Introvert to Wildly Successful Entrepreneur: Megan Chlor's Journey
Dec 12, 2023Season 1Episode 207
Firing The Man
Ever wonder how an introvert can thrive in the entrepreneurial world? Today, we have Megan Chlor, co-founder of Automate Me, who will share her journey transitioning from a 9-5 job to a successful entrepreneur. Megan shares her experiences, the highs, the lows, and how her introversion has been a superpower in her business journey. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing and learning from our missteps while maintaining a balance between business prosperity and personal well-being.
The second part of our conversation pivots to the realm of social media, where Megan imparts her expertise in audience engagement and crafting messages that resonate. It’s not just about selling your product or service; it’s about centering your messaging around the pain points of your ideal client. We delve into interesting examples such as Elon Musk and a health coach's client. Learn how you can powerfully utilize personal branding, storytelling, and connection-building to make your mark in the crowded digital space.
As we wrap up, we explore digital marketing strategies and how to stand out amidst competition. From the role of AI to the importance of manual review and fine-tuning, Megan offers valuable insights and practical tips. And, for those of you interested in connecting with Megan, you'll find her contact details at the end. So, buckle up for this enriching episode, where Megan Chlor takes us through her entrepreneurial journey, the power of introversion and the ins and outs of effective digital marketing.
Ever wonder how an introvert can thrive in the entrepreneurial world? Today, we have Megan Chlor, co-founder of Automate Me, who will share her journey transitioning from a 9-5 job to a successful entrepreneur. Megan shares her experiences, the highs, the lows, and how her introversion has been a superpower in her business journey. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing and learning from our missteps while maintaining a balance between business prosperity and personal well-being.
The second part of our conversation pivots to the realm of social media, where Megan imparts her expertise in audience engagement and crafting messages that resonate. It’s not just about selling your product or service; it’s about centering your messaging around the pain points of your ideal client. We delve into interesting examples such as Elon Musk and a health coach's client. Learn how you can powerfully utilize personal branding, storytelling, and connection-building to make your mark in the crowded digital space.
As we wrap up, we explore digital marketing strategies and how to stand out amidst competition. From the role of AI to the importance of manual review and fine-tuning, Megan offers valuable insights and practical tips. And, for those of you interested in connecting with Megan, you'll find her contact details at the end. So, buckle up for this enriching episode, where Megan Chlor takes us through her entrepreneurial journey, the power of introversion and the ins and outs of effective digital marketing.
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you are capable of more, then join us. This show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your host serial entrepreneurs David Shomer and Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2:
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast. On today's episode, we have the honor to interview Megan Chlor. Megan helps overwhelmed business owners automate their presence online so they can take weeks off social media and still book clients. She's the co-founder of Automate Me, a digital marketing agency that helps you attract your dream clients online through content strategies that convert. Her consulting portfolio spans startups to seven-figure brands across various industries, and she's a frequent speaker at leading firms and Inc 500 companies. Megan's mission is to reshape how entrepreneurs manage their online presence, promoting a balance between business success and personal well-being. Welcome to the show, megan.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, ken, though great to be here.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely so. Can you share a little bit about your background with the listeners and what brought you here today?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, absolutely so. Like a lot of listeners are probably in the same boat, I was working the nine to five and doing that for quite a while, and one of my main goals was I wanted to have time, freedom to. Basically I'm okay with working and working hard, but I wanted to be able to set my own schedule and work wherever I wanted, be able to take my laptop with me, sit on a balcony at a hotel and get paid. So that was my number one goal originally when I stepped into the entrepreneurial world. Since that point, there's been a lot of ups and downs and curveballs and everything, but that was the inspiration that got me started on the marketing journey and just learning marketing for my own business and then transporting that into other people's businesses as well and helping them.
Speaker 2:
Okay, excellent. So you had mentioned your experience and your history. You had some ups and downs along the way, and so I personally learned from a lot of those, and so can you share a little bit about so ups and downs. And then, what kept you motivated to keep going when you hit those down cycles?
Speaker 3:
So my first online business was in the health coaching arena. So I started out in the health coaching business and thought, like a lot of new entrepreneurs, like, okay, I'm going to go put a course out there, I'm going to make millions, I'm going to be at overnight success and of course, that didn't happen. It was something where, when I first got started, my very first product was a cookbook and I thought we were up until like one o'clock at night on Black Friday right after Thanksgiving, me and my husband, because we worked together getting it done, ready to launch on Black Friday and we got nobody bought. Thinking back now, I realized that was the dumbest day ever to start a brand new product and launch something, because your market isn't completely saturated. There's everybody else trying to be out there as well.
