Latest / WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas / 106: 2025 Marketing trends with Monica Schrock (we told you so)

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106: 2025 Marketing trends with Monica Schrock (we told you so) · WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Did you watch the video from Mark Zuckerberg?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: So, what does that mean for marketing?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean for you?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: What are the marketing trends for 2025?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: And don't worry.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Me and Monica, my marketing strategist and marketing coach for my clients, are gonna tell you about the seven trends for 2025.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: A little hint, by the way, we predicted this.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: We actually have an episode back in 2022, three years ago, episode four, where we actually talk about why things are the way they are now and what to do about it.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's drop the beat.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm Elaine Lucartas.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a business and career coach for Women of Color and Allies.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Elaine Weakley awarded me the number one thought leader, and Apple News named me one of the top five business coaches.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Done doing the most as a woman of color or ally, and you want to create your own definition of success and happiness?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, grab your coffee tea or boba and let's do some business and career real talk.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Happy 2025, 2025, which is crazy already.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Monica, how are you doing?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing all right.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're here.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Beginning of 2025.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Another year.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're we're recording.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh by the way, I am safe.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: I live in LA.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: And today's what is it?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is it Wednesday?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Wednesday, January 8th, when we're recording.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: But so much has happened.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: What we started Monday with the Prime Minister in Canada resigning.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Tuesday, Zuck sharing the changes on social media.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The changes on Meta, yeah.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then fires.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then fires in LA.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just ready for this whole decade to be over already.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's not a great start.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think, you know, as as we all know, we're we have to take care of ourselves, but we also, you know, have to have to survive.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we're here to talk about some which seems trivial.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Monica.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know it seems trivial, but we're here to talk 2025 marketing trends because we want you to be able to navigate making income for you and your business and your family without losing your mind.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I want I want you all to know, like Elaine, why are you working like there's fires to be honest?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was thinking about that too, but I was like, do I want to stay in my anxiety and watch the news?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was telling Monica this before we hit record.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, no, I was like, actually, recording this podcast with Monica is so much fun.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Also, I haven't had Monica record a podcast.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it's been a while.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a while.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: And also the reason why I decided to do this is because we were doing office hours with my mastermind clients, like, oh, at the end of the year, because we were going over marketing plans for 2025.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna share with you trends.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: But because Monica is so popular with my clients and they love them, we didn't have time to go through trends.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Monica, why don't we just record a podcast on it instead?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're brilliant.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I'm so smart.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're excited for a fun conversation.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: We got, I got like this cute little messy Google Doc.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Eight trends we're gonna be talking about.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: So everyone, especially after Zach was talking about what's happening with changes on Facebook and Instagram, but also what are we always scrolling through?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about social media.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's get it out of the way because you all know it's not our favorite thing.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's not.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And just so you just a reminder of why you know it's not our favorite thing, we did an episode episode four back in.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: We've done like a couple episodes February 24th, 2022.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Just so you all know we are futuristic.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: We're recording this three years later.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: And we told you we're like, we ain't gonna be dependent on social media.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're not doing it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because why?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because now, more than ever, no one trusts it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: No one trusts it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Why do I feel like being the knowing aunt and saying, I told you so?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Don't you?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like I told you, like, I just kind of felt it anyways in 2020 when we're all stuck in our phones, craving connection.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I understand that, but it and and even before what Zach was talking about, like everyone, me actually one of my 2025 goals is to not have my phone with me, to not be on social media.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: And there's also much research and studies talking about the negative effects on being on social media.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we've seen that trend regardless of business, just people wanting to be less and less on their phone and for clarity or whatever.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what Zuck talked about yesterday, a like small snippet of what happened as he went on video and was talking about how they are getting doing away with third-party fact checkers that they've had for several years now, and they're for and are putting in community notes, which is what Elon Musk did on X.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they're basically saying like there's gonna be an uptick in harmful content because they won't be fact-checking what people are posting because of Trump's accusations that it is biased and censoring his his people's content.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be, it's gonna be the fact that he said more harmful content is just like in itself.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, if you literally say that the words, yeah, literally use the words.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And also, okay, go ahead, Monica, finish your thought.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I was just saying, if you have to say that, like I have no, but essentially, like, we all know what it is, it's proximity to power.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he's he wants to get in with the Trump administration.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to influence tech policy because he wants to make the most money possible.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So like we're not like we all know what this is, but it's just the reality of like how social media is going.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think Facebook is gonna be particularly vile as opposed to Instagram, depending on like where you're at in it.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But either way.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: So two things.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: No, so two things, yeah, and two things.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Even before he shared any of that, there was a study at Pew Research Center.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's a nonpartisan research center where they were sharing how regardless of your beliefs politically, both sides just distrust social media, and even more so because of the past elections.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Second, I'm I didn't ask this before we hit record, so it'll be interesting to take your take since this is live recording right now.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you feel this way, but I kind of feel like when MySpace was going down, that's that's how it feels like with m with Facebook, a little bit of Instagram, but like it's that's that's the feeling I have.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a feeling, it's not based off of data.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I remember when MySpace was going down and nobody really wanted to be on it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you feel that same way or I'm not feeling that way yet.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think we might feel that way in the next like year or two.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe by the end of 2025, it'll be a different situation.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're gonna see how this change in meta plays out and how how much that's gonna affect people's desire to be on these platforms.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because as far as like we're gonna talk about like edutainment, like education entertainment, like people want to be on their phones less, but it's also that type of like those types of videos are like a reprieve from like the everyday like work and horrors and things like that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if I'm I'm thinking like there's a downfall of it, but I am interested to see how this change like affects that and how the rest of the year goes, as much as people wanting to consume content.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's where I'm at right now.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's really there we've never been here before.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's so like this is new, it's the wild, wild west.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like yeah, like we can't even compare Facebook to MySpace.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of just like I couldn't, I don't know.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're just so powerful at this point.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like if out of all the tech bros, Tom got it right from MySpace, he left.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, peace out, let me get my money, let me go try to get it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like what I'm seeing in the micry.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: He got it right.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: But also, you know, the US Surgeon General announced like loneliness is a major epidemic.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's a big book on research on it called Anxiety Generation, and then Australia just recently passed the law banning social media to kids 16 and under.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's more studies and research on it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just uh, oh my God, what am I gonna do for business and marketing?