Your Dream Business

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Speaking at events is a great way boost your profile as a professional in your industry. Standing on stage to share your knowledge gives people the opinion that you are the expert or authority in that industry.
• Start by networking with people who host small, local events. Once you start to network, you can ask whether or not they’re looking for speakers. Not only is it great for practice, but it helps get your name known.
• The more you speak, the better you become. The last thing you want to do is get an amazing speaking opportunity and mess up because you haven’t had enough practice.
• Attending conferences is a great way to network with speakers and event organisers. You need to experience the conferences you want to speak at in order to see whether or not you’re going to be a good fit. Not only that, but it will help you perfect your pitch for the following year.
• You need to be sure you’re applying to speak on a topic you’re an expert in. If you have no content based on the topic you want to speak on, event organisers will see this from the beginning. They need to see that you’re an expert.
• It’s important you’re telling people that you want to speak or that you are a speaker. Make sure you’re including speaker in your bio and posting on social media that you’re available.
• Use images of you speaking to show that you can speak at events.
• Consider creating a speaker section on your website.
• Even if you’re speaking for free, you still need to get as much as you can out of the event as you can. Encourage people to tag you in a post, get photos and videos of you talking and screenshot any feedback you receive.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Although you want to earn money for your speaking sessions, it’s okay to work for free. The benefit of you being stood there speaking to your perfect audience can outweigh any monetary benefits you will receive.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Why You Should Want to Become A Speaker – 05:50
• Tip #1: Start Small -10:36
• Tip #2: Attend Lots of Conferences – 15:15
• Tip #3: Make Sure You’re Known for The Content You Want to Speak About – 20:15
• Tip #4: Tell People You’re A Speaker Or You Want To Be one – 22:00
• Tip #5: Make Use of Every Speaking Opportunity – 25:00

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

Lead Pages

Episode 77

Episode 63

 

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:32)

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How have you been? So I've decided to do another solo episode this week. In all honesty, do you know, I'd love to make things up, but I can't. I'm just way too honest. I got so distracted with doing the academy and doing the launch for that that I didn't prebook enough people. So I constantly have a list of who's coming on, what I'm planning, what I'm doing, and I know who I want on. And some people haven't even been asked, some people are waiting to be booked in, but I always make sure I have this kind of list of people that are coming in and honestly I got so preoccupied that I just hadn't kind of focused on, "Okay, when's the next interview?" So anyway, hence why I'm doing a solo episode as it is and the day of recording this. I am literally recording an interview later on today. But I just thought I didn't want to rush it and I'd much rather do another solo and then throw you an interview next week.

(01:31)

You might be sat there thinking, Teresa, why did you say all that? We would have no idea. But you know what, like I said one, I'm a very honest person. Two I think you need to understand that everybody struggles sometimes getting organised. Things get in the way. And honestly this summer holiday seems to felt worse than any other. For one, it's been really long. My daughter's going to have been off for two months by the time she goes back to school. Now I'm not going to make it like I've had it the whole two months cause I haven't, she does do, um, a week with me and a week with her dad. So she does have half the time at Dad's. So I guess in that way I should be fine. However, when she's here, cause she's, well she's not only child, she's obviously got step siblings but they're much older and they're busy and they're doing stuff. So really when she's here, all her attention is aimed at me in terms of wanting my attention, wanting me to help with stuff. So it honestly has been so difficult.

(02:28)

And so this morning I've got to tell you this story. I've literally wrote an email that's going out today and that's, you're going to see if you're on my email list, but I've got to tell you this story cause it was ridiculous. So I'm sat in my office working and I'd shut the door, which I don't often do, but I wanted to shut the door cause I wanted to say to the rest of the house, I don't want you interrupting me. I've got stuff to do. Anyway, my daughter had got a friend staying over and I get this tap on the door. I say come in and it's her friend and she says that basically daughter is in her bedroom, stuck in her coat and is crying and I'm like say what? She stuck in her coat. I went in and she's got this new tick-tock a cane, which she loves and is very excited about and she to be fair to has been creating some really creative videos. So much so I've said to her that I'd like to do an Instagram story takeover with her cause she is really creative and she decided that she was going to do this story, that basically she was going to put her legs in her arms of a coat and pretend she was doing like a headstand or I don't actually know what the deal was, if I'm totally honest. But she basically put her legs in the arms of her coats and got them stuck. So she sat on the floor sobbing and I'm trying to get the arms off her feet, which are not coming. And I'm like, how on earth did you get these on? Cause they're not coming off. I am verging on either screaming at her, laughing or just like falling about thinking I can't do this anymore.

(04:06)

Anyway, after much messing around, I managed to get this coat off her legs without having to cut it. But honestly it just really made me think because then I sit down at my desk, I carry on working and I get tagged in a post by this big conference, this marketing conferences happening that I'm not speaking at. But the conference, there's a, there's a guy speaking called Philip Kotler and if you ever did any marketing formerly then you should recognise his name.

Speaker 1: (04:33)

My entire degree was talking about Philip Kotler because we used his book for everything. He's a real marketing genius, and if I'm totally honest, and this is going to sound awful, I didn't even realise he was still alive just because obviously I did my degree quite some time back anyway, so how you then get tagged in a post alongside this event or from this event that he's speaking at because they found my TedX talk and they've posted it. So it's just like, isn't that hilarious? One minute I go from rescuing my daughter's legs out of his shoe out of her codes, and the next minute I'm tagged in a post alongside a guy that I learned when I was at uni. Like honestly, life is crazy. Absolutely crazy. Anyway, let's get on with today's episode. Now I've told you about my slightly crazy morning so far, so today I am going to be talking about kind of coincidentally about how to get speaking gigs.

Speaker 1: (05:30)

Now when I say, coincidentally, it had nothing to do with the craziness and my daughter is more the fact that I was tagged in on a conference that was happening. But I am going to talk you through some of the tips that I've used to get speaking gigs over the time. But before we go into that, I want to talk about why you would even want to become a speaker.

 

Why You Should Want to Become A Speaker

 

Now I'm not sat here saying you've all got to do it because honestly it's not for everyone and there's good reason for that. You know, because some are not natural speakers and therefore trying to force everybody onto the stage will not be the necessarily the best advert for you or your business. Some people unlike me are really good writers and therefore books are absolute ease. Um, you know, or it might be something else, but I'm not saying that everybody has to speak on a stage.

Speaker 1: (06:18)

I'm just saying that if you do or if you're thinking about it, then this episode is going to be really good in terms of how you get some more opportunities cause they can be tough sometimes. But like I said, let me start with why speaking could be a good thing for you and your business. Now, one of the things that it really helps with is obviously if you're a personal brand or you are your business, because if you're going to stand on stage and talk, then that's obviously going to have a real positive impact on your business itself. But basically I want you to think back when you were last at a conference and what did you think about the people on stage? And I don't necessarily mean what did you think of their talk or how they presented. I mean, why do you think they were picked and what opinion does that give you of those people?

Speaker 1: (07:03)

Because what speaking does is it gives people the opinion that you are the expert or the authority in that industry because surely if you weren't, they wouldn't have you on that stage. If you didn't know exactly what you're talking about, then you wouldn't be on there. So speaking instantly makes people believe that you are an expert and authority. And in all honesty I hope you are because you know that's really where you should be. If you're going to be speaking on stage, don't get me wrong, I am a big advocate that if we have a question and answer session and someone asked me a question, I don't know the answer, I will happily say I don't know but contact me and I'll find the answer. I'll get it for you, but you are seen as the authority. Also another thing I want you to think about is you know when it's like when you go into pitch one to one or you go to sell your services.

Speaker 1: (08:01)

Often when you are doing the selling bit, it's not necessarily the physical thing that you are promoting. You're really promoting yourself at that point. If we in the agency ever had a client that wanted to meet me, we don't do so much of this now. In fact, I need to do an episode on about, How my businesses evolved and transformed, but we did have an agency of much more active than it is now and in those days I would go meet people. Well at that point they weren't necessarily coming to meet me to check out. I knew what I was talking about or the individual details they wanted to get a feel for me and what I was like and kind of have that back and forth thing. So imagine being stood in a room where everyone's listening to you almost as if not that you're pitching because I don't do many talks where I pitch, but that you are having that kind of one to one conversation with all of those people that you are the focus your onstage that all looking at you, they know your name.

Speaker 1: (08:56)

It's a great opportunity to, like I said, prove an expert but also build that personal brand. So if you heard episode 63 with Collin Boyd, we talked about selling from stage and I think I'm positive actually that I mentioned on there that I will do speaking for free and actually that's one of the reasons if I am stood in front of my most perfect audience, then I won't necessarily charge for that. Obviously expenses. If there's a lot of prep or different things you want me to do, then we might need to look at that. But actually if someone's running a marketing event and I am stood in front of by my most perfect audience, then actually the benefit of me being stood there speaking to all those people in that room kind of overtakes the money that I might be paid because I would rather be in that room itself.

Speaker 1: (09:47)

So definitely, definitely worth thinking about if you're trying to build your brand, if you're trying to build you as an expert, if you are wanting to become the authority on something, then speaking can really be a brilliant way in which to do this. And like I said, this has definitely been something that I have used in my business and now is part of my overall strategy in terms of building me and my business.

(10:10)

So I've got five tips for you today about how if you wanted to start speaking or you want to start being seeing more, some of the things in which you can do to start you off, uh, along your speaking path. Because I want to remind you that we don't all wake up one day and get to speak on the biggest stage with the best people being paid the most money because that rarely happens.

 

Tip #1: Start Small

 

Speaker 1: (10:33)

So let's kick off with tip number one. Perfect for tip number one, start small. Now, when I first started in my business, I never actually decided, okay, I'm going to become a speaker or I'm going to use speaking to market my business. But I just really liked it and somehow an opportunity came up and I can't even remember how, and then I kind of jumped on that and the next one and the next one, next one, and then suddenly realised I loved it and I do. I'm one of those weird people that actually, what does it like? There's a huge fear of people speaking in public. Mine, Oh my God, it just sets me alive. I love it. So, and you might learn to love it. Don't get me wrong, I always get nervous right before I go on stage, no matter how big or small the event is, I'm always nervous. But it's good because it shows I care. Anyway, side point, back to tip number one, start small.

(11:26)

So when I started, I spoke at loads and loads of teeny tiny local events. I went out to networking events. So you know, you know that there's lots of networking locally and I tried to get in front of those people and I tried to speak to those people and ask them if they wanted a speaker. Now often these kinds of events, if they are weekly or biweekly or monthly, they're going to be looking for speakers. They're going to need speakers. So more often than not, they're going to slap your hand off and they're gonna say yes, as long as they think you're going to be half decent and speaking or that you come across well enough or you know your stuff, then I'm sure they are going to literally bite your hand off.

Speaker 1: (12:07)

So that was the first thing I did. I literally spoke at loads of local networking events and I went to lots of these networking events when I first started my business. So my face started to get known and then obviously once I spoke at one that helped. Then going to others going, can I speak there? Can I speak there? Now as much as I would have loved to have gone on a big stage straight away, honestly, when I first started I was probably awful. I'm not even going to say that. I'm amazing there. Um, I'll leave it up to you to decide if you've ever seen me speak live. But obviously like the podcast, like anything, the more you do it, the more you get better at it. So that's why the, the smaller local stuff is really important because the last thing you want to do is get an amazing opportunity to speak somewhere phenomenal and then mess it up because you haven't had the practise.

Speaker 1: (12:53)

And also by then you kind of get into your, your routine. You get to understand how you like to speak or what you like to do. So for instance, I do not rehearse the batim. I do not have a script and I know that my good friends, Andrew and Pete, because there's two of them, they have to have a script because they need to know what the other one's saying. I don't ever have a script. I know roughly what I'm saying at every point, but I don't necessarily script it because if I tried to do a script and I went wrong, I'd mess up my entire thing. So for me it took those kind of smaller ones and all the different ones I did in order to kind of understand how I best liked to work.

(

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• There are 500,000,000 people per day watching Instagram Stories. It keeps you visible and it shows the authentic, human side of your business. Ultimately, it builds a sense of community.
• You need to be using Instagram Stories to be tell stories – the clue is in the name!
• You need to ask yourself who are your audience and what do they get out of your content?
• Instagram Stories is a great place to get personal, showing your personality and your personal side. Whilst you don’t have to share everything, showing a bit of your personal side is great. Remember, people buy from people.
• Don’t just sell your products, show behind the scenes too. Show what goes into it and how you created your product and service. This means you’re not necessarily selling your products, but you are regularly reminding people that they’re there.
• Instagram is a great place to educate your followers and show them that you are an expert in your field. Whether it’s a blog post or an interesting podcast you have listening to, people need to see why you are the expert in your industry.
• Takeovers are a great way to promote your product and service without personally talking about your product yourself.
• Using apps that have layouts and designs, you can create beautiful curated images to share on your Instagram Stories. Great apps to use include Story Art, Unfold, Story Luxe and Story Lab.
• Instagram Story Polls are a great way to get people engaged, even if it is as simple as asking ‘do you prefer cats or dogs?’
• Using the Instagram Stories Question sticker is a great way to get people’s opinions on your business, your products and your services. You can ask people for inspiration or get them to ask you questions about your business.
• Using Instagram Stories to be creative is a great way to stand out from everyone else.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…If you’re wondering why you should be using Instagram, it is the second largest platform when it comes to social media. There are over 1 billion users, it is owned by Facebook and it is one of the best platforms for engagement.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Why Use Instagram Stories – 03:27
• Three Mistakes Businesses Make When Posting Instagram Stories – 04:53
• Tip #1: Get Personal – 06:00
• Tip #2: Create Product Stories – 09:07
• Tip #3: Educate Your Followers - 11:06
• Tip #4: Story Takeovers – 12:02
• Tip #5: Use Instagram Quizzes – 13:32
• Tip #6: Use Curated Images - 15:20
• Tip #7: Instagram Polls - 16:34
• Tip #8: Instagram Questions - 18:00
• Tip #9: Go Live – 20:10
• Tip #10: Get Creative - 21:58

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Download ‘5 Easy Ways to Get People On Your Email List’
• Download ‘Your Webinar Blueprint’
• Download ‘How To Create A Highly Converting Sales Page’
• Episode 77 with Mary Hyatt
• Episode 73 with Dill Takes Photos
• Story Art Apple
• Story Art Android
• Unfold Apple
• Unfold Android
• StoryLab Apple
• StoryLab Android
• StoryLuxe Apple
• StoryLuxe Android

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:32)

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast and thank you so much for joining me here. Again, I hope you're having a great week. So this week I've got lots to fill you in on in terms of Instagram stories. I did a talk recently over in Cyprus and I did it all about Instagram stories and I thought I would share some of the content with you because if you follow me and you know me, you know I love Instagram and I love Instagram stories. Not only do I like doing Instagram stories, but also I watch a lot of other people's Instagram stories. I can find myself losing several hours in a day, which is not good, but it's a great resource. I've got some great tips for you coming up. Before we jump into that, I want to remind you that I've got some really, really good things that you can download.

Speaker 1: (01:19)

If you head over to my website to teresaheathwareing.com and on that home page I've got three different things that are really going to help you grow your business. The first one is all about how to get more people on your email list, five easy ways that lots of people miss. The second one is if you're doing webinars and you want a really good webinar blueprint on how to present a Webinar and then sell, so that one's going to be really good for you. And then finally, sales pages. So obviously when we're trying to communicate our product or service online, you might not think you're doing it via sales page, but it is the same principle as doing a sales page. So that download really is a great one. It gives you the key things I make sure I include in a sales page so that you can have a really effective page that hopefully converts people.

Speaker 1: (02:10)

So do make sure you go download those. I've got some other exciting stuff coming up soon in terms of another live masterclass. You know how I loved doing a masterclass? That's going to be in the coming weeks. Obviously if you get one of those downloads and you're going to be told about the master class as well when it comes out, so you'll be the first to know. Okay, let's talk about Instagram. Like I said, if you follow me, you know I am a massive fan of Instagram. I think it's a great platform and I particularly love stories just because they are so easy to do and they're just sort of the most authentic way of showing yourself on social media or one of the most authentic ways. So today I want to take you through 10 creative and unique ways in which you can use Instagram stories to connect and engage with your audience.