Speaker 3:
That was one of those moments where, because we worked so hard on it and didn't see the results, I wanted to quit on myself and like, okay, maybe this isn't the right thing and fast forward. Once I started growing my audience and growing the right type of content and all of that stuff, that cookbook started selling on its own without me having to do anything. It was one of those moments of get down, lick my wound, get back up, keep going steak-insistent. And then you look back and you're like, okay, it wasn't the book that bombed, it was just the strategy behind it.
Speaker 2:
Nice, and so I really like how you kind of like paused, analyzed it and felt like, okay, that was a. You know I found my mistake, it was a bad launch, and then kind of regrouped and went back out of. It's like falling forward every time and so for the listeners it's crucial. So thanks for sharing that. It's oftentimes that you know, you a lot of times see the wins. Everybody wants to talk about their wins and how good they are and all these things. But we oftentimes people try maybe to try to like put it under the rug or put it in the closet are all the lessons learned, the mistakes, right?
Speaker 3:
And so, like we learn the most and those the biggest thing that I like to talk to people about, because I feel like without that, people think that they're not as far along as they should be and they beat themselves up and they give up on themselves instead of realizing. No, those are just things that people that are successful don't typically share, but it's happening to them and it's literally part of the process of becoming successful in your business.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, I definitely agree. It's a crucial process of it. It's not beating yourself up and saying these are gonna happen and that's how you learn, that's how you move forward is making mistakes, because you know it. Just you fall forward. So next question and I'm an introvert. A lot of the entrepreneurs that I meet in my space are an introvert, and I don't know whether it's the space I'm in or just entrepreneurs in general, but as an introvert in the entrepreneurial space, how have you leveraged that to your advantage and what advice do you have for other introverts that are entrepreneurs?
Speaker 3:
Like now. I think that being an introvert is like a superpower. Before I used to think it was, you know my detriment and that was something that was a negative online, because you see everyone who's extroverted and dancing on reels and doing all these flashets. Then that was never, ever me. But one thing that I think a lot of introverts have in common is we're really good listeners. We don't necessarily like to be the talker all the time, we like to listen, and because we can be good listeners, it makes us good marketers, because we can listen to what our clients want and we can speak their language and give them exactly what they're looking for. So, while we might not be doing the flashy stuff, we're doing the things that get people to be like oh my gosh, you're reading my mind. How did you know? I needed this right now. Here's my credit card.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's very interesting. I've never heard anyone explain it like that, but it totally makes sense and, being an introvert, I will ask questions last, versus anybody else. I'll sit and like listen, like you said. And so, yeah, you're right, like you can listen. I think, brett, it's somewhere you know you're not learning if you're talking, and so if you're listening, you're learning, and it totally makes sense. And now I'm gonna share with everybody that introverts have superpowers.
Speaker 3:
It's all about reframing, right, Right right, right, that's awesome, all right.
Speaker 2:
So how do you balance the need for social media presence with maintaining your own personal wellbeing, and how do you share with your clients to do this?
Speaker 3:
I think it's really important to let people know like it's okay to have seasons. There's lots of seasons in business and there's lots of things that, especially when you're starting out that you have to do and sometimes we think, okay, we need to be on all these social media channels, we need to be doing all of these things behind the scenes. We don't have a team yet. We're usually solopreneurs and it's a lot to put on your play all at once, especially if you're coming from a job where you only had your one job inside of a bigger corporation. Right Now you're everything.
Speaker 3:
That's where people put the pressure on themselves to be consistent on social media. And while consistency does pay off, if you're not bringing in paying clients, if you're not getting income into your business and you're just posting to social constantly trying to grow your business, hoping it's gonna grow, and you don't have a strategy behind the scenes, you're actually wasting time and losing out on money. So Give yourself permission to have a season where you're taking a break from social while you're building out those foundational steps behind the scenes, because businesses were around way before the internet and there's foundational marketing things that work even without social media and it works so beautifully with social media that when you have that in play first as you're posting, then all of a sudden those things can grow a lot faster.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that totally makes sense, like referring to it as a season, and so you know there's going to be ups and downs and you can pull back and you know, do some strategizing and then come back and hit it hard. Another follow-up question on that is something that I struggle with. I rarely do social media and I have like maybe one social media account that I post like personal stuff to. I just don't find a ton of value in social media. That's just me personally, and so for someone that is not good on social media or not really big into it, how do you know where to find your audience, who you're looking for? How would you find that?
