Brave Biz Labs 2024 09 13

Hello. Happy Friday.

Happy Friday.

How's it going?

Good. I feel like I'm all over the place but still doing what I need to do.

Join the club.

Yeah, I mean the posting on LinkedIn has been really great so far.

Good, good. What are you noticing?

I mean I'm just like practicing my writing for sure and it's I think definitely my very first post is what's gotten the most traction. But it's, it's more about practicing on how to express myself.

Right.

So.

Mm.

100%. And like you, I look back at my early posts and they're so, so bad. They're so bad. But I still got clients from them so you know, they didn't think it was bad or if they did, they were like, oh, this poor woman, she's probably better at coaching than she is at writing content. Awesome. Hi Dina, welcome.

Hi. How are you?

Good, how are you?

Oh, I'm much better. I had, yeah like a crush came crashing down after my call with a new potential client. I mean the call went well and I did exactly as you have instructed to, you know, be come with that attitude. Yes. I'm not a quick fix if a quick fix so that's probably not going to be me. I don't believe doesn't work. I've tried it before. I think they me more to tell you the truth but you more respected.

Ah yeah.

They like I saw the mimics like the she was and she said you know what, let us think about it. Maybe it is foolish of us to assume that we know everything and you'll just come and hold her hand and we will fix it somehow. So she said that? Yeah. And we scheduled the call in two weeks and in case, I mean I just put it to today like very last minute so I didn't get a chance to speak like to ask for your advice before but I just shared it with you so not urgent obviously but when you have a minute to look at it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I changed completely my, my approach. I almost eliminated like the timeline and the 12 months commitment and I really looked at it as a holistic standalone project. Got it.

Hold on. I'm, I'm getting so many messages from people who have the old link still holding. So give me a hot second and I want to make sure I'm paying full attention. But also I don't want anyone to not be able to be here. Hi Von. This is going to be that awkward week where we have a few links going around. Sorry.

Yeah, I think the link though that's in heartbeat is the wrong one. So does that need to be updated?

I mean, the heartbeat is the correct one. The one that in the event. I mean, the heartbeat.

Yes, the heartbeat event.

That's.

I mean, that's the one that I used.

So the heartbeat event is correct, but in the heartbeat there is a place where you say, here is where all the events are. And I think this is the link that needs to be replaced.

Yes, that's the one I went on where, like, the calendar is.

So the calendar we're not using anymore. We have to. I think my team's taking that out. This. They should have taken it out. Where is it? They don't know how to take it out. Yeah, so we're not using ad event anymore.

We're.

We're just using heartbeat events.

Ah, okay. How can I update the heartbeat events to the calendar?

So you go through a new RSVP for those events. You confirm that you're going, you've been invited already.

Got it.

Yeah. So if you go into events, why don't we. Why don't I show you that right now? I think that'll be helpful. All right. All right, we're gonna. We're gonna have a little delay. Start. Okay. Hi, everyone. New link. Okay, everyone. Okay. Okay.

Am I on time?

I was late.

You're late. Monica, go sit.

I literally just clicked in right now.

Oh, funny. Okay, cool. So, yeah, I just want to share my screen a little bit so you guys can see here's where all the events are going to be from now on in the event section. Okay. So.

And hours we p them. Right?

Yeah. So I've. I've already confirmed, but the guest list, I've been. I've. I've basically auto invited everyone who is in heartbeat to these. Whatever calls are relevant to you. So you just need to go through and confirm that you're going and it'll add to your calendar. If it hasn't already added to your calendar and invited you. Yeah, mine are already on my calendar.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, Advent was. It doesn't. It doesn't update fast enough. So, like, I would change something and it would still be old like four days later. Which wasn't helpful to you guys because, like, you know, especially that one week where I had, you know, the seminar I was doing in the morning, so I had to move everything into the afternoon. It was just a nightmare. So, you know, I didn't want to deal with that. And it just, like, it was clunky to use if I wanted to edit one thing. I had to edit the original thing, and then it edited everything, and then it was hard to change back. And this is just so much easier to use. And they. They fixed the one thing that we had a problem with that made us not want to use it when we first set up on Heartbeat. So love that.

Any advice with Google Calendar, then? Because the ad event events are all on my Google Calendar, so I have to, like, somehow unsubscribe to all those and read up them. I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out.

Yeah, yeah.

You should be able to remove other calendars. Like, I have a toggle on my other calendars that I just toggled it off. But I'm sure you can also remove it.

You can delete it, and then it asks you if you want to delete just this event or all of the upcoming ones. So I obviously. All of them.

