Brave Biz Lab 2024 05 17

Hello.

Hello.

You're awake. I am awake. Good.

I'm showered. My hair is done.

Happy Friday.

Happy Friday. It's funny.

Katherine thought that I was based in San Francisco, and I was like, there's no way I'd be getting up that early for that call. Right post. No, I know.

I saw that when you first started the. The challenge.

I saw.

I was at what time it was. And I was like, katie, I know.

Well, there's no. Because I. I typically my calls at 10, and so if I'm gonna do something every day, it has to be before 10, you know? Yeah. It's like, then I'm moving way too much to accommodate, and I didn't want it to be a different time every single day.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

So, yeah, sorry. I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm still gonna do it. All right. What are you celebrating today?

Oh.

That it's Friday.

It's fair.

Yes.

Yeah. What about Friday? Feels good to you this week that.

We have a co working session?

Yeah.

What are you going to be working on?

I have a presentation at a conference next week, so I'll be finalizing that.

Awesome. Cool.

Yeah.

Sweet. Well, while we're waiting for everyone to show up, what questions do you have?

Oh, what questions do I have? Okay, So I. And. And I know the answer to this. I have a top mate. I don't know if you've heard of topmate. It's like another calendar.

Okay.

Right.

So I. I've been trying it out and I think I'm gonna shut it down.

Okay.

I don't promote it anymore. It was just kind of there just in case, you know, I wanted to.

Use it or whatnot.

Somebody booked a call on it yesterday, and, like, in the description, they're like, hey, I'm looking at transition careers.

Right.

But they signed up for, like a 15 minute, like, introduction session.

Okay.

Because, yeah, this top bait thing, like I said, it's a little strange, but I'm like, how should I approach that call? Because I don't want to just, like, blow it off. I kind of.

No.

So I would. I would email them and say, hey, I'm so excited to talk to you. I noticed that you booked through this for only 15 minutes. You know, like, for what you're looking for, for us to get on the same page about that, we're gonna need 30 minutes. Do you have the ability to extend that call out or do you need to move it?

Okay.

No, I'm asking you. Oh, me? Oh, okay.

No.

Oh, no. Yeah.

We can extend it to 30 minutes. My calendar is open for that.

Yeah. So I would just say that and say, you know, if you can plan on 30 minutes.

Okay.

For. Because for me to be able to get, like, a good idea of what's going on in your career right now and where you want to go and all the stuff and what you would need, like, we're going to need 30 minutes to really touch base on all of it. Okay.

Yeah, that's fair.

All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lauren, your hair looks so good. Yes, thank you.

Yeah.

I'm.

I'm really happy with.

Looks fabulous.

Thank you.

Yeah. But, yeah, Monica, just to go back to that, when. When we're coming up with our booking links, we want to make sure the only one that's public is our book sales call, our strategy call.

Yes, that's true.

Everything else should be private for you to share at your discretion.

Yep, yep, I'll do that. The Top Mate stuff, like I said, I don't even know how they found it, to be honest, because I don't promote anymore. And I think actually if I look at my LinkedIn, it's probably, like, buried on my LinkedIn still somewhere.

Yeah. But you know what, the Internet's a weird place. People, if they're like, googling you, sometimes stuff just shows up.

That's true. I was like, yeah, because I got the email. It's like, oh, you have a topmate call. And I was just like, how did they find me on topmate? I thought I, like, deleted that.

Yeah.

Oh, it is still on my LinkedIn in my featured. Like, buried in my featured.

Okay, all right. Yeah, cool. And are you paying for topmate or is it free?

Topmate's free.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, topmate's free. Yeah, they pay me, actually.

So.

Yeah.

Cool.

What does Top Mate do?

Top me? It's kind of like a calendarly.

Ah, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Sweet. Happy Friday, everyone. We were waiting for you to arrive, so we're diving into questions. What are you celebrating?

Yeah, celebrating that my heart is fine. Or those. Yeah, yeah, I was actually. I was having chest pains the day before yesterday and I went to the emergency and it seemed, you know, they ran a whole battery of tests and all that and everything is fine. So.

What a relief.

Did they have any idea, and this is personal. You don't want to share. But if. Did they have any idea what it.

Was the doctor was saying? Could have been just kind of like a panic attack that came out of nowhere, so. But it. It was a very weird feeling is I Was really feeling, like, all the symptoms of what they tell you a heart attack looks like. Right. It's. You know, there's like a huge pressure on the chest and, like, thing radiating to the arm and all that.

Yeah.

And so also at the end. At the end, they did a stress test. They went, like, all in to make sure there were no, like, artery blockages or issues. And it seems like everything is fine, so. Yeah, so it could have been anything. It could have been, like, know, a pinch nerve kind of, you know, getting, like, sensations there.

Yeah.

But I'm alive and doing well.

Okay, good. That's all that matters, really. Okay, good.

Thank you.