Speaker 1: (02:57)

Now just in you didn't know. Let me remind you why Instagram's good. Because if you'll set that thinking, Instagram's not for me, or you know, why should I even consider it that? I want to remind you that there's over 1 billion users that is the second largest platform out there. It's owned by Facebook. It both wanted the best platforms for engagement.

 

Why Use Instagram Stories

 

But Instagram stories in particular, why are they so good? So did, there are 500 million people per day watching stories. It keeps you really visible. So on your Instagram app, at the top of your feed is the stories. So basically it's your face or your logo, whatever, with a ring around it. Say, look, she's done a story. So it really is visible cause you're right at the top of the page and it shows the real you. It's so good at showing the human side of you because it's much more authentic because it tends to be much more real.

Speaker 1: (03:54)

It allows users to connect with you, which is great. And it does build a sense of community. So if you like following someone and you'd like their content, then what you're gonna do is you're gonna make sure you see their stories and you're going to feel part of their community and it has a higher engagement than in the feed. So you'll find that I don't post every single day on Instagram. I'd like to, I just don't necessarily get the time. However, I do do stories pretty much most days because the engagement now is way higher and a story than is on the feed and it hasn't been on production. You don't need the fanciest things to create an Instagram story. You can literally just do it with your phone. So I'm going to give you 10 creative and unique ways that you're going to be able to use it so you can connect with your audience.

 

Three Mistakes Businesses Make When Posting Instagram Stories

 

Speaker 1: (04:41)

However, before we get started, I wanted to tell you about three mistakes that lots of businesses make when they're doing Instagram stories. Mistake number one, they're caring more about perfection than value. Now I'd like to say that there is times I might fall into this mistake. So I might be sat there thinking where has that rhyme and mega is a bit funny. A background needs to be improved a bit. And I'm worried more about that than necessarily what I'm going to say when I get on there. And lots of businesses do this, lots of people do this with their own social media. They are literally concentrating on looking great and then not thinking about, well what am I actually going to go on and say when I'm on it and is it going to add value? Mistake number two, they're sharing without a strategy. So they're literally sharing anything and everything or sharing really sporadically and then not necessarily thinking about the strategy behind the thing that they're sharing.

 

Tip #1: Get Personal

 

Speaker 1: (05:38)

So that's the other thing, cause obviously the whole point in any of these things is to have a strategy because obviously otherwise what's the point in doing it? So then onto mistake number three, they are not telling stories and they, the clue is in the title, it's an Instagram story or a Facebook story. So the whole idea is that you should be telling stories. These shouldn't be random stories that you're putting up that aren't going anywhere or meaning anything or doing anything. So try and imagine about how you tell stories. You want a middle, um, not a medal that was ridiculous. You want a beginning, a middle and an end. So you want those three in order. So are you telling a story when you're going on there or are you literally just putting up a post? So like I said, I just wanted to kind of cover off those things.

Speaker 1: (06:27)

And also one final thing before we get started, I want you to ask yourself, who is your content for it? Who is your audience and what are they getting out of your content? So if they're not getting anything value wise for them, then they're not going to come back and keep watching and listening. So you've got to be thinking, what am I giving my audience by showing them this or sharing the story with them? Okay, now we're ready. So number one, get personal. Now, like I said, one of the greatest things about Instagram stories is the fact that you can come across so authentically. And one of the things that you can do on there is show your personal side. Now how much of that you want to show is entirely down to you because some people will be more comfortable showing not much and others will be happy to share everything.

Speaker 1: (07:17)

And there's no hard and fast rule. It's not like I'm sitting here saying, you must put your children on there and your pets. I'm just saying if you can show a bit of your personal side, then great. So for instance, you might want to share, you know, doing things at the weekend with your family or your dog or going out for dinner or just a hobby of something that you'd like to do. And the reason that this is so good is people like to see the personal stuff. They remember the personal stuff. And it's not just for personal brands or people. So even big businesses can create a much more personal side of their instastories by maybe putting their team on their or their staff or showing behind the scenes. So don't think just because you're a big brand or are you work for a big brand that they can't do that.

Speaker 1: (08:02)

So some of the reasons why getting personally so good or showing some of your personal side is people buy from people. So people like you or don't like you and never a more likely to engage and wants to buy or not buy from you. So, and if they can't see you, then how can they make that judgement ? It obviously makes you more human. So there's an element of trust when I can see that you're turning off on Instagram stories every day or I can physically see you and he you and see your office or whatever, then there's a whole lot more trust there because it does make you more human. It helps to tell the story. So people and faces and speaking is a much easier story to tell. It shows your culture and your ethos. So if you are in a bigger business, it gets that across the, you can see kind of what it's like behind the business and it creates a conversation starter.

 

Tip #2: Create Product Stories

 

Speaker 1: (08:52)

So again, sometimes stories really easy to react to and respond to. So it's a really good conversation starter. Okay, number two. Now you tend to be the been good at number one or number two, but not many people are good at both. So number two is product stories. So sometimes I find that some instastories are literally sales sales, sales are sale and some are all personal stuff. And you need a mix of both. But what I want you to think about with your product stuff is I don't necessarily want you to just be selling your product stuff. I want you to maybe be showing behind the scenes showing the details, what goes into it, what's good about it, you know, kind of In-situ depending on what obviously your product or services. So you're trying to show your product or your service in a way that doesn't feel like you're literally going buy my stuff today.

Speaker 1: (09:42)

So try and mix it up a little bit. And again, otherwise you're not telling people what you're doing so you're not actually selling or they're never actually going to buy because they don't see that. They just see the personal stuff. So you do need to tell people what it is you do. Obviously it gives a product insight, which is great. So if you're doing behind the scenes stuff or demonstrating it, then that's great. Behind the scenes of the creation. It's also a great place to address objections. So for instance, you know how, let's take one of my products. So I've obviously of course as an academy online, and someone might say to me, you know, Teresa, I don't have time to do your academy. I want to do it, but I just don't have enough time in the day. So that's an objection as to why they might buy.

Speaker 1: (10:26)

So for instance, if I didn't insta story saying and talking about, you know what the beauty of my product is, it's that you can pick it up and put it down whenever it's that you can go at your own pace. It's that it's always available for you. It's Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah. So you're able to address some of those objections before they've even really got into it. So that is definitely a really good one to do. Also, if it's a physical product, they can see what they get and you can film it and you can share around and it can be really interactive. Okay. So like I said, the first two tend to be the ones that everybody, you either do one or the other and not many people necessarily do them both. So I want you to think about them. The next one, number three is I want you to educate your followers through your instastories.

 

Tip #3: Educate Your Followers

 

Speaker 1: (11:09)

This is a great place to show people that you're an expert at what you do. So for instance, you might put up a blog post. You, I obviously promote my podcast through my instastories. So I will create specific videos that are insta story shape and I'll put that in if you're doing a masterclass. Again, I've done that many times. Um, if you are doing a challenge, so put those things across to say, look, I know what I'm talking about. Also, it doesn't even have to just be your stuff. So if I've been listening to a podcast or a book and it's amazing, I might insert a story about that saying, if you like what I do, you might like this too. So those are really, really good ones too to have a look at as well.

 

Tip #4: Story Takeovers

 

Number four, story takeover. Now I don't know if you've ever thought about doing this, but story takeovers are really, really good.

Speaker 1: (12:00)

So this is where you get someone else to take over your Instagram story for the day. Normally it's a day, and you could use either an influence that if you were working with influencers, you could use an employee, you could use a sort of member of the team or someone a bit different. And what this tends to happen is, especially if you're using an influencer or someone who uses your product, the chances are they're going to tag themselves in these posts and you're going to be doubling up in terms of your reach. Well, hopefully doubling up and if they've got a bigger audience than you, than even better. So the idea is they will go

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• It’s important to remember that you can’t heal your own sick mind with your own sick mind. Sometimes an outside perspective, such as a coach, is all you need.
• Remember, you are exactly where you need to be.
• If you’re working with a coach, you need to be as open and honest as you can be. It’s not going to be an easy process so you need to feel happy with who you’re working with.
• There is a myth that if you have more followers, you’re going to sell more products and make more profit. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter about the numbers, it matters who is opening your email and buying into your products and services.
• A great way to forget about the numbers is to forget about your ego. You don’t need to brag about the numbers you have to others in the industry, you need to focus on the people you are directly affecting.
• If you’re better connected to your customers and clients, you can offer higher ticket items.
• Remember, a sale never happens outside of a conversation. You need to think about who would benefit from your products and services and talk to them.
• People want you to be human.
• Ensure you’re giving your followers value and that they trust you.
• You don’t need a big successful launch like everyone around you.
• 100 devoted fans is better than 1,000 unengaged followers.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Love the people that are already supporting you. Nurturing the people that are in your DMs, commenting on your photos and replying to your emails is the best possible way to ensure a successful launch.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Introducing Mary Hyatt – 07:12
• How Coaching Can Benefit You – 13:44
• Launching A Product with Small Numbers – 20:50
• Nurturing Your Small Numbers – 25:00
• Getting Personal – 39:45
• Forgetting About the Numbers – 50:00

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Mary Hyatt Coaching
• Mary Hyatt Instagram
• Mary Hyatt Facebook

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. I hope you're well, and I hope you came back after last week's slightly crazy episode. I apologise. I'm on form, now, she says. Let's see. Anyway, I can't mess up too much, because it's an interview, and it's already been recorded, so hopefully it should be fine.

This week I am interviewing the super lovely, and my very dear friend, Mary Hyatt. I've known Mary now for a couple of years, and I want to explain to you, although I'm a wee bit embarrassed, to tell you how on earth I met Mary, and how I started working with her, and then how we became good friends.

Basically, trying to think of where it started. Okay. Some time back, a few years back, I decided that I'd seen lots of different coaches, and I'd started to discover what coaching was about. I was thinking to myself that maybe this is what I needed, because I was one of those people, well, I know what to do. I know how to launch things, and market things, and I know how to put together memberships and courses, and all that sort of thing, and I had done it with loads of clients. I couldn't work out why I wasn't doing it for myself, and what was stopping me.

The thing that was also getting frustrating was, sometimes even though I knew what to do, I'd get to my desk, and I wouldn't do it. Or I would not feel motivated to do it. I just knew that I needed some kind of help, but it wasn't necessarily help in how to do things, because I knew that. I started looking in the coaching, and thinking about it, and I have to say my experience, which I do mention on the interview, but my experience of coaches tended to be more your traditional business coach, or business consultant.

When I first started my business I used to do networking. Obviously when I started that, all the coaches and all the consultants that could help you with your business were, well, in all honesty, middle aged men, and people that I didn't feel that I could relate to. Very corporate type people, and I just wasn't keen on the idea of someone coaching me like that. Anyway, this one day, I'm sat in San Diego. I'm at Social Media Marketing World, and I'm having a bit of a funny ... not episode, but like, I've talked before about I get overwhelmed at events. I had done Trafficking Conversion, and then straight into Social Media Marketing World.

It was really early in the morning, because I tend to get up quite early and do some work before my day starts, and I'm sat at my computer. It's 4AM, and my husband's staying, he's with me, he's asleep in bed, and I've got my headphones in, and I'm listening to a podcast while doing a few sort of emails, and a few things. I'm listening to Amy Porterfield. As you know, and I've talked before, Amy is one of those people that I aspire to be like. She's really a mentor to me, where that's the type of life and person and business that I would like for my own.

So anyway, I'm sat there listening to Amy, and Amy happens to mention that she's got a coach. She talks about her coach, and then she says her coach's name, and she says the name Mary Hyatt, and also mentions that Mary is Michael Hyatt's daughter. If you don't know Michael Hyatt, he's a New York bestseller, very successful businessman, and Mary's his daughter. She was saying how all the Hyatts are amazing, and it sounds like an advert for them, but anyway, I was interested as to the fact that she had mentioned Mary, and Mary was a coach.

I went online, and I had a look at Mary's website, and I have to say, it spoke so much to my heart. It was like literally everything that I needed was right there in it. It didn't really talk about doing business stuff, or strategy, or whatever. It talked about being more fulfilled, or being more inline with the life that you want. The more softer side, if you like, of coaching, and personal, rather than necessarily straight-up business. Anyway, I decided to message Mary. There was a form on her site that you had to complete, and there was a finance ... I'm pretty sure there was a, "You have to hit this level of finance." Luckily for me, I hit it from a dollar's point of view, but not of pounds. I was like, "Well, I'm sure that's fine."

So I filled in the form and I sent it over to the website, whatever. And sat there continued working, and it gets to the morning, and I'm getting ready to go to the conference, and Mary emails me back. She says, this is interesting- sorry, that was it. One of the questions on her form was, "What made you do this today?" And I said, "I'm in San Diego, I should be all pumped and excited, and instead I'm overwhelmed, and I'm lost, and a bit like a rabbit in headlights." She emailed me saying, "You'll never guess what. I'm in San Diego." Mary lives in Nashville, so obviously quite a bit from San Diego. She'd come over to see some clients, and she was in San Diego, and I was in San Diego, like the weirdest, most serendipitous, is that, I've said that right haven't I? Moment ever.

She said, "Do you want to meet for lunch and have a chat about it?" Anyway, absolutely blown away by the fact that she was in San Diego. Met her for lunch, and I guess, as you would say, the rest is history. I worked with Mary, and Mary and I then became really great friends, and we've just spent some time out in Nashville with her, about a week with her, and we just had a scream. It was brilliant. I loved it.

Mary is one of those people that is so smart, and has such a good way of dealing with things, that I just wanted her on the podcast, because I wanted you to hear some of the things she had to say. Because quite honestly, from my point of view, Mary has changed the way I think about me and my business. If I can say anything for coaching, honestly, for me, it worked wonders. I'm not going to say it does for everybody, but for me it was exactly what I needed at the time, I needed it. Mary did an amazing job.

Anyway, I've bought her on, and she's going to talk a bit about that, but she's also going to talk about launching when you don't have a massive list. Mary, at the time of recording this, had just gone through a launch where it was very small and private, and personal, and authentic. I wanted Mary to talk about her strategy with that as well, because I know that this is a big thing that lots of my audience talk about, the fact that they haven't got massive lists, and how can they launch if they haven't got a massive list, and blah, blah, blah. I wanted us to talk about this, because I knew she had done a good job.

There is so much value packed into this episode. I hope you're going to enjoy it, so I won't take up anymore time. Here's Mary.

 

Introducing Mary Hyatt

 

It gives me the greatest pleasure to welcome my very dear friend, Mary Hyatt, to the podcast. Welcome, Mary.

Oh my gosh. This is exciting and super fun.

And a little bit weird, because this is the first time I've ever interviewed someone face to face. And we literally are face to face.

I feel like this is actually going to be awesome, because we're just going to have a conversation.

Exactly. We're here in Nashville, which is awesome. I'm over here, Mary lives here, so this is a perfect opportunity to do a podcast interview and have a chat, because I've wanted Mary on the podcast for a long time. If you haven't heard of Mary, Mary, tell my audience who you are, and how you got to do what you're doing now.

Yeah. I am a Life and Mindset Coach. What I focus on with my clients, I work primarily with female entrepreneurs, but what I love helping women do is to begin to find their voice, and embark on a self-discovery journey, and shift their mindset so that they can design a life that they truly are in love with. Where they feel confident, where they love their bodies, where they love their lives, and are able to embrace their femininity in their work, in their relationships, and ultimately live from a truly authentic place.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Before I started my business, I don't think I'd ever really thought about coaching. Also, probably for the first couple of years of the business, I didn't think about coaching at all. I didn't realise what it could do. And honestly, you've coached me.

Yeah.

