already, which is insane because as I record this.

 

It's literally coming towards the end of October. We have two whole months still to go. But I think one of the reasons I'm thinking this is because one I've just closed the cart on the Academy so and no one else can join. So I, haven't got to think about that at the moment. Um, two all the activities are planned out for the rest of the year in the Academy.

 

So I know what's happening there. And three I'm organizing our one day event, which is all about planning for next year. So. I decided that this week I wouldn't give you an interview. I would kind of follow on from last week's episode. If you didn't catch it, it was all about the systems and tools I use in my business that helped me save time, save money, and make me generally more efficient.

 

And I told you about loads of different tools, I told you about Kajabi. And I told you about Loom and I told you about Trello and loads of different things. But one of the tools I did mention, and I said, actually, I think I'm going to record an episode about it. So this is that episode I talked about using Agorapulse.

 

And also I gave you an offer where you can get two months free of Agorapulse. If you sign up using my special link. And I will put that in the show notes. So. I wanted to talk about now, just so you know, you don't have to use Agorapulse for the stuff I'm going to tell you. This is how I do it. And I happen to use Agorapulse to do the scheduling.

 

However, what I'm going to be teaching you in today's podcast. Is the strategy behind how I stay consistent, how I put very content out there, how I plan my content so that I'm not having to do it on the fly and how I manage my own social media. And if you follow me on any of the platforms, you know, I post a lot, you know, that on Twitter, I'm probably averaging between, I dunno, five and seven tweets a day on, on Facebook I'm probably doing like two LinkedIn, probably two a day. And then Insta, I treat a bit differently and I will tell you about how I treat that, but I wanted to talk to you about how basically I work that out. Now I have done an episode on this before, but not as specific in terms of this is my routine. This is exactly what I do in my business.

 

So, hopefully this is going to be a great one for you. There's lots of good content ideas in here. There's lots of good strategies in terms of how to save your time. Now, first off, I want to start by saying I wasn't always like this. I have gone through that many different scheduling tools, different strategies, different way of looking at my content.

 

And this is where I'm at today. Now. Well, I change very possibly. Is it, uh, am I, done? Is this the perfect way of doing it? Not at all. This is just where I'm at today that works for me. Also I want to be really realistic with you about all this, because I know how hard it is to run a business and manage social media.

 

And I want to assure you, even though I have a team, I am pretty much the main person who does my social media, it's something for me that I feel is, has got to be my authentic voice. It's, uh, I am such a perfectionist. It may not always look like that when it comes to how a post might look from a design point of view.

 

So I tend to do that and I do have the team help me on certain things. And I will tell you about which things they help you on. So, like I said today, hopefully you're going to get lots and lots of good strategies and information. And a very realistic view about how I manage this in my own business. Okay.

 

Let's talk about the platforms in general and if you kind of, well, they're not even do's and don'ts, they're kind of just my thoughts on managing all this. So the platforms I'm using currently consistently is Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Now for me, Facebook and LinkedIn are okay. I don't spend a huge amount of time over there.

 

Twitter is better cause I like the interaction. And also, um, Instagram's my favorite. So that's where I spend all my time. One thing you have to know about this strategy that I'm going to talk about. I do not include Instagram in this strategy. I will tell you about how I think about Instagram differently than why I do that.

 

But basically what I'm talking about in terms of this strategy for content is I'm mainly talking about Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. So the first thing to say is, in an ideal world. And I say ideal that I'm not in that ideal world, because I am doing this and I have a business to run. But in an ideal world, you will create a different content for each of those platforms.

 

You might have different types of images, different texts. But I don't do that. Okay. Because for me it's more important that something goes out rather than nothing at all. Because if I had to create enough content to put across all those platforms to be as consistent as I am. That's all I would be doing.

 

So even now I can sit here and happy to tell you that in an ideal world, you would create different content for every platform. The truth is I create one bit of a content and I share over all three platforms. Okay. The other thing I need to quickly say, as a caveat here is you do not have to be on all the platforms.

