Before We Hit Record with Social Media & Scaling Strategist Holly Hillyer

We get real about the human side of running an online business. We also talk about the importance of networking, how personal changes can impact your professional life, and give a sneak peek into Holly's strategies for boosting Instagram engagement and email list growth. 

Watch Holly's next episode 'Instagram Growth Hacks! What Works in 2024 with Holly Hillyer' (releases June 12th).

Please click here to give an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes! Thanks for your support!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Listen to episode 746 where Rick talks about passing the baton to me and his new direction.
• Listen to episode 720 to get to know Kwadwo. 
• Sign up for the MixerMind waitlist
• Listen to the next episode with Holly Hillyer

Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

• Subscribe to The Art of Online Business’s YouTube Channel 
• Book a strategy call with Kwadwo!
• Grab the Facebook Ads Lead Gen Cheat Code course to cut your lead costs and double your email list!
• Download the Free Facebook Lead Gen Ad Setup Checklist: Set your ads up like an expert ads manager!
• Visit Kwadwo’s website for Facebook Ads help
• Say hi to Kwadwo on Instagram

Holly’s Links:

• Connect with Holly Hillyer
• Holly’s Top 100 Hooks to increase your reach on IG

Timestamps:

0:00 Getting to Know Business Expert

8:10 Content Strategy for Rapid Business Growth

18:53 Navigating Networking and Community Building

24:26 Networking Strategies and Growth Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So welcome back to another episode of Before we Hit Record. And I have Holly Hillier right here, instagram growth specialist in the house. And before you start listening to the rest of this episode, understand that this is Before we Hit Record. It's my attempt to let you get to know the guest experts that are coming on this podcast, and it's not just me interviewing her, she's also getting to know me for the first time. So, like you, get to know both of us, because it's just kind of lonely in the online business world and we hear all these names and we learn from them great things, but then we don't really know who's who or what people stand for or the behind the scenes, like inner workings of their businesses. We are humans, you know. We do have families, we do have loved ones and spouses, we do have struggles, and this is the kind of episode where you get to just hear and get to get to know us. So let's see if my voice is new to you.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Hi, I'm Quajo, the new host of the Art of Online Business podcast. It's been this way since October of last year and I got two links for you in the show notes below. One would be, if you're like, where the heck did Rick go and who are you? Well, go down to that episode and you'll learn about what Rick is doing right now. It's a pretty fun AI project. And then you can also find another link and see what Rick was thinking when he decided to have me as the new host.

Speaker 1: 1:28

And he interviews me. You get to learn about my background and how I learned about and started doing Facebook ads and coaching online course creators and that sort of thing. But I can assure you that the podcast remains with the same focus, which is to give tips and tricks and strategies and behind the scenes, business peaks and, of course, facebook adds advice and help to online course creators who are just looking to scale up from, let's say, low six figures to high six figures. And with that I'm going to hop into the episode, and Holly, thanks for being here.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Oh, my goodness, thank you for having me. It is an honor to be on the show because I have listened to the Art of Online Business podcast, I mean, for years, and then was introduced to you and, as a business owner, you were my guru for Facebook ads, so it's really, really fun to be here.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Okay, am I a guru? Well, thank you. Thank you, I am honored. In the next episode, holly is going to be sharing about Instagram growth strategy. What are these strategies that she's seeing working with her clients right now 2024. We're recording this on April 9th at 11, it's 11, 10 AM and she'll also share, like, the common mistakes that she sees folks making on Instagram when they try to grow their accounts, and a question that I am super interested in knowing, which is, if you're growing your Instagram account organically, how do you make sure you're attracting the right kind of followers? And I feel like anybody can get followers, but the right kind of followers. So, if those are interesting, holly, like you're going to talk about those in the next episode.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Yeah, so excited, I am so excited. It's my favorite thing to talk about.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Cool. So rewind to. We almost started having a great conversation before we hit record for the before we hit record segment and you asked me how it's going and I told you I hired a coach back in January. It's been going good but challenging, because when you hire a coach, it's usually because they can help your business get to the next level. I think that's actually the only reason. Do we hire coaches, holly, for any other reason than that?