Which is amazing, and Mary is amazing. I was telling my husband the other night, and he said, "Have you ever told Mary this?" Because I said, "Mary has honestly changed my life." He was like, "I think you need to make sure Mary knows that," and you have. The thing is, right, if you'd come to me and said, "We're going to do coaching," I wouldn't have really known how to explain or talk about what I needed. I'm still almost, maybe to this day, I'm not sure I could say, "Actually, this is what you need coaching for," or, "This is what it specifically did." I just know all the stuff we did, all the work we did, changed everything. Not only how I focused on in my business, not only how I looked at myself, but how I interacted with my husband and my family.

Yeah.

Because the thing that I loved working with you about, and the coaching I liked, because I think I'd only ever known more business consultants than necessarily business coaches.

Right.

Is that they would have focused on the business bit, and actually for me, that wasn't the area we needed to work on.

Yeah.

We needed to work on me, and how I felt about myself, and how I felt about my business.

Yeah. What's interesting is, and this is why I love to be a coach, is that, there's that saying, "How you do one thing, is how you do everything."

I've not heard that.

To me, that goes back to mindset.

Yeah.

Your underlying beliefs about your capabilities. Who you are. The rules you operate under, the value system that you value, all of these sort of subconscious belief systems that we adopted from early, early ages, those kinds of beliefs, the ways of thinking, the perspective, that's what's running the show of our lives.

Yeah.

It shows up in our relationships. It shows up in our business. It shows up in the way we relate to our bodies, our spirituality, our confidence. What I found is, you might be great at business, but you might feel like a fraud.

Yeah.

So it's like, where else are you feeling like a fraud in your life? It has nothing to do with how successful you are in one area or another. To me it's like, do you feel fulfilled? Are you experiencing joy? Do you feel fully alive? If you don't, you're a beautiful candidate for coaching, because to me, all of those systems, all of those mindsets, the perspectives, the understandings of life, can be updated, remodelled, shifted, changed, until you tweak it enough, the way you think, when you shift the way you think, it shifts your external world.

Yeah.

You can experience more pleasure, more joy, more happiness, whatever that might be, but it requires a new awareness. As my mom would say, "You can't heal your own sick mind with your own sick mind."

Yeah.

You just can't see your own blind spots.

No.

Which is why coaching is so powerful, and so beneficial. It was so fun working with you, because you were so open.

Yeah, yeah.

You were so ready to go there. Of course with coaching, you have to be willing to try out new things, and experiment, and you were the perfect student. I just love it. We had such a great time.

We did.

And now of course we're friends.

Yeah, which is amazing.

It was just an amazing experience.

It was. And like I said, I think sometimes, I would think, "Oh no, this is meant to be about the business, and how am I driving the business forward?" And actually now I look at it, it literally is like, no. Everything you did, and everything we talked about, and even when, I remember some sessions were very much about family.

Yeah.

Because I'm a step-mum, and there's a lot of goings on in my world when it comes to that, and there were lots of challenges, and even talking about that had a big impact on everything else. You could have the best business mind in the world, but if you wake up one day, and you don't feel like it, or something else. I think as a business owner, one thing I completely didn't realise or, I didn't think about how it impacted my business, is what was happening in my personal life.

Yeah.

And boy does it impact.

Oh, it bleeds into everything.

Yeah.

Like you said, you could have your best month ever, and your revenue is up, and your sales are up, and everything is just amazing, and what robs the ability to celebrate that, or to experience joy from that, or to feel fulfilment from that, could be something going on in your personal life that is in crisis, or is stressful. Even the way you think about your body.

Yeah.

If you hate your body, and you don't feel confident, and you don't feel like you are enough, it doesn't matter how many accolades you have in your business. You're still going to feel like the loser.

Yeah.

It's like all of that leads into every other area of your life, and so to me, if you were going to have a thriving life, you have to address every area. It's so much more than just business.

 

How Coaching Can Benefit You

 

Yeah. Totally. There's a couple of things, and we actually didn't come on to talk about the coaching too much, and we'll get to our thing that we're talking about, but there's a couple things I want to bring up, because they were so profound, and have honestly made a huge difference to me. They were, often I guess, it is the small things that you might say that then suddenly someone goes, "Boom." That's literally hit my head, and made perfect sense. One of the things you taught me, and we talked about, was you're exactly where you need to be. That honestly changed everything.

Yeah.

Because I would go through periods, like any business, where it got busy, and got quiet, and got busy, and got quiet. In the quiet periods, I would freak out.

Yep.

And I'd panic and think, "Oh my god, this is wrong. What's happening? I need to get more business, I need to make more money, I need to do this, I need to do that." I remember one of those periods came when we were coaching, and you said to me, "What if this is exactly where it's meant to be?" And also personal life, my husband worked away a lot, and I was struggling with that, and again you said the same thing. "What if it's meant to be like this?" Suddenly like, what if it is? Actually therefore, I don't need to fight it. I don't need to be angry about it, I don't need to worry about it. I just need to ride it.

Yeah.

That has had such a profound effect on me, and how I feel about my business, because no longer do I feel like I'm panicking and struggling. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that sentence, but when things quieten down, or when I get something or I don't get something, or a shift happens, I think, "I'm exactly where I need to be right now."

Yeah. Well, and nothing is going to last forever.

Yeah.

I think of our business as seasons. You have spring, and summer, and fall, and winter, and there's periods of your business that are winter, and how necessary that is. To me, the suffering comes from wishing it were different than it is.

Yes.

And putting that extended pressure on ourselves, of wanting it to be something that it's not, and trying to force it, and make it, and just strangle the energy of it, almost.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like, when you can kind of accept that things are the way that they are supposed to be, it just gives you the ability to make decisions that aren't from a place of fear.

Yeah.

That aren't from a place of anxiety. Because a lot of times when we feel, "Oh my god. I've got to make this money," or, "I've got to make this sale," we end up doing things that we would never do. In a place of peace, and feeling abundance, and feeling like we are exactly where we are, and as a business owner, you always want to be making your decisions from that place.

Yeah.

Not a place of fear, not a place of stress, not a place of panic, desperation. Because the trajectory, and the aftermath of those kinds of decisions made out of fear, you're going to be paying for that for a long time.

Huge. Huge.

It's miserable. I think that part of that experience for you, it's like slowing down, and being willing to see it from a different angle.

Yeah.

Like, what if this is exactly where I was supposed to be? What if this is where I need to be to learn specific lessons, to be able to have the space and the time to put some more energy into this project or that project? If I was really busy, I wouldn't have that energy for it.

Nope.

I mean, to me, it's not by accident. When you can slow down, and accept what it, you just have greater perspective and more clarity to make the kinds of decisions that, in the long run, will bring your business to prosperity and abundance, where you want it to be, ultimately.

Absolutely. And I think as well, even if people don't buy into the abundance, it just makes you feel better.

Right.

Like, what choice do you want? Do you want to freak out and panic, or go through horribleness? Or do you want to sit there and think, because you can't change it.

Right.

Whatever it is, it's happening.

Yep.

So you can just sit there and think, "Okay, well I can deal with it...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• If you tell your list that you’re going to email them at a specific time, it helps give you accountability. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, if people know you’re going to be emailing them you will feel more encouraged to continue.
• Offering content and value that your email subscribers may not be able to find elsewhere is a great way to get people to stay on your list.
• Write your emails yourself. You want your content to come from you personally.
• If you have a product, newsletters may be the better option.
• Shorter emails are often better, however, there are no rules you should be following when it comes to length.
• Ultimately, how often you send out your email comes down to how often you want to send it. If you have enough content, weekly is a great starting point.
• Try the three-month challenge where if you do something for three months and it still doesn’t work, stop. Although it may be tempting to give up sooner, you need to give your email strategy enough time to develop.
• What you put in your email will depend on whether or not you’re sending out a newsletter or an email. If you’re sending an email, you may find that your content will be more focussed on events and updates that have happened since your last email.
• Your emails need to add value, meaning you need to spend as little time as you can talking about you and your products.
• If you’re looking for content to add into your emails, sharing other people’s content is a great place to start.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…A newsletter tends to be a HTML email with images, text and chunks of information. An email, however, is text only and more of a one-on-one conversation. People are more likely to engage with an email than they are a newsletter.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• My Email Journey – 03:40
• What is the Difference Between A Newsletter and an Email? - 08:45
• How Long Should Your Emails Be? – 10:40
• How Often Should You Send Your Emails? – 12:00
• What Should You Put In Your Email? - 14:31
• A Quick Summary – 23:00

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Sign Up for My Email List Here

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:32)

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Marketing That Converts podcast. How are you? So I'm glad to say that after an awful lot of travelling and then coming straight back to do a launch, I am now.. the cart is closed and I am now in a position where I can just chill out in the office, which is really, really cool. You know those times where it's like you've got time in the office or you can focus and tick things off and get things done. So I'm really, really excited about that and really pleased. I'm also super excited about my launch and how that went and all my new members in the academy, which is so cool. So I'm excited to get to know them better and to really start helping them with their business. So this week I wanted to talk about emails. Now I know we've done lots of different, talking about emails and we've talked about building email lists and I go on and on and on all the time about how important it is because basically we don't own our data.

Speaker 1: (01:25)

So the people who follow us on social media, we don't have their details. And if something, God forbid was to go wrong on social media, we've lost our following. So I've talked all the time about building lists and I've worked hard on building lists. My seem to have done a lot of talks recently about how to do it and step by step and that sort of thing. So we all know it's super important. But the one thing I haven't really gone into a huge amount is what you actually do with them. Once you've built an email list. And I know that this is something that is putting off a lot of people from even starting building that list. Because they're saying "It's all well and good building a list, but what am I going to send to them?" And if they're not producing lots of regular content then maybe they're thinking, "I haven't got anything to send to them." So that was one of the reasons I wanted to do this.

(02:12)

Also, I was inspired over the weekend. I received a few different emails, one from Ann Handley, which I always enjoy getting. She does one every other Sunday and has it always really well written and I like reading them and the other one from someone I'm not going to mention, but basically I received this email and it just was so focused on the person and on their own business and what they had achieved and what they had done that I just thought, "This is a really bad example of a newsletter or an email that you'd send out to your list" because don't get me wrong, I know there's an element where we're going to talk about things that we've done. I just started this podcast saying, you know, this is what I've done recently, but it's 30 seconds of it. And then hopefully we get straight into the value. So if you're doing an entire newsletter and that's all writing, every time people quite honestly don't care. And I know that sounds really harsh and I'm not saying I don't care, I'm just saying that honestly people don't care about us and our businesses as much as we do, what they care about is stuff that's going to interest them and be of benefit to them and add value to them.

(03:18)

So like I said, I took inspiration by receiving one really good email and one really not so great email over the weekend and I decided that I was going to record this episode and talk about what you actually do once you've got an email list or how you start sending those emails and what you can send in them. So let me just explain to you what I did, which honestly I laugh at myself all the time.

 

My Email Journey

 

Speaker 1: (03:41)

And I think I've talked about this before, but so as you know I was setting up my email list and I was running lead magnets and adverts and people were signing in. In fact this lead magnet I did, which was all about being proactive on social media. And the lead magnet went down so well and I ended up getting loads people on my email list and it was wonderful and I wasn't doing anything with them. Honestly. I like, I didn't take my own advice. I didn't take my own advice that I had to actually email these people cause I think in my head I was half like, well I don't want to bother them and I don't want to irritate them. But the truth is, and if you'll sit there thinking the same, the truth is they've signed up to your email list. So tick, that's number one. Number two, if they don't want to receive your email, they can just unsubscribe. It's not that difficult. They can just delete your emails. It's not that hard. So that's the first thing I think I needed to get over. The fact of people were on my list. And I was doing nothing with them.

(04:39)

So I had a word with myself, literally a serious word and myself saying, "Teresa, what are you doing? You've got this list and you're not emailing them." So my first decision was I was going to come out to the list and say, "Listen, I'm going to start emailing you more regularly now because I've made a mistake. I should have been doing that from day one and I haven't been."

(04:58)

The other thing I did, which really helped me and the type of person I am is I told my whole list every Wednesday, I will email you. It really gave me accountability because one thing I don't like doing is letting people down. I'm not very good at it. I really hate that part. If that ever happens, luckily touch word because I'm so, cause I hate it so much. I don't often do it. But if I do, I hate it. So by saying to people, every Wednesday I'm going to email you, I kind of held myself accountable and allowed them to hold me accountable as well. So again, it's a bit like the podcast. I wouldn't miss a Monday because this is what the podcast is about. So obviously I make sure, I mean this has been recorded and while before it's due out, but I make sure that obviously that I have the episodes recorded in time, so I've got something every Monday. So again, how hard could an email be? So that was the first thing that I wanted to really get over to my audience.

Speaker 1: (05:56)

The second I wanted to do was I wanted to say to them what it was going to be about. Aye, why they wanted to carry on getting my Wednesday emails after not hearing from me in such a long time. So I said to them that one, I was going to be giving them content and value in a way that I'm not doing it anywhere else. So I viewed my email as a completely different but a content. So I do my podcast, I do stuff on social media, and then I do stuff in an email that you might not get if you're not getting that email. So that was the first thing I really decided about what was going to go into the email, and obviously I mentioned this in the first email to my list.

(06:37)

The second thing I decided was that I was going to write the email. Now I've told you a million times before. I don't like writing. It's not my favourite thing to do, and I have used copywriters in the past for some of the things I've done. So for instance, my show notes, I'm very honest and said that someone else is listening to this and writing the notes for it because that's their zone of genius and not mine. However, I was really conscious of the fact that if you've signed up to my email list, you want to hear from me. Obviously I'm signed up to lots of different emails, for lots of different people and I can hear the tone of voice and I can tell when it's a copywriter and it doesn't sound like the person that I signed up to. So the person that I see on social media, the person that I might be in their Facebook group, or I might be on one of their courses, sometimes the emails come through, just sound like a real sales machine or a copywriting type exercise rather than something from them.

Speaker 1: (07:36)

You know, and I want to envisage a bit like Ann Handley's emails and I'm going to link up to Ann Handley in the notes, but just like I am, visit her, sat down, writing it herself. I wanted my community and people on my list to know that I was doing that too. And I was very honest in the fact of saying to them, I'm human and I don't enjoy this part of it. So if there are typos and mistakes, then I apologise, but you're going to know its me, that's done it and you're going to hear my voice from it. So that was really important to me that not only was I building a list and doing nothing with it, so I made the decision that I was going to do something with it. But the second thing that I viewed as different content that I wanted it to come from me in my tone of voice and me writing it. And also that I sort of committed to saying every single Wednesday.

Speaker 1: (08:24)

So what I wanted to talk to you about today is I wanted you to think about once you build that email list, what are you actually going to do with them? So I'm going to give you a few different examples. So I've already given you the example of me and how I do it. So I view it as completely different content. So when I come to do an email, I write it as an email. So I don't view it as a newsletter. So let's just clear up that first actually.

 

What is the Difference Between A Newsletter and an Email?

 

(08:47)

So what's the difference between a newsletter and an email? Well, in the traditional sense, a newsletter tends to be something where your, it tends to be html. So you know the ones you get from MailChimp, where you've got an image and links and texts and it looks nice. And then also it tends to have chunks of information in it. So it will be leading you off to something else. So the newsletter might have your latest blog post, it might have, here's a product I've just launched, so it might have here's me at an event or whatever, and it tends to be chunks or bits of information that lead to maybe your website.

(09:21)

Whereas the way I view my email is it's text only. So I did put a GIF in the ones where I did for the academy, but, and I might throw an occasional GIF in if people like it, but it's text only. So it literally is as if I am sending you an email from my own email or account directly to you. That's the way I view it. So I imagine that that one person is in my head and I am writing it to that one person. I'm talking one to one.

Speaker 1: (09:47)

Whereas a newsletter for me says more about, it is really more geared up to going out to a group. The other thing about the newsletter compared to the tech only email. If you're having a html email with all the images and things, as I've mentioned, then what you might find is that people know that's a newsletter and they disengage quicker. Now the other thing that you're going to have, which is the advantage on your newsletter is that you might have images and colours and whatever where, which I obviously don't have because I'm using text only, so that might attract people. And if you have a product then I would say a newsletter is the way to go. But for me, because I have a service and a lot of the things I do are online, the email style works much better for me and therefore, they tend to be longer.