Let me see. Okay. Welcome, everyone. Happy Friday. We're just going to pretend. The call just started. Wipe it clean. Everyone got here. We're all good. What are we celebrating this week? Who wants to go first?

I didn't. After I felt a huge amount of stress.

What was that?

I didn't eat sweets. Huge amount of stress. And that's a huge achievement for me. Yeah.

Yeah. Congratulations.

I'm working on it for the past two and a half years. Hello, I'm Dina.

You're a sweet addict. Yeah, well done. And who else wants to celebrate something?

Today's Friday the 13th.

Yes, Monica.

I already reminded my husband we have all plans set except for I need to still figure out what movie we're watching.

Okay.

By the way, enjoy these. The number 13 is a lucky number, so because, you know, I'm part of this group, so all the luck is extended. Send it to you all so you're protected.

I was explaining in our writing class this morning that 13 in, like, the witchy world is also a very lucky number because 1 +3 equals 4 and 4 is the number of abundance. So, yay, abundance.

I thought eight.

Well, in the witchy world, there are a bunch of. There's so many different meanings for all the numbers. They all mean something different and everything. So. So anyway. But, Erica, what were you gonna say?

Getting back into the swing of things but also being gentle on myself while I'm trying to get back into the swing of things because I thought I could. Like, you know, I felt as though my vacation was almost like a retreat, but realizing that even after going through something that felt really good and exciting, you need to still be gentle on how to, like, get back into just the routine of stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Being gentle with yourself is so hard. So. Bravo. Seriously. Yeah. Well done. What else are we celebrating today?

I have a client or a potential client. Sales call later this morning. I'm a bit skeptical. I don't think it's. This person is a. Is going to be. I don't know. Either way.

I saw your question and I was like, I need to answer that and I forgot to answer it. So I'm gonna take it as practice.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anytime you don't think it's going to be a good client, it's not going to be a good client. If they're not answering the intake form questions, they're not serious about getting coaching. If they're answering the questions in a weird way, they're probably not what you know, they're probably not your ideal client. Feel it out, you know, do the first couple sessions like this and then start understanding, like, what questions to ask. You know, I've gotten to the point now where if someone doesn't seem like they're my ideal client, I just cancel it. Cancel it. If. If they were rude at all in there and I don't send an explanation but. Or if they were, like, obviously trying to sell me something, I don't. I, like, just ban them from my system. But if they just don't seem like they're your ideal client, I. I send them a note and I just say, hey, you know, based on your answers here, it doesn't seem like I'm going to be the best person to help. Help you. Here's a book or another resource that I would recommend to you for this.

Yeah.

Right. But, yeah, this is your time. It's your business. You know, you get to choose who you. Who takes up your time. Right. If you're. If you're like a bricklayer and someone comes in asking you to paint their house, like, sure, you can, but do you want to waste your time when there are other people who might want to talk to you about bricklaying? Not really.

Yep.

So cool. Cool. Jason, what about you?

I had two people show up on my calendar for next week, probably from the social media engagements that we're doing this week. So I'll call that away.

Yeah, that's awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, beautiful. What questions do we have today?

So as a follow up to what I was just saying earlier, two questions. Like, one, if you can have a look when you have time. And second of all, I know that we just had Ourselves, live. But I wanted to see, like, what, like how I present it in actual words is good enough. So if we can run through. Yeah. The, you know, the presentation.

The whole vision or the.

I mean, it's very short, so I mean, it's just like. Yeah, I, you know, I always try to do it maximum in 10 minutes. And then after the remaining 20 questions and I was able. And I welcomed honest conversation and they actually started to give me a very honest feedback and able to address it.

Did I hear you correctly saying that you rush through it in 10 minutes?

Yes. Okay.

Why rush?

Well, I think in 10 minutes is more than. Okay. So not fresh. But I. I intentionally want to leave as much time as possible to answer questions. My voice now is trembling. But, you know, I've been doing, like, investor presentations so many times, you know, and now I'm so. Yeah, so I'm. I was very not confident. Yeah, it's a. Okay, let me put it this way. It's very unfamiliar territory for me because the price of the price.

Okay, cool. So if I'm selling a kitchen gadget that chops vegetables really, really fast, it's okay for me to rush through the wholesale thing because, like, I just need to, like, get your attention really fast and convince you that you need this thing is going to make your life so much better.

Okay.