 

This, I did a live training recently, a free live training. I don't know if you attended it, you might have done, but this was one of the things I talked about. The actually point number, whatever it was, three, two was pick your platform. Now, if I didn't do the job I did, if I didn't help and support people and businesses in all aspects of marketing, including social media, I wouldn't be on all the platforms.

 

I would choose my favorites and just go all out on that one. So you don't have to be on them all. So when I talk about all the platforms, it's not because I'm suggesting to you that you need to be on all the platforms. What I am suggesting to you is this is how I manage, because I do all of them. So just take it for your one or two platforms, don't think, "Oh, right now I've got to do all of them."

 

Okay. So that's the first thing. So Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter kind of get lumped together. Now there's a reason they kind of get lumped together in the fact of the size of the image, the image and the dimensions of the image can work well on all three. So I tend to use a landscape image. I don't know what the dimensions are.

 

I'd probably pick one of them in Canva and basically I use the same size and image type for all three. The reason Instagram isn't in there is because obviously when I do stories or posts, it's a completely different size image. Also, the other reason Instagram isn't included in this is because there's type of stuff I create that I send out on those platforms is what I would call curated content. Now, when I talk about curated content, what I mean is I have gone into Canva and I've created an image, whether that image has photos in it, where it has icons, whether it's just text and color, whether it's, whatever that image is, it means I've created it in something like Canva.

 

And then I have used that image on a social media post. You will see that I very rarely use a curated image on my Instagram grid. So on my grid, the only two curated images you will see are quotes. So I often put quotes out there and obviously I make them in Canva. And the other one is about podcast interviews, because I realized that if you look at my feed, there's very little about the podcast and, and it's not that I don't want to talk about the podcast. I should be what it is is that because I choose only to put photos up, it's really hard to get a photo that depicts it. I've now had a photo shoot very recently it's on my Insta. You can see it where I'm photographed with my microphone. So actually that helps because I can talk a bit more about it.

 

But like I said, you'll only see those two different posts. One. A very nice picture of someone I've interviewed and the other one is about the quotes. So those are the only two curated type images you see on Instagram. The other reason I don't include Instagram stories is because I can't, because basically there is no facility currently that will automatically post to your stories. Now what there is are platforms that will give you a push notification. And what I mean by this is you go onto the schedule, a platform, you go onto the whatever system you're using and you put your picture up and you had, see, I don't even know how it works.

 

I've never actually tried it, but I've seen you put your picture up and you might even have some like texts that goes along with it that you might want to put on top of the image as you would on a story. And then you schedule it for a certain time. And then what happens at that time is your phone will sort of give you a notification and says, it's time to post this thing.

 

This used to actually be the same with the feed, and I never liked it then either. So. Then, what you do is you go into your phone and it copies everything automatically. It's fairly easy, but, but for me, I just wanted it to be done. So I didn't have to think about it because in truth, and I I've talked about this on many podcasts where I talk about productivity is I have my phone turned upside down on my desk and I don't look at it. In fact, I don't even know where it is right now. Just looking right at my desk and I can't see it. So I'm assuming it's like I've done something or I've left it somewhere. Absolutely. Honestly, I try really hard not to look at my phone in the day, so that wouldn't work for me.

 

So that's why I just haven't even bothered scheduling stories and I only ever do real authentic at the time stories. Okay. So. Like I said, let me go back. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with Instagram a bit, but let me pull you back a bit. So I've just said to you that I create images for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and they're all exactly the same size and they're all exactly the same images.

 

Okay. So I don't know how I got onto that and why I jumped straight into that but I think I was just talking about the difference between the platforms. So let me kind of come back to the beginning in terms of how I start this process, how I start coming up with content, because the truth is what I do is I create a lot of content.

 

I spend a good, probably. I think it was about five or six hours in the first instance. And you probably sat there thinking what the actual five or six hours, but you know what? I did that at the beginning of the year and I've barely had to touch it since. So I have saved myself many, many, many hours. So, and don't get me wrong.