All right, so. Yeah. So how heart is healthy. Good thing to be gra. Grateful for and to celebrate. And, Lauren, what do you celebrating today? New hair.

Yeah, it looks really good.

Thanks.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, let's dive in. We already kind of dived into Q and A. But what. What can I support you on.

For content?

Yeah. Do you.

What are your thoughts on polls?

I think if you're gonna do a poll, do it for fun.

Do it like.

Yeah, do it like, who. Who is your, like, childhood heartthrob? You know, Jonathan Taylor Thomas or so and so. Or whatever, you know? Yeah. And. Or, like, you know, are you a coffee person or a tea person? You know, or. Neither. I'm a sociopath. I don't. I don't like polls as. As, like, work stuff. I don't know. They're boring as no one's curious about the answers. And.

Do you think so? Because my people are data people. And so, like. Yeah, but we're all about, like, finding out the results of things. And so I was trying to put. Put one into the challenge, but I was struggling with, like, how to. How to do that, because I usually. I usually do polls.

Yeah.

And then I'll, like, report on the polls later.

So I want you to remember, when we're creating content for social media, we're driving people to one action. Right. Driving them to comment, or we're driving them to book or driving them to do a thing. If we're driving them to just click a button, like, that's where it ends.

Okay.

Right. And so, like, yes, it could be something that, you know, your people would be interested in, but, like, to. To what purpose? Okay. Right.

Mm.

You know, you could absolutely do a poll for people who are. And I don't know if I do a poll even. I would just ask the question. I would ask, you know, if you're in data and you were in another career or another industry beforehand or another kind of job. What was it? Yeah, you know, because that would be really interesting data for you to say. You know, a lot of people in data come from other industries, they come from other stuff. And lots were teachers or they worked in restaurants or this or that or the other thing, you know, and you can also ask the question, like, what made you want to go into data? Right.

That's literally like what the poll was for today.

Yeah, but I would, that I was working on, I would make it a post where people answer the question.

So I, I noticed that the polls get more engagement than when I just.

Ask questions, though, Then, then you can do a poll as well. Yeah, yeah, but it's just like you get, you get people. I mean, people feel like they get more brownie points when they do. And it's also a really simple question for people to answer, you know? Yeah, so. Yeah, but I mean, like, some people are really into polls. We see people overdoing them. Yeah, true. Yeah.

So.

I'm reminded of the person who booked a sales call with me not too long ago who wanted to be a cat fluencer, but doesn't have a cat and can't have a cat where they live. They post a lot of polls and doesn't really go a lot of places. So, like, that's that, like, that's who you're kind of like creating similar content to, is what I'm saying.

Got it.

Okay. You know, like when you're, when you're in the poll world, which sounds like you're a stripper, but you're not. You know what I mean? But yeah, I mean, like, I'm not. I don't think they're evil. I don't think they're gonna hurt your business. But I just like, yeah, like I'm, I'm lukewarm on them.

Okay.

Yeah, but play with it. You know, like, you get to figure it out. If, if you have an instinct that data people are going to be really interested in the actual numbers, then go for it, you know, but just don't build your content strategy around polls.

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like when I come in with something sort of nonsense, like a, like a fun poll, or yesterday I did a post about what I tell my dog when I leave the house. The algorithm doesn't love it, but the commenters do.

Right.

So like, I posted yesterday, I think it had maybe 3,000 impressions, but it has like close to 100 comments.

Yeah.

And so it like, got really high engagement for what it Was. And for me it feels like that wakes up the algorithm and then sometime. And then like, it wakes up new commenters who like, haven't seen my stuff, who now will because they've commented. And then for a couple of days after, like, it has, like, I gained some momentum that I haven't had. Um, and then once in a while, like, it strikes me after I post something nonsense that like, oh, I can turn the follow up into a business post.

Yeah.

And so, you know, there was one I did a couple of weeks ago where it was like, I talked about hating mayonnaise and I asked people about their food preferences and people were like, defending the crap out of mayonnaise. And other people were like, me too. I'm so glad I'm not alone. And then I turned it into a business post of like, we're so, like, quick to talk about our thoughts on food, but when I ask about career, we all get real quiet. So I like to do it and it's like it's become part of my brand. So to ask something sort of offbeat, but, you know, I see some value in it and, but like, not too often, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I've also seen that with the, with the algorithm kind of like waking it up and, and whatnot.

So that's been my experience as well. I had this image when you said waking up people as if you're the zombie queen, like, calling upon the undead that have been sleeping for a while. The algorithm needs brains. No, and also I. The impressions numbers, I don't know how much I believe them. Yeah, honestly, I don't know because, I mean, oftentimes they don't really match up with what I'm seeing in comments or what I'm seeing in likes. I, you know, and remember, like, LinkedIn hasn't ever really told us what impressions mean. It could literally just be like a ranking score that, that has to do with some, some numbers internally that, you know, I don't know, sums up what they think of our post, what the algorithm thinks of our post. You know, that's why I don't, I don't go for impressions. I go for comments and likes or for sales calls. Yeah, I want to share. I'm. I did three, four days of posting this week for, you know, really hard hitting, like, book a call with me with a link and I got three sales calls out of it.