 

How Long Should Your Emails Be?

 

Speaker 1: (10:37)

Let's just address that quickly actually. How long should they be? Well, how long is a piece of string? What have you got to say? I always intend on making mine short and somehow I always managed to make it really long and I don't mean to, and in fact I don't like reading super long emails, but sometimes it just makes sense to be the length that it is. So for me, it's kind of as long as you need it to be. The other thing that you want to do with all these suggestions I'm going to make now and in this podcast episode is obviously test it. So if people are not opening it or the open rates going down or the click through rates going down or one week you did an email and it when out and got really good click rate. What did you do that week?

Speaker 1: (11:17)

So the whole idea is that you want to be checking out what sort of things are working for you. So it's all very well me saying this is what I'm doing, it's because that's what I like. It fits with me and it works for me. So it's not to say that this is going to work for you. Like I said, if you have a product then I am 99.9% sure that you really need to do something html because you're going to want to put some pictures of your product in there.

 

How Often Should You Send Your Emails?

 

(11:43)

Okay. So I guess the second thing you need to decide on whether you decided you're going to do an email type email or a newsletter is how often. Now again, this is a question I get asked an awful lot and again it's kind of how often do you want to do it? And I, for me, I think weekly works. I quite like doing it weekly. I think monthly would be too long a time for me to be not dropping into people's emails. Also, I feel I've got enough content to email them weekly because if I didn't, I wouldn't. So if you're sat there thinking I can barely think of what to say in a month, then probably weekly is going to be a little bit too much for you. So like I said, weekly is great for me. I wouldn't go any longer than monthly and I would try and hold myself to a, you know, whether it's a particular day in the month or whatever, just so that you're keeping that consistency. Like I said, I need that accountability. I need to know that it has to go out on that day or otherwise it won't go in and it won't get done. So like I said, mine's weekly. You choose and I think over monthly, I just think probably not ideal.

Speaker 1: (

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• If you notice that you have key processes that you’re working through with all of your clients and customers, you need to think about whether or not you can turn them into a course.
• You need to take a look at what you’re doing offline to turn them into an online programme. Not only will it save you time, but it will allow you to help more people.
• Courses can be a great way to convert customers into one-on-one clients.
• The basics that you need when it comes to creating your courses are Zoom to record videos, Canva to create worksheets and slides, Mailchimp to guide people through your funnel and then a platform to build your course.
• Try to keep it as simple as you possibly can. You don’t want to overwhelm your course members.
• Hobby courses are becoming really popular, is this something you can do?
• If you have lots of topics to cover, don’t put it into one big course. Instead, create lots of smaller, actionable courses.
• If you are in an industry that regularly changes, creating a course that is easy to change is important.
• If you sell a product, don’t write off doing a course. You can teach people how to make your product, or how to run a successful business.
• People will be buying your course because of YOU and your experience.
• You need to allow 3-6 months before you start making a profit from your course.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…One of the most important things you need to consider when it comes to an online course is that it needs to be really actionable. Every time you communicate with your course members, there needs to be an action they can take.

Kerrie's flagship Launch a 6 figure course mastermind starts again Monday 5th August. You can sign up here and use the coupon code THW for a 50% discount on the one off fee making it an amazing £645 for the year. https://t4s.site/profitableonlinecourse/august-mastermind-thw/.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Introducing Kerrie – 05:24
• The Basics of Creating an Online Course – 15:00
• What Are the Best Platforms for Courses – 20:40
• Business #1: Devon Baeza - 27:00
• Business #2: Lagina Masala - 34:30
• Business #3: Violets Digital – 44:11
• Business #4: Felt n Fings 51:55

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Callie and Mike Episode
• Zoom
• Canva
• Mailchimp
• Infusionsoft
• Kajabi
• Drip
• Devon Baeza
• Lagina Masala
• Violets Digital
• Felt n Fings
• Kerrie’s Facebook
• Kerrie’s Twitter
• Kerrie’s LinkedIn
• Kerrie’s Website
• Sign Up To Kerrie’ Six Figure Course Mastermind Here

Transcript below

Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. I hope you've had a great start to your week. Now, I'm jumping straight in on this episode because honestly I loved it. It was so good. It was a different format, but it was brilliant. So let me explain.

In today's episode I'm interviewing [Carrie Rycroft 00:00:55]. Carrie was introduced to me via a friend because one thing that's really interesting is I don't often interview lots of people from the UK or locally to me. Because lots of the people that I admire and look at and learn from who I want to bring to you, my audience, tend to be American or from not around here. There don't tend to be many people who do what I do where I currently live.

And what was really fascinating was I was out for dinner with a friend the other week and she said to me, "Do you know what, Teresa, I went to this talk and there was this amazing woman there who teaches people how to do courses online." And I was like, okay, that's really interesting, I don't hear too many local people doing that. And she said, "What was the best thing about it was, during her talk she actually said, 'Who thinks they can't have a online course? Who thinks that their business is not, what's the word, that doesn't suit it, or that's not something they can do in their business?'" And people put their hands up and she picked one person, and that person said what they did, and she said, "Okay, by the end of today, we would come up with a plan, come up with an idea, and start your online course, and you'll start marketing it." And literally just did it there and then.

It was amazing and my friend was like, "She was unbelievable, it was great." And I was like, that's a real skill. Because actually there are some businesses that are super easy to do online products for. So if you're in the knowledge industry, if you're a coach, anything like that. When you're teaching, then it's easy. You can take anything online, and I'm doing the same. And it's great. It's a brilliant way in which I can teach more people and have more, what's the word, more impact without having to physically be sat in front of people. So it's an amazing way that we can learn and teach now. And I do a lot of stuff online in terms of how I learn.

So anyway, got in touch with Carrie. Really lovely lady. We hit it off straight away, had a really good chat. And we decided great, let's do a podcast episode. And Carrie came up with the most amazing idea that wouldn't it be good if we did something similar on the episode, i.e. I ask my audience, I ask you guys, do you think that you can't do an online course? Or do you want to do an online course and don't where to start? And if that's the case, then get in touch. That's exactly what I did. I was over on Instagram, I was doing Stories, I posted it everywhere. And I asked you guys to get in touch if you thought that was the case.

And we had a number of people get in touch. We had quite a few different ones to look at and we chose four different people who do different businesses. One is actually a physical product. Another one is a teaching product. And there's a couple of others. But we basically did an interview ... We did a bit of an interview at the beginning, but we basically did an interview based on these people and these businesses and we talk about how they can turn their business into an online product.

So I think you're going to really find this episode useful because for me it was the most practical suggestions. It was really, really hands on, put her money where her mouth is, tell these people how they can do it online. Some great ideas, some great tips and strategies in terms of getting started and how to come up with it. And again, a bit like when I did the episode with Callie and Mike, the Membership Guys, which I'll link to in these show notes just in case you didn't catch that one. Really honest, really down to earth, none of the kind of get rich quick, I'm going to teach you how to do a course in three hours and you're going to make a million. None of that. It's just really straightforward, cool advice. And she's a smart lady. She's been doing this for awhile.

So I really think you're going to enjoy this episode and I think you're going to get a whole lot from it. Even if you're not considering doing something online, I still think you're going to get a whole lot of good value from this episode. There was lots of great marketing tips.

Also, the other thing I'd like you to let me know, is what do you think of the more interactiveness of the episodes? I love the fact that I can feature the people and I can shout out all the businesses and obviously let you guys know about amazing other businesses out there. And I'd like to feature you guys more. So let me know whether you enjoy this style and whether you think I should do more of this in the future. I would love to hear.

Anyway, let's get on with today's episode. And here's the interview.

 

Introducing Kerrie

 

I am super excited today to welcome the very lovely Carrie to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing?

I'm really good thank you. And thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here as well. It's going to be fun.

My pleasure. And do you know what? This is so odd, because I interview so many American people, just because there's lots of people in our industry who are from America that know really good stuff and I want them on the podcast, it's actually really odd when I hear a British accent. And it's not been that long since I've ... In fact, I've interviewed a few people who aren't from the States recently. So you're kind of the third person recently, which is unusual. It's really odd to hear this British accent coming back to me.

Branching out.

Yeah, into my own country. It's really odd, isn't it? Really odd.

Anyway, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We've had such fun planning this podcast. And I am super excited about it because we're mixing it up a little bit. We're doing a few things differently and we're going to be doing a bit of practical side, which I think is going to be wonderful. I'm really excited about it.

But before we dive into that, let's just give my audience a bit of an overview of who you are, and how you got to do what you're doing now.

Absolutely. Such a long story of how I got to do what I'm doing now, but I started off a few years ago running a social media agency. I was a single mum with four children and I had left my ex husband, I had lost a big business that I'd been building up for years, and I kind of started again with a social media agency. Which, on the one hand was really good because it was my own business and it gave me a bit of flexibility and it allowed me to not have to go into an office 9 to 5, which is really difficult when you've got small humans relying on you.

But I really quickly realised actually, it was almost like having ten bosses rather than having one boss because doing social media for clients, as you well know through the agency side of things, it was only me working in the business so it required me being in front of my laptop 9 to 5 and then some all day everyday. It wasn't quit as flexible as I wanted in terms of being able to drop the kids off at school and pick them up and go to sports days and everything else.

And there was this gap between Christmas and New Year where they'd gone to their dad's for the first time in a long while, and I sort of had a really stern word with myself and said all right, okay, you have ten days on your own, just you and the dog on the sofa. What are you going to do? Are you going to carry on learning about how hard this is and how difficult it is and how you're not able to have the lifestyle that you want? Or are you going to get on and do something about it?

So in my mind, my two options were either I'm going to sit on the sofa for ten days and watch Netflix and cry and eat chocolate, which-

Good option.

Or actually maybe I could look at creating some kind of online course in my business. Because I'd taken a few online courses, and I'd joined a few online boot camps, and I was quite sold on the fact that oh this is interesting, and this is an interesting way to be a customer, and it would be great to have this as part of my business. But I had no clue what I was doing. So I chose that options rather than the Netflix and the chocolate.

Well done, well done.

And over that ten days I built a How to Manage Your Own Social Media online course for people who either couldn't afford to work with me, or who I didn't want to work with for whatever reason. And I put it out there in that, it's a real dead gap between Christmas and New Year when everybody is just doing nothing. I managed to make two thousand pounds in that gap by selling ... I mean, it was a really rough course. I look back at it now I'm like, oh okay, let's not look too closely at how that was put together.

But that made me sit back and go, okay, well that was hard work building it, but actually I've now got that that I can sell forever and that feels like such a nice way to make two thousand pounds rather than taking on four new five hundred pounds clients, or whatever it was. So that about three or four years ago, and I've gradually ... I spent a couple of years transitioning all of my stuff over to online because the more online courses I built for myself, clients started to say to me, "How did you do that?" Or "What did you use, and what software, and how did you set that up, and how do you know what to do?" And I just then fell into starting to do it for other people. And now that's what I do. I build online courses for people, or I teach people how to do it themselves. And it's amazing.

I love it. And I love your story because your story and my story are kind of similar, other than the multiple of children. I just have the one and no husband, and you had four, which holy moly, man. That is no mean feat, is it?

No. And they've all got their additional challenges. My youngest has got a heart condition, so we're on the waiting list for heart surgery. We're in and out of hospital all the time. And my boy has some mental health issues. I had to homeschool him for two years. So it's not a nice, calm, quiet, easy home life. So having my own regular, repeatable income has just been a game changer for me.

I can imagine.

Knowing the bills are paid. Like on the first month, knowing that I've got enough money coming in that month to pay all my bills and everything and some left over, just changed everything for me.

Yeah. That's the whole idea. People start a business thinking I want a business because I'm going to be free and I'm going to manage my own time. And I totally agree, going from having one boss to then having clients just multiplies your bosses. And it does make that a challenge.

But also, I've never worked as hard as I work now. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, and therefore it doesn't feel like I'm working as such. And also I'm in a privileged position where my daughter disappears every other week and goes to her dad's so I get to be mum and then I get to have downtime and do work.

But to have that recurring income when you have so much more going on in your life is just phenomenal, isn't it? Such, such a great thing.

It made a massive difference to me. Two years ago was when I really appreciated it the most because I took eight months off doing any kind of proper work, as in any consulting or any one on one coaching, because my son was quite ill and his mental health issues. And I took eight months off completely, and all I had was my online courses that were running. And knowing that I could do that and didn't have to make the really difficult decision of I know he needs the help and support and I have to take him to all of his appointments, and I'm homeschooling him ... We had a big court case going on and I need to go and see all of the court appointed people who have to talk to him. If I'd have had to work 9 to 5 to pay my rent and pay my bills, that would've been such a horrible decision to make. It just made it much easier because I could say, right, well I'll scale back on all the consulting and I'll scale back on the coaching and I'll just rely on my online courses for eight months.

And it's amazing to be able to do that. Somebody said I was really lucky, and that kind of offended me because I was like, I'm not lucky. I've worked my butt off to get to this. But I think fortunate is probably the right word rather than lucky.

Yeah. You looked at your options and chose one, and that option happened to work really perfectly for the situation that you found yourself in. And we all hope that we don't find ourselves in situations where we have to take lots of time off work or we have things at home that are going to take over your entire life. Because there's not many people who are in the fortunate position who could then just go, I'm going to stop working, or take time off work, or whatever, because we can't afford to. You've got to keep earning money. If that's not a reason enough to make you want to look at an online course, I don't know what is.

Something I say to women all the time when I speak on stage and when I talk in front of large groups, I tend to say everybody here in the audience, all of your women, you have your own business and you work really hard at your business, is there anybody here who doesn't have somebody who they look after? Either a husband, or a parent, or children, or a partner. Every single person in the audience, usually about 99% of the people, will put their hand up and say I look after somebody else. And the next question, does your business look after you the same way? And they're all like-

No.

If any one of them had to take a month off, their business would just wait and just sit there and go, oh okay that's fine I won't do anything for this month while you're not working. I'll just wait for you to come back. And I think it's really important as women, we have something set up so that our business is providing. It's a two way street, it's not just for us working in the business and then having invoices paid for it. It's about setting the business up so that it works on its own and it supports you. That's what I'm really passionate about.

Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, I think to have that option ... I've known actually some business people, they were women, took things like summer off because summer is hell trying to find childcare for one child let alone four. It's a nightmare. And they took the summer off. And it's not just the fact of you're sitting down and stepping out of the business for that time. All the cumulative work you've done in building your brand and building your awareness, all that time just basically falls off the edge of a cliff. And it's like you're having to start again. So the minute you then go, oh okay I'm back to work now, it's like oh let's go day one again from starting this business. Because that's what it's going to feel like. I love that.

For people listening, let's just talk briefly about really what the basics we mean by creating an online course and why obviously they want to look at it, other than the fact that you gave these brilliant ideas already.

 

The Basics of Creating an Online Course

 

I really believe that any business could benefit from having an online course. And that's something that I'm quite vocal about. I nag people quite a lot. It's very easy to describe kind of from a coach or consultant point of view. We'll start there.

If you're a coach and you work for people, either one to one or in a group setting, most of the time you'll have a process that you take those people through. Like a signature style, whether you know it is your programme, whether you've fleshed out to be this is my signature programme, or not. You will have a process that you take people through. So somebody comes to you, if you're a health coach, somebody comes to you and wants to improve their health, you'll have five or six different things that you will work through with them. And working with them one to one is great, but if you can take those steps and if you can take those things that you do with them face to face and turn them into an online product where they're delivered through videos and worksheets and questions and a Facebook group and group coaching calls, it frees up so much more of your time.