I'm selling a complex solution to a complex problem. Me rushing through stuff is going to make it more confusing. It's going to. So distrust. Because person who's thinking about spending tens of thousands of dollars with you is going to perceive you speeding through it as like the. The fine print on a contract. Slow down, slow down. I got to look at this later. When we're going through and breaking down. Here's what you get when you work with me. We want to go slow. We want to take our time. Right. This is a big decision for them. You don't want to rush them through here, all the details as fast as I can get them out of my face hole. Right. Because that's not going to do them any good. And also, like, the questions that they have at the end, it's gonna be like, you're gonna have to answer so many more questions to clear up the confusion because it went too fast versus you being able, like making it engaging and having them ask questions throughout you doing it.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Yeah. And you can say, like, you know, I know, I know. When you're doing investor pitches, you have to go as fast as possible. Right. Because you want to get them everything. But Remember? Sorry.

It also depends, and I always recommend to ask because sometimes they don't even want to see the presentation, so.

Right.

Yeah, yeah. So. So you can say, hey, listen, like, I'm going to present this to you. You know, something that I'm going to train you on right now is the way I'm presenting this to you is it may not be how you present stuff to investors. Right. We're going to take our time. We're going to, like, go through, make sure that everything is clear. I'm going to see, like, I really want to make sure you're making the right decision for which package is going to be best for you.

Oh, okay.

Right. You're supporting them in making the best decision for themselves.

Half an hour is not enough. Cool.

I have a question. Yeah.

I'm still very much in the very beginning of. And because we have that exercise. Exercise on how to do, like, pitch at a barbecue and all that stuff, I'm still, like, very much. Because I feel like I'm. I'm almost wanting to solve two problems, which is the community side, as well as getting the client with the community. So I. I think my question is more of when I am asking, like, these people. I think I'm. I'm almost going to be pulling from a variety of places.

Like, so this is such a good question. Can you hold onto it for one second? Because I want to make sure that we finish this. This answer to this question.

Yep.

Yeah.

Great question. And they are related. Absolutely are related. So, yeah, Dina. Especially for what you're doing, Monica, you'd probably fall in this. Erica. Depending on how complicated the proposal is for your clients. You do want to take your time. You do want to make sure. Here's the thing. Like, they walked into your office, they asked for your time, they asked for your expertise, and they're thinking about buying something from you. Right. Like, there's nothing about what you're presenting that you have to rush through. It's not like you owe them quickness. Right.

Oh, my.

Oh, they're asking for your time for free. You're not getting paid for this work.

Right.

Also, like, if you were going to buy a car or a house, if the salesperson were trying to, like, rush you through everything, like, oh, here's the spec sheet.

Okay.

You can look at that later. Here's this. Okay, you can look at that later. Here's the disclosure of stuff that's wrong. You can look at that later. Are you gonna buy the house?

Are you gonna do it? But you're Right, Okay. Cringe, cringe, cringe. Yeah.

So don't rush through. You don't owe them quickness, you owe them. I want to make sure you have all the answers to all the questions and you understand exactly what you're signing up for.

Okay, so I need to turn it into an hour.

I, I would, I would do that. I would, I would block off. And also, maybe it's two calls. Maybe it's, we do a proposal presentation call. It's a half hour. We're, we're going through it all and then I want you to take time to digest it and then we're gonna do a follow up question session. You know, you could do whatever, whatever works. But I think you're gonna have a quicker time getting people to say yes if you're giving them more time and more breathing room around presenting the information. And you're making that call when you're presenting the information. More interactive.

Got it. And, and then I was, I actually told them that I would like to spend some, like to pose and, and to elaborate on the process because the process is important. And she, she participated in my workshop of one and a half hours. Yeah, she already got the taste.

Yeah.

Do you have a visual of your process?

Yes. Ah, no, it's written. I should do.

So I want you to do a visual, just a visual of the process. Here's stage one, here's stage two for myself.

And I will do it, do it.

So that you can walk them through it. Because people think visually often with this kind of stuff. Yeah.

Okay, good. Yeah, the first thing, and I said I would, I really want to open the floor and welcome an honest conversation. So they like, they still didn't tell me it up front, but I could feel it. And I said, so it doesn't sound light to you, is it? I don't know if it was the right word of choice or not. And then her colleague said, exactly, it feels heavy. And then the CEO, this woman, she said, dina, you know, we identified the problem that we don't have enough candidates. This is a recruiting HR solution. So all we want is for you to come and, you know, hold their hand and help us, you know, observe and fix it. And I said, okay, like on the call, on the previous call, you already expressed that you wouldn't want 12 months retainer. This is how I normally work. So this is why I came up with this custom made for you. I still don't do a quick solution because I don't believe in that. So that's probably, I'm not know I'm not the right one. I was so proud of myself that I managed to say that and not. I actually. I felt peaceful. I didn't. It was. It was very full of integrity.

Yeah. So I think. Are you asking me to pull apart everything you said?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. You're going to drive yourself insane pulling apart every little thing that you said.

Okay, okay. Okay. I see.