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: But there's research on it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like when cigarettes were so popular back in the 80s and 90s, and now people are more educated on it, they're not on it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think similar on social media too.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that does affect business and marketing because if people, if those that's not where your folks are anymore, then spending a bunch of time on it isn't ideal.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But that depends on who your audience is for sure.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But if if more policies are implemented with young people, then that's like gonna change a lot of things.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So real time.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: And and I want to share another data point.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: So my I I told you via tax, like Evolve Finance is my bookkeeper and tax accountants.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: They work with big online businesses.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna share their names, but you could go Google Evolve Finance and see their client testimonials.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, tell me the trends.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was like I'm throwing it out there.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: I also'm just throwing it out there, but I'm not gonna put names here.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: But I really appreciate their the reason why I have them as a bookkeeper is because I want to know what trends are happening.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, they don't share confidential information, like their clients, but I was like, what have you noticed that has been working, hasn't been working?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And they just shared any business that has been dependent on Instagram and hasn't done anything outside of it, they're not doing well.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not thriving.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we've been kind of 2022.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: We talked.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna put it in the show notes for you to listen to it so y'all know we aren't lying about this.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is why we're wearing, we're not intentional.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: We're both wearing black hoodies for the death of this.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we've been kind of been Debbie Downers with social media.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But Monica, anything you want to share what what changes you might see or Yeah, and we're just gonna do this briefly because we really want to get into some of the trends that are not focused on social media, as you can imagine by everything that we've been saying so far.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say, you know, people who are creating content, especially the creators who have been growing and building that trust in their like it's not just audience, like fan base.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they have fan bases.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like fandom will always be a thing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I work with another client, fandom's a huge, huge part of everything we do.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And content creators have their own fan bases, they're not even audiences, like you know.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So those those folks aren't going away, and brands are kind of having to position in the same way.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think here with with folks who have maybe like your own business and it and it's smaller, or you're working for big brands, this might be something to bring back to them too, if they're not already doing it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the like content creator partnerships and the like edutainment, like the education entertainment factor is really what's gonna keep thriving on social media.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like creators have niche audiences.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at people aren't people have like short attention spans, but an interesting trend that's going on right now is that people are looking for more, like more serialized cont content is really thriving.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like one video to get everything, it's like parts, like part one, part two, part three.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've been seeing that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's mini series, yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Part one, part two, part three.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you're following along and you're engaged and and it entices people to like, I should hit that alarm so that whenever they post something, it could watch it.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: The trust and why this is like big is like trust in institutions and social media is is down.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's way down.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So building those relationships back up and like, you know, partnering with people who have been building relationships with people and have been giving this educational content.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing about that too is like, you know, we all know social media, the challenge is like, well, okay, I'm putting all this like energy, time, resources in it, and like the ROI is always the big question.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So so I think that's the that's always the challenge, is balancing that.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a bunch of time and resources to put into brand awareness, like really thinking about what will be impactful for your business, which, you know, might be just could be, I don't know what the like what a frequency could be, but it could be you do a weekly, like every month there's like a part four series.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: You do one short video a week that's like giving people some some value.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be like you're doing a four-part series every week.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think I always want to emphasize that because social media is always so doggy.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Choose your cadence, yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, choose your cadence, especially you know what you have, what capacity you have.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look at these big brands or these content creators where that's they have a whole department dedicated to it, or it's their entire livelihood to be doing it.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just not like we have to be realistic about like who we're modeling things after or making it our own, you know, when we do, as far as frequency and cadence goes.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, I have no like frequency for social media.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's like when I feel like it or feel inspired.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Another thing I've noticed as a trend for social media, I just did it today.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Just more so I want to share resources of what to do with the fires here in LA is putting the source because people are lacking trust.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: So it was like, here are three tips to deal with the fires.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, hey, you shouldn't work out.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like you should check out the sap, but don't breathe the air.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And put like source and BC, right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I and and I think it is because more so, especially with what Zuck announced.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how can people see you as trustworthy?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Where can you point to in terms of what is your source that you have?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's so it's so hard.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's so hard because I've seen so many videos lately of influencers, like wellness or whatever, just putting out random stuff where I'm just like, dude, just because of my own knowledge, I'm like, this isn't true.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But like they have like hundreds of thousands of followers, and it's just like, yeah, just a warning.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Trust is at an all-time low, but also, but also there's that thing where it's like, oh, this and this and this.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, where did you get that?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I saw it on TikTok, like, bruh.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh okay, all right.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I know our booty.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Recalibrate.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sorry, I'm trying to if you can like this is not gonna be on video, but my hands are on my head, like frustrated.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because so I'm the eldest daughter, right?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: And when my parents or even like aunts and uncles would text me, be like, Elaine, did you read this?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, What's the source?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like TikTok or it's like this blog.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, can you like make sure it's it's a recordable source?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and if it's a study, I mean, this is so this is just where we're at.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is why I shared Peer Research Center in the beginning, which is a non-partisan research.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if it's a if it's a study, you gotta follow the money.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like who funded the study, you know, like people can position, people can position data and with most any conclusion they want.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that I think, you know, I think I don't know.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's a weird way to end a social media segment, but like, I don't really have much else to say about it than if you want to make educational entertainment videos, please do it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: But please have a next step in your funnel, get people on your email list, please, so you can actually engage with them in a meaningful way.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's my biggest tip.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Social media is a top of funnel, meaning it is the place for people to have first contact with you.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important thing marketing-wise is to know what the next contact point is.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is like the most important.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be email.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, mostly it's email, or it's sending them to your website and they contact you or getting on a call with you, depending on what that means, whatever your business model is, really it depends on what that is.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that's I think that's my like last like nugget about social media.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: How about you?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to like compress it to when a couple of things come to mind.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, listen to our episode four back in 2022, but it just validates what we said three years ago.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Long form content is gonna be what people want.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And what long form content is is this podcast.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: You're listening to it right now.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to it right now.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Email newsletters.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Emails and newsletters.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then going back to your education.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Website.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, your website's so important, y'all.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even Yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I actually Monica and I did Monica also works on my business on top of coaching my clients, but like before the end of year, last year, we went through my messaging.