It's looking at how do you do things offline, how do you do things ... If I came to you and sat down in front of you and said, can you help me achieve this goal, what would you do? And it's looking at those steps and then it's turning those into an online...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Blogs are one of the easiest ways to create content and one of the best ways to get started when it comes to content creation.
• If you’re looking for inspiration, you can use a site called answerthepublic.com. This site allows you to search for a keyword, giving you examples of other relevant topics that people have searched.
• Using Answer The Public and your own content ideas, you need to build a list of all the posts you want to write. The more detail you include, the better.
• Batching your content is key.
• When it comes to being scared about producing video content, you need to remember that your video is going to be adding value to someone’s life. If you don’t create your video, you won’t be adding that value.
• If you’re worried about nerves, run a practice private live. Whether it’s in a group or to a specific person, you may feel better after a practice run. Honesty is key, so tell people it’s the first time you’re going live.
• If you’re creating a video for social media, you need to upload it to every platform you’re on natively, as this will maximise your views.
• When sharing a video in your email, set up a landing page for you video and send your subscribers there. This will allow you to include a call to action.
• If you want to ensure you’re consistent with your social media channels, make the most of social media scheduling tools. For those that need help when it comes to motivation, appreciating and celebrating the little wins can really help.
• If you want Insta Story success, ensuring you’re consistent is important.
• Another great way to ensure you’re successful on Instagram Stories is to find a way to get people into your DM’s. Whether it’s using the question feature, putting up a poll or getting people to take part in a quiz – the more people message you, the better.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…It doesn’t matter if you feel fear, absolutely everyone does. It’s natural to feel nervous about putting yourself out there.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Question #1 – Have You Got Any Tips for Starting A Blog? - 06:20
• Question #2 – How Do I Get Over the Fear of Making My First Social Media Video? - 09:32
• Question #3 – How Do I Use Social Media to Differentiate My Service in A Crowded Market? - 14:15
• Question #4 – If I’m Sharing A Video in My Email, What Link Should I Send People To? - 17:51
• Question #5 – How Do I Keep Motivated and Consistent with My Social Media Posts? 20:49
• Question #6 – You’re Always So Well Dressed, Where Do You Get Your Clothes From? 22:58
• Question #7 – What Are Your Top Insta Story Tips and Tricks? 24:29
• Question #8 – How Do I Keep Up to Date with All the Changes in Social Media? 26:25
• Question #9 – How Do You Juggle Your Work Life with Children and Travelling? 27:50

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• My Academy
• Answer The Public
• Hubspot
• Buffer Blog

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:33)

Hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you? Okay confession time straight away! It's the Thursday before this podcast comes out on the Monday and I'm only just recording it. You know what happens. Sometimes I get so good at batching content so far in advance and then what happens is it's like, I rest on it and I think I've got loads of content. It's absolutely fine. And then I start running out of time. And also as you'll know, cause I've talked about it on the podcast, I have been going through a launch. I've been doing masterclasses, which actually I'm doing today on the day I'm recording this and I'm launching my academy. I'm setting that up. So I have been so busy that I feel awful that I'm recording this so late. Also, I feel so bad for my team who are now going to rush to get it edited and rush to get the show notes written and then get all of the social media posts ready.

Speaker 1: (01:34)

So to Phil, to Kirsty and Sofia, I apologise profusely that I am putting you under this extra stress. I promise you this is a hiccup because we've been so busy setting up the academy. So today I've launched it, which is crazy amazing. Honestly, I've done two masterclasses so far. I've got another one at 9:00 PM. They've been amazing. I've had such awesome feedback. I love teaching. Hopefully you can tell that from the podcast. You can tell that I like talking about what I talk about and that I'm passionate about it and I end up kind of just overdelivering all the time because I want to give a really, really good value. So I've loved doing the masterclasses. I've had some great feedback. I've had people join the academy. Woo, which is amazing! And I'm gonna urge you to go and check it out because honestly I have put it up for a price that is the craziest good value.

Speaker 1: (02:33)

So basically the academy is open from now until Friday the 26th, let me double check that date. Hang on, two seconds. I know I should have had that in my head because I knew I was gonna talk about it. It is Friday, the 26th. Okay, so the academy is open until Friday, the 26th of July and then I'm closing the cart. The reason I'm doing that is because it's new and I want to go in there and love the people that are in there. I want to give them my attention. I want to make sure everything's working. I want to get some more content in there. And I want to really focus on making sure that it's amazing for when we open again and it's already amazing as it is, but even more amazing. And then we'll open again. But because this is brand new and I am having founding members, i.e. if you join the academy you're going to be the first people in there, then you're getting it at a crazy good price. So it's currently up for $29 a month, which seriously is so, so good value. You're going to be getting monthly courses all around digital marketing and social media. There's already at least four courses in that with another two coming in the next day or two. By the time you guys listen to this, um, you are also going to be getting a coaching call every single month where you can get on a zoom call with me and I'm going to be picking people to do hot seats. Or you can apply for a hot seat but we can talk specifically about your business and your problems and your issues and things that you need help with. We're also going to do Facebook Lives in a private Facebook group, just for course member.. Just for the academy members.

Speaker 1: (04:08)

So again, that's going to be great. You're gonna be able to ask me questions. I'm going to be able to do additional training and teaching. The other thing that you're going to be able to do is we're going to have a social media updates all the time, so as things change and happen, you're going to hear about it so you don't need to worry about what's working because we're going to be telling you. We have a resources centre, so in the resources centre, I'm going to put all the stuff I use. So you're going to know, if you want an email system, if you want a landing page system, all the stuff I use in there, and obviously you've got the private Facebook group, so honestly, please go and check it out. I'm going to link up to it in the show notes, but if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/academy. Man, it's a hard word to spell. Honestly, I get it wrong every single time, but it's a-c-a-d-e-m-y. So teresaheathwareing.com/academy, go check it out. Like I said, you've got till Friday the 26th to get in there and then I'm closing it. I don't have a date for reopening it yet. We're just going to see how we'd get on once I'm in there. But I would love you to come and join me in there with the others. It's going to be awesome.

(05:17)

Anyway, sales pitch over with on to today's episode! Made today's episodes a little bit different, but it actually goes in really good with the fact that I've just talked about the academy because a few weeks ago I put on social media. Would you like to ask me a question and I will answer it on the podcast and this is what today's episode's about.

Speaker 1: (05:37)

So very specific questions. We've got some great questions. I've obviously had to look at them all. Um, I haven't prepped on the answers so I'm just going to literally do it off the cuff. But I've obviously seen all the questions and I'm going to read out some questions and I'm just going to answer them and hopefully you can get some great content from it and some ideas for your business. And this is kind of what I loved most. So the one of the reasons I wanted the academy and to do the coaching calls and the live Facebook stuff, and the private Facebook group is because I love it when you tell me about your business and I get to think hard about what is it that I would recommend you do or what direction or how or what tool. That's the stuff that I love. So this episode for me is going to be so cool. I love it.

 

Question #1 – Have You Got Any Tips for Starting A Blog?

 

(06:20)

Okay, let's get on first question. This is from Sarah from Crazy Media. She asked, have you got any tips, hints or advice on starting a blog? Absolutely! Okay. So blogs are one of the easiest ways to get content out there because there's no production as such. It's not like you've got to do production on the podcast and move to iTunes or the same with creating a video. So blogs are a great way for getting started in terms of getting content out there. So the first thing that I would do is think about what is it you're actually going to talk about. So one of the websites that I recommend a lot is answerthepublic.com. It's a great website where you can put in your keywords and it will basically throw back everything that people are asking on the Internet.

Speaker 1: (07:09)

So what often happens is you think to yourself that you've got to send out content that's really high level, but actually the stuff that people are asking for is really simple. So obviously I'm guessing with Crazy Media, we're talking sort of social media or marketing. And honestly people don't want to know necessarily like amazing strategy stuff. They want the small and simple and easy. So that's the first thing I would do. I would go and see what content there is or I would go and see what suggested things you can do for content. I would then try and write as many titles for blog posts as possible. Man, this is the way that I like to work. So this might not work for you, but when I start to actually write my blog, not that I do them very often obviously because I have the podcast, I try and almost fill in.

Speaker 1: (07:56)

So if I've got four or five title suggestions, I will work on all of them at once. This sounds really odd, but basically I will have an idea of what I want to cover in each and I will make notes under each title. So for instance, if I want to write something to do something to do with Insta Stories, so it might be a total of five tools to create engaging stories and then for instance, I'll be writing down what are those five tools I'm going to talk about. Then I'll talk about the intro and write down some notes about that and then I'll do something to do with the end of it and write some notes about that. And then once I've got those sort of, I've got my head around those points, then I would probably go away and write the full proper blog post. But you might want to do some research while you're doing those bits as well. So for me, that's how I do it.

(08:42)

The second thing I do is always have a group of blog posts to start with and also have so many written in advance. There's me talking about batching content and I'm literally recording this about four days before it goes live. Uh, take my own advice again anyway, I would do that, especially if you're starting, if you can get some in the bag. Great. I would also decide on how frequent you want to do it. Personally, obviously my content's weekly, if you can, that would be amazing if you can't, twice a month or monthly. But again, I would at least try and have, you know, if it's twice a month, I would probably try and have at least six blogs written and I would start with two or three. So when you announce that you're doing a blog, you've got someone that already to look at. So I'm hoping that helps. Thank you so much for your question, Sarah.

 

Question #2 – How Do I Get Over the Fear of Making My First Social Media Video?

 

(09:29)

Okay, question number two is Magdalena. She's a virtual assistant and she's put, "How do I get over the fear of making that first video on social media?" Okay, great question. Right? The first thing that I need to say is it doesn't matter that you feel fear. I think everybody does. So don't be concerned or put off by the fact that you're scared. I still get scared every time I speak on stage. If I do a live, I get nervous. I think it's really natural to feel nervous about the fact that you're going to be putting yourself out there. So from the nerves point of view, there's a couple of things I want you to think about.

Speaker 1: (10:06)

First off, you're obviously going to be doing a video for your audience and you're virtual assistant so you might be, let's say you're going to be doing a video around how to organise yourself or how to manage something or whatever. You're going to be doing it to add value. So the first thing you've got to think is someone could be out there needing this right now and you're not giving it them because you're scared. And like I said, I totally get it, but this is how I try and think about it. By me not putting myself out there, I'm not helping someone and by me not helping someone, they're not being as successful as they could be and therefore I try and imagine I'm being selfish by not putting myself out there. So that's my first thing I would say is that honestly it is a little bit scary and I get it. Totally get it.

(10:54)

So the second thing then in terms of actually practically doing it, there's a couple of suggestions I've got for you. First off, you can do a private live video to either a personal or a group. So you could go live and just send it to someone just for a practise run. Or if you have a group that you're in or you're part of them, some sort of group for something you could ask if you could do a quick live test in there just so that you're not doing it out in the public just so that you're not feeling like you've put yourself out there immediately and you're going to mess it up. The other thing I would suggest is when you go live for the first time or when you do your first video, be totally honest and say, this is the first time I'm doing this. It's a little bit out of my comfort zone. I feel a little bit nervous, but we're going to go with it and see how it goes. I'm, you know, I want to come on to do this. This is why I'm here, so I'm really hoping you're going to find it helpful. Honestly, that's how I would start. Also, imagine you're talking to someone that you know or that it's someone that really needs your help on the other end. That helps me as well. I never read from anything, so if I do any talks, if I do presentations, like I said, I've just done my masterclasses today and I don't read and a thing, I have a very rough guide or idea of what I'm going to say. I might have some bullet points to the side of me if I'm going live or doing a video, but I certainly don't have things verbatim because I promise you I would try and read it and it would be the most unnatural thing in the world.

Speaker 1: (12:27)

It's the same with the podcast. I know roughly where I'm going with my conversation, but it's honestly the words just falling out of my mouth as I'm doing it, so it's totally, totally natural and you know what? For me, and I don't know the all my audience think this about my the way I am, but for me I really much prefer that I like someone to be human and it puts everybody else at ease because I don't know about you. If you've ever watched a video and they're so slick and so good it I almost don't relate to it as well. Whereas when I feel like they are human then it makes me feel so much better. So first things first, don't be beating yourself up that you're fearful of doing that first video. Everybody's going to. Secondly, try and practise or do a video in a safe situational place where you know you can have a practise. And thirdly, when you do do your video, say, okay, this is my first, this is a test. I've not done it before but we're going to see how it goes. Be really...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• One of the best things you can when it comes to Instagram Stories is to learn how to manage the 15 seconds you are given. To do that, you need to know how to edit your videos in a way that maximises the time you have.
• Use techniques you have seen on TV and in movies to inspire you to be creative.
• If you’re using video, you don’t need to tell people what you’re doing as people can see that. Think of more creative ways to share your story.
• When it comes to video there are both visual and audio aspects. What people don’t realise is that your visual and audio don’t need to correlate.
• Show you’re doing something and try to tell a different story; it will hold people’s attention much longer.
• Make the most of b-roll content.
• You don’t have to use fancy equipment, as video can be filmed on your camera phone. Once you start worrying about what camera you’re filming on, you miss the point of creating relatable content.
• Film as little as you can so you don’t have to edit as much. To edit on your mobile, Adobe Rush and Splice are great options.
• Although it can be awkward to film yourself in public, it’s easy once you learn how to be tactful. Look at your surroundings and decide the perfect opportunity.
• If you need to transfer music to your phone, use a Dropbox that you can access through Adobe Rush.
• If you think people will be viewing your story without audio, add subtitles letting them know they may want to listen.
• To get started, you need to understand the story. Find out how you can tell a story without speaking.
• Every story needs a start, middle, and end. Make sure your story has an opening and closing scene, so people know what is happening.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Aim to have 2-3 minutes of content a day, any more than that and people will start to switch off. Think about the stories you watch; do you skip if it’s too long?HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Introducing Dillon Osborne – 04:45
• How to Limit the Content You Post, Without Cutting Back – 11:00
• Finding Your Creative Flair – 16:00
• Showing Your Personality in Your Stories - 21:31
• Tools and Equipment – 27:13
• Directing People to Your Long-Form Content – 39:30
• How To Get Started With Creating Your Own Stories - 44:02

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Live Masterclass Sign Up
• Adobe Rush for Mobile
• Splice
• Epidemic Sound
• Diltakesphotos Instagram

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast, and I am your host Teresa Heath-Wareing, as always. How are you. This week we are talking about one of my favourite subjects, Instagram, and more specifically, Instagram stories. But before we jump into that, I just want to remind you that this Thursday, Thursday the 18th of July, I am running three, that's it, not one, not two, but three, live master classes. I've done three so that hopefully, no matter what time zone you're in, you're going to be able to find a time that suits you. And you heard me say before that I love doing these master classes, I love doing live training, and I love answering questions and helping, so I really hope you've signed onto it and you're going to be joining me. If not, you can head over to TeresaHeathWareing.com/MasterClass and you can sign up there. I can't wait to see you there.

Okay, on with today's episode. If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I love Instagram. It's my most favourite platform at the moment, has been for some time, and one of the things that I love most about Instagram is Instagram stories, because I love how creative they are, how quick they can be, and I just like that kind of honesty of someone being on camera or showing you their day. I find them really interesting. And I don't know about you, but I always have certain go-to people that I like to watch, and obviously, given the algorithm, it puts those people at the front of my feed all the time. Today's interview is with someone that I've been watching on Instagram for a long time, and I love his stories, so I had to get him on the podcast, because I want to share what he does with you, and I want you to go check him out because he's amazing.

Today I'm interviewing Dillon Osborne, who is a freelance creative and storyteller who believes in ideas. He works with people to create engaging and exciting stories and bring them to life visually. Dillon is one of the most creative Instastory creators, have I just made that up? Does that sound right? That I've ever seen. So I met him through another guy who I had met at an event, and I started following this guy, and he mentioned Dillon in his stories. So as you do, I clicked and had a look at Dillon, started looking at some of his stories, and honestly, they were brilliant. They were the most creative stories I've ever seen. They were quick and interesting, and they literally kept me captivated, and I've carried on watching them for ages. So I wanted to bring him onto the podcast because I really wanted him to talk about these stories, and also share with you how he creates them, what he comes up with. Because there are very few people doing Instagram stories like his, and like I said, his are super creative, and you really do find yourself wanting to watch them over and over.