Yeah. I think you did great.

I think you did great.

Like, they were on the verge of saying no. Now they're back in the maybe. You did a great job. You did a great job. Not everyone's going to be your client. Not everyone's going to say yes. You're going to learn over time what works well. Unless they said you. Why'd you ask that? It was question. It was a good observation.

Yes, it was. And then. And then she immediately said it. Okay, you know what? Maybe we need to take some time to reflect because maybe it's foolish of us to think that something like that we can expect.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is good feedback, right?

The best thing you can do. Absolutely.

Yeah. It's like your post that I wrote. I mean, that you wrote manifested.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So.

So, yeah. So, like, you're not. You're not in the business of getting quick answers. This is a really big decision for a company to bring you in. Right. You're expecting a quick answer and you're trying to make it go fast, but you're having your. Your speeding, which is making them slow down.

Oh, my God.

You're the.

You're the driver who's on their bumper trying to go faster, and they're like, nope, I'm going to slow down. You're making me nervous. Right. So slow down to speed up. Deal.

Yeah.

Okay, Good enough.

Thank for telling me that I did a great job, but this is what I wanted to hear.

Yeah, you did a great job that you. You took them from the verge of no to a solid maybe. And I think we were being stupid. That's pretty cool. Without you calling them stupid.

Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. And because some like the other approach is to completely change the pricing once again.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You did a great job. All right.

Thank you.

Of course. Okay. Erica.

Hi.

Back to your brilliant question.

Yes.

So, yeah.

Okay. So you have a couple things you do, right. So you're never really sure how. How you're going to position yourself to be, like, the person who. Who people are like, oh, I think I need that. So how would you boil down the different things that you do?

So essentially there's like the creator slash influencer management side and then there's the bringing the clients who would like to work with the influencers and creator side. I think it, it's just basically like the whole community collaboration is based, is like my whole thing that I am rooting it in or that's, that's the center of the web of the whole idea. And currently right now I am testing that out with like having one creator, I'm managing two influencers and then trying to do the management side. And tonight I'm hopefully going to work with like, I made something for a potential like client who would definitely need help with social media and things like that. And she is an interior designer. So it would be just like that whole hub.

Yeah.

So I mean like they all have a common thread of I help business, business people or business owners and influencers make more money from social media. Okay. You know, I would have it be like, here's the main goal everyone has. You know, I help business owners and influencers make more money from social media. And I do that by either managing their social media for them or helping them, you know, like get contract deals, you know, to, to do influencer work.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, like unsexy. It's not clever. It's just like, nah, here, here's the basics. And then, and then of course, like the next question that will naturally happen because they understand it is, oh, cool, like what kind of businesses?

Right?

And you can say, oh, well, you know, restaurants or this or that, the other thing and say like, oh my God, I own a restaurant. You can say, oh, amazing, like who's managing your social media right now? Or are you doing it yourself? Because that's really hard. And they'll say something, you know, like, oh, cool, like are you getting, are you getting a lot of new business from it? And if they're like, no, not really, I don't think so. You say, oh, well, if you're ever, if you're ever curious about how to change that, then let's book a call, you know?

Right.

Yeah. We want how, how we describe ourselves to be a memorable. And so it has to be simple. Right? Like when you think of like a milk branding campaign, what slogan comes to mind?

Got milk?

Yeah, exactly. Super simple, memorable. It always comes with the mustache. Right? We want it to be super simple and memorable. I help people make more money from social media by managing their accounts. If they don't want to do Anything at all. Or if they're an influencer, how to get deals. They can represent brands and make money from it.

Boom.

Like there you go. So. And then, then of course that sets the conversation up for them to like be curious but not curious from like, I'm a stupid person, I don't know what you're talking about kind of way. Right, right. I use this example of like that woman who said, oh, I'm lightning. She's an executive coach. It's like, well, people are just going to wonder if you're on mushrooms if you say that. Like, they're not going to, they're not going to be like, oh, tell me about your. The lightning work you do for corporations, you know, like makes sense. We want to. I do, I, I help leaders, you know, be more effective at their jobs. Oh, cool. How? Oh, I'm a coach, you know, we want to lead them into a very simple conversation where they don't feel like they're stupid, where they feel like the questions they're asking are getting to know you better and not helping them understand it.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Even if the whole within creators and influencers, for me it's to help them not only like get deals and you and work with like brands and stuff like that, but I think what makes it a little different is the fact that I'm like, oh, you are someone who are wanting to put yourself online, but I know someone who likes to help people make put themselves online. And so it's just being able to say, okay, I have, I have an influencer who had like a Fabletics brand deal and so I had my photographer person that I managed and then we made something more within the lines and the style that she aspired to always want, but she never really thought she could do. And then being able to do it together was something that I own.