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: So all this week, I've been writing so much copy, updating, updating my webpage.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I was looking at my projections for this year with potential leads and clients, but I'm at like multiple six figures, none of them from social media.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get any clients from social media either.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: All from my website and relationships.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Same with you, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't, I don't do social media for my business.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: And this Asian former valedictorian doesn't have to be performative on social media.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I also want to be less on social media.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I was catching myself being performative like I did when I was in school.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: All right, I'm done.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Are you done talking about social media?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm done.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Let's move forward.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move forward.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move to some like really exciting stuff.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because the thing about what we're about to tell you all is what I find both interesting as a marketer and funny.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, not interesting and funny, just like we me Elaine and I have always been about this life.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not like anything that we're gonna be talking about that's super new.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll emphasize what's important, and then there's a few things that are kind of like changed within what we're talking about and why it's timely right now.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But like the funny thing to me is like these are foundational marketing things.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: They've never not been true, but at times they've been neglected.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's like it's interesting to be in this industry now for 20 years and seeing all having seen like trends come and go.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And these not really being trends, even though we're saying that they're right now we're we're doing marketing trends, but these are things that have been said about every generation that's come up into the like consumer, you know, buying power world.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like I learned 20 years ago to get a marketing degree in.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, these are these are not new things, but we're going to tell you what they are and how they are relevant to right now.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, former org grassroots organizer, what that means, if you don't know what that is, is like back in the day I used to knock on doors and do phone calls trying to canvassing fun times.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to remind people to go vote.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: One or two, like putting small little fundraising events.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I raised$11 million for nonprofits and campaigns.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have a big fall social media following.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was through relationship building.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: So the second trend is, but it's always been there, is community first everything.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: This just happened in a meeting this morning.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, we'll not name, but you know, the an organization that I know, they were doing an end-of-year fundraising campaign.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, before December 331st, they got an unsolicited check for$100,000.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, What?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where did this happen?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Where did this come from?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it was because they were in circles and their name came up when someone at a foundation wanted to donate more less at a national macro level and more at a micro level in the the region they're in.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And people in the network that knew them was like, you should check out this organization.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then because they built relationships in that way, they get a hundred thousand dollar check before the end of the year.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like social media isn't gonna do that.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, it and and honestly, so like I said earlier, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: The US Surgeon General is sharing how loneliness is the number one epidemic.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: I've been obsessed with Dr.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Lori Santos.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: She's a Yale cognitive science scientist who talks about tips on happiness.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I just appreciate her work because she's a she's also a woman of color, but to heal the loneliness epidemic is really easy.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Connection, community.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And and I know that's in a social personal setting, but that's what people are also craving in a business setting.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, 100%.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's all connected.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we talk about for years it's been people who have their own businesses, but it's also, I think it totally relates to like C-suite executives and stuff like that, but probably feel alone in their positions because you know, it's like they're managing people and they can't take these problems to them.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: They can't take like challenges to their bosses all the time.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like you you crave a community that understands you, regardless of whether you're a career or business.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, to validate that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I I went to a conference for Fortune, 500 executive and leaders who are females.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: So Target, Visa, PNG, Coca-Cola, Pepsi.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: I did a talk on executive presence.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it was about 90 minutes long, the last 20 minutes of coaching.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I always asked for feedback, like what did you like the most of my talk?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: 100% everybody, the coaching at the end.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because it wasn't just me coaching, I also allowed fellow executives to come up and coach one another.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that peer-to-peer support.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, and I always joke around.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: I tell when I get paid to speak, I tell people I'm not a motivational speaker.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm here as a coach, like to have a conversation, to educate.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: But that's that's what people are missing is the listening part.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that that kind of brings us to like community first, like community first everything.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's kind of what it is right now.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it's it's really like, you know, private groups over social followings, like Slacks, Discord channels, like really curating a small, like a smaller group, but the ripple effect is much bigger because social proof and credibility with this distrust in institutions and social media is more important than ever.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been important.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Back in the day before we had this word word of mouth and social proof was important then.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been important.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: But now I think it's the other side of it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know like where things are headed with tech and know that that's like not the vibe.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're still gonna find stuff there.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like people are going to completely turn their back on social media and tech stuff.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to actually making a buying decision, like we're gonna ask people around us.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're gonna like, we're gonna consult like the communities we're in.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna consult people that have tried things where we need that social proof and that credibility when it comes to actually making buying decisions.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, actually, I'm gonna give you a little tip that I have done in my sales process.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: But when I get on a call with someone that's interested in possibly working with me and if it's a good fit and it's a good vibe, I actually invite them as a guest to my office hours.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, hey.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I get to meet those people first all the time.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Monica also sees them.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, you know what?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I know, like, just so you know, I'm not trying to make you feel good on the first date.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why don't you come to office hours, meet my fellow clients, ask a question so you could get to know the community.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Get to know the vibe.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a great, a really, really great offering that you do.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you're so transparent.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Transparency, again, for millennials for millennials, it was also key for Gen Z, even more so, I think, because they've seen the Sorry, we were I'm laughing because we were we were talking about how Gen Z is like saying they want all this stuff.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, this was the same for millennials.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Millennials said the same thing.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's it's just magnified because we didn't grow up with social media as much as they did.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we weren't born into social media.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't born into social media.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it is magnified now that distrust and that need for credibility and transparency.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So people are not expecting polished.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: They want to see like people having fun, being themselves, and being super transparent.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, reflect things need to reflect people's values, sustainability, ethical sourcing, values-driven stuff.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, like we're saying, this is not new, but we think it's like it's more emphasized than ever.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the transparency on it is gonna be key.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, don't like you were saying, don't like what's the word I'm looking for, like virtue signal, don't exaggerate what you're doing, be very clear about where you're at with things.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I mean, I've owned that.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I had I had the limit of 24 clients last year.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, nope, I'm only taking on 15 clients this year.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd say I, you know what?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that has actually helped me.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: I was on a sales call last week and someone and I asked for feedback.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: So we did a sales call and was like, hey, what did you take away from my coaching?