Speaker 2: 3:47

Yeah, right, it's the next level Always and forever hiring people who can help us grow. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:54

But then they have ideas and I'm going to assume, at least for my coach, since her business is the same kind of business as mine and her business is bigger than mine, that means her ideas work better than mine. But I've been definitely spending a lot of extra brain power implementing new systems and processes behind the scenes so that I can grow my business while delivering even better ad quality management. And you were saying you're kind of going through the same thing, huh.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Yeah, exactly, we are just end of last year started a community and within that before that, it was really just one kind of social media course, and so we took a lot that was in that course, moved into the community and now we're kind of revamping the entire course. And so, yes, I was talking to my business manager and she was like, well, I mean, let's just re-record everything, re-record everything. There's so much in there. But you know, it is when you step back and say how can I best serve? And if I'm feeling challenged and uncomfortable, then it's probably the right step for me.

Speaker 2: 5:04

Whether or not I say, oh yes, I have all the bandwidth in the world for this.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Yeah, balancing that busy day-to-day schedule with this huge, it's like a huge block of time to record and then you have to outline and make sure that it flows right. So, wow, okay, give me context. What course are you talking about?

Speaker 2: 5:25

yeah, so I have a. My original course is the blueprint to social selling and I started my business back in 2020 and blueprint to social selling. I've well, this business my my seven strong business where I grow and scale social media. I have another business that I started nine years ago when I grew that business all through social media like a hundred percent social media, and grew it with without ads. I mean, I just grew it all organically and so I knew in 2020, I was like I need to teach other people how to do this right, how to use this free top of funnel, and so I created Blueprints of Social Selling and then started this community piece and really just launched it in Q1 of this year but took a lot of that content from Blueprint to Social Selling and moved it into the community. So they have like a little mini course and then, of course, support. But in the course now it's yes, we've got the social media piece.

Speaker 2: 6:26

It's also teaching the automation piece and then lead magnet to email marketing, to sales, because I hear a lot right, like well, I just don't want to spend all my time on social media. I'm like, but what if you could create one piece of content that then sold for you while you're present with your family and so really filling all of that out all the my? I mentioned earlier my husband's part of this business.

Speaker 2: 6:52

He- is like tech guru, so he's like the automations guy. So we've got, you know, the tech tutorials in there, all the way through email marketing, templates and funnels, and so it's been a full build out here as we kind of move forward into into launch.

Speaker 1: 7:10

That is intriguing on so many levels. The first thing I want to get some clarity around, because it sounded like you just kind of dropped this Holy grail of a of a business goal where you said did you say create one piece of content that keeps selling for you?

Speaker 2: 7:26

that is, that is how and this is this is again. There's millions of ways to teach social media and different things that work. My goal for my clients is that they create this super specific content that converts into someone asking for their lead magnet on every single piece of content, which is then growing their email list and from there, selling to them, and that that is how I grew my first, my first business, and in the last nine months I've used that method and grown my email list by over a hundred thousand new subscribers. What, yeah?

Speaker 1: 8:02

Seriously, I'm like I got a super tiny email list by over 100,000 new subscribers. What, yeah, seriously. Seriously, I'm like I got a super tiny email list. In fact, I just started promoting Stu McLaren's the membership experience Because, I mean, the guy is brilliant and I bought his program way back when, and then my wife went through it too and we both used it to launch memberships in our previous businesses, both of which kind of died because of the pandemic. But yeah, so I have like 286 people on my email list and you're telling me one Instagram post.

Speaker 2: 8:40

So in the last nine months, so nine months posting consistently to Instagram, which is anywhere from five to seven times a week, so that's once a day, right?

Speaker 1: 8:51

Or.

Speaker 2: 8:51

Monday through Friday, resulted in over 100,000 new email subscribers in in that first business, as well as over a hundred thousand new new followers over there. And it's, it's the same. And you know, I know we'll get onto the, we'll get into like the tactical. What does that look like? The actual podcast episode? But that is really like. It is what I teach my clients. It is just what I believe so wholeheartedly, because social media gets such a bad rap right Of like it just takes a lot more time.