Dillon and I, I have to warn you, had quite a laugh. He is such a funny guy. We really giggled about quite a lot of stuff, which is great. And he talks through how he got to do what he does now, how he got creative on Instagram, and how he started using insta stories to really showcase what he does. But then the great thing about this is, he talks us through different apps he uses on his phone. Because he does the entire thing on his phone, which is kind of unbelievable, and he tells us what apps he uses and how he puts it together and some of the considerations.

Dil is obviously a creative, so he is obviously going to have a good eye for this sort of thing. He's obviously going to be able to put together a good video because that's his job. So I'm not saying that ... Me or others may be as creative as him, but I wanted you to definitely have a look at what he does, because I really think this is going to help you think about your stories more differently. He says some really funny things and really interesting things like, I think at one point he talks about the fact that, when we're on camera we tend to tell people what we're doing, and he's like, "Please stop telling me what you're doing. I'm watching you, I can see it." So that was really cool, and made me think about how I do my stories.

I think you're going to love today's episode, so I don't want to drone on and keep talking, I want you to jump strange in and see what you think. Make sure you check this guy out, he's amazing.

 

Introducing Dillon Osborne

 

I am so excited today to welcome the very lovely Dillon Osborne to the podcast. Welcome Dil.

Hi, how's it going? Thanks so much for having me.

My absolute pleasure. I've got to be honest, we've just been chatting all prior to being on this interview, so we've been chatting for about 30 minutes, which is terrible, we joked that this podcast obviously is going to be really short, because obviously we've done all our chat. But it's so good to have Dil on. I've explained in the intro how I found him, and I've been watching his stories, and I recommend that anybody goes and watch his stories, but I knew I had to have him on just so that he could talk to us about this, because it was so cool. But before we get into that, Dil, can you explain to my audience a bit about who you are, and how you got to do what you're doing now?

Yeah. It's a funny one, I have been a graphic designer and a photographer for the last, I like to say about 15 to 18 years, somewhere around that. Got out riding bikes and kind of developed a love of photography and making videos. I've worked professionally as a graphic designer and art director for the last 15 years, and part of that journey I worked in a bike shop. It taught me a lot about building and creating artwork and solutions and stuff, and how to develop it with no budget. It was just one of those things. It was a small bike shop that became one of the largest online retailers in the world. So I learned this insane amount working with them, and the first time I was given a job with them they had asked me to do this thing, and we had this budget, and I was like, I'll try to work it out. I eventually solved it, and that was sort of how I did things for about 10 years with them. I didn't realise the value in that until I then made a move into creative agencies in breakfast, and it sort of just spiralled into this weird thing.

I have, over that time, used that skill and developed it into an Instagram, which to me is just a bit of a laugh, it's just kind of a good fun, but it's become a real important tool for me, as a creative person, now I've gone through the stage of working brand-side into client-side, and now I work freelance. So I now operate full-time freelance working for myself, and Instagram is like my show reel and my expressive outlet. It greys the line sometimes for what it is, but it's an interesting question to answer, because most people are like, "Are you an Instagrammer?" I guess. I guess I am.

I love that, because actually there are so many people in an industry, whether it be a creative industry, as a videographer or a photographer or whatever, who sometimes do not perform how they are telling other people to. So it's almost like, practise what you preach. And you totally do that. And also, do you feel that you can get away with being as creative as you want? Because often clients are a little bit more nervous, and maybe if they see you do it, they might then go, "Actually yeah, I love that."

Yeah, I think so. When I started doing these stories, these stories basically developed from, I kind of wanted to make some more videos, and I had started watching Casey Neistat before he did daily vlogs. I'd been watching his [inaudible 00:08:02] and I really liked it. The concept of talking to the camera resonated with me a lot, because for years I'd filmed my friends, and while my friends liked riding my bikes and doing tricks and stuff, getting them to do things for me was quite difficult. So when I saw him doing this, it was before he started daily vlogs, I said this is interesting.

When he went to daily vlog it snapped, I was like oh, this makes sense to me now. I can tell a story like this. Because this is what I do with home videos, so let me try and work this into what I want to do. So I started doing it on Instagram, and it started as your regular, "Hi guys, [inaudible 00:08:41] sandwich." Just sitting there doing something mundane. And then I [inaudible 00:08:45] thought, "What can I do? How can I push this, how can I make this more creative?" Since that point to where I am now it's like ... I said to my wife early on, "I want people, my dream would be for people to hire me to do stuff because of the way I do things." I'd rather get hired to do a job because of me rather than to do a technique.

That's kind of how things work now. People quite often come up to me and they go, "I watch you on Instagram," or, "I've seen this video you did for this other client. I really like your vibe," or, "I like your style. I'd love you to come and have a chat to see what you could do for us." Nine times out of 10, that ends up me doing some version of me, maybe not me talking, but some version of my style for them, and I think yeah, people feel a lot more confident in doing that, because they're seeing me do it, and they're coming to me, they're being proactive kind of, going, "We kind of want to change things up and do this style. Can you apply that to us?"

Yeah. I love that. I think as well, it's interesting thinking about how, I know you're in this creative industry, but social media in general is getting way competitive. Well it is, has been for years, but Instagram over the last two three years has got more and more competitive. Stories are being featured more and more, but you've got to keep people's attention. And one of the things, and it's really hard for us to talk about, so urge everybody that's listening to go and, and obviously I'll link it in the show next to Dil's Instagram and you can go and watch some of his stories. No pressure Dil, you've just got to do really good ones now. I'll let you know when this is coming out, and you make sure there's some bloody good ones on there. [crosstalk 00:10:17]

I'll do my best.

Otherwise I'm going to send people there and they're going to go, "What is this?"

[inaudible 00:10:20] the sandwich.

Just all together. The whole thing about trying to keep your attention, and one of the things that I love is that you create content, you know ... And digress aside, but have you heard of Mrs. Hinch, Dil.

Yeah, the cleaner lady. That really belittles her, but yes, only because my wife buys the Minky cloth.

I love it. It's so funny, if i ever mention this it's always a husband saying, "Oh my God, my wife just listens to her all the time."

Yeah. She came home with a bucket of stuff. "[crosstalk 00:10:50] this."

You mean like [inaudible 00:10:53] cleaners, right.

Yeah.

That's so good.

Yeah. [inaudible 00:10:55] and I have to use the what?

 

How to Limit the Content You Post, Without Cutting Back

 

Yeah, I bought them for my husband. People think I'm joking. He came home, it was like Christmas for him. So she does stories all the time, and sometimes, when I get to her stories, and I see all those tiny dots at the top, that makes me see that she's done literally 50 stories in a day, I get like, "No, move on, I can't watch all that."

Too much pressure.

Yeah, and it's an investment in time. And I know it sounds the most ridiculous thing that, I'm not willing to invest that amount of time in you today, Mrs. Hinch. What I love about yours is, you manage to cram in a lot of content ... Because basically let's explain, you're not just straight up recording an insta story, you are putting together video within one story, and therefore you can get a lot of detail in with those 15 seconds, and therefore you might only have what looks like, I don't know, 10 stories that you've done in a day, but actually you've managed to cram in so much more into that, haven't you.

Yeah. My stories started, like everybody else, [inaudible 00:11:55] front facing camera, talking to the thing, you're doing it 15 seconds. Then I started learning to manage the 15 seconds, and try to get a lot out in 15 seconds, and be able to use transitions in between the Instagram app itself, so I would use ... I'd make a camera movement at the very last second, then I'd make another move on the new second. That's very tricky to do.

Then I kind of had this idea where I was like, well what if I edit these things? So I was looking around, there was no vertical editing platform, so I used to use iMovie, built into the iPhone. I was like, I could film a minute of footage, and there would be four stories, but it would be a load of stuff, rather than just a 15 second clip of me talking. So I started filming cutaway shots of really the environment, or set up things where you see me walking in and out of shot, and I was editing it out on iMovie. But what was mad was you could only edit horizontal movies in iMovie. So I'd edit it, you'd end up with the two black bars at the back, on each side, and a vertical video in the middle, and then I'd export that as like a 1080 HD video. But if I brought it into Instagram, if you double tap that video, it filled the screen perfectly, so you end up with a ... But it was really questionable quality.

But that was the only option back then. I hadn't seen anybody else doing this, because I started doing the stories a couple of weeks after Instagram launched the platform. Stories feature, more so. And I started editing them pretty soon after. I was editing them this way, and I hadn't really seen anybody doing anything like this until I found Jessie Driftwood through some links. That was early day sort of Jessie Driftwood, before he'd gotten insanely big. I suddenly started to see some of ... He's the first person I've ever seen editing this. Because when I first started doing these stories I said to my wife, "I'm going to take the vlog platform and put it on Instagram, because it makes more sense for me. My phone's with me everywhere. So why vlog on YouTube when I can vlog on Instagram, and at the end of the day I hit upload and it's done. I don't have to do this big edit.

So I sort of slowly developed that into this process of filming a clip as I go, dropping it into my timeline on iMovie, and then editing as I go. So with the last clip I filmed, I would drop it in, export it, upload it. And it was a pain back then, because we didn't have apps to cut up your clips into 15 seconds, none of that existed. So there's all these apps now that I use that are insane, which makes my process even quicker, but back then I was editing a two minute video. And I would have to open that two minute video in my phone gallery, and I'd have to trim it to 15 seconds, save it as a new clip, then go back to the original one and find the next ... So it was manual. And I did that for like months and months, until I found other options and new apps started coming out, things like Splice, that started dealing with vertical video. We've come a long way from those days of iMovie, and when I think back to that now I'm like ... You know one of those, you abound like you're dad, you're like, "You don't appreciate it. I used to sit for hours cutting that up ..." It's like bang, throw it into continual and let's cut.

That's brilliant. That is so funny. Let's go to the fact of, when you create your insta stories, you do the ... I want people to go and look at, and want people to think about your insta stories and how they can make it more creative, but we did just talk before the podcast that, obviously, Dil is a creative person, this is what he does, so he obviously has a very good ... Eye is not the right word, that's not good enough, but this is what he lives his life for. So actually a lot of the success of his story is down to the fact that he's very creative in this space. It's not to say that you can't go, and people listening can't go, and try it, and make theirs a bit more creative, or add a few different elements for sure, but obviously a lot of what you do is because you're so creative.

 

Finding Your Creative Flair

 

So just explain, because we watch your videos ... When I say we, I have to explain still that my husband and I love them, and we'll be watching it be like, how long did it take you? Because you will literally set up your camera and walk past your camera. You will set up ... You might be going on the train or the tube or whatever it is, and your camera will be the other side of the tube and you're sat on the seat doing whatever you're doing. Do you physically have to think, every single point, where am I going to do this, what am I going to do? Or is it now becoming very natural?

It's become very natural. I think at the beginning I sort of dithered a bit, but I've always kind of done videos like that with my own family, and I used to make these videos at home, and then I would just WhatsApp...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Buying followers doesn’t benefit anyone, as they’re not going to be the type of people you want to follow you. They won’t engage and they definitely won’t be your target audience.
• Having 500 followers that love your content is much more valuable than having 5,000 followers that do not engage. A slow, organic growth is what you should be aiming for.
• Follow-unfollow tactics are not the best approach when it comes to gaining followers.
• Tell people you are on each platform, directing them to come and follow you. Put it in your newsletter, put it in your email signature, put it in your blog posts. The more you tell people, the more chances you have of people following you.
• Facebook is a difficult platform to grow as there is not a lot of one-to-one interaction. One of the easiest things you can do to grow your followers is pay for PPC advertising. If you’re just starting out, you can create a ‘like campaign’ to gain page likes.
• Knowing where you customers are will help you go and like the pages that your target audiences are already interacting with. If you go on Facebook on your desktop, you should be able to find a button on the righthand side that says ‘See Page’s Feed’. If you click on this, any page that your page likes will show up here. Once you’re on this page, you can like and comment as your page.
• When it comes to Instagram and Twitter, again you need to think about where your target audience are going to be. Create a list of where they’ll likely be spending their and then follow all of them immediately. Once you have started following these pages you can start to interact with pages your target audience will be using.
• Think about the hashtags your customers are using. Using the hashtags you know your customers will be using, you can go and follow and interact with people you may want to follow you. Don’t use it as an opportunity to sell.
• When you’re interacting with posts, make sure you’re using more than 3 words and writing something that is relevant to the photo. If not, you may come across as though you’re using a social media comment bot.
• Rather than following the people that are following your competitors, follow the people that are interacting with them.
• Remember, it’s quality of quantity.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Growing a social media following is no longer an easy task and it takes a lot of work to gain followers that are engaged. Whilst it may have been easy in the past, social media has changed and people use it in a completely different way to when it first started out. Those people that have a high number of followers, may have been doing it for YEARS before they saw success.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• A Couple of Caveats – 08:32
• General Tips for Growing Followers on Social Media – 15:30
• Gaining Followers on Facebook – 20:00
• Growing Your Following On Instagram And Twitter – 27:32

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Live Masterclass Sign Up

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:32)

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. And as always I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. This week I am coming to you live from Nashville in the United States. I am really pleased to be over here doing a bit of work but also visiting a very dear friend of mine who's going to be featuring on the podcast soon. And it's so nice to have a bit of time out and relax and be in a different space. So we're trying to desperately juggle work and also enjoying ourselves a little bit. So, funnily enough, I've just been down Broadway. I think I said that right, which is where all the bars and all the music is. And we had one gin and tonic and I was like, okay, if I'm gonna record a podcast today, we need to stop drinking right now and I need to head back and let's do this podcast and then maybe we can go back out again.

Speaker 1: (01:22)

So we're trying to juggle both, which is always a bit tricky, but it's definitely, definitely worth doing and being able to have a trip somewhere. Now I wanted to mention something. If you're not on my email list, I want you to get yourself over to teresaheathwareing.com and make sure you sign up to my newsletter because something happened on this trip, which I wrote about in last week's email. So every Wednesday I write you an email and it's always different content and it's always things that you can't normally find anywhere else. But last week we had such an interesting story because something happened. So I'm really quickly going to relive it here with you. So basically we had got this trip planned for quite some time and I had planned to write my Wednesday email while I was at the airport. While I was sat in the first class lounge and I was going to be talking about manifestation and how I felt that using manifestation, I had managed to organise this trip where I could fly first class, which was always on my list. It's on my goals, it's on my vision board. And I was so excited to tell you the least. Like honestly, I was really excited that we're going to fly first class, never done it before, managed to do it on point. So obviously didn't have to spend the amount of money that you'd normally have to spend, but literally I'd visualised every single step of going first class. So arriving at Heathrow airport, going through the first class check-in, going and sitting in the first class lines, what it'd be like to be welcomed onto the plane and turn left and you get the picture. So anyway, we get to the airport and bearing in mind I've been to the states a lot. We've probably come here four-ish times a year and I got to the airport and we go to the check in.

Speaker 1: (03:05)

I'm all very excited because it's first class and the lady says to me out, are you travelling on ESTAs or Visas? And I very confidently, because I've travelled to the states loads, we fly on ESTAs. So ESTA is a type of visa and you have to have one if you're from the UK to get into the states. And she looked again and she was like, oh, we just don't have one on file for you. And I was thinking, what do you mean? Like I literally flew back in March and it's valid and it's all fine. And then I remembered I had actually changed my passport because my married name is different to the name I use for business and I wanted to get my passport and obviously my official name and I changed my passport and then hadn't updated my ESTA. And it hadn't even occurred to me that I had to update it or change it.

Speaker 1: (03:53)

And honestly this sudden realisation and horrendousness came over me where I had the biggest knot in my stomach. I thought I was going to cry. I thought it was gonna be sick because basically when you apply for an ESTA it can take 72 hours. So even if I applied there and then there was a fair chance I wasn't getting on that flight, this first class flight that I dreamed of and felt like I had worked my way to manifesting wasn't going to happen. And I literally had a couple of options: full time break down, cry, be like a complete, you know, slightly babyish and lose my mind over it or breathe deep, realise that I can't control that situation and all I can do is what I can do. So basically my husband and I went and sat down in the first class checking in bed cause we weren't even allowed through.