 

Uh, you might be sat there thinking you'd been putting the same post, like almost the entire year. You'll see how this works in a sec. So, okay. So I sit there and the very first thing I do is I come up with categories. Now, I've talked about categories before, and I've talked about three main buckets and those main buckets are entertain, educate, and call to action.

 

So I have talked about this before, but this is a bit different. Now, those buckets are designed to give you a steer of the type of content you're putting out there. So. They're great as a kind of reminder about those things. And you might choose to kind of post in different ways for those different categories.

 

So for instance, the entertained stuff tends to be my organic stuff. So it's, as something happens, I will post or share or do something along those lines. Whereas the stuff that's scheduled tends to be along, the call to action and the educate as you will see and see. Okay, so categories. I think about what categories I want to include in my social media.

 

What sort of things do I need to talk about on my posts? Now, the podcast obviously is a category because this is my main content. So if you have some main content that you're putting together and putting out there, then that's going to be one of the very first categories you have. The aim of my, this activity is to probably get between like, 9 and 12 categories.

 

Also, if you've heard me talk about categories of Instagram these are different. Now, I'm really trying hard not to confuse you here. It sounds like I'm really kind of, not all over the shop, but like it's times like I am going do this, but don't do this, but please stay with me. I promise it's not as confusing as I am managing to make it signed right now.

 

So like I said, we focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. It's not to say that you can't do the same for Instagram. I just choose not to because I choose to see it differently. So the first thing you come up with is 9 to 12 categories. And my categories on those platforms tend to be more business related than lifestyle related.

 

Whereas my Instagram tends to be more lifestyle related. So the categories I have chosen for my social media content are obviously "Podcast". That's got to be one because every single week we put out a podcast and we need to talk about it. And as I've talked about it, before we talk about it, two or three times on every platform during that week. The next one that comes really naturally is "In case you missed it", that is a category. And in that category goes any, any old podcasts and bearing in mind, we're on Episode 142, like that is a lot of podcasts. So we tend to choose. I say, randomly, it's not random. It's actually kind of. Okay. When did we last talk about this? And we do do it in a kind of running format, but we make sure we're constantly reposting old podcasts as well, because you might come to have come to this podcast.

 

And this might be the first episode you're listening to welcome by the way, if it is, thank you so much for listening, you'll get used to my quirky way, but. Obviously, if you've only just come to the podcast, then you don't know I've had Michael Hyatt, James Wedmore, Amy Porterfield, Pat Flynn, Dean Graziosi, all these amazing people.

 

So that's why we're constantly checking out the old episodes. Now, am I worried that people are going to see them and think, "Oh, I've seen that already?" Not in the slightest, not at all. In fact, I'm just going to make a note that we need to talk about reach and the kind of rescheduling of stuff. And then I can just explain how I feel about that.

 

Okay. Literally just made the night. So let me talk about another category before I fall down that rabbit hole. So another category I've got is "Lead magnets". Now, if you don't know what lead magnet is, I will put a link to the show notes in the show notes to my lead magnet episode. I can't remember what it was off the top of my head, but basically this is a something that gets people on your list.

 

That's fairly long and short of it. So I post my lead magnets constantly, even though they are the same, probably five, six lead magnets I've had for awhile. It doesn't matter that evergreen and you know what I get people opting into them constantly. So. Don't feel like, because you've posted that four times.

 

Oh gosh, can't talk about that again. So that's one of my categories. Okay. So I've got Podcasts. I've got In Case You Missed It. I've got Lead Magnets. I've got "Upcoming events". Now I speak for a living or part of my living. Now, obviously at the moment it's all online, which makes me very sad and probably a little bit depressed.

 

I'd really like to stand on a stage again, but you know, it's coming, hopefully. So. What we do as part of our marketing is that we help people promote their events. So I share events that I speak at. So what we do is hopefully they have some graphics or they have a sort of speaker graphic to say, I'm speaking there and I get them to send it me.

