MM - You’re Overthinking Live Video… Do One of These 6 Instead

Good morning, good morning! Happy Monday, everyone. Happy Monday after Easter. I hope you got some good family and friends time this weekend. I got a lot of sleep. I slept all day yesterday. That's what I got. And so I'm ready to go. Like, it's Monday, let's go! And I was thinking about this last week, and I thought for my own business, and I thought this would be a really great topic to talk about on Monday. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna take this back just a little bit. But really, if you're struggling to engage your audience right now, if you're struggling with what to say on lives or even short videos, this this session's for you today. So this is going to give you some momentum in the video area. We're going to talk about it today. I want to take it all the way back, though. I want to go back to our 4-part audience growth framework. Okay. So you've heard me talk about this before, but let's just talk about it really quick because this is part 2 of that framework. Okay. So part 1 is attract. Okay. So if we're looking at the framework of how to grow our audience, and it doesn't matter where you're at on this journey, you could be just starting your business, you could be starting your page, you're starting to build your audience. You could be somewhere in the middle. You've got an audience, you've launched your subscription box, you've got some subscribers, or you could be scaling. And so this goes for all of us, no matter what point you're at at your journey. This framework needs to be set in place for all of us. So we want to attract, then we want to engage, then we want to capture, and then we want to nurture. Well, I'm going to talk about engage today, and one specific thing you can do to engage is going live. Now I go live all the time. I'm live right now, but also for my subscription business right now, I'm going live like twice a week. But I also have the opportunity to sell other things because we sell one-off products all the time. So when I look at my monthly live schedule, I'm selling one-time products more often than I'm selling my subscription box. And so I got to thinking about once I stop that, because, you know, I'm in this big transition of my subscription business, I'm going all in with subscriptions. I'm no longer buying for the store. I'm no longer making collections outside of subscriptions like We're going all in on subscriptions this year, and I need to figure out a way that I can still engage, go live, but I only have my subscriptions to talk about. And so if you have been in that, like, I don't sell a lot of other things, Sarah, you go live all the time, you're selling stuff all the time. How do I engage when I just have my subscription box? And that's the challenge. And that's what I've been thinking about. And so I put together kind of a plan today of what I can go live for throughout the months when I only have my subscription box. So let me know in the chat if you only have your subscription, just say subscription. I only have my subscription. I'm going to give you 6 fresh ideas today that you can use to go live. And I've got to keep this engagement up. I've got to continue to engage my subscribers. I've got to continue to engage people that are not subscribers. And get them to subscribe. And so I was thinking about what are the ways that I can do this as my business is transitioning to a subscription-only business. Let me come to the chat and say good morning real quick, and then we're going to dive in with these options. And if you're a note-taker, perfect time. Grab your notebook, make notes on your computer. However you do that, you're going to want to write these down because when you're sitting there thinking, I need to do something to engage my audience, but I'm not sure what. I've got 6 ideas for you today. Okay, let me come and say hi. Hi Christina, good to see you. Hey Jen. Hi Jay. Good morning Myra. Good morning Amanda. Good morning everybody. Hey Carrie. Hey Teresa. Good morning. I see the team is in the chat on Facebook and YouTube. Good morning Sue. Good morning Monica. Hey Catherine. All right, so here's where we're going to start. This is number 1. You should all already be doing this. I teach this non-stop, but you need to do a live unboxing. Okay, so that is number 1. Um, that's a shared experience that you're gonna do with your subscribers. I invite my subscribers to come watch, um, an unboxing with me. I open each item slowly and intentionally. I share why I chose it. I talk about how to use it, how they should feel about it, a quick tip or idea around it, maybe highlight some of the details on it that they may have not noticed. And so that, that is live unboxing. I talk about that nonstop. You should already be doing this. This is one thing that I will continue to do every single month. Okay, now option number 2, and I had to like, I figured out what I would do for my business, but I had to make it a little more general because our businesses are a little bit different, but how I'd use this box. So for me, this is a couple different ways, like, and I've got a couple different ideas for you. For me, this would be a style guide. Okay, so 4 ways to wear a t-shirt, this month's t-shirt, and I would accessorize it and show it with different— I already do this style guide. I'm gonna do it live now. Normally I just do it in my closet by myself and I take pictures and video and we turn that into a reel and stuff. I will still do that, but I think I also need to do it live. This is one way that I can engage with my customers because yeah, I can do the pictures and I can post them and I'll get a couple likes on them, But if I want to engage my audience, I need to do this live. And so for me, that looks like a style guide. For you, it may look different depending on what's in your box. And so I was thinking about like, what if I had a self-care box? Okay, this would be like self-care routine with me. And I would just sit with my box in the mirror and I would do a live and I would show how to use the creams or the, or the spa things or whatever it is. What do you— what if it's like how I use my, how I use my box on the daily? This could be like, you just have to put this in your industry. For me, it would be the style guide. Let me know what this would look like for your subscription. How I'd use this box. Tell me what that would look like for you. Tell me what kind of box you have. And then how would— what would this look like for you? You could share real-life uses like how I'd use this bag, how I would use this if there's a tumbler in there. I'm going to show you 3 drinks that are under 100 calories that you can put in your new tumbler. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, how would you use the contents of your box? I want you to think about that because that could be really powerful. It could be really engaging for your audience. Okay. Because what we want is the box to actually— the items in the box to be used, not to sit. Okay. Okay. Rebecca says, I record myself journaling through the first day of their monthly journal and they seem to love it. I love that. I love that. That's perfect. Okay. Now, live number 3, you can go behind the box. Okay. This is like behind the scenes. I called it behind the box because it's catchy and fun. But what goes into creating the box each month? Month. And, um, I saw this— I saw a, a post or a reel from one of our members, Cotton Chaos, the other day, and it was like, what actually happens before our, our shirt ships to you? And it was the process of it, like, how are you choosing your products, um, the funny— a funny behind-the-scenes moment when something turns out to be the wrong color or the wrong size, a sneak peek, um, you know, like how you're curating it. I'm designing a lot of stuff, so I think that it's the behind the box, like how did it get to being delivered. That could be making it, that could be packing it, that could be shipping it, that could be all those things, um, that you do behind the scenes before they ever get their hands on that box. Um, so I think that that's a real fun kind of insider thing that they can see. And when we're connected to brands like that, when we're connected to the process, we're more likely to buy. So I want you to connect them to the process of going behind the box with you, behind the scenes, and how that box comes to life. Okay, now, a couple ideas. Card making kit, 4 of the 5, 4 out of the box ideas to create your card in— create your card into instead of the original theme. I love that, taking it and doing something different with that. Fake sprinkles, use them in craft projects, cupcakes, cookies, DIY. Um, I love that. So how do we use the product? That was number 2. Okay, number 4. Okay, let me, let me rewind if you're taking notes. Number 1, box opening. A shared experience between you and your audience is going to engage them. Number 2, how, how I'd use the items in the box. Okay, so that's practical value, that's functional, that's getting it out of the box and in their hands. Okay. Number 3, behind the box, a.k.a. behind the scenes of making the box. How does the box come to fruition? Okay. Number 4, member spotlight. And so this is a way that you could share customer photos, stories, read testimonials. You could highlight creative ways that other people are using the items in the box. This could be a live, this could be posts. Have you shared your box yet? I wanna see it. Like, let's engage them, let's get them to come. Share. I think member spotlight is a huge one because community is what makes it so special. That's why they're there and that's why they stay. Number 5, let's use it together. This could be this. Not every box can do this, but this could be grab your favorite box or your favorite item from the box. We're going to do this together. This could be a shared self-care routine. This could be a journaling moment like Rebecca said, like, hey, let's use it together. Let's do something with our products this month. This could be if you have a craft or a DIY box, this would be let's use our box together and let's do the thing together. And people are like, I want in on this. And that would be a great live. It doesn't always have to be behind closed doors. Now, if you have a craft or an art or something you're teaching, you typically teach that behind closed doors. But what if we did the finishing touches of that on a live, like, let's finish our project this month together. And you're showing them the product and people that are watching are like, I didn't get that box. I need to sign up, blah, blah, blah. I love that. Beth says, I have a book club meeting where we talk about the book I send in the box. Perfect. Let's use it together. Tell me how you can use your box together and we could do a live like that. That's another option. And then I like this one. I've never done this one on this, on my retail page, but it's something that I, I would love to do because I think it's super easy. But let's do an ask me anything. Let's do an ask me anything live. And this could, you could take pre-submitted questions. They could ask you about you know, box tips, like tips to use your products, fun personal stories about the making of the box, maybe a little sneak peek for the next box. But you, if you need to position this as I'm a person and I'm here for you, it's not just a transaction. I'm a real person. And so this could be a coffee chat once a month where you answer questions and things like that, or you talk about a funny story, a relatable story about you, your life, your business. But this is simple. Like, this is simple. We just have to get creative about this. And here's the thing. Once we start to build habits and do these