Speaker 2: 9:23

But if we use it really strategically to me, it gives me back time and money because I'm not having to pay to get things out there or utilize my time in other ways.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Nice, do you run Facebook ads?

Speaker 2: 9:41

So we run Facebook ads when we do launches.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Cool. So the listener then, who is not ready to run Facebook ads, but is curious how in the heck they could possibly get 100,000. You did say 100,000 new email subscribers.

Speaker 2: 9:59

And ideal clients I'm going to say ideal clients which also increased our revenue by 25%, and that was revenue on an already seven-figure business by 25%.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Sign me up. We can talk about this, please. The next episode. I can't wait to hear myself, Because I've been posting two times a day to Instagram and I think I've had 100 new subscribers.

Speaker 2: 10:25

Yeah, we will dive into all of it, including we're going to rip my Instagram account apart.

Speaker 1: 10:30

This is all right, cool so, but but one of my other questions was your husband works inside of your business and where are you at? And I know we both have similar boys from the DMs that we were sending back and forth Like, so, yes, yes, so we are based in Charleston, south Carolina, which is kind of a funny story.

Speaker 2: 10:56

So my husband again, he's like the tech guy and he had we lived in California for a while. He worked for Google out there and we actually lived in France for a little bit and when we were leaving France we pulled social media. Like I literally said, if you could move anywhere, and I was like I'm going back to the US, I want to be on the East Coast, because all my family was on the East Coast. We kind of did our West Coast adventure. I was like I want to be East Coast, south of Washington DC, where would you go? And the number one answer was Charleston.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So my husband and I and our- the number two answer was why are you leaving France? Yeah, husband and I and our like two answer was why are you leaving France?

Speaker 2: 11:37

yeah, yeah, well, france. Well, we can talk about France too, but I would love to.

Speaker 1: 11:40

I used to work there for like five months.

Speaker 2: 11:42

What part of France were you in?

Speaker 1: 11:44

I was in the capital, paris. I never left, but I did work there for five months. What about you?

Speaker 2: 11:49

we were in Toulouse, which is like southern France and I no one really spoke English. I think I thought it, and I don't speak French oh, okay so I don't speak French. My husband speaks a little bit of French and we actually lived. We lived like 20 minutes outside Toulouse in a really small village so it was like a, it was, a, it was, it was an experience. But my husband worked for Airbus, which is like headquartered.

Speaker 1: 12:18

It's a French company. Oh wait, is it the EU? No, it's a French company. Yep, french company.

Speaker 2: 12:23

Yep, you're right.

Speaker 1: 12:24

In a little 20 minutes outside of Toulouse, which I think all I remember is they have like beaches, but it's kind of rocky beaches there, right?

Speaker 2: 12:31

Yeah, and this was like Rolling Hills countryside, so we lived in like the most beautiful home, we had our own little and like I mean it was incredible but we at the time had a one-year-old and it was like one and a half and like the language barrier of not being able to like go to a doctor and have them speak english I was was like Whoa it was.

Speaker 2: 12:55

It was a lot like they I. That was the moment I was like I don't know if I can do that. So my husband's project he was on a termed project there, which was absolutely incredible, and so that ended and that is when we really decided like he was gonna leave. He had like a six month window that he could like return. So we took that six months to be like can you come like work in this business with me? And yeah, he did and he's never gone back, which was like five years ago, which is crazy, and yeah. And so now we're in Charleston, we love it and, yes, we have three boys, ages one, four and seven.

Speaker 1: 13:35

One, four.