 

And then we. We put that in as a category. The other category I have, or another category I have is "Tools". So if I talk about different tools that I use and tools that I like, I will use that one thing to note on the tools is I use affiliate links. So there's a chance that I could get some income from that.

 

So I, I post about tools. Another category is "Testimonials". I like people to know that I'm good at what I do. And I have successes with people. What else did I got? So upcoming events, tools, testimonials, podcasts, lead magnets, in case you missed it, guest appearances. This is a good...

In this week’s episode, I am going to be talking all about is the systems I use in my business, why I use them, how they save me time and why you may want to consider using those systems or something similar.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Zapier is a system that gets one system to talk to another system and makes a task happen.
• Kajabi allows you to have everything all in one place and build automation.
• Agorapulse allows you to separate your content into lots of categories and reshare your content.
• I use captivate to host my podcast and adobe auditions to record.
• Systems such as Ecam, Live, Evernote, Zoom and Dropbox are great for webinars and Facebook lives.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Systems can really help you save time and build automation into your business so you can focus on other tasks!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• The system that does everything – Kajabi – 02:40
• Scheduling content – Agorapulse – 08:40
• Hosting a podcast – Captivate – 12:50
• Designing elements – Canva – 13:35
• Managing your team – Trello, Loom and Slack – 16:05
• Recording a podcast – Adobe Auditions 19:30
• Webinars & Facebook lives – Ecamm Live – 19:40

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Join the waitlist for my academy!

Kajabi

Zapier

Agorapulse – Get 2 months free!

Captivate

Podcast with the owner of Captivate – Mark Asquith

Canva

Trello

Loom

Slack

Ecamm Live

Dropbox

Evernote

Zoom

Want the transcript – click here!

This week’s episode is an interview with the very lovely Nikki Rausch who is the CEO of Sales Maven – an organisation that is dedicated to selling. We talk all about the different ways you can sell in your business and the process you need to go through, without being pushy and salesy. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Just because we love what we do and we are good at it, doesn’t mean we are necessarily good at selling it.
• It is not your job to convince someone they need you, it is to make it easy for the people who need what you have to get it from you.
• You can be confident in what you sell but not feel confident in selling it.
• Sales isn’t something you do to someone, it’s something you do with someone.
• Think about selling as issuing invitations.
• You have to tell people about your product or service for them to buy it.
• Your job is to show up with integrity, show up and deliver, give people the best of you and then you have to release that attachment – it is up to them to then buy or not.
• Talk about what is possible for people and be honest about what they are going to have to do to get results.
• Create curiosity – plant seeds when you talk about what you do.
• Don’t assume people will not want to buy because they can’t afford it – you never know!
• Change “Let me know what you think” to “Would you like to go ahead and schedule this now?” – encourages answer.
• When you ask a question online, this can give you an opportunity to create curiosity.
• Talk about your prices as though you are telling them what time it is.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Stop worrying about what people will say and think, tell them what you offer, how much it is and then let them decide if it is for them.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

• An introduction to Nikki – 09:20
• Selling your own service or product – 12:40
• The language of selling – 18:30
• The selling staircase and how to use it – 31:17
• How to sell online – 55:30

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Last chance to join my academy!

Check Nikki out!

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you? Okay, I'm just going to jump straight in and start telling you stuff. So the first thing I need to tell you is that I am closing the doors to the Academy. Now I made this decision a little while back that basically I have a cart open scenario, which basically means you can join the Academy whenever you want.

 

So it's constantly open. People can come and join at any point. And that's what had cart open scenario basically is. But I've decided to close the cart as of Sunday, the 25th of October. And no one will be able to join after that date. And the reason I've decided to close the cart is mainly because one, I don't want to feel like I'm selling all the time and two, because I have a very exciting online event that is going to be happening on November the 19th, I have to check the date on November the 19th in the group only available for Academy members. So there's a couple of things here. First, if you haven't been sat on the fence, I want you to jump straight off it and straight over to teresaheathwareing.com/academy. And I want you to join us there on that page.