Wow.

So following the plan that you guys are, are working on right now. So it works.

Yes, Roberto, I've got a couple of, of calls, but from people who are as broke or you know, or they're kind of like in a dire situation and we're like, oh boy, here we go. Right?

Yeah.

So it's. I don't know. Well, certainly, certainly when it comes, I imagine Lauren, you might. Well, and, and also Monica, like when you're talking about career discontent and so forth, like those posts get very little engagement because people are, they don't want, they don't want others to see that. Right. Going through this and that unfortunately kind of like hurts the, the numbers of going out and more people seeing them. So it's a bit of a dilemma.

Yeah. Which is why like sharing dog pictures and talking about your kids and sharing embarrassing stories like that's the stuff that's going to grow your network.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. I mean, same for starting a business. Most people who work for a full time job don't want their employers to know that they want to start a business. You know, so we're going for the lurkers. Do you, in your intake form, do you have a question about budget?

I. No, I don't actually. The reason, the reason why I don't even talk about money yet is.

Why.

Is the reason why I don't talk about budget or money. Well is because obviously there are a number of people that just kind of like have no idea what any of this would cause. They kind of like they're coming just initially with.

Right. So there, there are some questions that you can add in that will help you suss out the people who may have fund and may not. So for instance, like what's the salary range you're going for?

Huh?

Right.

Okay.

You know, and so like if someone's only going for like 60,000 a year, you can reach out and say, you know what, I'm so sorry. I actually like, I don't, I don't work with folks who are going for that level of job.

Yeah.

I work with people who are going for like VP director. Da da, da.

Got it.

You know.

Yeah. Yes.

You know.

Yeah. It makes, it makes sense.

Because it also, it opens the door to like you understanding kind of what their pain point is. It's not money.

Yeah.

You know, or if it is money, it's like rich people money.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, affluent money issues. You know, we're not going to be able to go to the Hamptons this summer. We're going to have to go to Lake Winnipesaukee instead.

Right, Right. Yeah. And it's interesting because, you know, the thing that I always just Kind of like leave a little door open is. You never know if this person is like, just kind of wants a, you know, lower paying job because they just want more flexibility or whatever. In the meantime, their spouse is making a ton of money so that, you know, so it's like I just always keep the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, well, and, and you.

Could also say like, what's the driver? You could have a question around. What's the driver for you to move? Like, A, I need money, but now I'm broker than broke. B, I, I'm really miserable in my job and I feel like I'm being undervalued. See, I am good at what I do and I'm paid well where I am. But like, this doesn't light me up.

Got it.

Or, or I've lost. Am I doing numbers or letters or. Four.

Yeah.

I, my brain. I've decided that like the next chapter of my career, I want to establish legacy or, you know, five other.

Yeah.

And then you could have a little text box. Like if you said other or like, please explain your answer a little bit in two sentences.

Perfect.

You know, Perfect.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's good. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, in those questions, you can kind of make them cheeky also because then it feels less intrusive.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

And if you want to, if you want to think them up, text them to me and I can approve them.

Sure.

All right. Awesome. Good enough on that. Yes. Monica, for.

To follow up on that budget question. I think I would benefit from one of those, but I don't know how because I did have at first, like, if you, if you had to pay a hundred thousand dollars on mentoring. And then I just kept, like, I don't think it went well. I don't think that question went well. So I just removed it. But I feel like I need some kind of budget question.

Yeah, yeah, I, Yeah, let, let's think on it. Let's think on it for, for your client base. Let me, let me have that processing in the back of my brain as I answer more questions. And I know something will for me. Yeah. Okay.

That's fair.

Awesome. Yvonne, Carrie, welcome. Do you have something to celebrate today that you'd like to share?

I've been in a mood this week that I can't shake. So I'm celebrating having made it to Friday without killing anyone. Like, I don't know what's going on. Something's in the air. I'm just like in a mood yeah.

Has anyone else noticed that it's been a week?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm not raising my hand, but this is the first week that it hasn't been a week in weeks, so been there.

It's just rolling through.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure your family is really, really excited that they didn't have to help you hide a body also, so congratulations to them. Carrie.

What? Celebration or has it been a week?

Both.

I.

Well, I. I got that proposal out.

To.

Johnson and Johnson, so fingers crossed that something happens with that.

Yeah.

What else? What else is exciting that's happening for you?

Oh, well, Katie is driving down to New York City to meet me at my Today show appearance next week.

I'm not the exciting part. The exciting part is that you're on the Today show. I'm like, the boring. The boring part. Like, no.