Speaker 3:
This is a great question and this is something I've just more recently realized and come to value because of my health coaching business and what I did differently there. In my health coaching business, it was all about the health coaching side. I didn't brand it my name. I didn't have any of my personal branding there. It was all just about that product, that business. And I started from scratch when I started my marketing company. It's hard starting from scratch again.
Speaker 3:
So I realized that I made a mistake by not branding myself and I was similar to what you said. I was like I wasn't on personal social media, I wasn't doing anything for that. What's the point? And being an introvert again, it's like I didn't want to be on social media honestly and you want to think about it like people who build themselves as the brand and then they have all these other companies. Think of Elon Musk, for example. You know who he is and all of his companies then that come around from it, versus other companies out there where you just know the thing itself but you don't know the maker behind it, Like maybe chatGVT, for example. I don't know who that person is. But that's the difference between showing up and consistently showing what you're doing behind the scenes and building like you're the person who launched this amazing business, so that any other business, if you ever pivot, you have that business. You have that built already and you have that audience that likes you for what you're doing, that can move with you as you grow.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that makes sense Now that we know how to reach them. So how do you know what to say? And so, for example, I always use my water bottle. I don't know why, but you say well, you're selling water bottles, right, and so we're using Instagram to promote our products. So how would you go about crafting the messages? Let's say, the demographic is 25 to 35-year-old men and women. What messaging would you use, or how would you craft messages, to reach that demographic?
Speaker 3:
So you want to think about it as not just trying to sell your product, and that's where a lot of people make the mistake. They're like this is my amazing water bottle and has this feature and this feature and this feature, instead of selling the problem and the problem that your ideal client thinks that they have, for instance, with my water bottle, if you see mine, I'm in Arizona and it gets really, really hot out here in the summer and if you put your water bottle in the car, it's going to be boiling by the time you get back to it. With this particular water bottle, it took me forever to find and I wish they would have marketed better, because then I would have bought it earlier. But it can stay in the car in 120-degree weather and I can come back and it's still ice cold hours later. That is the thing. That is what you want to target and what you want to sell more of is that story, that struggle that your particular client is going through, and how your thing, your product, is the solution to that.
Speaker 2:
Got it Okay. So the message for that would be like showing someone on a hot day, like trying to drink hot water, and then being here's this water bottle that keeps ice colds for 12 hours in a hot car. So if you're speaking to their pain points versus speaking directly to them, trying to sell to them, Yep, and speaking in a story format of that, your client can relate to the story sell.
Speaker 3:
Have you ever heard that moment where you're in the car and you're thirsty, you just got out of a busy meeting and you go to drink your water and you have to spit it out because it's oily?
Speaker 2:
My follow up question is going to be like a story, and so you just kind of shared that I feel like I am always marketed to and I really don't buy a ton of stuff, but when I do, it is a story that resonates with me and it's like it hooks me somehow, and so storytelling, so let's add on to that a bit Another story, like you have another example of a story, because I think it is huge.
Speaker 3:
It gets me every time a story, and so Do you have a different example that you want to go after, or I could do like one of my client examples.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Since I've been in the health coaching industry, I work with a lot of health coaches too, and one of the things that health coaches often struggle with is they know that it's more than just the diet plan or the workout plan that's going to get them the results.
Speaker 3:
It's the mindset, it's the transformation, it's the self-talk, it's all of these other things, and they want to sell that to their ideal client because they're like that's the real transformation.
Speaker 3:
And I had a client recently that came to me to help dial in her messaging and she's like I had she mentioned she had a client that said you know, I came to you for to lose 10 pounds and fit into my jeans again, but I ended up loving my body and I ended up finding all these other things. And my client was like I want to sell those other things because that's the real transformation. I'm like no, your client wasn't ready to hear that, though your client literally said she came to you just to lose those 10 pounds and what you gave her was so much more. So in that respect, you also want to pay attention of when you're telling the story, you're not giving too big of a transformation or too much of that end result, and just speaking to the specific pain point that they're in in that very moment of like, not being able to button up their jeans in cheek, it simple Simplicity really converts to with stories.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I like the kiss theory. Keep keeping it simple. That's always like crucial. So, from your experience, what are some maybe two or three common mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they're trying to attract clients or customers on social media?