things over and over again, more people are going to show up. More people were like, oh, she's doing coffee chat this morning. Let's see what's going on. I always got something funny I can tell you about in my own life because I'm just a hot mess 24/7 and I can start the conversation like that. We can answer questions about what's going on around your shop or what's coming up. But these are ways that engage your audience. And in a time right now where engagement's really, I always like to say the word hard and my husband's like, it's not hard, it's challenging. And I'm like, well, that's your word. My word's hard. Where things feel hard right now or things feel challenging right now, it's a way to just be yourself, just show up. Just go live, engage your audience. You're going to get more engagement from a live than you will from a post. And if going live is still scary, turn these into short videos. That's going to help you too. All right. So let me go back through one more time if you're writing them down. Number 1, live unboxing. It's a non-negotiable. This should be mandatory for everyone that has a subscription box. One time you need to do a live unboxing, period. Number 2, this is going to be a non-negotiable for me, how I use this box. Okay. So for me, that's going to be a style guide with t-shirts. And so I mean, this is going to be my 2 mandatory lives. I'm going to do them every other week each month. These are going to be my 2 lives going forward. And then I'm going to sprinkle them in behind the scenes, like what's happening with curation, how I'm choosing products. I even have like I was picking colors for inks, um, on Friday. So it's still sitting on my desk. I can talk about the process of picking inks, um, and how I match them to earrings and things like that. So behind the box member spotlight is number 4. Number 5, let's use it together. If you have something that needs to be used, let's do it together. Let's use this new, um, self-care item in your box. Let's Here's our, here's our— we got a cup in the box this week. I got 5 summer mocktail recipes for you. Let's make one together today and use it in your cup. Journaling moment, mini routine, craft project, finishing touches. Let's use it together because we know when they consume it, they're more likely to stay, right? And number 6, ask me anything. Just connection, trust, funny stories. Teresa says, I love your weekly newsletter with the personal story recap. That would be very engaging live. So if you're not in my— if you're not on my list, so we have— I'm doing this now in two different ways. If you follow Framed every Sunday and I did, and I did not send one out this Sunday, you're going to find out why on Wednesday when you get the Launch Your Box newsletter. But every Sunday I send a weekly recap and this would be something that I could just talk about on a live, like send it out in the email Sunday. I could show up live on Monday. I'm like, let me tell you. And I could repeat the story that's in the email, right? And so let me tell you what I've been doing. Like, if you follow me on Framed, you know that I just went to Jamaica. I shared highlights from our trip. I share what's happening in my own personal life. All the good, the bad, the ugly, the everything that you relate to. I do that in Framed. Also, what we started doing, if you get my Wednesday email, that is for Launch Your Box. So we've been doing— it's gone so well for Framed, we've decided to also kind of do something similar for Launch Your Box. So every Wednesday, the newsletter is a little happening in my life, and I turn it into— or Marilee turns it into a story that's we relate to business. And so you're going to find out Wednesday why I have no email from yesterday for Frame. So if you follow both, you'll find that out. But it's just, it's just a little personal. Like, I'm not, I'm not giving you so much that you're like, she shares too much. I'm going to tell you what I eat every day. I don't tell you all my problems. I take one piece of my life from the week and I turn it into a story that feels relatable, um, to my audience. And so whether that's me failing at something or feeling overwhelmed by something or excited about something or trying something new, like, I share those stories with you because it's about connection. And in a world that we live in with AI taking over everything, the best thing that you can do for your business right now is connect with them personally. And so I see it, it me a little afraid. Like, I get excited about AI and the things it can do, but it also makes me a little scared. Like, is everything going to AI? And so what I lean into here is, how can I be me? Because being me has gotten me this far. What I know, my expertise, my real life experience has gotten me this far. And I'm leaning into that while a lot of people are leaning into AI. I'm leaning into human. And, and so if you can do that, we're going to get through this AI wave. It's, it's, it's going to go up and it's going to level out at some point. But people trust people. Okay. So I want you to be you. I want you to show up. And this is really important for the part 2 of our audience growth framework, which is called Engage. We have to engage our audience. And if, if the posts aren't landing, if the posts aren't engaging, if no one's seeing our stuff, we've got to go live and we've got to do it consistently. Pick a day, pick a time, show up week after week, and I promise you're going to make progress. All right. All right. That's what I've got for you today. So I want you to think about what can you go live this week on? Let me know. Let's start engaging with our audience. Let's build that connection. And I will be live inside the group tomorrow. We have a special training on spring promotions tomorrow, so I'll be live inside Launch Your Box tomorrow. All right. I'll see you guys then. Have a great day.