Oh, my God, are you kidding me? Stuff. Oh, yeah, there's that.

Carrie's gonna be on the Today show next week. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'll be recording next week.

Oh, yeah.

It'll be like a live to tape segment, and then they'll. It's gotta air this month because it's for Small Business Awareness Month, so it'll be sometime in May. But I should have a. An idea of the air date and time by. By shoot date. I. They just scheduled the car to come pick me up today, so. Fancy black car.

Yeah, all good.

I.

Actually, this is. This might make you laugh. I told my mother about this, and she's like, tell me the day it's gonna happen because I will go home and watch the Today show.

Okay.

She's so excited for you.

You will be the second person to find out after me.

Okay, great. Great, great. Awesome.

I haven't even told my mother.

All right. I get so excited for my clients.

Like.

Like, my parents know all about everyone you guys have ever had.

My mother came over not to DV too much. She came over last weekend and handed me a newspaper article from 2007 with suggestions for small business growth. I'm like, anyway, that's really. I'm. My mother's usually the last to know.

Okay, fair.

Because then it becomes chaotic.

Yeah. And the kind of chaos that comes from newspapers from that many years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She thought it was from a few months ago.

I'm like, how do you even have.

You don't have room for newspapers from 20 years ago.

Oh, my God.

Side note.

Yeah, totally. All right, well, what questions do we have today?

I have one.

Yes, Roberto.

So I've seen a lot of people that can, like, have, like, in their LinkedIn banner, things like, you know, featured by Forbes and Fast Company and blah, blah, blah. Right. Because probably they are sending things that they've written into their blogs for articles and so forth. Does anybody have a, you know, any insight into how do you get an in with those?

Yeah, I mean, you go to their website and you see how to submit.

Oh, that's it.

That's it. It's not that impressive, actually.

Okay, got it.

Easy.

Yeah, easy.

It's actually like a former personal trainer that I used to work with submits to Forbes all the time.

Okay.

And then he, you know, shares. I got published in Forbes and it's like. Yeah, but like, you wrote a blog and you shared it with them and they, you know, posted it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I do, I do see that it kind of like as like a good layer of credibility, even if it's like that. Right, but it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Our clients unfortunately don't know the difference between like, good credibility and, like, like doesn't mean anything.

Credibility.

Right. Yeah, but totally.

Yeah.

Okay. And also, like, if you're creating content to post to social media, like, I would prioritize that because that's the stuff that's going to get you clients. Yes, right. Like the, the icing on the cake stuff. The Forbes and Fast Company and that stuff. Like, don't prioritize it until you're making more money, honestly.

Yeah, yeah.

Look at it, like, just look at.

It for the value of putting it on the banner or whatever. Right. So it just kind of adds more like that.

Right. Remember, no one's going to choose to hire you because of that.

What do you mean?

It's going to activate a part of their brain that's like, must spend money with this person. No. Yeah, no, that's not like, it's like, oh, cool, he was featured in Forbes. It's. It's not gonna be. Oh, he was featured in Forbes. Okay. That means I have to hire him. Right. It's our brains really, like, to be like, oh, cool. This will be the thing that gets people to hire me and it's not the thing. Yeah, what's gonna get them to hire you is. Oh, my God, he gets me. Oh, he's talking about exactly what I'm struggling with. Oh. Like what he helps his clients do is exactly what I want. That's the kind of stuff. Gary, are you okay? Do you need to be defended?

I'm not paying attention to anything you're Saying, I'm, like, very entranced by the cat trying to steal the Emmy and the chair.

There's one that's evil.

I'm good. Thanks, Barber. Does that answer the question? Okay, good. What other questions do we have today?

I guess I have a question if nobody else does.

Come here, buddy.

Okay, well, you know what? This one, I think, is actually angry. We thought for a while that. That he was of a girl, and then we took her to the vet to get spayed, and the vet was.

Like, are you sure?

So now he's just misgendered constantly. He's still referred to as she. So maybe he's getting pissed off at this stage. Anyway, my. My question is, I have a client who. Who I really like. She's. She's very. I'm a little bit scared of her, though. She's very intimidating. She demands a lot. And I am finding that she's beginning.

To.

Ask me to do things that are fairly out of. I don't. That are out of scope.

And I'm.

And she's already been very clear with me that the. The business that I'm helping her with is one that is in debt. Like her, she's got three other businesses. They're all fine. She's drawing from them to support this other one. So I'm, like, very conscious of, like, saying, well, this is going to be more or this is not in my area of expertise. I. I'm just not sure now that I'm, like, three months into this engagement. I've. I've given too much rein, and I.

Don'T know how to pull it back.

I guess, is my question.

Yeah, so I think. I mean, this happens to everyone from time to time. You know, it's having that conversation with her and just saying, you know, what I'm noticing is the. The needs you're asking me to fulfill are X, Y, and Z. And the scope of which we signed up for is abc.

