Scott Duffy interviews Rachael Herrscher: Power of Social Media, Business & Burgers: Season 2 Ep.14

I'm Alan Taylor. My buddy Scott Duffy and I are in search of the best burger in America. Each month we visit a new city to try some of the top restaurants, pubs and brewhouses while sitting down for a candid conversation with some of the top entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers and celebrities. I don't know about you, but I love talking business over a burger. Welcome to Business and Burgers.

Today on Business and Burgers, we're in the mountains of Utah to visit Utah's top ranked restaurant, Edge Steakhouse. Chef Wayne is whipping up an extra special top secret burger for us today and I think it's going to be one for the record books. Joining us for this once in a lifetime burger is Rachel Hersher. Rachel founded the influencer network and social tools dashboard socialboost.com and she's the founder and publisher of todaysmama.com, a nationwide network of mom bloggers. Rachel is a fount of knowledge regarding everything social media and entrepreneurship. She's been recognized as one of Utah Business Magazine's 30 Women to Watch and one of the top five CEOs to watch on Twitt by Businessweek magazine.

So Rachel is today's mama.

Yes.

And has built a blog, a social media empire and I am really looking forward to learning.

But wait a minute. Before we get there, Nicole here is going to tell us about something that is, I think they're going to throw down the gauntlet to all burger makers in the world.

It is, it's pretty amazing. So our Edge burger is actually on our underground menu. You have to know about it. Give us 24 hours notice. Purebred Japanese A5 Wagyu met with domestic Snake River Farms Wagyu. So chef makes a 5050 blend ground in house that I think will blow your mind. Challenge accepted.

Challenge accepted.

I'll be right back.

Thank you.

So how did you get started?

I feel like the old lady of the Internet because I actually started in 2004. I had a 2 month old and a 22 month old and I started a publishing company. So we used to create books that were places to go and things to do, sports leagues, music lessons, all that kind of stuff. And the back had coupons. And in Utah it was called the Utah Mama's Handbook. But we ended up licensing that out to newspapers all over the country. We had a Seattle mama, a Bay area mama, a San Diego mama, Houston. We were all over syndicated it. Yeah. And always had a web presence to go with them. In 2004, I mean Facebook didn't even exist. I Think it was still an idea coming about in Mark's brain in a dorm somewhere, right?

Yeah.

But in 2008, we were actually getting ready to sell it. It was September of 2008. You can guess what happens next.

Money dried up.

The world fell apart. And so print was a bad place to be. Local advertisers didn't have money anymore, and newspapers were a horrible place to be. I mean, they were getting rid of their targeted publications departments, which is where we were.

Is there a pivot somewhere in there?

The conversation is all about pivot. Right. So we really saw all the energy in social media, so we shifted everything online. We started doing social media conferences for bloggers and women and really just evolving with that. We run todaysmama.com but then we also run a network called Social Boost that helps take care of other bloggers and what they're doing.

I've been on Today's Mama on Facebook and other social networks, and you have like 500,000 followers, 600,000 followers, 570,000.

But nobody's really counting.

But nobody's really counting.

It's probably 568 right now.

And that's just on Facebook.

Yes.

And I'm curious, you know, for somebody just starting today, how do you build your social presence?

Well, and let's be honest, it's a whole lot harder to achieve those numbers today than it was two years ago or a year ago. Facebook's locked down their algorithm so much. I mean, we used to be able to grow at 4, 8, 12%. You're lucky if you're growing at a half a percent on Facebook right now. So it used to be that you had fans. People came and found you on Facebook and clicked the like button because they wanted to hear from you and they wanted to follow you. But as time's gone on, Facebook's decided what they really think you should have access to. Right. So you're not choosing anymore. On Facebook, their algorithm is choosing. And so you may have built a following as big as mine, or I've got friends with 2 or 3 million fans, and their reach is about the same as it was when they had 50,000. So what Facebook has done, they may know it, they may not, but they've driven their best content creators to other platforms. So people like Amazon and YouTube should be writing Facebook thank you notes. Because all of these people who've invested a lot of time growing an audience and creating content on Facebook are going other places where the business is better. You need to be able to reach your fans. So YouTube is the second most searched platform next to Google. Video is kind of trumping everything. So if you're going to stay on Facebook, you got to have video, but take that video a whole lot of other places.

And Amazon is. If we talk about Pinterest moms. Right. I don't know if your wives have spent much time on Pinterest. A meme I see floating around a lot is, I'm not a Pinterest mom. I'm an Amazon prime mom.

So if I want to build a social following, you say that you can.

Do it on Amazon alongside building those other social platforms. You should be productizing what you do and anchoring that into Amazon so that.

You'Re actually selling products selling through Amazon.

Yep. And optimizing your presence on Amazon just like you optimize a blog post SEO.

So if I wanted to get started today, building a following, what's the first thing I should do?

I think the thing that I'm hearing over and over again is find your thousand best fans, find your loyal following, and build. And find your tribe and build. I think it's been the wild, wild west. Finding your tribe is more important than ever. I mean, on Facebook, I may have 500,000, almost 600,000 fans.

516, still important.

That's a bit.

But I have access to 5 to 10 million fans because of my crew, my posse, my people that I run well, who are my kind of counterparts out there that I'm able to say, hey, we're running a campaign. Can I share it over here? Hey, we're going live. As far as to say, sometimes we make each other admins on each other's pages. You might see us as competitive, but no, you have to be complementary with people or you will not live to build your following.

Build partnerships.

I was gonna say, what about big brands? Do you stay away from big brands? Do you embrace brands that you trust and love?