 

Now, what will happen when you join the Academy is you will get an email from me going, "yay this is brilliant." And then you will immediately get access to a few different things. The first thing you'll get access to is the actual Academy, and this is hosted on its own site. You get to go in, there's all the courses in there.

 

So everything I've ever done from a cost point of view and it's loads. So it starts with the basics, like how do you know who your perfect customer is? And it then goes on to things like, um, getting seen. So Instagram, Instagram stories, Facebook. We're going to be having a LinkedIn course coming in early on in November, we've got a course on YouTube.

 

We've got a course on how to do blogs. We've got a course on Facebook advertising. What lead magnets are. We've got a whole course on a sales page and how to create a sales page. So there's so much good stuff in there. So that alone is worth way more than the monthly amount. So that's what you get access to first.

 

You also then get access to my amazing community through our Facebook group, a private Facebook group, just for us and you know what they are amazing. I love, love, love the members so much. They are so supportive. They are so encouraging. We've just finished an amazing Instagram challenge. We do challenges in there as well.

 

And on this Instagram challenge, every one of them saw a big shift in engagement. And followers because we did this challenge together. I gave them specific things to do. So we do challenges in there. We also do quarterly accountability kind of actions. So they set some goals for the quarter. They give them some actions and I keep them accountable.

 

But the one reason you really want to get in now before the doors shut is that event. So like I said, on November the 19th, we are going to be. Basically holding an exclusive online event for members only when myself and other special guests come in and do a whole host of work shops and trainings and coaching calls.

 

All around mindset and marketing your business. Because one thing I've discovered this whole journey along as you well know is it's way more than just knowing how to do your thing. And also even just being able to market your thing. If you wake up every morning and you don't feel like it or you don't have the confidence to go and put that thing out, that will show your face, then it doesn't matter what tools or tactics or strategies you've got.

 

It's not going to happen. So you might be sat there thinking, "Ah, I need to learn a lot more to build up your confidence" or you're not entirely sure how to approach the people you want to work with. Well, you don't actually know who is you want to work with. You might also be sat there thinking, "I don't know how to price myself, or I want to increase my prices" or you might just be sat there going, "Do you know what I am the problem in my business.

 

I'm the block. I'm the thing that's holding me back." No confidence, struggling with the fear of not putting yourself out there. And then you might be sat there thinking I just don't have the time and believe me. I know this one. So very well as a mum, a stepmom, my husband works away a lot. Like, it's hard.

 

It's really, really hard. And I'm not going to sit here and say that I can magic you an extra 10 hours in your week, which would be lovely if someone could though. But what I can tell you is I'm going to give you trainings and strategies and ways in which you can do things faster and more efficiently in your business.

 

So, if all of that sounds great. If you are sat there and you're one of those people that I've just described, then I am telling you without an anx of doubts, that the Academy, and this event, that I've got this full day event with very special guest is going to be perfect for you. Now, the cost of the Academy is $49.

 

So effectively for $49, you get all of that and this amazing event, which honestly, I don't think I could have priced it any more cost effectively. When the Academy closes, when it reopens, it will be a lot more money. So I want you to get in now while it's that cheaper rate, I had people who have joined from the very beginning and have never, ever left.

 

And the rate stays the same as long as they don't leave. So, like I said, enough time on the fence, time to get off, let's finish this year in a way better position than we've been probably in most of the year. Let me give you that confidence. Let me give you that those strategies and tools and tactics you need in order to really finish this year.

 

Great. And start next year flipping unbelievable. So go to, in fact, I'm going to pause this right now and I want you to go to teresaheathwareing.com/academy. Okay, go do that now. Right did you do it? Hopefully you did it. Okay. If not go away. No. All right. We'll get one today's episode. Okay.