Okay.

Right. And you just kind of take the emotion out of it. It's just like I'm noticing that you're asking for X, Y, and Z. The scope that we had signed up together with was abc. So, you know, just checking in. Do we need to redesign the scope? Do we need to redefine what we're working together? You know, want to check in on the needs for you and your business. Right. Because, I mean, it could mean that, you know, you make a referral for some stuff or whatever. We do not have any responsibility for how our clients choose to spend their money. We don't have any responsibility there. If she's choosing to be in debt with this company and divert funds from other stuff for this company, that is 100 on her. Yeah. If she's not going to spend the money with you, she'll spend the money with someone else. Right.

Yeah.

I think I just, like, super mindful of that because I had. I. I just have, I think, garbage from, like, other people who sold me a bill of goods and then. And then ended up. I ended up struggling. And you're right. Ultimately, it was my decision. I just get in my own way about that. So. Yeah.

And I.

And then I'm like, well, I have already sort of gone down this path with her about, you know, like, doing this extra. Like, she wants me to teach her how to apply for a TED Talk.

I don't know.

That's a huge process, and there are coaches who charge, like, 10 grand to do just that.

Anyway. Okay. I got to read. And there's nothing wrong. I mean, it actually builds so much credibility for you to say, that's not my specialty.

Okay.

Because, I mean, like, you. Absolutely. You had vendors who worked with you, and they weren't great at what they did. Yeah. You know, and so you get to say, hey, listen, like, I've worked with people who've gone outside their scope and their. And what they're strong at, and it didn't work for me, and I never want to do that for my clients.

Right.

Because it may feel like. It may make me feel like I'm going above and beyond for you, and it may feel like to you, like, I'm going above and beyond for you, but if I'm not the expert at what I'm doing there. Yeah. Like, it could just be, you know, someone coming over with a newspaper from 20 years ago saying, here's a business idea. Yeah.

You know, oh, my God, I am my mother.

Yeah.

I mean, it's. But, you know, it speaks to the generosity of which you serve your clients. Right.

That's a very tactful way of putting it. Diplomatic.

No, no, but it really does. It speaks to. You really want to take. Wanting to take care of them, you know? Yeah.

And just because you're in media doesn't mean you cover it. All.

Right.

Just like you wouldn't go to a divorce attorney for a criminal case.

Right.

Like, there's. There's specialties. And actually, going to a divorce lawyer if you're facing murder charges is not a good idea. So.

Let us know if we need to talk you off the edge.

I Know, murders on the brain, huh?

In such case, you don't even need a divorce anymore.

Murder and divorce. Oh, my God, Juicy.

My marriage is great.

I just don't know who's on the.

Murder list right now because he's dead.

Legally. I just can't hear a plan, that's all. You can talk metaphorically all you want, but can't hear the plan?

I mean, you're not a licensed therapist. You can hear the plan.

So, yeah, I guess. I guess not. But also. Yeah. But yeah, anyway, I guess technically all of us can't hear the plan, or else we'd be obligated to go to the police anyway. Does that help, Carrie?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, cool. And this happens to all of us, just so you know. Like, there's this tendency, and I've done it before, too, and I always regret it going beyond the scope because you feel like you're helping and it just doesn't help. So. Yeah.

And then I'm wasting time trying to learn the process myself so I can teach it to her. Yeah.

Yeah. No, yeah.

Cool.

What other questions do we have today?

I guess I have a question.

You.

Know, should we be putting any energy into, I don't know, groups or, you know, business association, or should we, you know, or, like, where does that fit in? Or, like, focus on the social media bit until you got that good. And then move on? Because I feel like there's shiny object syndrome happening.

Right.

There's, like, lots of opportunities to potentially partner on things or, you know.

Yeah. Partnerships I would stay away from until you have an established business and established brand. Right. One of the things that a lot of coaches do. Oh, God.

I just.

A lot of coaches do early on is they think, okay, well, if I have a partnership with someone, it'll give me more credibility. And I. I fell prey to this early on. And what it does is it creates more confusion with your audience than anything else. Because, like, I want you to think about. You have your own, like, energetic field and things that people see as useful for and, like, your personality, and they're drawn to that. But then you bring in another person who has their own energetic field and personality and things that they're good at, and it just kind of confuses everything. Right? And then it's like, okay, cool. You want someone who's complimentary but not competition. Right? So then it's like, okay, well, then. Then it changes your ideal client avatar because it has to be someone who has both problems and is a fit for both people. And it doesn't Actually build your business. Right. And then in addition to that, usually they don't know what the fuck they're doing because they're also beginner. Right. And so, you know, if you're the one who has the support to figure stuff out and who knows what to do, you're going to end up doing most of the work and having to share the money. So partnerships, I don't recommend early, early on, you can absolutely do partnerships later. But after you have an established brand and a client list, so that's that. So for networking though. Yeah, go and network. Go, go and join groups. Any group that you can claim membership to. You know, if you are, you know, a certain religion and you want to go to a networking group that they have, go for that. If you're a knitter and you want to go to like a knit along thing and talk to people, go to that. You know, you're, you've been in HR for how long? I'm sure there are HR networking groups that you could join. You know, women's groups. Absolutely. I wouldn't go to groups where it's going to be a bunch of people trying to sell to each other. I know. What's the bmi? I know a lot of folks want to join BMI and there are very few people I actually see BMI as being useful for in my sphere. You know, alumni groups are also great. You know, if you want to go in and offer like a workshop or to do a talk for your alumni.