Speaker 3:
One I think is definitely they don't understand, similar to what I was just talking about with my client. They don't understand what makes people buy their product or program in the first place and they think it's something else. They think it's something grander or bigger or this thing, and they almost speak over people's heads sometimes instead of speaking in their ideal client language. And the best way to do the opposite like the more effective way is just to pay attention to what people are saying Like go to your competitors Instagram pages and that are larger accounts and pay attention to the comment. What are people saying on post? What is their exact words? That is what is really going to help you with being able to get the right messaging for your content. That part alone is huge.
Speaker 2:
So basically just doing research on who your target demographic is, going and looking and doing research and then listening basically is what, that is Okay, that makes sense. Any other research tips or any like beyond that? Are there any other things that you do to like research and learn about to attract clients or customers?
Speaker 3:
So the other thing tying on that is you find out who your ideal person is, but you also want to.
Speaker 3:
You want to set yourself apart from everybody else and all the competition, because there's so many other people out there who are doing exactly what you're doing, right, and a lot of times that puts us down and we're like, oh, there's too much competition. Instead of thinking there's that much competition, think, okay, how can I set myself apart and make my product or program different, better, more effective, faster, easier, quicker than anything else that my ideal client is actively searching for right now? So when you do that, there's a uniqueness about your product. Like, think about all the products out there that are like new and improved with this XYZ foaming technology. It's like that's their extra thing on maybe a shampoo cleaner, you know, for your carpet. There's a million carpet cleaners out there, but they have this foaming technology that helped it even better. So what is that thing for your product? And speak to that so people feel like, oh, wow, this is going to be even better than other things that I'm shopping for right now.
Speaker 2:
Looking for that differentiator that's going to stand out. Okay, I like it Awesome. So let's pivot a little bit into automation, and so what are some of your tips for entrepreneurs that want to automate their digital marketing without sacrificing quality or authenticity of speaking to someone?
Speaker 3:
So the big thing it's kind of it goes in a cycle against reasons. So once you know who your person is and you're starting to get people really resonating with that and you know what's unique about your product, then you can Take all of that that's already winning content and winning messaging, and then that's where you can start automating it. A lot of times people make the mistake of wanting to start off automating and they'll put together this fancy funnel and all these emails or these ads, but they never did the market research, they never found out how their product is unique and stands out in the marketplace, and then their funnel flop and they think it's the funnel where it was. Because of those first two steps. In order to get to the point of automating things, you want to prove those two things first and then it becomes a simple strategy of just being able to put that into evergreen content and evergreen funnels, ad funnels that can continue to attract your ideal client.
Speaker 2:
Essentially, you want to get to the basics. You want to get everything functioning first and working and then step back and then introduce automation once everything is working well.
Speaker 3:
Exactly.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Do you have any specific tool sets or any software that you prefer to use?
Speaker 3:
There's a lot out there, and especially these days too, with AI, there's so many different things that you can be using to help automate. So it really just I always say I'm like it's the thing that you'll use the most often. That is helpful. Even looking at automation with chatGPT, for example, a lot of people use that for content creation and to try to automate that and then put it into a software to automate their social media content. But if you're putting the wrong messaging in there and saying, hey, create more stuff just like this, that wasn't converting in the first place, that tool chatGPT is going to be worthless to you. But when you know the right type of content and you can put that in there and say, hey, here's my winning content, make more things just like this for this ideal client avatar, all of a sudden that tool is going to work for you.
Speaker 2:
Gotcha. Okay, now that definitely makes sense. So find out what's working and then amplify that. Okay, very cool. You had mentioned AI. It seems like we can't get through a podcast in the last six months without talking about AI, so let's chat about AI. So what's your stance on AI and digital marketing, and how is automate me utilizing AI to help clients?
Speaker 3:
So AI, kind of like what we're just talking about, can be a very, very useful tool, or it can be something just like social media, that sucks all your time and doesn't give you any monetary tangible results. So it's all in how you use it. I personally, in our business, we're using it to help speed up what we're already doing with our clients. So, for instance, just what I mentioned when we dial in a certain strategy, a marketing strategy for our clients that we know is converting, then we're able to plug something in a chatGPT and ask it to come up with 10 other scenarios that are similar to that, and then that, just from there, we can fine tune it because we know what we're looking for.