 

Well, hopefully I'll see you over there because honestly it is awesome. So today I am interviewing the very lovely Nikki Rausch. She is the CEO of sales Maven, an organization dedicated to authentic selling. She has a unique ability to transform a misunderstood process of selling. Now. I don't think there's many of us out there who are like, woo, we love styling.

 

So I just thought. As much help as we could get is probably the best thing. So that's why I wanted to bring Nikki on to talk about different ways in which you can sell in your business. And how you go through that process and how you go to that process online. So she has 25 years experience selling to such prestigious organizations like The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Eula Podcard, NASA and Nikki shattered sales records in many industries receiving top producer awards along the way. But Nikki nice spends her days speaking to entrepreneurs and small business owners from a wide range of backgrounds, where she shows them how to sell successfully and authenticlly without being pushy or salesy. Which is really the main thing said she who's just done a whole kind of push on why you should join the Academy. This is brilliant. So probably what's going to happen now is you'll listen to this episode, go Teresa did that entirely wrong? I didn't even think about that when I planned this. Okay. I will hand you over to Nikki.

 

Enjoy. Okay. I am really excited today to welcome to the podcast. The very lovely Nikki Rausch. Nikki, how are you doing?

 

Nikki: I am fantastic. Thank you for having me here.

 

Teresa: My absolute pleasure. Now I'm, I'm a very honest person. So I am going to say we literally just chatted for half an hour and then we were like, no, we really do need to get on with this podcast.

 

So we'd be putting the world's rights, but we've already had like a lovely chat together, which is great, but we had to get on with the podcast finding. So Nikki let's get started as I always do. Let my audience know who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today.

 

Nikki: Okay. So I am the CEO of sales Maven. I am a speaker author, coach podcaster, and I focus on the conversation side of sales and how I got to where I am today is I am a professional sales rep by trade. I did that for many, many years. And in addition to my career as a sales rep and I had a lot of success there is I'm a master certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

 

And I have a pretty extensive background. And if that's a new term to anybody listening, Neuro-Linguistic Programming is really the study of communication. So it's how you process information, how the language that you use, the habits and the patterns that you show up with. And so I started my business back in 2013. Because I would, I had left my corporate career and I was kinda trying to figure out what I was going to be when I grew up. Even though I was turning 40, I felt like there should be something else. Right? Like what, what is more fulfilling for me? And that was the first time I started spending time with entrepreneurs, because I came from this very corporate sales background. And as I was spending time with entrepreneurs, I just love being around entrepreneurs because they're super passionate about what they do. They, they, they show up in the world like with a servant's heart. They want to make an impact. And I just I wanted to spend as much time as possible around entrepreneurs.

 

And as I got to know them, I found that a lot of them were really struggling to make money in their business. And the piece that oftentimes was missing was the sales conversation. They would get a lead, but then they didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know how walk somebody through that sales conversation.

 

And I had been doing it for so long that it felt really easy. And I just started kind of helping some people on the side. And my business was really born out of somebody going like. "Why aren't you teaching this stuff to a broader audience?" That I thought at the time, who would ever pay me to talk about sales?

 

And so here I am just about celebrating eight years in business and people pay me to talk about sales. It's the best gig in the world. And I love spending time with entrepreneurs and teaching them how to be more strategic in their conversations.

 

Teresa: That's so good. One of the things that always amazes me about entrepreneurs in general is that, they think they should be brilliant at everything. Right. So I have this conversation with one of my students the other day and she's, uh, she teaches people how to, uh, Eat better. I think I've said that in a really rubbish laneway. So she's listening. She'll be like, "Thanks. That's brilliant." You obviously, but no, she's a nutritionist, but it's not just about nutrition.

 

It's about loving food and eating good food that nourishes you and does things and that sort of stuff. And she has a membership. What I've moved chatting about the fact of some of her designs stuff. She's like, "I'm not a designer" and I'm like, Well, no, that's a shock. That's not what you're doing for a living. Is it right?