Group.

That could be really helpful. You know, during the pandemic, you know, you know me like, I love going out and networking and meeting people in person. And then of course the pandemic hit and that wasn't possible and I was going insane. And I literally went through Eventbrite and found a virtual networking event every single day of the week. And I would register for them. Doesn't mean I'd go every single day of the week, but I would go to enough. And a lot of them are garbage. Like there was one where there were like two other people on and one of them. All she talked about is how much she loved dolphins. Right. She wasn't my ideal client. And I don't know about the other person because this woman wouldn't stop talking about dolphins. And then I felt so awkward leaving because there were only three of us anyway. But there will be some that are going to be really valuable. You know, something that you're going to want to get really clear on though is how you introduce yourself. You know, hi, I'm Yvonne and I help X type of person who has Y and Z type of problem get to A and B.C. kind of result.

Yeah.

But yeah, as you're, as you're going full time with this, you know, getting yourself out there and establishing those relationships is going to be valuable. And then as you get busier and busier, dialing back with those things is going to be really important. Yeah, but I would go for the places that, where, you know, people have verified income, you know, or a verified background. Cool. Yep.

Awesome. Yeah.

What other questions do we have?

Here's a comment. At least in my case. One of the things I notice is that the people that either start working with me or are more likely to be very serious about working with me have been people to who I either know loosely. Right. So people that go like, you know, three circles out or folks who have been referred by friends. So, so it's been, it's actually very hard to like pick up someone out of the blue. Um, but that's, that has been my, my experience. So. So something tell me there's like something very valuable about digging into those, you know, closer edges in a certain way.

Yeah, yeah. And you know what, that's really normal for businesses when you're first starting, you know, like it's the lowest hanging fruit first and the lowest hanging fruit of the people who already have established trust with you.

Right.

You know, and then as you're building up your business and you're being more present online and I keep throwing my pen at myself anyway, like the more you build up trust with other people, the lower they go in the fruit hanging hierarchy. I'm sticking with that metaphor. But yeah, it's, it's all trust. It's all trust. So if you, so Yvonne, to the point, like if you go to a networking group, don't go once and be like, well, that didn't work. You know, go consistently. If it's like a bi weekly call or a monthly call, go consistently. It's going to make a big difference. What other questions do we have? Does that or does that answer it? Yvonne? Roberto. Awesome. What other questions do we have today? How are we doing in content creation.

And consistently average.

Good. Consistent is like the name of the game and to get good you have to be average first. Yeah, yeah.

I mean I've always kind of posted daily, so that's, that wasn't really the new part of it. It's just like the way that I'm doing it and. Yeah. Different learning and whatnot.

Yeah, yeah. And it's A learning process, you know, um, to get good, like I said, you have to say you have to be average. You have to like. And also the things that we learn from are the ones that we do really badly first. Right. I can't give any feedback on a post that's like pretty good, you know, but if I get a post that needs a lot of changing, then I can give you a ton of feedback and that'll help you learn.

Well, good thing I only share my crappy posts.

Good thing. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and I guess really asking about, you know, the, the four month content plan and it's not something that you have to sit down and do in one week, but like starting to piece, like tackle it and going through and pulling information from your market research interviews and like planting those in so you understand what your prompts are going to be. How is that going?

And it's okay if you have not started that. Okay. Honest.

Yeah, yeah. I, I recommend starting that sooner rather than later. Right. Because you just did all these interviews. Right. And we want to make sure we're tying all that information into the content that you're creating in a really intentional way.

I'm still consistently slow and, and the thing that I, Yes. That I have not been able to like get to yet is, you know, having content ahead of time. You know, it was like, gosh, one post in itself already eats up much more time than I, than I want to every day. And, and even with, with the post that I sent you, Katie, to like review and kind of like did a. Okay, here it is. But also like, fix it now. Right? Then when I get back to fixing, I go like, this post is like, nah, I don't know, I'm not feeling it. And not, not because of the way you rewrote it, but kind of like the content wise and just kind of going like, I don't know if I want this one. So then I start in another direction.

I'm curious what is the around.

I can like start like sitting down and try to like, to like redo it and I just can like get stuck again, you know, and now I'm going like, all right, you know, it's like it's 95% done, right? There's like that 5% that I kind of like, you know, I want to like get to. And then I'm going like this. It's starting to get harder than I wanted, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

So that, yeah.