Sus.

I was also.

I.

So I actually didn't understand that.

Okay. Within the creators and influencers side, like collaborating because I understand that there are people who are trying to grow but they don't necessarily always have the tools or like the creative like side of them to be able to. Wow. So. And I have creators who just want to make things and not necessarily put themselves out as like the forefront online. So it's able to mesh those two together and then bring the brand deals to then they both benefit within their own separate needs is essentially.

Okay. So are the creators getting paid for.

Their work or eventually have everyone get paid.

Yes.

Yeah, that work. Right. Because it's just more of trying to see about, like, chemistry and working together and things like that. And it's like. And so it's just having. When. When a brand deal happens, it's like, oh, great. Like, they. They put down a certain amount of money and it's like, obviously the influencer gets most of the percentage, but then there's also a percentage for the creator and a percentage for me, essentially. And it's who.

Oh, yeah, okay, so I see. So you're on the verge of creating basically an influencer agency. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, cool. It's not something you're selling right now, though.

No.

Okay, so we're going to back burner that as you meet influencers and as you meet creators and as you meet, like, all these other people. Put, like, add them to a list because when.

And.

And stay in touch with them. Like, have a. Have a checking call with them, like every two months. And as you're building out the rest of your stuff, like, we'll start working on that agency. Right? But like, you, like, you don't want to explain something to someone and have them go like, oh, I want that, and be like, oh, well, I don't have it yet. You know, because then that. That comes across as like, oh, well, you're all talk. Like, this is just big talk and then there's nothing to buy, Right. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people think, like, getting a TED Talk or like publishing a book is going to be the thing that gets them clients, but they focus so much on doing that first that they haven't. They haven't actually built out an offer that people actually want to buy, right? So they get all this attention and nowhere to send it, and then they lose, like, the attention moves on, and then they're like, no, no, no, no, no. I have a program Buy my shit. Right? We want to make sure that we're, like, setting up the thing that you're gonna sell. Then we're writing the book, setting up the TED Talk that riles people up in just the right way, that they're like, I want to buy that thing.

Right, gotcha. So the base is social media managing or helping business owners, slash influencers make money. And then while I'm building that out, it's within. Then within the details of, oh, well, if you're like an influencer and things like that, I can help you get the right type of gig with the right people that you want to work with.

Yeah, exactly. And you might. You might create like a Slack channel or even a heartbeat platform where People can connect and like it's like a membership that they might spend like 47amonth or 98amonth on to be a part of. And then you have like kind of a group of people that have already opted in whom you can then upgrade into this next level thing eventually. But you don't have to do that right now. But I wouldn't talk about it right now because it's just going to get people, it'll confuse them from what you're doing right now that you can actually make money from.

Right. Because I was a little bit confused about oh, am I starting an agency? Am I start like I'm, I'm like in this big question mark because it's, it is about production, it is about connection, it is about whatever. But then the question is like, where does the money come from?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's, that's later problem. Okay, later problem, right. It, it would be kind of like me being like, oh, I, I run a, a certification school for people who want to be business coaches. People be like, oh, where can I sign? Oh, well, it doesn't exist yet. Right. So we want, we want you just to talk about the thing that you can sell them right now. Right. And then in the background you can start like deconstructing how you can create that agency.

Okay.

Okay.

So starts more simple.

Keep it stupid simple. Kiss. We should be kissing all over the place. Keep it stupid simple. Some people mix it up and they're like, keep it simple stupid. And that's a little ruder, but you.

Know.

But yeah, keep it simple. You help people make money through social media and you help businesses by managing all their stuff and doing all the things and you do this other thing. Yeah, Deal.

Okay, cool.

And, and then like the agency, whatever you want to create there, there's a way to reverse engineer it so it can be profitable. Right? You can have, you can have the people pay like a monthly membership, like $700 a month to, to be a part of this community, to get business through you, to have access to your resources, to have access to your creators, you know, so maybe you only make like $200 a month per person and the other 500 goes to the creators who are like cutting up and editing all the, all the content. But you could have like a bunch of creators that are contracted within the program, right? Yeah, yeah, there's, there's a bunch of ways to set that up and throwing pens all over the place. But you don't have to worry about that right now. Let's, let's get you making a full time income doing the other stuff and then build that.

Gotcha. Okay. Keep it more simple. Yep.

Yeah, I know this is hard for those of us with adhd. All the ideas and we want to do them all and we're like, no, this is a really good idea. I should do it right now. And also like that can get in the way because we also need to make money because we need to eat food.