Speaker 3:
So I like to use it as like an assistant, right, like you don't want to count on it to do the work for you, but it can help feed up the process for you. Same with things that cut up content for you. Like there's plenty of things that cut up podcasts, right, and you're able to create just little snippets here and there for social media. It's a great tool, but you also want to work in having the manual review, because I don't think it's quite there yet to just take it and run with.
Speaker 2:
And I agree too. Yeah, AI is. It's great for amplifying what's working, but it has a likelihood of making something up if it does anything, and so you have to prove it and make sure it's not fake. For you send it out so awesome. So any anything that I didn't ask you that will be helpful to share with the audience, that any messaging that we didn't cover that you think is super important to the audience.
Speaker 3:
One thing is definitely that helped me because we talked about it earlier just when you do have those moments where you want to give up on your business, because they happen quite often.
Speaker 3:
One thing that really helped me was shortening my time frames for my goal but also lowering my expectations and I know that sounds bad, Like people are like I should be shooting for the moon and everything. But when I would have too high of expectations, like I did for that ebook, and then it didn't happen, it crushed me and it made me want to give up and quit, which means I lost momentum. Once I realized that if I just set smaller goals like instead of hey, I wanted to make X amount from this, like if I just got five new opt-ins into my email, that's a win, that shows that it worked, even if I didn't get that conversion to a sale and paying attention to those baby wins, Because so often we end up wanting to throw everything out, thinking something didn't work, when there's so many little steps that are working and there's just tiny tweaks and optimization we need to do for it to really scale to that next level. So that really helps me, mindset-wise, to keep that momentum going and not give up.
Speaker 2:
Sure, that's excellent advice. So for the listeners, rewind this for about 20 seconds to listen to it again. You always so. Something as an entrepreneur is we don't celebrate the small wins enough. And yeah, we set these lofty goals of, hey, I want to have X amount of dollars or I want to do this and this, but we don't do those daily or weekly or monthly wins of showing that progress. And so excellent advice, megan. Well, cool. So let's discuss automatemeonlinecom and who's a good fit for this service.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely Automatemeonlinecom. This is where you can go to essentially learn more about this strategy. It's a free training that I have put together of essentially what we do with our marketing agency clients and then also with our coaching clients. And if you're in the place where you've been posting constantly to social media, you're not seeing a return from it, you're feeling like you're wasting time. I would recommend checking it out Because, again, I dive deeper into how to create the right type of content that's going to convert and speak to your ideal client. It really will help you to shorten your learning curve with social media and get paid sooner.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. That sounds great For every guest we have on. We send them through the ringer in what's called a fire under. Are you ready?
Speaker 3:
Yep, let's do it.
Speaker 2:
What are your hobbies?
Speaker 3:
I love to garden, cook, hang out with my three crazy koi dogs. Go for height.
Speaker 2:
Okay, dizzy, what do you grow in the garden?
Speaker 3:
We do. We have an organic veggie garden, so right now we have watermelon growing strawberries, we have some green onions basically all the stuff that we want to trim and bring into the kitchen.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. I like it. What is one thing that you do not miss about working for the man?
Speaker 3:
I would say the being chained to a desk, and a location I absolutely love, even though I still work hard and I let people know the laptop lifestyle is not about, oh, just sitting on the beach collecting sales all the time, but it's about, hey, you can work from your hotel room and then go sit on the beach for a while and then come back and see sales. So that's definitely something that I don't miss is the being chained to the desk.
Speaker 2:
Excellent, yeah, I agree. All right, what do you think sets apart successful entrepreneurs from those who give up, fail or never get started?
Speaker 3:
Mindset Definitely mindset and the drive to keep going and be okay with failure. So often we get afraid of failing and thinking that that's something we need to avoid, when in reality, the entrepreneurs that we look up to and the mentors out there they've failed more times than anybody else out there has, and that's their secret weapon to success.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I totally agree. Excellent advice, Megan. I want to thank you for coming on the show. How can guests contact you for services and just to reach out if they want to?
Speaker 3:
I would say to connect with me on Instagram. It's just my full name, is my handle at Megan Clore and I'm always answering DMs and happy to connect.
Speaker 2:
Awesome, I appreciate it, and if you're driving, don't write that down. We're going to have all this in the show notes, and so you can just go to the website and grab it. Really appreciate you coming on the show, megan. It was an excellent interview.