Speaker 2: 13:36

Okay, that's a decent like spread of we've got like the three years, but we're also like just a boy.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Loud house typical boys yeah exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2: 13:50

So it's definitely been. I mean, I've built all these businesses, two businesses with all these kids at home. Really, it's lots of kids, chaos, moving. So it's been, which is why I really needed a way to make like and again, anyone building a business, like if anyone tells you that's what I never want to be, like just work an hour and create this great piece of content and like you're going to have this amazing business. Like not, not true, but it is true that I spend about, you know, one hour a day or less on social media and then the rest of the time on other things. But my, you know, I have really built these businesses around, like being a mom and crazy mom life.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Right right now, my one-year-old is upstairs taking his nap, so I was like this is there you go like at least I could say you're like women, but I I guess the only woman mom I know that I live with is my wife. That sounded weird. My wife is the example I have and like her ability to laser focus almost instantly on a task because she's had to work around two kids that are actively trying to pull her brain in multiple ways and then they sleep and it's like this is it. I got to get it done now I just cannot match it. I'm like 30 to 40 minutes before I get into the groove and then cat videos Well, I don't like cat videos. Like cat videos Well, I don't like cat videos. But for me it's like Dragon Ball Z anime or like how to grow a YouTube channel or something is just calling me from TikTok and I just can't focus.

Speaker 2: 15:21

But how do you do it? I mean, it's so funny because a lot of my clients, when I start working with them, they have full-time jobs and kids and then they're growing businesses on the side and when they leave those full-time jobs, one of the things I say to them, it actually makes me nervous because they get more time and then they get more distracted.

Speaker 2: 15:40

And so I'm like when you have less time. It's like I have every like you said, I have every single hour scheduled with what I'm going to do, and it's like that laser, that laser focus, or else, you know, the kid wakes up and that's it, like there's no other option. So it's been. It's been very interesting, though, working with clients and watching them leave jobs and actually struggle with having more time now it's.

Speaker 1: 16:04

It's a real struggle. I I struggled with having more because it's like I don't know the name of that law, but basically a task takes as long as you give it time to take Exactly.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Yes, yes, it's yeah, so, but I'm still stuck on how you decided to leave France and I was thinking of a funny. So my kids were born in China and my wife had, basically, with our daughter who was the eldest, it sounds like she had a similar experience to you where, like the whole, all of her maternity care was in Chinese, because we decided maybe somewhat foolishly in hindsight to go to a local private hospital instead of like an international hospital and the doctors there and the nurses didn't speak a lick of English. So it was like my wife is solid in Chinese, you know, in Mandarin Chinese, and I'm, I was fluent, like four years ago before we left the country, and so I mean you're sitting there, they're doing the checkups. They got like the heart rate, heart monitor, at least in China.

Speaker 1: 17:10

This thing's trapped around her belly and the doctor's just like rattling off questions, you know, and attacking her because Chinese are like super small, and my wife is like five foot nine, almost 10. She claimed five foot 10. I still tease her for deceiving me, because she's five foot nine and three quarters, but it's all in Chinese and we're just listening, listening, listening, and then we're listening for like keywords like not good, or this needs to change or something it didn't make. We ask again like what does this mean?

Speaker 1: 17:39

because it's all like scientific words, at least this doctor, yes, we never heard these so you're doing this in french, but but was your maternity care in in france or just your kid was young in france?

Speaker 2: 17:51

yeah, he was just one, so it was like one of the. He was one. I was like this was like first kid and so it was like oh you know, every like I take him to the doctor and like I'm like what's wrong, this kid's sick.

Speaker 2: 18:04

And like now I'd be, you know third kid, okay, like so worried about everything and like they could not, and so I eventually I ended up taking a video because I was like something is wrong with this kid. And then when I showed them the video, then they were like able to get us the right medicine, but before that they were like just water, water. And I'm like I'm giving them water. This water, water is not going to solve this problem. And so when I showed them like the video and they're like oh, and I'm like okay, so then I was like you know, I just don't know that like this is where we I.

Speaker 2: 18:45

It just made me like so nervous, but it's interesting, because I mean because I didn't speak french- and every I, everyone there only spoke French, which also I think as an American you know, I'd been to Paris and people speak English in.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Paris, when you don't speak French, they just look at you. They got like upside down.

Speaker 2: 19:11

Like they just they don't even really want to try, which is which is fine. I'm in their country, I'm not speaking their language, but it became like very isolating as well, and I really do like my online businesses are truly like kind of what saved me because I still had a community and I had something to hold onto to, versus just like complete isolation, because I was like scared to leave.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Wow, community. When you say community, are you talking about peer community or just the community inside of your business, of your clients?