Right, right. Because right now like the whole management part was just like very low hanging in terms of risk and everything. Because I'm just testing out the waters with, testing the management without. And now that I said, hey, let's just try it out for two months just to see like dynamic in the chemistry and if you like it, then we'll talk about contracts.

Right.

And now the two months is coming up for everyone. So then it's like, okay, well like let's talk about me being able to manage you and like do the outreach and like me getting a percentage and then also would be great to start outreaching to businesses. And I think for me, I think tonight would be a really great, hopefully it'll turn into a really great relationship because I, I do have experience social, social media managing for like interior designers. And so I think that would be like a very fun part of the journey too. So.

Yeah, so something to think about especially. And this goes for everyone, you know, so if you're ever doing any kind of consulting work where like results can be monetary, it can be tempting to do a percentage. There are pros and cons to that however. Right. Because like say the percentage was $2,000 and then they don't pay you. Is it worth you going after them with a lawyer? No. Are you gonna do small claims? Maybe, but you have to be in the same state as them and it's kind of a pain in the ass. Right, but the thing is like you've done all the work already, right? And then you're getting paid after the fact. And what if they're paying you late? Like, there's no way for you to control that. So yeah, sure, you can absolutely do a percentage, but it, it like opens you up to having no control around when your money's coming in.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

So think about like, like what's, what's a monthly fee that they would pay that sets them up for you to do that work for them and know that you don't necessarily have to guarantee there's going to be, there's going to be results because there's so much stuff that's outside your.

Your.

Your control. You can't control that the companies want to get in front of the people that they have an audience in front of.

Right, right. I was, I was almost basing that off of just some. Something that I was, like, seen within, where I. Prior. Like I worked prior to prior. But if it doesn't make sense as a solo person.

No, no, no, no. You need to, you need to prioritize you being able to pay your bills. Right. It's great for them if they're only paying a percentage because they're not doing shit. Right. And also if you're doing all the work to get them those contracts and then they're not following through and actually doing the work, you've just done a ton of work for free versus if they have some skin in the game, if they're spending 700, 800, $900 a month with you and you're doing these introductions and they have to follow through. They have to make sure that it's worth it. Right. And if the contracts for 4,000, you've made more than 10% at that point. Right. And if you get to the point where, like, you're. You're making them way more money than you're charging, that's when you want to start charging more. And that's because then you have proof of concept. You can say, you know, I help my client do a $20,000 a month, and we're doing that on repeat, you know, So I charge $2,000 a month or $3,000 a month. Right. And here's all the criteria for you to apply to my program. Right.

This is where I forget myself because I put everyone.

Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha.

If someone's doing something for free for me, I do. I don't. I don't follow through at all.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, if you win the lottery and you really like doing stuff for free and having no thanks for it, then I say go with that model. But otherwise you're charging up front.

Yep.

Cool.

All right. We kind of evolved into different questions, but anyway, good enough. Okay. What other questions do we have today?

I have one. I was on a bit of a roll with the market research before I took a break. And since coming back and now focusing on the social media stuff, I haven't really been able to get back to that. And like, I've been reading some of the stuff that you've been putting out about how you've attracted your clients over the years and how you never Use DMS to do it. You, you built it through like organic engagement, social media, that kind of thing. And in the beginning I was reaching out to my LinkedIn connections through DMS to try to get the market research calls. So I'm just really trying to understand, you know, like if I go the social media route only, it's probably going to be much, much slower to do the 50 market research calls. If I go back to the DM route, I might get the market research calls faster, but it may not leave the taste in my followers mouth that I want it to leave. So I'm confused. I don't know where to start.

Okay, so, so you're asking if you should be posting about doing market research or DMing?

Yeah, yeah, because like I was DMing in in the beginning because I hadn't really started posting on social media.

And.

So, so I'm just given that you said that you've avoided that strategy, I wanted to bring this call to, to this question in the call to see like should I go back to the DMs to try to get my market research done or should I allow it to play its course? By the way, organic social media work.

That we're doing, you can do either. And, and I want to be specific. I never cold pitched in the dm.

Okay.

You know, like I, I'm never selling in the dms. I'm never like just messaging people out of the blue asking them to buy my.

Right.

Interviews. Like that's not, that's not the same thing. Okay, Right. So you want to do a combination, whatever works. Right. Because like the thing that matters is you get the interviews done with the right people.

Right. Okay. Yeah. Because I feel like if I wait for all those interviews to come organically through the social media posting, it's going to take a long time.

Yeah.

I mean don't break into people's homes at 3 o' clock in the morning and like try to interview them. That's illegal and creepy and bad. You know, but DMing them to, asking them to interview them like big what the worst they're going to say is no, you're not asking them to buy anything.