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: What did you like about my coaching style?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And she just said, You actually got to know me.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like you sent reminders and emails.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't just the automated stuff.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there is automation, but like personalize it.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like our Elaine sends out accountability docs every week, which is really helpful to for like me to remember what I wanted to be held accountable for as far as what I wanted to do for me and my business.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of stuff is really like personalization is a huge thing.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we have time to go into the tech of personalization.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's but like it's it's always been huge, but now people are looking for those personal touches.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're not gonna get away with automating things in a vague and general way.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think, and you know, it's funny, I was just thinking about like credibility is gonna be huge.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people aren't gonna trust.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: That is the we're we're to the third trend.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: That was a natural transition.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: What is credibility?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: People might not know what that is.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: What's credibility?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Is credibility 10,000 followers?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh because let's be real, some people think that.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: So let's not judge them.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: Don't judge a monica.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: I saw a judging face.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, not judging, not at all.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, that's what's like been happening in the last like, and I told you hundreds of thousands of followers, and I'm seeing people just say things that just aren't true.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, you know, I think now more than ever, people are like, just because you have a blue check, which you can now pay for, or whatever, doesn't mean that you are an expert in anything or that your um information is credible.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And consumers get as tech grows, as data is manipulating and manipulated, as algorithms learn more and more about us, I think people are more and more savvy.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really important to have that like credibility.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of it is just, yeah, proof that you have experience in what you're saying.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think transparency is key.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: I find people credible when they are, they can say, I actually don't know the answer to that question yet, but I can check in uh like on it for you.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because when people just pretend like they have the answer, I'm like, I don't find you to be credit credible anymore.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's we're not expected to know everything in the moment.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think credibility is very much owning what you don't know and being like, but I can find out and do some research.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's thinking about it.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I now at this point, this is interesting, and I wonder if you agree.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I personally don't even see LinkedIn as a social media at this point.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I see it as like kind of an an extension of your website as like a credibility support system.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that's interesting.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think LinkedIn, it's it's been growing in the last year, but I don't think that's gonna change.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's gonna keep trending upwards.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Let's because I know that was the fourth trend, but let me close the loop on credibility and social proof.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, like the credibility, you can go on my website, like I link all the online courses I've had with like LinkedIn universities like USC, Duke, and Brown, the social proof in my emails each week.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: I put a client win there, like a screen.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: The length of credibility queen.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know what's interesting?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: We were looking at our stats, right?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: And remember the the stats that we didn't expect, which was the most clicked on links were the ones with my clients' post wins or articles.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that that was a shift in Q4.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: That wasn't there before.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: So that kind of validated that people lack trust.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, is she saying this stuff?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Is she making this stuff on Canva in Photoshop?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, it's actually real.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's real.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's that's like perfect too.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think things that I do for that outside of testimonials, which, you know, is like, again, like they're there and I I like, you know, can point to them.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: But for my business, I don't have these like pages public because there's no reason for them to be.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But when someone's talking to me, I do have email case studies that I can link out to like samples, and then transparency there is that, oh, well, full transparency, these these results were in tandem with an ad budget and and these things.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: These results were because of like I can't just be like, oh, I helped them generate a hundred thousand dollars revenue with email.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: There are other things that are happening there.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think credibility is also like how you position things and like no, I'm I'm being transparent about how this campaign impacted, but it wasn't it didn't create the results on its own.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then also, you know, having writing samples, having things available for people to just be able to see like what you've done and who you are is really important.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I sign NDAs, so I can't I can't just share like stuff with people.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: And and going back to what you're sharing, like when you don't know the answer to the question, you know, for me as a business owner, I'm like, okay, I might not be the expert for marketing or systems or money.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: But what I did was like, let me bring a team of people that are so they could support my clients.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And also the number of times that I have told clients, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an accountant.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: So even though I don't necessarily have that in my team, I could refer.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or if I don't have a referral, I share, here are things to look for.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: So for example, like my bookkeeper of all finance, who I shared earlier, I would not recommend them to people who don't have online businesses because that's what they specialize in.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have an events business, I wouldn't recommend them.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm not sure.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Or a product-based business.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would recommend like find someone that specializes in it because they know industry standards of like what your profit margin should be, how much you should be spending on operations and labor.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: You kind of teased us a little with LinkedIn.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I know we're throwing a curveball with it not being social media.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, why is hot take?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why is I mean, I'm a LinkedIn and check, I have three courses, but why is LinkedIn not social media?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Why does it feel that way, Monica?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: It feels that way in the sense of like people used to say Pinterest is social media, which it's not.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a search engine, but that's more of like a Pinterest is a so yep, Pinterest is a search engine, SEO.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: To me, LinkedIn is a, I mean, it started as a network.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, posting has become more prominent on there.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And like people having like, you know, like a little bit more of like followings on there and having them as being like creators essentially is kind of a new thing.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it started as an online network for you and like people you meet and how to stay connected and the showing a portfolio of your work.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: People ru people recommend you on there.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You literally get reviews from like coworkers, former bosses, clients.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is a reflection of a website where I'm not saying it should replace a website because it is still a place where you don't own that content.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that is not what I'm saying.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think there are a lot of opportunities because the credibility is really baked in there and people are expecting it.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think like there's great opportunities to now, you know, feature posts on your profile to be able to like post videos, to create newsletters.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Newsletters is a growing thing there to have LinkedIn content right within the platform.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you can really leverage your network, but it's not necessarily a social platform.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: Legacy leader.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: I know what you're thinking.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Elaine, you have such good stuff here.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: I want more.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want more tips and advice for your business career in life, sign up for my gifts and gifts newsletter at elaneloo.com forward slash join.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's J-O-I-N.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: And here's three things you'll get when you join, because I'm like Santa Claus.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I love giving.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, funny gifts.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: Cause who doesn't love memes and pop culture references?
• 32:10
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• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Number two, receive actionable gifts.
• 32:15
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• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: Third, the gift of me.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Not only to get my wins, but also my failures, my reflections.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: My gifts and gifts newsletter is like an up-to-date diary.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Think Zenga or Life Journal for my fellow millennials, where I share vulnerable stories, relatable mistakes, and important life tips like what to watch on Netflix.