Speaker 2: 19:46

You know, it was kind of both. I think it was mainly at that point, my clients. I think for me, finding a peer community in this online space, I mean, true, this is just definitely like a true talk. It's it's been harder than I expected. I, you know, I am here for like networking and all of us like helping one another. But sometimes I'm like feels like networking can be like how can I like use you? And I'm like I, I actually would love just a community that's like experiencing what I'm experiencing, so that we can just go through this together versus, like you know, oh, a trade for a trade type thing. And I think that's kind of where I was stuck at that point in time was like trying to find that really like that right tribe, and so it was really actually my clients and being able to throw myself in my business that really saved me.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Yeah, okay, yeah, now I feel you At the same time. I'm like but how is networking not a trade for a trade? I know it is. I feel like the best scenario is a trade for a trade with a person that you vibe with, because then it's like you get along great and you're both here to help. You're like actively helping each other out.

Speaker 2: 21:10

yes, exactly it's the vibe, and I think it's funny because I it took me a while to really become super like comfortable with the, the networking, because I did almost think of it as like this like salesy thing, right, like how, yeah, right, so that's. It's interesting because you're like I've never I can see like you're like that is not but for me and maybe, and it's interesting because you're like I've never I can see like you're like that is not but for me and maybe and maybe it's different too because I will have people look at, follower, count on social media and immediately ask like okay, can you do this for me?

Speaker 1: 21:49

So like well, they just don't know how to network.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Exactly, exactly, and so I think that is what turns me off from networking, right, like, oh, can you give me this shout out, can you do this, can you do this? And I'm like, but like I want to get to know you and your business and I also, because I use social media as a business and like I have built a community that I like, love and that they 100% trust me, I can only recommend what I mean I would use myself and what I know love and and and trust. And so you know, I, and maybe, maybe that is where where it kind of came from in the beginning, was that very like one-sided hey, can you do this for me? But you're right, and that's not so much from like Kweju and I are in a beautiful oh, context, context, yes, context.

Speaker 2: 22:45

We are in the most beautiful networking group networking group and everything about that group is how can we grow together, how can we utilize one another's skills that are so different to better ourselves and our clients and and grow for our businesses, and that's a. It's a really beautiful space to be in.

Speaker 1: 23:11

I feel like Linda Linda Sadu it's the person who runs this mixer mind I'll link it up in the show notes below. But because I've had so many people on the podcast from there, I feel like the amount of advertising she's getting she's going to be overwhelmed with people applying when it opens up again in the fall. But yeah, I know this whole networking thing for me I don't how I'm gonna ask you, like, how you are at parties, because for me at parties, when I go in, I just light up and I can't stop meeting people and even if I'm in a new crowd, like, I'll usually meet people and have different conversations and be like, oh yeah, so and so I just met was super cool, let's go back and talk to them, because I think you guys are like, oh my god, like yeah, you're, you're like this, like natural, just connector.

Speaker 2: 23:59

Like I am a super introvert okay, well, I'll give, tell me.

Speaker 1: 24:06

I'll tell you an interesting story about what many people would say is natural to me. But but so you're an entrepreneur.

Speaker 2: 24:11

I mean for me, like if you, if I, so here's when I, if I go into like a party and I know, like if you get me talking about social media, or like helping people grow and scale businesses, like, like you said, like I light up and I do not stop talking. Like, again, my poor husband. He comes to all these things with me and he's like, oh my God, can we stop talking about this now?

Speaker 2: 24:35

And he's like who are you so like? When I get in those rooms I am like fire, let's go. But if you put me in a room where, like I'm just not quite sure I like I am very quiet, quiet I step back. I am more prone to like watch and listen and so maybe that, maybe that is the difference could be, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Yeah, but at least at least you approach networking with like a good, healthy. You're not like taking advantage of people, it's just kind of. But maybe I had to be taught that. I think there was. Maybe I took a course called video ranking academy by sean cannell. You heard him? Youtube guy? No, no, sean cannell rhymes with youtube channel.