So full. If you're, if you're one of my one on one clients and I'm, like, helping rewrite some of your posts early on full permission. Just copy and paste and use that. You know, there's nothing that says that you have to be like, okay, cool. That's the standard now. Now I have to redo something along those lines. Absolutely not. I also want to name, like, this is not literature. This is not something we're hoping to get published. This is not something that we're hoping to get on the New York Times bestseller list. This is social media. This is posting and reminding people that you exist. You know, even if it's bad, like, you posting and sharing, it will remind people that you exist. And you never know. You never know if there's just going to be a sentence in there that, like, hits people, you know, straight, you know, straight in the gut, and they're like, okay, I think I need to book a call with Roberto, you know?

Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. It's like, I have. I almost, like, need to put, like, a big sign in front of me that reads, oftentimes my shittiest posts are the ones that get more engagement and just put that.

Yeah, absolutely. And also, I think. I think it's really easy in your mind to think, okay, well, this post will get good engagement and will get me a client, and will it do this? And we'll do that. And then, like, you're, like, trying to, you know, figure out if the formula is correct and blah, blah, blah, and you don't know. Right. And then. But you've made it so complicated now. Like, this poor post has to jump through all these hoops and do all this stuff and all these tricks, and it. Like, it's just a post, you know? So, yeah, you just kind of have to be, like, cool, like, here's your one job is to create awareness that I exist. Right. If people also comment, amazing. If people also become my client, great. Yeah, we get to lower the bar for it.

Yeah, I think that it's. Yeah, I think that somewhere in my mind the wiring is going back to, like, you know, since we're learning a new way of writing it, right? Then somewhere in my mind that takes priority and becomes like, oh, my gosh, this post needs to hit on all of these things, right? When in reality is like, well, okay, just send out a post, anything, whatever, right? And maybe use that other part in. In other communications as well. No.

So, yeah, I mean, you can honestly think of, like, five really boring things that have happened to you in your life and. And write a post about each One of those, like, have you ever been sung by a bee?

Yeah.

You know, you can write a post about that, right? You could write a post about, like, you know, the first time you ever wore a clone, you know, and what did it feel like? Like, oh, like I'm a grown man now. You know, there's a coming of age to, like, doing the thing that grown ups do you for women. Like, when was the first time you shaved your legs? You know, it's like, think of something that's so simple and write about that. Right?

Yeah, I guess. I guess that there's always that question of, like, am I saying anything for that my, you know, that my target would be interested in. Right. Because if I go too much into.

Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to back you off of that. I'm going to back you off of that. Okay. Are you saying anything that humans would find interesting? Okay, human, Humans, like, we're, we're out here making genuine relationships with other humans. Right. Those humans might be our ideal clients. They might know our ideal clients. They may be connected, but don't really have a relationship with our ideal clients.

Yeah.

Okay. We're out to connect with, with humans as a whole. Right. You can, you can dial it into, like, I'm out to connect with non Trump supporters because I can't imagine helping someone build a business when they're going to be taking that money and funneling it into, you know, Project 2025. That. Absolutely not. But, like, you can, you can, like, find your, your groove in there. But, like, don't make it so complicated that you're like, I have to find this, this audience. Because also you're still learning who your audience is.

Yeah, Right.

Like, it's a moving target at this point. Right?

Yeah, yeah, Makes sense. Yeah.

Share stuff that, like, humans can relate to and also trust that, like, your, your profile, like, people will be like, oh, this guy Roberto, he seems cool. Let me look at what he does. Right?

Yeah.

There's a LinkedIn coach. I don't necessarily agree with everything she teaches, but there's a LinkedIn coach out there who literally doesn't train people how to create content. She doesn't tell them to create content. She teaches them how to go and comment on other people's stuff. Right. And build relationships that way and then optimize your profile so that people understand what you do, you know? And I mean, what she teaches does work to a certain degree. It's a lot of work that you constantly have to do.

Right.

Because you don't have Any content out there that's doing the work for you. And people have to be in the comment section of these other posts to be able to find you. But, you know, like, trust that part of the equation as well.

Yeah, makes sense. Yeah.

This, this is, Time has flown by. Do we have, do we have one or two more questions?

More, More of a comment. But I guess it just reminded me I want to send you my, my LinkedIn headline and my draft of like, how I introduce myself to make sure it's clear. I, I, I'm guessing it's probably not.

I'm gonna pull it up right now, actually.

Or it's like, at the title. It's generic.

It doesn't.

Right.

It doesn't do, like, here's who I help do what.