• 32:42
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• 32:44
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• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's J-O-I-N.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: And here's a tip that I've been doing with LinkedIn.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: If I get a lead that comes in, y'all, it's really easy to go Google and find someone on LinkedIn.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'll just send a message like, hey, I saw you scheduled a call with me.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I see, oh, I see we have mutual friends.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Monica, and you live in LA.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to connect.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can see mutual connections.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's really valuable.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know Instagram has it, but it's not as great.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not business oriented.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, not not for depends on your business, but not for, you know, C-suite executives or people with small businesses or even service providers necessarily.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: And and not just even for business owners, but LinkedIn has been a platform.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Is it called intrapreneur, right?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like executives and leaders within companies.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: They've been doing it more.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like I have a friend who I could share because so I have a really good friend.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: She's executive for Salesforce.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Her name's Lucy Watkins, but she's been posting more on social media and wanting to start her own newsletter.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: That reminds me of something.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: And she was actually encouraged by her bosses to do it.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't like I want to do something on my own.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: She was like, you know what?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: You have a platform.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: You have this leadership role.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: People look up to you.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you start posting and sharing tips and advice on LinkedIn?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: So she's been doing that.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we're friends from a former mastermind, but she messaged me, Elaine, I'm thinking of doing stuff on Instagram.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, your energy doesn't seem like it does not sound like you want to do that.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then she tried it and she's like, yeah, I don't like it.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's what I thought.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that thought leadership piece is like, is really big.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't have to do that on LinkedIn.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that everyone needs to do, but it is a cool thing.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I that reminds me when you were saying that, where I was um reading another thing, which I've always thought, and I always was like, why are companies like because I know why companies were so like about what I'm about to say because they thought people were taking away from their job, like stealing time from them, which is ridiculous.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm like, people within your company that have personal brands is not a con.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pro for you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is a pro for you to have people be their personal brand and work on that personal content.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like make it something that is encouraged, not like shamed.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because like this is only gonna help your business your business and your company and people and the transparency there and the like, you know, I think it's it's uh it's something that's trending upwards.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really happy about that because I hated when you had to hide from companies that you have a personal brand.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't make any sense.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it 100% is trending.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like a really good friend of mine in college, she's a VP at Capital Group, Le Gutierrez.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: I could share her name.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out, Lizzie.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I just saw her post.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh, I'm on this podcast.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yay! I'm so excited to see my friends.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: I went to college with her that I know.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so there is a trend of the thought leadership.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Personal brands within companies.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm getting paid an ass to do talks on personal branding.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it is a thing.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: All right, fifth trend.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: What is it, Monica?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we can just talk, we can talk a little bit about branding and and and messaging, right?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been obviously it's always been important, but like ensuring that your brand is like cohesive from channel to channel and like define what cohesive is.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: I know I'm going like such like a baby, but as you know, some people may not know what that means.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's cohesive.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, having the nine pictures on Instagram, you know, it looks pretty on the grid, it's the colors.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: What does cohesive mean?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean a good brand visual identity that is cohesive around all your like marketing channels is ad advantageous.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and definitely, I definitely encourage that.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's like less.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, no, it's not less so.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I feel like we've talked about this for a while.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think it used to be people would say, oh, people need like seven touch points before they blah, blah, blah.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: At this point in time, I don't even think we could measure how many touch points people actually need before they make a decision or take any action at all whatsoever.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: It could be 40.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I have no, like honestly, I couldn't say that's such an old stat and we can't even use it anymore, in my opinion.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is my opinion.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is not fact.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: But there are so many touch points that people have to have to convert.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so important that your your branding, let's say visual for sure, if you can, but your brand messaging is consistent across all platforms.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like your voice, your brand voice and your messaging should not change.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, really, the type of content you might post on different platforms, email, LinkedIn, Instagram, could change in its format, like how long it is, what it looks like, etc.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: But what you're saying, like how you're saying it, what you're saying, and how the it presents visually should not change.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, so we undoing like a little shout-out and referral for Monica.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: We did a brand messaging guide.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: And whenever I even write emails or even my webpage, I always refer, like, wait, what's my mission vision?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just check in.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know intuitively, yeah.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, let me make sure I'm still touching and hitting the points.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, that's another thing too.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think people are like, wait, I need to hire a copywriter or hire this or that.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: I really enjoy writing my content.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I have Monica help with obviously the pillars of it and review some stuff, but I know it needs to be my voice.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: I tried, I tried to have someone write something else.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is too formal to say me.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like I put gifts.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I saw I read this and I put it in our notes here that I read that someone was talking about how it's like not a linear path.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like these marketing funnels are not linear anymore.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of looks like a crime scene board, like in a in a show where you're just like you have the pins going every direction.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just like you're not able to create this very like neat funnel as much anymore because people are just chaotically going in so many places, which is why I think it's really important to keep that messaging consistent and just have a call to action everywhere, but know that people are probably not gonna, they're probably not gonna do it immediately.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's I mean, it's so easy.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's also that's the positive of tech is people could find you.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: Google, oh, there's everything about Elaine.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Let me just find her on everywhere.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Let me go check LinkedIn, let me check Instagram, let me check her website, her podcast, everything.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: But I will say that digital footprint is very helpful.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: So people get to know you.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Agreed.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Are we ready for the sixth trend?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like we obviously can't get through this without talking about AI.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have to talk about that big A.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: What's the big A we're talking about?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: The big AI.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: The big AI.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: As a marketer, this is a very hit-home topic for me for sure.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're the ones.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, I would I would say we're the ones getting hit the hardest from this for sure, particularly on like writing and things like that.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I'm not.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, we are going to have to adjust, but I don't think AI is replacing us.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think we, if you're a marketer out there, you probably know we have to lean into it and how efficient it makes us.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: But as you were saying, Elaine, fix doing your messaging, like you, you know, you you you can't just take what AI spits out.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not, like it's not.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell when people do, and it's not, it's not, it doesn't know.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can give it some briefs on your audience, you can do the, but there's nothing that's ever come out of AI that I've that I've ever been like, oh, this is 100% ready.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ever made a poster, like it's we still have to breathe that life into it.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so AI, it's not going away.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't be, we can't be scared to use it, or we can't be scared of letting people use it.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, it's like at the end of the day, if you're scared of people like in your company using it, like I'm in such disagreement about that.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, and and I'm just gonna say this in general about myself as a marketer and other content marketers and people who've worked at these corporations.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've been overworked and underpaid for so fucking long that it's just like I'm gonna use something that's gonna help me be more efficient.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna help, I'm gonna like, I'm it's like Yeah, go save time.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, save time, like save brain power.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, save like it's just like I don't, you know, I don't care who knows it.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm just like I'm an expert in what I do, and I can like use it to help me be more efficient and then put my own expertise on it, my own voice, you know, and and be able to like, but it's just it's something that we can build on.