Speaker 1: (04:50)

Like you're not even allowed into the lounge. We filled in the application. Honestly it felt like the longest half an hour of my life trying to fill this in. Everything just felt hard and difficult and, but I was trying really hard to be calm and breathe and then we filled in and the lady came back over and was like, have you gone? And we were like, we filled it in and it's just a case of waiting. And that's where I took on all the learnings I've used over the past 12-18 months about being calm and breathing and realising that the only thing I can have any effect on in that situation is me and how I manage myself. So anyway, we sat there for a bit and my husband went off to the bathroom and a bit of a wandering cause basically, there was nothing we could do. And I'm sat there every two minutes checking my application and I looked down and it said approved.

Speaker 1: (05:41)

And honestly, I don't even think it was half an hour until they approved it, which was amazing. And I went over the woman at the desk so excited, like, oh my God, look, it's through. And she looked and checked her around and it hadn't, she checked us in and she was like, you were so lucky. So I can't honestly say she goes, that is crazy quick, doesn't normally happen. And before we knew it, we were back through and heading to the first class lounge and the flight was amazing by the way. So if you do ever get the opportunity to go first class, it really is an experience worth trying. But yeah, it was just the fact of I was so proud of myself for not losing it and not getting angry and not getting upset, which I totally would have done maybe six months ago. I, I just thought, you know, okay, if this this has happened, there's nothing I can do about it.

Speaker 1: (06:27)

What on earth can I now do other than maintain my own mood and be calm in myself? So that's what I did. So anyway, I talked about that on my email so if you're not on the list, definitely get on that. Also before we get onto with today's content I announced last week, so I want to remind you again that I am doing a masterclass. A live masterclass. Three of them in fact at different times. So no matter what time zone you're in, I am hoping there was a time that is going to suite you well and if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/masterclass you will then find the page where you can secure your spot and join me live. And I've done this a couple of times before and I love them and I always get such great feedback. One of the things I love to do most is once I taught the content, I liked to answer any questions that you've got and I will stay on there as long as needed in order to get all your questions answered.

Speaker 1: (07:19)

And I love the teaching thing. It has great atmosphere, so nice to see so many of you there. So please do come along. It's going to be a great masterclass. I'm talking about how to convert people from prospects to customers and obviously we're talking social media and digital marketing and the process that I use in my business and the process that I teach. So I would love to see you there.

(07:43)

Okay, today's episode is an episode that I am surprised I've not done until now because I know it's going to be a really popular episode because this is the one thing I get asked all the time. So today I'm going to be talking about how to get followers on social media. I know honestly such a big subject and one that everybody wants to know, but before I give you my tips on how you can do that, I want to cover off a few caveats and a few of my thoughts around this subject and perhaps why I haven't done this before because of these reasons.

 

A Couple of Caveats

 

Speaker 1: (08:22)

So let me start by saying firstly, it's hard. Okay. I am not going to lie. I'm a very honest person. I like to be straight forward, honest and give you proper advice that is going to make sense. And I'm not into sort of saying to you, you know, yeah, do this and you're going to get 20,000 followers tomorrow if only because you know what? If you could, if I did know, I'd be doing it for myself. So first off of the most important thing you need to realise is this is not an easy task. It might have been in the past, it might be on some platforms than others, but I promise you this is not a easy thing to do, so do not be sat there thinking, why have I not got 10,000 followers already because this is hard. The other thing I want you to think about is when you're looking at other people's accounts and you're like, but they've got that many followers.

Speaker 1: (09:15)

I want you to just have a quick look at how long they've been doing that platform, how long they've been posting, how often they're posting. Because I promise you some of the reasons they've got those followers is because they've been doing this for a long time. But not only have they been on the platform for a long time, but they have been consistently posting. So take someone like Jenna Kutcher or Jasmine Star, just do me a quick favour and go and have a look at their Instagram accounts and have a look at how many actual posts they've done on Instagram. It's in the thousands. And then divide that by the number of days in a year and just realise how many years they've been going at this. So when I look at them and think, oh, why haven't I got their followers? I remind myself that those things, and I want you to do the same.

Speaker 1: (10:02)

So during this, I don't want you to be thinking about other people and thinking, I want to get to where they've got because they are on a different path. They have different followers, they are doing different things. And another thing that you don't know is that they're not buying stuff. I'm adamant that Jasmine and Jenna, please don't think I'm saying that they are, but also some people they do buy followers and you can buy followers very easily. Now I have had clients that have done it in the past much to my recommendation that they don't, and it almost has made me think, do you know what? I'm not sure if I can work with them. Because for me there is a big thing about buying followers. But I have had clients do it and I have seen the effect it's had on their accounts and I can promise you it's a false economy.

Speaker 1: (10:47)

So you might get that sudden influx of followers. But the first thing is they're not going to be the right people no matter how hard these companies telling you that they profile things and they'd go to your competitors and they, they choose people with the right audience and that sort of thing. I promise you 99% of the time that you will get the followers, but they're not going to be your customers. So that's the first thing. The second thing is that I have seen massive drops, so when a client has bought some followers and likes that, I don't advocate it at all. In fact, I'm very fierce with my opinion of it, but I can't control what someone wants to do and if they want to do that, that's up to them. But when they have, they've immediately over the next coming days and weeks seen a drop every single day.

Speaker 1: (11:36)

So like we'll be doing activity, natural organic activity that I'm going to be talking about today in order to help continue grow their followers. But we are literally losing out on a daily basis because we might get an extra few followers, but they're losing like 2030 followers a so often those followers that come on board, they disappear and they might disappear for a few reasons. I can't be sure why, but it might be that Instagram or Facebook or Twitter realise their faker accounts or they're not as legit accounts as they should be. So therefore they might sort of close those accounts. They might block them or it might be that people follow and then unfollow. So like I said, I'm not entirely sure of the reason, but for me, buying followers is an absolute no, no. The other thing I wanted to say about your followers before we go onto the actual content is I would much rather have 500 people follow me that loved me and wanted to see my content and wants to engage with me than have 5,000 that were a bit like, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 1: (12:39)

So honestly I, I, the reason I think I've held off doing this episode is because of the fact that I would rather talk to you about creating great content and building relationships and having conversations with people rather than let's just try and get as many followers as we can because I don't think that is necessarily the, the best way to go about growing your business online. Like I said, I would much rather have a smaller but more engaged community than I would have a massive list. They don't get me wrong, I'm not sat here saying that suddenly if 10,000 real people followed me tomorrow and they loved what I did, I wouldn't appreciate it cause boy would I, I'm just saying that for me, I would rather grow slower and more organically and know that those people want to be there than necessarily use some really kind of a high...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• When it comes to raising a family and running a business, everyone is trying to find their own way. Whether it’s finding value in nurture, in security or in finance. If people are doing something different to you, remember it all comes down to how you feel valued as a human being.
• Guilt and sadness all comes down to believing you are making a good decision. If you are being made to feel that you’re not making a good decision, you will start to feel that guilt.
• Naturally women want to multitask, which shows when it comes to both our family-life and work-life. Although it’s natural, it results in burnout.
• Try to see it as an opportunity to involve your children in your work.
• You can teach them about the world of work and the importance of earning money. It’s also important to teach them about problem solving and the things that they enjoy.
• Give your children a chance to do something else whilst you’re working.
• Whether it’s filming a video or drawing a picture for your client, if they have something to focus on it will make time away from them that little bit easier.
• If you don’t have time to create a community, it’s important you’re creating a ‘sense of community’ instead.
• People want to feel as though they’re protected in a community, so creating a space where people feel as though people are protecting them, you will gain trust. Once you put trust with the authority you have, you will gain loyalty.
• One of the most important aspects of having a community is responsiveness. You need to ensure you’re responding to everyone that takes the effort to reach out to you.
• A Movement Manifesto is designed to help you discover your true values as an entrepreneur.
• To build your own community, you need to become micro-famous in someone else’s. To do this, join Facebook groups that are relevant to what you’re known for and search for keywords and start answering questions that you know you can help with. Spend 20-30 minutes a day becoming known.
• Don’t feel as though you need a huge community in order to benefit your business. Love and nurture the people that are already in your community. Work on the things you can control and the outcomes will happen.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Work doesn’t have to be a negative word and can be incredibly positive if you find the things that light you up. This is what you need to teach your children as you run your business.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Introducing Dana Malstaff – 11:50
• Struggling as a New Mum and an Entrepreneur – 16:21
• The Biggest Challenges and the Benefits – 22:00
• Building a Strong Community in Business – 36:30
• Your Movement Manifesto – 44:00
• The First Steps to Building a Community 49:09

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• 5 Places to Use As Opportunities To Build Your List
• How to Produce A Webinar (Blueprint)
• Creating A Good Sales Page
• Boss-Mom
• Dana’s Instagram
• Dana’s Twitter

Transcript below

 

Hello and a super warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How the devil are you? Have you had a good week, has it had a good start? What have you been up to? Well, my week has been pretty good. I'm actually recording this on a Friday and I'm quite looking forward to the weekend although very absolutely for today's podcast interview. I'm about to talk about my daughter and you'll see what it's apt in a bit.

Anyway, tomorrow, my daughter is performing in a carnivore. So she does dance at school and as part of that, they're going to walk with the carnivore and probably do a little bit dancing and then we have this big sort of park area where we live and lots of events happen in that park area. And afterwards, they will all commune in there and she does a performance. And the horrible mother that I am just thinks, "Oh man, it's going to rain tomorrow and I don't want to be stood out on the street watching all these kids go by and clapping." Is that awful? Am I honestly the worst mom?

Like I said, it's really apt that I should be telling you this today because in today's interview, we talk about what it's like to be a working mom. Anyway, I'll get to that in a second. I got a few things to tell you about it before we get to that bit. First thing is, I wanted to let you know that in a couple of weeks time, I'm going to be doing a live masterclass. In fact, I'm going to be doing three in one day. I've done it before, I thought it was going to be really hard work because I don't know if you've ever done anything live like a webinar or a masterclass. It takes a lot of energy but you know what, because I love teaching and I love answering questions and I love helping people, it actually just seems to like completely give me energy.

So I thought to myself three in a day is too much and everybody said too many, do one every day for three days. And I was like, "You know what, I think I'm going to be all right." And they were adamant that I couldn't deal with it and I'll be exhausted and I wasn't, I was absolutely fine. Honestly, by the time I got off the third webinar, I was buzzing and it took me a little while and a few gins and probably a glass of wine or two to calm me down before I could then go to bed but I loved it. It was so, so good.

So I'm going to be doing, like I said, another masterclass. Now, the details are coming together, I don't have them all because I'm recording this, as always, quite in advance. So I'm having to really work out my diary and it's really tricky. Because first off, I don't want to announce something and then decide I need to change the day. That wouldn't be ideal. Or I don't want to ... I'm obviously not sort of planning the details yet because I'm not close enough. And I try and keep these things fairly fluid because I really want to understand from you guys what you need me to teach you on.

But to give you a bit of an idea, I have been working on a formula that I feel is a very easy and simple way in which to sell and market products online, as in digital products or yourself or a brand that basically use digital tools and tactics in order to market and sell yourself. And I've decided to call this formula the MTC Method, so Marketing That Converts Method. Tell you what, it took my assistant and I a little while to come up with that because I was trying to think of these different cool names and I'd seen an example of something method and it worked really well and it was their sir name. And I thought, the Heath-Wareing method is not going to cut it. I'm not happy with that.

So anyway, we did a bit of going and digging around, a bit of thinking and we decided obviously we have this whole brand now around marketing that converts so why are we not using this? Marketing That Converts is too long so we abbreviated it to the MTC Method and I'm much happier with that. Anyway, so I'm going to be talking through that method but I'm also going to be giving you in section of that method, some really good tips and tools and some strategies that you can use in order to market your business.

It's going to be a really, really good one. We're going to include some social media stuff. And you know me, I love to add value so I promise you, if you sign up for this masterclass, you are not going to be wasting your time. There's going to be some good stuff in there. And obviously, totally straight up because you know I'm very honest, at the end of it, I'm going to offer you my new academy which also is going to be really cool. I am personally very excited about this. Like I said, one of the things I love to do more than anything, is teach and train and help. And I kind of can't help myself.

So I'm really excited about that. I'm going to be talking about that on the masterclass. But please don't feel like you're going to come on to the masterclass and I'm going to see to you for now because I promise that is not the case. I've had really good, lovely feedback from the stuff that I've done before because I don't want to waste your time and I want to make sure that I'm giving you some good value. If you're like me, I've done a tonne of webinars, a tonne of masterclasses and some of them are really good and I'm so glad I spent that hour doing it and others I just think, "You've told me nothing and you've just sold to me the entire time." So I don't want you to feel like that and that's definitely not what I'm going to be doing. I'm definitely going to be teaching you some really cool stuff. And I'm going to be showing you this new method which I'm really excited about.

Anyway, if you do want to find out more about that, you can go to my website teresaheathwareing.com/masterclass. So just search that, I'll obviously put a link in today's show notes. And by the time this airs, I would have figured out all the details and it'll all be on that page so you can have a proper look about what we're going to cover, what I'm going to teach you and why you want to come along to that masterclass.

Anyway, let's get on with today's episode. Today I am interviewing the very lovely Dana Malstaff. She is the CEO and founder of Boss Mom. She's a mother, an author, a business strategist, a podcaster, blind spot producer and movement maker. She is the author of Boss Mom: The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Business & Nurturing Your Family Like a Pro. She has over 20,000 students in various courses and a 30,000 strong community with over 10 years experience in content creation, marketing, sales, community building and business strategy. Dana grew Boss Mom brand into a six-figure business in less than a year.

Her Boss Mom movement is all about losing the guilt when it comes to raising babies and business at the same time. And she believes that pursuing our passions and building our dreams while including our children in the process is the best way to build a thriving business and families. And you know what, it was a really good on actually. I really, really enjoyed talking about it. And one of the things I think I've said before on the podcast, is when I first started my business, I was in ... It's a local networking where it's a lot of men and we didn't talk children.

And therefore, I almost acted like I didn't have a child which sounds really bad. And it wasn't that obviously I was trying to exclude her from my life, it was just the fact that I genuinely thought I wasn't going to be taken seriously if I suddenly then talked about having child care issues or having to go to a school play or working what I was going to on a weekend when I've got her or whatever it was. I just didn't want to talk about it because like I said, I honestly felt that they would think that I was not as good as them or I couldn't manage my business and raise a child.

And then suddenly about two, three years ago, I realised that actually what am I doing hiding away the fact that this is part of me because it totally is and it's a big part of me obviously. So it was really nice to talk to Dana about this, to discuss what it's like raising a family or having other commitments because it just doesn't have to be that you've got children. It could be that you've got parents you're looking after or animals that you look after or other commitments in the community or whatever. So it was just really, really good to talk about the balance between the two.

One of the things I loved about this is she felt like when she started the business, she was the only person or the only mamma there that wanted to work and have a family and have her children and that obviously there must have been something wrong with her or she was being really selfish or she wasn't doing a very good job because she wanted both. And that really resonated with me. I don't think I've ever said before but when my daughter was born, she was born in November and I was back at work by the February. Now, I'm not saying like go me brilliant, I went straight back to work because actually that wasn't the intention.

What happened was, we couldn't afford for me to be off. My ex husband and I couldn't afford to not have my salary because I had a good salary. So I then had to go back to work fairly quickly. Now, I did go back part-time for a little bit and then I returned full-time. But my daughter was a teeny-tiny baby or I certainly felt that way when I went back to work. And everybody told me, "You're going to hate it, you're going to be in tears. It's going to be awful." And the funny thing was, I wasn't. And I thought, "Oh man, I must be like the worst mom in the world because of the fact that I'm not sat here sobbing."

But I actually quite enjoyed having those roles where I was being mom and then I was being work person. And I still enjoy that and I've said before that my daughter does a week with her dad and a week with me and that allows me to be mom when she's here and focus more on her. And then when she's not here, I get to really knuckle down and get work done and focus on the business. So it was great to talk about that, to talk about the guilt that we feel because man, do we feel guilt.