Yeah. Okay, so here I'm going to just, if you don't mind me popping your profile into chat so everyone can follow along. Okay. So one thing I want you to remember is we actually aren't talking about ourselves in our profiles. We have to talk about our ideal clients. Yeah. Right. So HR executives, partners, work with me to, to overcome this problem and to accomplish this goal. Right. And then, and then I would say at the bottom, coach. Yeah. You know, holistic wellness practitioner. What? However you want to say that. But that's kind of like an aside. Right. Because also HR wellness coach, like, okay, do you focus on that internally? People don't know.

Yeah.

You know, do you work in HR and, like, that's your focus in hr. Oh, cool. Like, that must be a really interesting program that your company has. Right? Yeah. But it doesn't necessarily say that you take clients.

True.

Right. And then I'm just looking. You, do you have your about section? Hold on. We don't have an about section. Okay. So the about section also needs to be about your ideal client. Right. A lot of people use that. That is kind of like a space for a bio. Right. Which I mean, like, that's great. People, like, can learn about you and all stuff, but people have a really hard time connecting that you were on the lacrosse team in college to. You can help me lose a little bit of weight and have less anxiety. Right. And if, honestly, if you want to rip off the format that I have for my about section, go and be my guest. Yeah, I'll take a look at it. Yeah, it's literally, it's not about me at all. People want to find out about, about me. They can go to my website or they can read my content. Yeah, right. Yeah, we like the feeling. We want people to have when they try to dig in more to us is, oh, my God, that's me.

Like, are they here?

Like, were they listening to my phone calls? Like, does my FBI agent know them? You know, like, I was just complaining about that to my best friend the other day. You know, my FBI agent is really.

Watching me after my comments on this call about murder.

I know. I feel like you have the field office in Seattle, like, on their way to your house right now.

Maybe I should stop watching Succession.

I think it's.

It's a bad there. You still haven't seen that show. I've heard it.

So good. It's so good.

Okay, I'll have to add it to the list.

I'm only about halfway through. I need to drip it. It. Like, I think it. It's adding to my, like, evil mentality at the moment.

You know, that's actually a really funny post you could do is like, do you ever binge a show so much that starts affecting your personality, you know, and then go into. I've been binging Succession. And like, I'm like, constantly thinking about, if I did on a live someone, how would I hide the body? Or this that, you know, I was binging Mindhunter. Have you seen that on Netflix? It's about how the behavioral science unit and the FBI got established and how they went and interviewed all these serial. Well, and it was before they even had the term serial killer. Like, they're literally coming up with all the terminology that we use today to refer to these psychopaths. And it's fascinating, but, like, if you binge something like that, it affects your dreams. You know, it. Like, you start really thinking about, oh, my God, if I were in the room with a serial killer, like, how would I ask them questions?

How would I build rapport?

What would it feel like? You know, not stuff that you normally think about. It's kind of like if you're.

And even in a good way, right? Like, if we watch too much, like, nailed it.

Or.

Or like, is cake. Is it cake? Right? Then we're like, we need to go buy cake.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I like, I remember when Game of Thrones was. Was constantly coming out, my best friend and I were like, hey, we can't plan, like, dry January or whatever when we're watching Game of Thrones because, you know, they'd pour some wine, then we'd want to pour some wine. And, you know. But that's a post. It's very simple. Everyone has something to add to it. You know, everyone's, you know, Binge Jane Austen at some point and then started speaking like, you know, a Regency person. You know.

Until the last season of Game of Thrones in which everything just breaks down into.

Yeah, just, yeah, that is. Then you're drinking for another reason. All right. Oh man.

How did it go with Bridgerton, by the way?

You know, most of my calls canceled yesterday. So I found myself, I was literally, it was a back to back day. I woke up so early yesterday morning so that I could watch at least the first two episodes. And then literally my whole day worth of calls canceled. So I watched the whole thing and then I watched the whole thing again.

Wow.

You know, like as I was like doing some work on my computer but still it was just like. Yeah, like the, the universe just wanted me to be able to watch it. I was convinced.

So my wife stopped watching it simply because the main character from season one is no longer in the show. So she's like, there is no other reason to watch the show anymore.

Was hot.

Like yeah, yeah, yeah. There are more reasons for her to start watching. Yeah, yeah. Tell her not to give up. Okay. Bye Monica. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I, I'll, I'll post some ideas as well. Yeah. Okay. Well on that note, what's our main takeaway for today? Bye Lauren.

Stop being so perfectionist and just freaking post something.

Yeah. Yep. And Roberto, who are you volunteering next?

Carrie?

I think my main takeaway is that I, I need to stop.

Trying to.

Do all the things. It over complicates what I can offer and it, and I feel shitty about it when I try and offer it because I know it's not as good as it should be. And so yeah, I will remove a lot of stress from my plate if I can abide by that and stop over promising because I have shitty self esteem. Oh, she's gone. Nice.

Okay, we're go. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Awesome. Well, we have co working in about an hour so if you want to join, I will see you there. Otherwise, have an amazing weekend.

Have a great weekend.

Bye. Yeah, bye.