Yeah. No, I mean, that's kind of our bread and butter. We work with big brands and we're creating content for big brands, and there's a sweet spot. We don't want to create overproduced content. Right. We don't want to look like an ad. And so in working with big brands, there's a sweet spot where there's an authentic place in the middle where things look a little scaled back, where that personality's in there. It's a little toned down.

Hold on, hold on a second.

So I'll tell you, we'll get back to that as soon as we see our brands, too.

What Is that.

Today we reveal one of Edge Steakhouse's secrets. A burger that you can only order if you know it exists. That's right. Today we're trying the Edge burger. And if you want one, you have to give Edge Steakhouse 24 hours notice. The beautiful east meets West. Wagyu patty sits atop a house made brioche bun smothered in truffle aioli. The patty itself is a perfect juicy medium rare and is topped with a sous vide lobster tail that is then broiled to the perfect consistency. They top it off with a bearnaise sauce, a sprinkle of black truffle peelings and caviar. This already is the best smelling burger I've ever smelled. And that's not all. On the side we have a pile of truffle fries with a truffle fonduta and house made red pepper ketchup.

Oh my gosh.

It's so good.

I've never tasted anything like that.

Do we get another bite or like, are we.

You just go.

So good.

So.

Oh my God. So let's talk about your journey.

So good.

As your journey as a female entrepreneur.

So Salt Lake is the epicenter of social media. We just hit that. Right? Right. But also we start more women owned businesses here than anywhere. And people think that like Utah's full of like patriarchy and like pioneers and it's not. So we're called the silicon slopes. It's a super techie city. It's a super educated city. I will tell you, the boys in business here are fantastic to work with. So I have never felt it hard to be a woman in business, especially in this town. My biggest advice to women in business is we all see the world through a certain lens. If we, if we see the world through a lens that like I'm a growing business and it's going to be hard. It will be hard for you because you will always be looking at where you've been ripped off. Go into it like it's not going to be a thing. And usually it's not going to be a thing.

So what about money?

Yes.

I mean, it's not as easy to get as it used to be.

Yeah.

And it's even that much more not easy to get, I guess these days if you're a woman.

So years ago, so I'm 39 now. I started my business when I was 26. I had raised money by the time I was probably 28. And I went to a conference full of women because they were starting an actual fund dedicated to women here in Salt Lake, it was called wave or something. It's not around anymore. And they asked the question, how many of you have ever raised money? And I raised my hand, and I thought that there would be at least 50 other people who raised their hand.

Sure.

I was the only one. Wow. So the next question was, okay, are people not funding women? Right. How many of you have pitched to raise money? Guess how many people raise their hand.

How many?

One. Me. There's a. I don't think I can. It's intimidating. And then there's an aversion to taking other people's money. I think women maybe have a little bit of an aversion to taking on that responsibility or that risk. That's the biggest thing is go and pitch. Because these funds are. They want to be more diverse. Funds are dedicated to saying, hey, we need to be more diverse. They're not getting the pitches.

So let's say I want to show up. I'm a woman, and I want to show up by starting my own business. But I don't know how to show up. I don't know where to start. What do I do?

So my favorite thing is doing something random. Go to an event you never think you would go to. Go be somewhere that you're not used to being, because that's when serendipity happens. I met my investor because I went to a business roundtable and ended up talking to him after. And then, you know, keeping in touch.

There are so many resources around the country, whether it's incubators or accelerators.

Exactly.

Our partners at Microsoft, in the work that they do with entrepreneurs and small businesses. Businesses. It's out there, it's available. A lot of it's online, right?

Yep. And really keep in touch with those people, because you may not be ready to raise money today or to pitch today, but in two years, you might be.

I want to know about balance.

So for a lot of us, this is men and women, I think, especially more now because nobody leaves their work at the office. And more than ever, people are working from home. So there are offices off their kitchen or in their basement or whatever. So that kind of division I don't think we're really getting. I get into a routine, and it's gonna change. Like, right now, I'm pretty cozy. But guess what? School gets out in May, and that's gonna turn my life upside down for the summer. And so I've got to be ready to adjust. It's the little things, you know, I don't sleep with My phone in my room, you know, so it's gonna be different for everybody, but it takes a little bit of self discipline.

Alright, so advice.

Yes.

You know, we've heard this a lot. Just start. But it's scary. What do you say when people are like, but it's scary.

It's scary and it's overwhelming. But breaking it off into small pieces and phases so that you're doing one thing at a time, I think helps that because it leads to the next step. Always it's just gonna lead you to the next place. So focus is huge. And you know what, if you are locked into your business plan, you will fail because you have to pivot, you have to change, you have to respond with the feedback you're getting. And so we put so much value in that business plan that we use to pitch with that it can handicap us. It's like when Guy Kawasaki in one of his books said, did the ice makers turn into refrigerator makers? They didn't. The ice makers went out of business. And I think about that all the time. Like, did the book publisher turn into an Internet business? You're damn right she did. You know, so be aware enough of how the world is shifting around you and don't be so married to making ice.

Thank you very much. You have been great.

So good to be with you guys and I'm sorry. So lucky to have this burger. No one else gets it.

Rachel's path has seen many pivots and she's learned a ton along the way. Here are some of our favorite tidbits from our Sit down with Rachel. Find your loyal following and build your social presence from there. Don't be afraid to go out and pitch. Get out there and get your idea funded. Don't be the ice maker. Be ready to adapt and pivot as the world changes.

Check out more episodes of Business and Burgers and our BNB blog at our website, businessandburgers. Com. And don't forget, visit Business and Burgers on Facebook and give us a big thumbs up. See you next time right here on Business and Burgers.