Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.111 | Social Media Isn't a Marketing Strategy: Building an Ecosystem That Actually Works with Andréa Jones, Marketing Strategist & Educator

Transcript

Ep.111 | Social Media Isn't a Marketing Strategy: Building an Ecosystem That Actually Works with Andréa Jones, Marketing Strategist & Educator · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:07
  Mariah: Welcome to the Curiously Guided Podcast.
• 0:10
  Mariah: We're your hosts, Mariah.
• 0:12
  Shay: And hey guys, I'm Shay.
• 0:14
  Shay: We're two online business consultants passionate about rewriting the rules to success within both life and business.
• 0:21
  Shay: We believe that curiosity is our superpower.
• 0:24
  Shay: And trusting the nudge is a muscle that's meant to be strengthened.
• 0:28
  Mariah: Especially if we want to create a life that feels good from the inside out.
• 0:33
  Shay: So if you're ready to open your mind and let curiosity guide the way, let's get into the episode.
• 0:40
  Mariah: Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
• 0:44
  Mariah: We have a really special treat for you guys in today's episode.
• 0:48
  Mariah: Andrea Jones.
• 0:50
  Mariah: She's a marketing strategist and educator and a human that I got to know in person in real life.
• 0:56
  Mariah: You'll hear in this episode.
• 0:57
  Mariah: We only live like 30 minutes away from each other, even though we live in different countries.
• 1:02
  Mariah: And Andrea's perspective on social media is the most refreshing one that I have ever heard in my entire life.
• 1:12
  Mariah: And I know that that's like a pretty bold statement because like I hang out on the fucking internet.
• 1:16
  Mariah: Like I literally see perspectives about social media all of the time.
• 1:20
  Mariah: I have never heard a social media marketing strategist break things down as simply as she can while weaving in the human.
• 1:34
  Mariah: Everybody else is like, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this.
• 1:37
  Mariah: And half the time, Andrea's like, actually don't do that.
• 1:40
  Mariah: And actually don't do this.
• 1:42
  Mariah: And it's just so nice to hear about somebody that has both feet in the field, but isn't just rinsing and repeating the same shit that we hear all of the time.
• 1:58
  Mariah: And another thing that I love in this episode too is like just hearing her her story, her evolution.
• 2:04
  Mariah: I don't want to give anything away, but like her evolution to what she was doing nine years ago in business on the outside might look pretty damn similar.
• 2:17
  Mariah: But on the inside, everything has like completely shifted.
• 2:21
  Mariah: And she's just a really good example of being somebody that like if you can follow curiosity and let it guide the way, you're gonna end up in a place that you didn't even know that you needed.
• 2:33
  Shay: Yeah.
• 2:34
  Shay: I mean, this episode, we go in all kinds of directions.
• 2:36
  Shay: If you've ever been curious about what it's like to build up an agency and then sell it, Andrea's done that.
• 2:42
  Shay: And then she has gone like back and forth from the online space to the local in-person space and is able to kind of bring her expertise from both into what she's doing now.
• 2:52
  Shay: She really was what she's like what I don't want to repeat what Mariah said, but that was my big takeaway as well.
• 3:00
  Shay: And I hope you guys will listen for when she's talking about a literally a marketing strategist pro's perspective on how social media should be used as a tool.
• 3:10
  Shay: It really blew my mind.
• 3:13
  Shay: She's talking about using social media more for the messaging and developing relationships with your people and chatting with your people.
• 3:20
  Shay: And I think what when we all think about marketing, we think immediately, what do I need to post on Instagram to get new clients?
• 3:26
  Shay: And like that's not how she's thinking about social media as a tool almost at all.
• 3:30
  Shay: It really was more of social media is one step in a bigger system of marketing.
• 3:36
  Shay: And that can look a lot of different ways.
• 3:38
  Shay: And she'll kind of break that down like with a few different real life examples, which I think is helpful.
• 3:43
  Shay: But it was so refreshing.
• 3:44
  Shay: It got even me, like Miss Anti-Social Media, like inspired and like excited about how I could use that as one piece.
• 3:52
  Shay: And so it's a really wonderful reframe.
• 3:54
  Shay: Her story is really cool.
• 3:55
  Shay: Again, she's gone through a lot of really epic seasons in her life, and she's torn down, sold, rebuilt businesses based on how she knows she likes to work and what's working well for her at that moment in time.
• 4:07
  Shay: So a really cool story, a little bit more about Andrea.
• 4:10
  Shay: She is your marketing shortcut in human form.
• 4:13
  Shay: As the founder of Online Andrea and creative director at Uncommon Marketing Agency, she's on a mission to help entrepreneurs do less, market smarter, and grow without the guilt trip of hustle culture.
• 4:26
  Shay: Her approach's savvy strategy with playful creativity, helping business owners turn overwhelm into ease and chaos into clarity.
• 4:34
  Shay: If you want to read more about her, make sure to read her full bio on our podcast website or webpage for this podcast episode.