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think like it helps with personalization, it helps with ads.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can my favorite thing to do with it is like I don't, I don't want to spend time to write 20 subject lines.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it would be great for me to do that, but I just don't have the time to do that for every email that I'm ever writing.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my favorite thing to do with it.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, this is the email I wrote.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give me 10 subject lines or 20 subject lines?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I love seeing what it spits out to see like if it's like coming up with something better than what I can come up with that I can A B test for, you know, for like A B test two subject lines or four subject lines or like.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's something like if you're using it for your business or within your company, just think about those little things where you're like, this could really move the needle a little bit.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to email subject lines and A B testing, like what a great way to get some like another input in there that like, you know, sometimes you're like, I write so many subject lines in a week, like it's impossible for me to think of any more emails.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: There, like I've been doing it myself too.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just a great kind of sparring partner.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: I say sparring because I do Muay Thai.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'll be like, I so I do the same thing.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: I actually, well, differently.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: I copy and paste the email.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, can you make this email sound more fun?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, ooh, it does sound a little better.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'll put the small little update, some like majority of the time I don't agree with it.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then sometimes there's things in my head, like, I want to write copy that says this or update the sentence.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh, wouldn't say exactly like that, but it's a really great start.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I could keep it.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a really great start.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it is, which is yeah, which is cool.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I think that in a nutshell, I don't think we need to talk too much about it, but like, don't be scared of it.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, don't like, I mean, in my opinion, don't like, I don't know, punish people for using it.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Empower people in your organization to use it so they're using it in a way that makes them more efficient and they're not afraid to be more, you know.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want it to, I don't want to say that we want people to be more productive because that's not the goal here.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want people to have be thrown more work because AI is making them more productive.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like making people more have more efficiency in their work, which makes them like feel a little bit more supported.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I can say, as like a content writer and as a marketer, you don't have a lot of support.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And as a business business owner, if you're trying to do your own marketing, you really don't have a lot of support in that way, most likely.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's a Tool that can have have like help people feel more supported.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: It can it can be a great place to start.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And starting is sometimes the hardest place to be.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're looking at that cursor on a Google Doc for like forever trying to start.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want a disclaimer: this is not me saying I want people to be more productive.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that is not a goal under this capitalist hellscape for me, but I want people to be able to be empowered to use it to help their job be easier and more efficient.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they could probably focus on things that like are more impactful or like have a little bit more of a like balance, you know?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I will I kind of complain this to you about it, but I'm gonna switch up kind of the story so it's like confidential.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: But let's say there was like this webinar and they were teaching you how to, I don't know, plant.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just making it basic.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I knew that their emails and their landing page was AI because it was not enticing at all.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was so boring.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, learn to put the soil, learn where to put the plant.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, this is not enticing to me.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because the question you should ask when you're creating copy or getting copy from AI or a start is is this going to attract my ideal audience member?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it's if it's blue, like if it's vanilla, it's not.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so they had yeah, they had about like a hundred people sign up for this webinar.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, we have a hundred people, and then like 10 people showed up.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: And usually like a good webinar series is like 20%, and it's like, why didn't people show up?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: They're wondering, but I didn't have that type of relationship where I could give them feedback.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's like because your messaging sucked, and obviously use Chat GPT for it.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just here.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't even try.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't even give it, and you have to give it a lot of prompts to be able to know your audience.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's your responsibility once you're like, okay, I got this baseline thing I can build off of, which is what I recommend, because you have that knowledge about your audience.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: So and where was the follow-up?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: There was no, I'm sorry, I'm just like upset.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: There is no follow-up emails.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's wild for an event.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was very, very clear that they spent majority of the time making the slides look really pretty.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: That is the wrong thing to focus on.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: In like focus on getting people to turn out one, and then two, give value.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: And value could be just talking like this.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're wearing black hoodies.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: I ain't wearing makeup.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: And a differ a different like uh example of that, which isn't the same, but is I don't actually make proposals look pretty either.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: I do them in a Google Doc and I just put my own.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: But no one has ever been like, yo, I want a PDF proposal that's designed really well.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, it just takes more time and people have to like read it in like a PDF form on their desktop.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who wants to do that?
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: I will tell you it takes time.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's me.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: I do it.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, it's me.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: I actually do it on Canvas.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I do.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's totally fine.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's totally fine if you do it.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do it.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: I will say too, it's like I'm it's it's that community my last point on AI because I'm excited to go tomorrow night.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even like seeing things as AI as like that community first thing.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's a I found an event on Meetup.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Meetup.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing going to Meetup.com when I was like, so when I was like 22, which for everyone here was 16 years ago, or 23, I don't know, something like that.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: Looking to meet new people in LA.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: I went to some basketball runs on meetup.com, some social media, some tech stuff.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Meetup is is resurging, and I think it's because of this like community first situation where people are looking at for more local and more like like-minded people.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to an like how AI can like power charge your life event tomorrow.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, like I think it's like people have submitted topics and people are gonna like speak on it, but I'm like, oh, I just want to see like how people are using it, but also I want to like meet people who are interested in these things.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's also just something of like, you know, finding those events where you can learn more, but then you're gonna meet people that are also interested and have their own like experiences and knowledge, which is I'm excited about.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: I want I want to emphasize that community first thing.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then sorry, I'm going back to the social media stuff.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: The the other thing about why I think that's community first is gonna be more important.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: Just remember with social media, it's algorithms.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like both of us are trauma-informed certified.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have agency and choice of what's gonna be seen.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: We could mute people, but like we don't have agency and choice.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: But what you have agency and choice in is who I get to meet with in person.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: Which is why we also love long-form content.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: You have choice if you want to subscribe, you have choice if you want to unsubscribe.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: You had choice to play this podcast episode, or if you're like, I'm done, let me stop listening to it because I don't believe what Monica and Elaine are saying.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: You have choice.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: Which is a, and I think, of course, we've like run long.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're like, Monica, we're gonna do a 20-minute book.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do a 20-minute ass.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no way.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that we can roll into number eight because I think it's the it's a really important one, and number seven just isn't.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we really have seven.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right, edit, seven, edit.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about in-person and the fact that micro events, these smaller, more focused, more community events are gonna be more important than these big mega conferences.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's the trend.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's what we're seeing.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: So these huge conferences that you're paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to go to to see these like influencers or you know, Fortune 500 company like people speak.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, these aren't the people that people are putting their trust in anymore, in my opinion.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I will I want to add to that.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not gonna name names.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like watching, you know, when you're watching yourself.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been to these conferences, right, where I've been a speaker, but it's more out breakout rooms.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: But then there's obviously the keynote speakers on stage.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then I've been hearing feedback from executives, leaders, business owners, right?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of the keynote speakers are the motivation.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just be real.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's the I had this whole thing.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can't go granular.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have this horrible experience, and then I did this.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: So here's my action item to you.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: What's you can too?