I always feel like I'm doing one thing probably okay and the other thing terribly. So if I'm feeling confident in the business and things going right here, I immediately think I'm doing a terrible job being a mom. And if I'm doing a good job being a mom, I immediately think, "Oh God, I'm letting my business fail." So we talk about that and that was great to talk about that.

But the other thing we talked about which was really important in terms of Dana's world, is that she has built this amazing community. And one thing that she's really good at is building communities. So half of the podcast is focused around how she built that community and what advice and tips she can give us when we want to build a community. So it's not just about the mom stuff, it is about also community building. And like I said, she gives some great advice around how we can start to find our tribe, find our community and some of the key things that we need to be doing. So she says some great stuff in here actually. I think some of the stuff you're really going to resonate with and also some of the stuff you're going to be like, "Oh, do you know what, yeah, you're right." Because there was a couple of things she said and I was like, "Oh, I probably don't do that enough." So I think you're going to love this one so let's go.

 

Introducing Dana Malstaff

 

So it's my absolute pleasure to introduce the lovely Dana Malstaff. Dana welcome to the podcast.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for agreeing to come one. I'm really excited about today's episode. We were just-

Me too.

We were chatting before we came on and I just said that talking about kind of being a parent, a mom, in business is not something I've done a huge a lot about because I came from a corporate world. So I'm really excited to talk a little bit about that and a few other cool stuff. But in case my audience don't know you, can you give us just a really brief update as to who you are and how you got to do what you're doing now.

Yes. Well, I'll give you the short version because obviously I could talk about it for days. So I quit my corporate job six or so years ago. Everybody took me out to celebrate and got me drunk and I got pregnant by my husband at the time. So I became a mom and entrepreneur literally on the same day. And basically I'm not built to be a stay-at-home mom. I was in director level when I was in corporate, I've always liked to lead teams, leadership positions, always knew I wanted to run my own company, always worked for startups. And so I knew I wanted to work and I very much grappled with the fact that I didn't want to be a stay-at-home mom. And once I got pregnant, wondered if that meant maybe I wasn't a good mom and found myself wanting my kid to go to daycare so that I could work and establish my business.

And trying to figure out this balance which is no longer really a word I use anymore but at the time, trying to figure out a balance between the two was isolating and sad and scary. And I didn't know what I could tell people because they judge me about it or I didn't know who to talk to. Fast forward a little bit, we were in Columbus, Ohio, we decided to move to San Diego and San Diego became this place where all of these women were starting businesses and it was full of entrepreneurs. And I started to open up and realise I wasn't alone and I wasn't crazy for wanting to have a business and babies and do all these things.

And I ended up writing a book called Boss Mom, which is The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Business & Nurturing Your Family Like a Pro. And I created this community that I wish I would have had that is about really not being judged and really about what now the Boss Mom brand is truly about, is finding a place where we all belong where we just don't feel crazy. Whether that's for Boss Mom or whether that's what ever other community you need of with people who love to rock climb or people that love to bake weird things. That the thing is that we just all want to feel that the things that we like and love and who we are naturally is not a bad thing and we want to be creating communities where we all feel like we belong in a very judge-free space and that we could all help each other like a think tank.

And that's what I wanted for Boss Mom and it just caught on like wild fire and we are now four years in to having Boss Mom. I just put out my third book, the community is growing continues to grow. Now I go out and speak about how to build community through Facebook and other ways that we do it. And we're Boss Mom and we slap Boss Mom on all the things we can. Why not?

Brilliant. I love it. So I want to pick up on a couple of small things that you said though, which completely resonated with me. When you said that you just realised you're not a stay-at-home mom, for me I was exactly the same. When my daughter was born, I went back to work fairly swiftly. I was very lucky that I had to kind of part-time my job where I could work from home, so that helped as well. But for me it was like I always knew there had to be something other than ...

And it's not saying that obviously if that's your thing and you want to do them then absolutely fine and great but for me it wasn't. But I felt that there was something wrong with me. Like I remember someone saying the first day you get back to work, you're going to cry and cry and cry and I didn't. And I thought, "Oh God, I'm not a proper mom. Like I should be absolutely sobbing and I'm literally like, 'Bye, see you later.'" So I'm so glad that you said you felt like that because I did too.

Oh yeah.

 

Struggling as a New Mum and an Entrepreneur

 

So obviously you start the business and what is it in particular or what do you think it is in particular that's about the difference for moms compared to dads? Obviously we'll have both listening to the podcast but what do you think it is that we struggle with as moms that really kind of mean we need that community?

Yeah. Well and interestingly we started, last year, we start the Boss Dad podcast because I wanted to start hearing from dads as well and make sure that I wasn't so in my woman bubble as somebody had told me I was in my woman bubble. Which is funny because when I joked with a friend we asked what's the last book you read that was written by a man? And I was like, "Oh, that's

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• People will often try to get you to work for free by saying that it will be a great case study for you. If they’re coming to you and they don’t want to pay you, you need to consider how willing they’re going to be to take your advice? If they don’t take your advice, it will make a difference to your case study.
• If someone gets in touch asking you to work for free, be polite and thank them for the opportunity.
• You may find that people will also ask you to work for free, as long as you can take a cut of the profits that you make them. Whilst this could work, you need to decide whether or not it is worth your time without a guaranteed income. If money isn’t an issue, you may decide that you want to give it a go.
• You need to remember that you have bills to pay and that should be your priority.
• If someone asks you to go for a coffee, be wary that they may be asking to meet up with you to pick your brain or get free consultancy. When I first started out, I would meet everyone that wanted to meet up with me because I needed to network and grow my business – and that’s okay.
• If you value your worth, others will start to value it too.
• When someone asks you if you want to go for a coffee, directing them to somewhere where they can find the advice you would give can help save you some time. Not only will the resources already be available for them, but it will show who really values your advice and who doesn’t.
• Sometimes there are times where it’s okay to work for free, whether it’s for a friend or an instance where you feel you will be gaining benefit that is not financial. In most cases, this will be exposure.
• If there is someone you want to work with, why not get in touch with them to offer them something for free? Make sure it’s value isn’t too great in terms of your time and resources.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…At the end of the day, if someone is paying you, they’re more likely to take your advice, ultimately resulting in more success.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• An Introduction to Working for Free – 04:38
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #1 – 08:20
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #2 – 10:40
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #3 – 15:30
• When I Will Work For Free - 27:50

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode 34 How I Started My Business
• 5 Places to Use As Opportunities To Build Your List
• How to Produce A Webinar (Blueprint)
• Creating A Good Sales Page

Transcript below

 

Speaker 1: (00:33)

Whew. I finally have got an intro piece of music. What do you think? It took me ages and I decided obviously to do it myself with the help of Phil who edits my podcast for me and we've put that together. So I'd love to know what you think. I've never started the podcast with a woo. Maybe I should, I always get a bit bored of doing the same old hello and welcome to the podcast. So maybe that's a new way to start it. Anyway, I apologise if I scare you they slightly, um, I'll wake you up if it's early in the morning. So yeah, let me know what you think of the intro. I'm just glad we've got one now because I was feeling a little bit lost, which is really odd actually because I don't hear the intro. Obviously when I'm recording, I record my little bit at the beginning and I just come straight into this, so actually should have made no difference to me, but I knew from your end it would have made a difference, which is why it feels like I needed to say something.

Speaker 1: (01:30)

But anyway, intro's in. You'll have to know, listen to the end because obviously I've got a new outro as well. In fact, I've recorded two different ones because one thing I discovered or one thing I thought about when I was doing the podcast is I'm not very good at asking people to go and subscribe or give me reviews and I know that when I listened to other podcasts, they have really long outros or really long intros where they're asking people to do these things. So I have done a couple of, well I've got two different outros. They're still very short and succinct. I think one just say, go and give me a review.. asking nicely obviously, and then one just says go and check out the website just to kind of finish off the podcast. But actually it would be ace if you were happy to go and give me a review. I'd love that. That'd be so cool. I've had some awesome reviews, such lovely ones and I'm going to start reading them out on the podcast and obviously we want to give you guys a shoutout. So if you are happy to then I would love it if you could possibly go and give me a lovely five star review. That would be amazing. Thank you.

(02:35)

Okay, today's episode's going to be an interesting one. The other day I was having a call with a possible coaching client and she was telling me about her business now because this just happened to be in social media and she basically was doing what I've been doing for the past five years and she was trying to build a business and she just started out and we were having conversation about clients and getting clients and getting paid work, good paid work.

Speaker 1: (03:05)

And we talked about a few issues and one of the things that came up for me, which comes up for me a lot is the fact that people try and get us to work for free. So today I want to do a bit of a different episode, but hopefully a really helpful one where I talk about basically the ways that people ask us to do work for free or try and get away with not paying us and why you shouldn't do those things and how you can perhaps respond to them. And because I know that was one of the first things actually that when people did ask me, I find it really difficult to say no in the early days because I just didn't know how to say no. And I think generally maybe human beings, women, people, anybody saying no is actually a fairly difficult thing to do for most people I would imagine.

(03:53)

So, especially when you're confronted with somebody very confident perhaps, and they've, they're trying to pitch a good argument and you've got to find a way to say no. So that's the first half of the podcast. And then the second bit of the podcast is going to be looking at actually ways that you could do some work for free and why I would on some occasions. So I'm just trying to help you think about how you're getting your clients and when some client does come to you and they want to work with you and they're trying to get something like paying and how you can deal with those situations. Because I felt like it happened to me a lot in the early days. So I'm just trying to give you a heads up so how you can avoid these.

 

An Introduction to Working for Free

 

So before I dive into telling you some of the very creative ways that people tried to get work for free, let's just start off by saying, if you have just started doing this as a job or just started this as a business, then you are going to be in a very different position as I was when I first started than I am now. The chances of me doing work for free now are pretty much slim to none. Don't get me wrong, I will do a sort of discovery calls with people and I give them lots of value on those calls and I will help people. I like helping people, but we're not going to do sort of consultancy or we're not going to do management and social media for free. That isn't going to happen now at this point because we don't need to. And because we've worked really hard to get to a level that actually if you don't value my service enough to want to pay for me, then obviously I don't feel that you value it at all. So that's honestly how I feel about myself today. However, when I first started it was different. So if you are just starting out or you're new to it, then you might want to view this in a slightly different way.

Speaker 1: (05:38)

One of the things that I did do when I first started is I did do training for free. I did help people out for free because in the early days I wanted to get my name out there, but I wanna just say something. I was really strategic about it and I chose those people and I went to those people. I didn't wait for someone to come to me and go, do you want this opportunity? Because the chances are they wouldn't have been the type of people that I wanted to have a case study with or work with for free. So I chose charities because that's a nice thing to do and I picked, this sounds really bad, like I was only doing this to boost my own business, but I'm going to be honest, there was an element of that obviously and it wasn't like it was an entirely one sided.

Speaker 1: (06:24)

They got my expertise for free, but I was doing it as a way to raise my profile. So I was initially, when I first started my business, I was looking locally, so a lot of my business came from the local area. So what I did is there was a really big charity event that's got a lot of publicity and a lot of people coming to it and it was really well known in the town and it was run by volunteers and it had a board of volunteers. So I specifically went and volunteered my services to them and said, would you like me to work for free and help you with your marketing and help you with your social media and do these various things for you? And really luckily and kindly, they said, yes. They did. And I worked with them during the event running up to the event and I attended the event working it for the, um, for the weekend it was on and I gave them my services for free.

Speaker 1: (07:19)

And it did me a real favour because it did help boost my profile. It got me networking. Some people that I didn't know, some businesses that I didn't know and it was actually a real benefit to me. But like I said, I went and found them out and thought that would be a great opportunity. I didn't wait for someone just to come knocking on my door go and I don't want to pay you, can you do it for free? So I'm not saying don't do work for free. And in fact I'll talk about that a bit right at the end, but I'm not saying don't do it for free. I'm just saying that obviously if you're going to do that, you want to reach out and find the work that is most benefits you. But I think of probably just at the end now. But anyway, we'll carry on.

 

Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #1

Speaker 1: (08:00)

But I wanted to say that the kind of prerequisite, if you're just starting out then you're going to have to kind of balance this. But what I don't want you to do is set a precedent for yourself where you are just, you've got yourself into a bit of a trap where you're giving away free work or work that's hardly paying anything and you're getting so busy doing that that you literally don't have time for anything else to actually then make money. So let's go through these ways in which people like to try and get work for free and bless them for trying because sometimes they're pretty good at it so you have to watch out for them. So the classics that I've had is, the first one is this will be a great case study now who unless that business was something amazing or a hugely massive profile or really niche brand or something that was so unique that I was like, do you know what?

Speaker 1: (08:55)

If I could say I worked with this person or worked on this brand, it would accelerate me to another level. Then thanks for the opportunity, the case study. But quite honestly I wouldn't want it. I think one of the things that I would be saying to these people is, well before I say it to them, the thing I'd be thinking is if you're coming to me and you don't want to pay me, then how willing are you going to be to take my advice? Because if you don't value my advice enough to give me money, then if I'm sat there saying, this is what you should be doing and you don't do it, or you don't want to do that particular thing where you don't do it as much as I've said or whatever, then obviously that's going to make a difference. Whereas I have found almost the more people pay me, the more they listened to me, which is kind of amazing and cool and I love that.

Speaker 1: (09:44)

But sometimes the people who you're doing a favour for you think, I've just told you all this amazing advice and you're still not listening to me. So actually what's the point? You know? And my advice doesn't have to be better than what they're thinking and it's their business at the end of the day so they can take it or leave it. But I do find that the more they pay, the more they appreciate what you're giving them. So if someone came to me and said, this'll be a great case study, my response back to them would be, thank you for the opportunity. Always thank them because we're polite and nice people, you know. Thank you for the opportunity. However, I do have a number of paid clients that I'm currently running case studies for at the moment and I can see how amazing it'd be to work with you, but unfortunately I'm not in a position where I can do that for free.

 

Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #2

Speaker 1: (10:28)

So that's the kind of language I'd be using back to them. Okay. The next one is a really interesting one and I'm going to argue myself in and out of this one is when people come to you and their business is starting out and they are super passionate about their business, obviously we all are and they say to us, I want you to do it for either really cheap or free because when this grows you're going to be in it and I'm going to pay you more. Now, I've had this said to me a lot and I've also had it said to me, can I work entirely for free but get a cut of the sale? So basically they're asking me to put my money where my mouth is because I'm sat here saying social media is amazing. My tips and tools and strategies, they're amazing. They're going to make a difference to your business and granted, if you do what I suggest in a business, it will make a difference and I will. It's suddenly double your sales overnight. Possibly. Not now or you know, will it make a difference in sales? That's really hard to say. So around this subject, the reason I would avoid this one, even though I hear what they're saying and you know what, it could be short sighted on my part. It could be, you know if this was a Virgin company as in like Richard Branson Virgin and he came to me at the beginning and I went, no, I'm all right, thanks Richard. And then suddenly it did blow up massive. Then I'm a little bit gutted I guess by that. But the problem is a couple of things. First off, if you have a team, well forget the team, you're part of your business, you have to earn money.

Speaker 1: (12:09)

But I find it easy when I was thinking about the team, I can't get one of the team to do something without paying them obviously because that's our agreement. So you're not only asking me to spend my time but someone else's time for free when I've still got to pay them, so I'm immediately out of pocket. So that just doesn't work in my head. Why would I go out of pocket in my business in order to support someone else in their business? I don't think that works for me. Secondly, the really and probably more strongly is that even though I have complete faith in what I'm saying, what I teach and how good some of the strategies I can put together are and how they can make a difference to your business, there is so many other things that can have an effect on that business and on the success of the sales that are out of my control.

Speaker 1: (13:06)

So I could do the best marketing in the world for a client or for a business. And then they could go into the shop and the person behind the counter could be horrible. And they don't want to deal with them or they could buy the product and the product be awful and then they write a bad review and that stops other people doing it or the people could just be a nightmare to deal with or the service isn't very good. Honestly, there are a million reasons why they might not be getting sales and it's not just down to the marketing. So for me that wouldn't work. I love the idea of it....