 

You are a nutritionist. Do you do this? You're really good. So why do you think you suddenly should have all these design skills? You shouldn't. The same way as, why do we, why do we not think we don't need to upskill in those other areas? You know, just because we love what we do and we're amazing at it.

 

And we've got, you know, the product and services. Fantastic. It doesn't mean that we're only good at selling it and, and neither should we be, as in if we've never done that before, if we never had a role where we've had to go and sell us or our services or, well, even if you have sold selling you is a very different thing, isn't it?

 

Nikki: Oh my gosh. Yes. I have had so many people that I've worked with over the years that have a background in sales selling for somebody else. But then when it comes to launching their own business and now having to sell themselves, like you said,

 

Teresa: yeah.

 

Nikki: It's like, they it's like all their sales technique flies out the window and they're like, I don't know how to talk about it anymore. So I actually love working with those people too, because a lot of it is, is me. Like digging in and helping them see, look at all this skill set that you really do have, and now let's be strategic and how to use it so that you feel comfortable talking about your business. Because even when you're selling yourself, right, your service, your expertise.

 

You still, I think, have to treat your business like it's its own entity and you have to care for it and you have to nurture it. Um, so even when you're selling your own services, there still is this piece of like having some distance, like taking a step outside and not just feeling like, well, I don't want to sell me because that feels gross.

 

And that feels it's like, no, you're, you're making a difference in the world. You're making a difference in the lives of the people that you come into contact with. Let's make it super easy for them to make a decision to hire you. Because one of the things I say about sales is it's not your job to convince somebody that they need you, or that, that what you have is the end all be all.

 

Your job is just to make it easy for the people who need what you have to get it from you. And that to me is what the selling process and being strategic in your conversation. That's what that does for you.

 

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. And you said some words there that I think so many of, uh, The listeners will will feel is that it feels really garish and horrible going "If you see how amazing I am like, you seen what I do. It's phenomenal. Come over here." Like that does not feel like something that people very naturally can do. And even when I'm in the position where I am so passionate about what I do, and I am so passionate about my students that I help and how amazing they are. And I am very confident that anybody coming into the Academy, anybody coming on the 90 day program, I can help hugely very confident about it. Yet there is still something that is, you know, having a conversation and saying it when it feels like there's just the two of us alone. There's a lot of people listening is one thing.

 

Nikki: Yeah.

 

Teresa: Going out there and actually converting the sale and saying it is an entirely different thing. Isn't it?

 

Nikki: Yeah, it is. It is. Yeah. And you know, I teach relationship first rapport always and that. When you are in this process of sells. Like sales, to me, isn't something that you do to somebody it's something you do with somebody. So you don't really have to go out and be like, "Look at me, I'm a really big deal" because frankly that's not my personality at all.

 

Like I gear towards the introverted side and I actually can be quite shy. And I'm not typically somebody who's like, let me to buy horn and say how awesome I am and all you guys look at me. That's really not. I'm not comfortable with that at all. What I am comfortable with though is finding people who need what I offer and just making it easy for them to take the next step for me if they want to.

 

And I always say issue invitations. Like a lot of times people are going, like ask for the sale, ask for the sale. Which sometimes I think puts a lot of pressure on an entrepreneur, especially if they're not comfortable with the selling process. So I teach this, this process of like issuing invitations every step of the way, because most of us like to be invited to things, even if we don't want to go, like, it's still nice to get an invitation.

 

So I teach. All your, all your job is, is to issue an invitation. It's kind of like holding your hand up with an invitation in it and saying to somebody, "Would you like to take this invitation or not?" And they can say no. And then the worst thing that happens is you just put your hand down. Like it's not a big deal, but if you're not even willing to issue the invitations, oftentimes people won't even ever decide to hire you. Not because they don't need you. Not because they don't want to, but because they don't ever make a conscious decision. Oh gosh, I definitely want to work with Teresa. I definitely want to work with Nikki because I had an issue, the invitation, they never make the decision to take the next step with me.

 

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a really interesting point in...