Right.

You know, if they do end up wanting to buy from you after being interviewed, like great. But that's their choice. You're not pushing them to it, you're not tricking them into a sales call.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Brains love to make us overthink this stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

So yeah, don't, don't worry about that. Absolutely. Dm, you can Reach out to people that you interviewed already and ask them if they, you know, just tell them, you know, I'm having a hard time getting to 50. Your interview was so helpful. Just figured I'd ask, you know, do you know one to three people who are kind of in the same boat as you, whom you could introduce me to?

Okay. You know, I'll go that route. Thank you.

Of course. Good question. What other questions do we have today?

Do you typically have, like, a different version or vibe for posts that are on the weekend? Like, are more people watching or less people watching? Do you want it to be more serious? Less serious? My brain constantly goes through this cycle.

Yeah, I think I. I instinctively want to say my weekend posts are less serious. You know, they're more fun. Right. Because, like, the competition for people's attention is higher.

Yeah.

Right. During the work week, like, I make up that they're on a train or they're, you know, at the office, or they're just, like, trying to eat lunch quick. But they don't want to try to work. They want to, like, just entertain themselves. Right.

But.

But we're competing with work. We're competing with a meeting. We're competing with, like, the commute versus on the weekends. It could be their hobbies. It could be a Netflix show. It could be, you know, going to lunch with someone. You know, we're kind of competing with that stuff. So we kind of want to make it a little more fun, a little more entertaining. Right. But also, don't overthink it. Like, attention is attention is attention. And also the way the way LinkedIn works now is people are far more likely to see your stuff three days later.

That's true.

Right. It used to be that LinkedIn, like, you had to get comments in the first hour or else no one was ever going to see that post. Now you can have crickets on a post for seven hours, and then all of a sudden, it hits people's news feeds and you get a ton of comments. Right. I. I think. I think for you, a more helpful question might be, what kind of mood am I in and what am I gonna have fun writing? Right. Instead of, like, what kind of mood do I have to make myself be in right now so that I fit the vibe of the time that the people are going to read this because it's out of your control.

Right? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

So that totally scares me because I've been going more personal on the weekend secretly because it's more vulnerable, and I'm hoping for less engagement.

You know, What?

I mean, like, the more personal ones, I actually, I put them out there because they're meaningful, but I don't necessarily want everybody in the world to see them, which is. I know that's just my own psychosis, but. But yeah, you can't predict the algorithm.

No, no. And honestly, the more personal, the more views you're going to get. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and this is why, like, I'm not telling you to go and be as vulnerable as possible on the interwebs, right? You're gonna. You're gonna understand, like, what you're willing to be vulnerable about over time. You know, there's stuff that I share now that I never would have shared when I first started. I'd be like, that's too weird. I can't. I can't let people know about that. Right? But, like, you know, it's. It's something that you'll build calluses around, you know, and know that you. You own the delete button too. If you share something and it starts popping off and, like, people you worked with, like, are learning that you had a breakdown at one point, you're like, I don't want them to know that.

And you can just delete it.

Who cares? My. My favorite story from Brene Brown is how, like, after she did her very first TED Talk that went viral, you know what she did for days? She hid in her house watching Downton Abbey and, like, and like, stress eating. She's mortified that she just admitted that she had a mental breakdown.

I'm looking her up.

I don't know who that is. You don't know who Brene Brown is? Oh, my gosh. You love her.

Really.

She's. She talks about shame and she talks about, like, living wholeheartedly and leadership. Like, you know, I. And she does so with such a great storytelling voice. You know, if you want to really see, like, a really great storyteller, go and watch her TED Talks and read some of her books. You know, her creative process. I think we've talked about this before. Used to be that she kicked her family out of their house for a couple weeks. She basically become a cave gremlin. Okay by him on. And then she'd, like, force herself to basically write a research paper, long book. And it was miserable and it was hard, and, you know, she'd sweat and, like, you know, just do all this work. And now she just goes on vacation with some girlfriends and tells some stories and has some take notes. She makes it more fun and her books are more fun. To read now. So.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway.

Is there a book in particular you would recommend for me?

I would start off with.

That's.

That's one of her earlier books. Daring Greatly.

What?

Greatly.

Daring.

Daring.

Daring Greatly. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. And then, you know, like, I. And I'm not saying, like, you in particular, like, I think everyone would benefit from reading her work because here's the truth about our businesses. Our level of success will always max out at our tolerance for shame. Like, the level of our tolerance for shame, that is always going to be the. The glass ceiling that's going to keep us from moving forward. And so really understanding where you have shame about yourself and what triggers it and how do you recover from it, it's always going to be a really helpful tool for you to go and do this work.