Speaker 1: 26:26

Cool dude knows a ton about growing youtube channels and I think he has like several channels that have over a million subscribers now something like that. And one of the things I guess I learned it from him and his course was that when you grow a channel, you want to collab with other people and strategically you look for the people who you want to collab, but you never just ask them do something for me. You can't lead with give me, give me, give me. You got to lead with like what can I do for you? And or get to know them. But it's all kind of within the strategic context of I would like to collab with them because I see that our businesses jive together and we could help each other grow. But then something else that like I think that's where I first learned it is don't tell people who with like small. If you're trying to grow YouTube, you know or maybe this applies to Instagram growth.

Speaker 1: 27:20

Like, don't tell people with smaller followings than you that you don't want to collab with them Like one. It's like burning potential bridges, you know, because every one of us starts from zero and you're like you have no idea who could be where in like five months. So it's like better to when somebody reaches out to you and does it right without saying give me, give me, give me. But they don't have, like the exact follower account you do, or like you're at I don't know a hundred K. I actually don't know where you're at on Instagram, but now's your time to brag how many followers.

Speaker 2: 27:47

On my main 150, a little over 150,000.

Speaker 1: 27:50

Nice, Maybe I should have looked before I got you on the podcast. But yeah, and then somebody comes with only $20,000. He's like, don't look down on that person. First just go see does it align with your business? And then why not collab?

Speaker 2: 28:08

And I think we're in this world where we are so focused on the numbers, right how many subscribers, how many subscribers, how many followers but that actually doesn't equate to their, to their knowledge, right, or to the value that I mean. Sometimes it does, but a lot of times it doesn't, and it's very interesting. So I have two different social media accounts and my one that's over 150,000,.

Speaker 2: 28:35

I have two different social media accounts and my one that's over 150,000,. That is like my first business that I started with, which is actually like a wellness account and it's like recipes. It's so different, so different than this business. So this business, so this account, my my account, where I teach people how to grow and scale social media, I just literally so I had a social media management agency, just kind of running it behind the scenes, which I'm sure there are a million amazing social media management agencies out there.

Speaker 2: 29:07

I didn't have the right one, but it just there was no growth, there was no real strategy and we can talk about like the strategies, right, but there was no real specific strategy for growth, even though it seems like you're doing the things, and so it wasn't growing. So I just took back over my account and I mean anyone could go there and scroll and see like when I started and when they started and I literally like six, nine months with like pretty much zero growth, and now I'm growing and again it's a smaller account. So I've got like 6,000 followers over there but I'm growing 50 to 100 people per day and gaining email addresses every single day. I'm getting about 25 to 50 email addresses every single day every single day I'm getting about 25 to 50 email addresses every single day.

Speaker 2: 30:00

And when you like, look at numbers again, it's like all very relative, so like I know how to grow a huge account. And then it's like, but why is this one so small? Well, I literally just started working at six months ago. But if I give you the data behind the scenes, you can see like the, the things that matter are growing and also that my clients the same results I also. I'm an engineer, so I am like my background is engineering even before all this. So I love, I love some good data too.

Speaker 1: 30:22

I know right. I'm just like looking at your account now and it's just so funny how we say like coming from our online business world and from your world where you have another account that's over a hundred Kk followers. You're like just 6 000 people, just 50 emails a day. It's like I would love to have 50 new people subscribe to my emails today and I'm sure, yeah, most of the people listening right now are like give me 50 new email subscribers a day and I will dominate. But yeah, so yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Okay, true story.

Speaker 1: 30:58

True story. I had no friends in high school. We're talking like I would go get my rice crispy treat and from the cafeteria, awkwardly at that, and like weave my way out of the tables and go like eat in the hallway, like walk back and forth in the halls because I had no friends, like zero friends, not even a reject crowd to hang out with. And then I got sick of that and so I sucked at parties. It was horrible and like you can see me and the person who is listening might not be able to tell, because I have, like I've lived overseas probably 14 years of my adult life. It's like people are always like, where's your accent from? Where is your accent from? But I'm black and you go to at least the parties that I went to. It's like you should be able to dance and I cannot. Well, I could not dance then and so, like I had no friends, I could not dance and just high school was not fun.