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: What are your three gratitudes?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Focus on that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's literally motivational.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I tell people I'm not motivated.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Who wants to hear I did it so you can too anymore?
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand because I'm not raising my hand right now.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: And because they they've had so much of that, and I I'm tuning my own horn.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: I know I am.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, then I'm here, I do a and then I do a breakout room of a smaller amount, so not the thousands, but like a smaller amount where I'm coaching and I'm interacting, and they're like, oh my God, that was so helpful.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: Mind you, I don't have like a sexy title or name, but what people really wanted was like there was no point of community and connection.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: I had I had a friend from New York message me, also not gonna share names.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_02: She went to this big name online person event.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: People flew to New York to see her.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it was just speaker after speaker after speaker, and all the attendees complained.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: There was no time to connect.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: No time to connect.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like thinking like tailored content is huge with like smaller groups, like it's hyper-relevant.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: People can leave with like action items, they can leave with next steps, they can leave with like things they can actually use.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a trend people like people were seeing in 2024.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not it's not something they're foreseeing for this year.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was it's already happening.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's what people want.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, you know what?
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: I love that use of that, because this morning, I'm gonna say it, I got an email invitation to speak at Soho House as a participant.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was like curious.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what's gonna happen.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was curious unless they wanted me to speak.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, that's fine.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the cool thing about that too, for your business or your company is cost efficiency.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like the amount of money you'll be able to save by not focusing on those huge things and really just having more intimate events, whether they're on Discord or they're in person, is going to be like just so much easier to like really like give people value and not have to and see that.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can talk about ROI, but really, yeah, like you're giving people value and that that you know gives people people will want to to have that word of mouth.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like they'll want to tell people about it.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: It gives that social proof, it gives that credibility, and then it gives that conversion.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: So all the things we've been talking about from the beginning is about racial is about relationship building and like what that means to a company or corporation and how it impacts the results.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say, like, oh, I just it feels uncomfortable.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what to do.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel for for the Gen Z community, because I will say I've gone to a lot of in-person, like curated events in 2024.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: I am not, I I don't blame you.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're born to social media, but can you all not be scrolling on your phone when you're at a networking event?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta engage.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: That does not mean you're you actually were at a networking event if you're like on your phone the whole time.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like and I'm not saying you go talk to everybody.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: Go talk to someone that you probably we're not saying it's not hard, okay?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to say right now, like, and and I'm like very Monica's an introvert.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: I am, but I've learned over the last 20 years of being having to make connections because referrals is what my business is based off of.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like having like seeing someone I'm at a at an event and going over and talking to them, you know, it's it's it's kind of could be awkward at first, and sometimes it's awkward the whole time, and then sometimes it starts flowing super well.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's also like that's why I love going to events where I am interested in the topic, because I'm assuming that the other 20 to 50 people at this event are gonna be interested in the topic because that's why they're there.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of like the that's why I like to do stuff like that.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because like if you go, if you go on meetup or you see local things where you're R and like, you know, these small business things, or or you know, you hear about whatever, go because you already know people are there.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: You already know at the very least that y'all have something in common.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and that is just like you have something you can start with.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: You have a nugget of information that you can start a conversation on, and that's the hardest thing to find when you're just in some random setting.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you already have that baked in.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's something to like really just empower yourself with and be like, okay, if anything, I can talk about I can talk about what just happened.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we can talk about.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like the typical question.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: I found this interesting.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: The typical question in LA Oh, how long did it take you to get here?
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, literally, that is like top three questions.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: How long is it gonna take you to get home?
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and it's interesting by by like geographic location.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_02: When I lived in DC, oh my God, so snooty.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, who do you work for?
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: What Ivy League did you go to?
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't go to an Ivy League?
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna talk to you.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm serious.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, they're just the typical questions to ask.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that one of the biggest things like with networking tips for me is like, be inquisitive and curious about the other person.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the end of the day, like people want you to ask about them.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you you know, peep you like when people like take interest in you and it's not very surface level.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, small talk is fine.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we all do it.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how we're like, how long does it take you to get here?
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, whatever, whatever.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we do it.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what would we do?
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would we go like we'd go directly into like our like deepest like thoughts?
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not gonna do that.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that's gonna happen anyway.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's like good to be like, oh, like, you know, how did you find out about this event?
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, or like what were you hoping to get out of it?
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did did the did it resonate with you?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or if it's before the event, you're like, oh, what you know, what what are you hoping to get out of this?
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm excited to hear XYZ.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: And ask the person a question.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think I've noticed even in social settings, like when I ask people, like, oh, like what hobbies do you have?
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you like to do outside of work?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people remember those things.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: They remember you ask them something about themselves.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to remind people people love talking about themselves.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, facts.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you ask, like, where do you live?
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I used to live there.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: What's your favorite place?