This might be a silly question. What's the difference between shame and embarrassment?

Embarrassment is, oh, my God, my skirt was tucked into my underwear and people saw my underwear. Shame is, I'm such a. People are gonna hate me. I'm the worst human being in the world, Shane. So. So embarrassment is like over an event that happened that was kind of embarrassing. Shame is I am bad.

Okay.

Right. So, like, guilt is, I did bad. Oh, I did. I did something shitty. I. Like, I was late to pick up my kids.

Oh, yeah.

Shame is I'm a terrible mother. Yeah. You know, guilt is. Or, you know, an embarrassment is, oh, I shared something stupid online and. And no one really commented. Shame is, oh my God, I'm terrible at creating content. My business is never going to lift off this. That and the other thing. It's kind of that catastrophizing that. That at its core has you being less than you are. Right. It erodes at your worth.

Makes sense.

I don't know if you can hear Luna's like really aggressively licking herself over here. Like, really.

It sounds graphic.

Like.

Any other questions for today?

Not anything I can specifically think of.

Yeah, I did some good work on my presentation yesterday. Still working on it. Getting through that.

Yeah.

Trying to weave more in, showing what I do as a analytics consultant versus having it be high level. So, like, more examples and whatnot.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah. The.

The whole salesy without being salesy, trying to know.

Yeah, do that. And what's helpful is having a little story about like. Like what it helped a company do or what it helped a team do.

Yeah.

So, like when. When we made this change and you're just talking about the change, you're not sharing with them how to do it. We made this Change like this started coming out. You know, it helped us identify this, this, this and this, which was costing the company this much money.

Yeah.

Right. Like, show them the result. Because that's, that's the thing that's gonna get them to be like, oh my God, like, we could be losing that much money. We should talk to Monica. Right. Without you overtly being like, come and buy my stuff.

Yeah, exactly.

That makes sense.

Tying to like, how much money is the most difficult for me.

Yeah.

Just because, like, it's not as like known directly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, whatever benefit you can think of that you can directly correlate from the thing, you know, like, we were able. And of course, like, this is old data that you can't, like you no longer work there. It's not like you can pull like how many people did over time, before and after. Right. Yeah, you could say like the team. Once we implemented this, the team, like had a lot more bandwidth to do proactive projects that helped us get ahead of work rather than just responding to stuff.

Oh, I like that.

So being. Yeah.

Preventing it instead of.

Yeah, yeah.

We were able to collaborate with the marketing team and the sales team to really look at what was being most effective.

Yeah.

Right. Which in turn. And then you can say, which in turn, like, helped them be better at their jobs. It helped our marketing, you know, strategies be more effective and it helped our sales process be more effective, which, you know, I don't have. And you can say I don't have exact numbers because it's really hard to attribute to audit. But, you know, it did help the company make more money. We did make more money that year than we did the year before for. Yeah. You know, or we did sell more of this product. Yeah. You get to show, like, here's the chain of events that it started and let them kind of come back to. Oh, yeah. But it'll probably help our bottom line. Right? Yeah, yeah. You know, and at the, at its core, like, you could use a very simple metaphor of like, you know, say you're doing a cross country trip and you have a leak in your, in your gas tank. It's just a small leak, you know, you might be losing, you know, a couple ounces an hour. But, you know, and you could, you say, you know, if you were to lose even, I don't know, like a quarter, a quarter of a gallon of gas, like, here's how much more, more often you're having to stop for gas. Yeah. And here's how much more time it's taking and here's how much more money it's taking for. To go from Massachusetts to San Francisco. Right. Like, audit. Audit is there to help you find the leak. Right. Because those leaks, like, while it doesn't feel like much in the moment, it can add up. It will add up.

Yeah.

It just reminded me of the office, how they were stealing just, like, pennies and how you wouldn't catch that if you were doing, like, normal audit stuff because it's so small. But if you were using data analytics, you can easily catch that.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Great example. That's such a. Yeah, I like it.

Yeah.

Back off my stapler. Yes. Awesome.

Cool.

What's your main takeaway from today?

I liked your quote. The slow down to speed up. Because I'm constantly, always like, I need to do more things. I need to do more things. And then my mind just keeps racing, and then I'm, like, not accomplishing anything, and I'm like, okay, that was a good day, I suppose.

Yeah. Well.

And I started to be like, that's content. But, like, it is content. Right? Because what are you doing? They're trying to do all this stuff. They're not slowing down to speed up. If they slowed down and implemented a system like this, it would help them go that much faster in the future.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

Yeah. So awesome. All right, well, have a great weekend.

Okay.

All right.