Speaker 1: 31:55

And then, right before I went to college, my mom was like talking to me and I'm like I have no friends, and she's like well, do you want to make friends? And I'm like duh, and she's like, well, then, change who you are. You're going to college, you can be somebody different. So was like okay, cool. So she was like how are you behaving now? You know like how many friends is that kidding you? And so, like I remember, I taught myself I started watching mtv. Not that you have to dance to have friends, but I started watching mtv, music television, is that even a thing now?

Speaker 2: 32:29

I don't know right, it was definitely a thing, it was a thing back when I graduated, which was 1999.

Speaker 1: 32:37

And I taught myself how to dance, kind of. But then I went to college and I was like I'm living in a dorm and I will meet all the people that I think are cool because they don't know me and I don't know them. And so I think for the first two months solid I sat at like a different big circular lunch table, like just with strangers, and I would always just meet people in like the dining hall of our dorm and then I'd be like oh, you should go meet so-and-so, like they're really cool, like cause I from one place like on the West coast I grew up in Tacoma, near Seattle and like I hadn't seen there's just a myriad of new people from different walks of life that like I had never encountered before in like my sheltered upbringing at one high school Right, and so like I was genuinely intrigued. I remember like there was these one girls that I always took people to their room because they had like leopard print everything and I was like I've never seen anyone like you before.

Speaker 1: 33:39

Not that they were like particularly attractive, they just had leopard print curtains, and they had leopard print like the kind of windowsill, but the vinyl sticker that you put over the one, it was leopard print. They had leopard print cushions and this is like a two bed dorm room and so, anyway, I just met lots of people and people on tours to see the leopard girls and met and had lots of friends, but it was on purpose and it definitely wasn't me until, like, it became me through practice.

Speaker 2: 34:06

Yeah, I mean, I love that right. It's the question of you need to be right in the beach you have, like, who do you need to be right the bead you have like who do you need to be to to do what you need to do, to have what you want to have.

Speaker 2: 34:18

And so, yeah, that's like the most perfect example and I think that clarity of like I am going to be someone I'm still me inside, but I'm going to present myself differently and I'm going to change these things that I actively want to change and I think that, with me, that's, that's social media. And what's so fun about social media, too, is not that you're being fake, but who are you presenting and how does that represent your brand and your business? And we get to to choose that and we get to grow. And I feel like you know Taylor Swift is so big right now, but like just kind of, just kind of Taylor Swift's kind of a big deal right now.

Speaker 2: 35:03

But you look at her music and I feel like it's like the perfect example of like recreation, right, like what era of Taylor Swift do you love? And every single one of them, taylor Swift could stand as her own brand, and every single one of them is a slight shift in identity and who she is and what the music sounds like. And so we all know it's all Taylor. But I think sometimes we get so caught up, especially online, of like well, how do I shift my brand? Sometimes we get so caught up, especially online, of like well, how do I shift my brand? Well, you get to grow and you get to change your era, and it doesn't mean that past era isn't part of your beautiful new era of who you are. And so I like, really like, our social media can change with us and our branding can change and our messaging can change. I mean not, you know, we're not doing a full 180, but it's growth and people get to see that and be with us.

Speaker 1: 35:57

Sure, I agree with that. I think this is a good spot to stop and we're going to go into the next episode. You, the listener, just look in the show notes. There should be a link to the next episode for you, where I'm going to just pull out some gems in the interview with Holly, especially how she's getting 50 new people subscribing to her email list every day, and this content that keeps working for you and all the strategies that she's putting to work for her clients right now, because I need some of those strategies, I'm so excited. Yay, me too. Me too. Thanks for being on this episode before we record.

Speaker 1: 36:37

I feel like this was a successful one.

Speaker 2: 36:40

Yeah, I feel like this was just super fun. I love that you do this. This is awesome Yay.

Speaker 1: 36:45

Cool, all right. Well, we're going to stop Listener. In the show notes is the next episode. Until the next time that you see me or hear from me, be blessed and we'll chat soon.