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's just and if you don't want to talk about yourself, then ask people questions.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, people are gonna love talking about themselves, but you get remembered for it.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I've been going to a lot of events here in LA because the you know, World Cup is coming 26, Super Bowl 27, Olympics 28.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've been going to these events.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_02: I keep telling Monica, but Monica lives so far away.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: You'll come to one of these events.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I also want to share be unattached to the result.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think so often people think I need to get two contracts.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: What a great way to cap off this entire thing.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, am I gonna Yeah.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are you gonna ask for marriage on the first date?
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: Inappropriate.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: But just to say too, I mean, an example for for me, and this happens all the time, is I was introduced to an agency where they subcontract people who do what I do a lot of the time.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: And my friend was like, oh, just like connect with this person because they do a lot of nonprofit work and I know that you do too.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna connect you.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I had like a virtual like vibe check, hello session with this executive at this agency back in like, I don't know, July.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I, you know, honestly, and I followed up with an email, like, nice to meet you, like, keep me in mind, like, and then all of a sudden, early, like late November, I get an email, and I, you know, I kind of just forget about it because like I did the thing and and there it is, and we met and like I'll write it down.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I get an email that's like, we have this big project with this potential client that we want you to come in on, and now that is gonna be probably a six-month to a year contract of consistent income for me.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like don't expect be unattached to the results, don't expect the results right away, but do the follow-up and like be, yeah, and and and be consistent with like going out and meeting people.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is why my my business is referral-based and why I don't have to do any of like outward general public marketing, like, period.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I I want to end this episode with our love story, how we met and how we hired each other.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_02: Great point.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what a great idea.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that's actually a great way because you haven't been in my podcast in a while.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know people might not know.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: Monica's cheating on me with another podcast, but it's cool.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're my own podcast.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's about non-binary people in sports.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: I know, but it's still it's fine.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: Just know that a consensual we know that our relationship is open.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: So Monica, how did how did we meet?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we met because Elaine has always been doing like micro events within the community, but it was your first event in June 2018 ever when you were an assertiveness coach, and my friend Kat knew someone who knew you.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was just like knew someone that knew you.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: My friend Kat was invited by that person.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting a text from you.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because what was I doing?
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: What was I doing when I text you?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: You were following up and you were like, Oh, thanks for RSPM Fan.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll see you in this time, this time.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember being like, What?
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I getting this text?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I went because I was like, oh, this person like clearly like cares that people come.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: You had a great group of people in the room, like a lot of people for a first event.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say like at least 30 or 40, if not more.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: And now my events are smaller.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: My my retreats are like eight or seven.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: But that wasn't too big.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, and it because it was a free event and it wasn't a retreat.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like ways for people to get to know each other.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we met at that event, and then six months later, I became your client, and then while I was your client, you became you became my client.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the amount of relationships I think we've like had come through our relationship and meeting people and referring is like I couldn't even say.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably absolutely you missed the best part, is when you slid to my DMs on Instagram.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot about that part.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: So let me do that part.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: Monica slid to the DMs on Instagram because my messaging was on point.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I know, second date.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: Monica was like, Hey, I know you work with women of color.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know any coaches that work with like white folks like me?
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, well, first off, Monica, since you asked that question.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, just know it's like more of a values piece.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, but I would be happy to talk to you and see if it's a good fit.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I updated my messaging to women of color and allies.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Monica.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, I loved, I yeah.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just love the spaces you create, and I'm so happy that you brought me into them.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now our love story flourishes forever.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and not just I mean, look, flourish is not just in terms of money, like in terms of us having each other.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even thinking about money.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: Or even referrals, but like we we like text each other probably on a daily, like yeah, yeah, we do.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: On Tuesday, we message like what is going on with the world?
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: These are with the world.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: These are deep conversations on a Tuesday morning, Monica.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but then we'll do fun stuff too.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like talk about coffee.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: We could talk about this forever.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, Elaine.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: I always love being here.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_02: Just in case people want to find you, how can they find you?
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can find me.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: My website is unsociallyinclined.com.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to poke around there.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fun one.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very proud of it.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you want to connect on LinkedIn, I'm Monica Schrock, S-C-H-R-O-C-K.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then Instagram at MoneyShrock.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a business Instagram, but if you want to see my life, I share it publicly with some like really I think fun stuff.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where you can find me.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: And if you loved our episode and you're like, you know what, Monica needs to be on more, please let me know.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: Please let Elaine know.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know how to find me.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: Go Google me and then find a way to contact me.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Monica.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: After I recorded the podcast episode, I went straight to office hours with my mastermind clients.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it was so interesting.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: One of my clients who is turning 40 this year just said, Elaine, I don't want to be on social media at 50, trying to do the thing, be well-liked and popular.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not gonna be that 50-year-old.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_02: And if they're feeling that way, I know a lot of us are, including me.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was, like I said, I was burnt out with social media back in 2021, because like I was on all the time.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: And on top of that, you know, we're talking about community in this podcast.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's the reason why I have my mastermind.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is last year I I heard it more about clients feeling so lonely when it comes to being their own boss.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_02: Which is why my clients love coming to office hours, not just because they're getting personalized coaching from me and my other experts, but also hearing other people's problems knowing that they are not alone.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so if you enjoyed this podcast episode, here are four things you can do if you feel called to do them.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, would love it if you could leave a five-star rating and review.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_02: That would mean a lot to both me and my team.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_02: We created this podcast for accessible education for women of color and allies.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_02: Each episode takes about four hours to create.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: It takes me one hour to prep and another 30 minutes to one hour to record.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: Then my team spends another two hours to edit and market.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_02: Two, because I care about accessible education, share this with a friend who is struggling with their relationship with social media or wants to know what to focus on this year.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: Third, don't forget to hit that follow button, that subscribe button, because when you do, it lets the podcast platform you're listening to, whether it's Spotify, Apple, or whatever it may be, know that this podcast is important to leaders like you.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: And fourth, if you need support in your career business and you're interested in working with me, then schedule an introductory legacy, business, and career review call with me.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_02: I only work with 15 clients at one time.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_02: Last year, it was 24.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: I put it down, it's 15 now, because I care about client results and their experience.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you can schedule a complimentary legacy, business, and career review call at elanelu.com forward slash call.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's E-L A I N E L O U.com forward slash call.