• 4:41
  Shay: And with that, we will jump into the episode.
• 4:43
  Mariah: Okay, girl, we're just gonna get right into it.
• 4:46
  Mariah: So the journey that you've had in the online business space is becoming so much more normalized.
• 4:56
  Mariah: It's becoming a thing that, like, I don't know, I feel like years ago, when we thought about like being in the online business space and then like having to bring our skills in person, we kind of like didn't even think about that.
• 5:09
  Mariah: That like wasn't even a thing.
• 5:10
  Mariah: But looking at your journey, especially over the past few years, and I think that we started in business around the same amount of time.
• 5:17
  Mariah: And you bringing your zone of genius from the online business space now into the in-person marketing world, and like your business has really shifted, you've shifted, you've evolved, your life has changed, and you're kind of a really incredible example of like following curiosity and like allowing your journey to unfold just how it has to.
• 5:40
  Mariah: Will you take us back a little bit to kind of like the beginning?
• 5:45
  Mariah: Like, what was your business like before?
• 5:48
  Mariah: And like, kind of how was it?
• 5:50
  Mariah: I guess like when I first found you online, I 2018 is when I feel like I first not really connected with you personally, but like found you online and was like just a big fan of like what you had going on.
• 6:04
  Mariah: Can you kind of like take us back there and then we'll see where we end up?
• 6:07
  Andrea: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:08
  Andrea: It because it's wild.
• 6:09
  Andrea: I started my business in 2014 and it has changed just so much over the years.
• 6:15
  Andrea: But by let's say by the time I had my first kit, 2022, um, that was my best year in business, actually.
• 6:23
  Andrea: I had my agency.
• 6:25
  Andrea: Um, I started off as a freelancer, grew it to an agency.
• 6:28
  Andrea: We were done for you social media.
• 6:30
  Andrea: Um, I had 12 people on my team.
• 6:34
  Andrea: We had over 40 clients, we were making a million dollars a year.
• 6:38
  Andrea: And it was great.
• 6:40
  Andrea: And even with my first kid, um, I was at my peak, y'all.
• 6:44
  Andrea: Like, um, the it was a little like a tough baby the first month.
• 6:49
  Andrea: I think it's just like we were getting to know each other kind of thing.
• 6:52
  Andrea: Um, but then we really got into a groove and I was like, I don't need all this mat leaf.
• 6:56
  Andrea: So I like jumped right back into working because honestly, babies don't do anything, they're just kind of later.
• 7:01
  Andrea: Um, and social media, like I could do on my phone, right?
• 7:03
  Andrea: And I had the team, so it was really just like voice at like boxing people with like updates and things like that.
• 7:09
  Andrea: And so it was my second baby though, who rocked my world.
• 7:12
  Andrea: She didn't get the manual that the first one got.
• 7:16
  Andrea: Um, and so it was a lot more challenging.
• 7:20
  Andrea: Um, and my business had shifted.
• 7:22
  Andrea: So this is 2024 by this point.
• 7:25
  Andrea: So for context, ChatGBT had existed for a year at this point.
• 7:30
  Andrea: Um, I had the baby.
• 7:32
  Andrea: My ex had just started a business that was very demanding on his time.
• 7:37
  Andrea: Um, and so I was the primary caregiver.
• 7:41
  Andrea: And so honestly, I sold my agency out of necessity.
• 7:45
  Andrea: I was like, I simply cannot.
• 7:47
  Andrea: This baby is not like the other baby.
• 7:49
  Andrea: I don't know what I'm doing.
• 7:50
  Andrea: She was colicky, she was crying all the time.
• 7:52
  Andrea: The doctors were like, uh, she'll grow out of it.
• 7:54
  Andrea: I was like, but when, but when?
• 7:56
  Andrea: Like, she doesn't want anyone else to hold her but me.
• 8:00
  Andrea: Um, and she just screams all day, help.
• 8:03
  Andrea: Um, and so I ended up um meeting with my team and I was like, listen, I'm struggling.
• 8:08
  Andrea: Um, the market has shifted.
• 8:10
  Andrea: I know what I need to do to grow this agency.
• 8:12
  Andrea: I just simply do not have the capacity to do that.
• 8:14
  Andrea: Two of my employees were like, can we buy it?
• 8:17
  Andrea: Um, and so before I even had like listed my agency for sale, two of my employees purchased basically they purchased a clientless VIP and um they ran with it.
• 8:28
  Andrea: And so I got to take a little bit of a break.
• 8:30
  Andrea: I focused on my educational products.
• 8:31
  Andrea: My baby did grow out of it.
• 8:33
  Andrea: She's adorable and can do no wrong in my eyes.
• 8:35
  Andrea: Um and also the ex and I parted ways at that point.
• 8:41
  Andrea: And then um I when I was ready to work again when she was in daycare, I was like, all right, let's do this.
• 8:48
  Andrea: Started networking locally because it was like, you know, post-pandemic.
• 8:52
  Andrea: And I was like, I want to get signed.
• 8:54
  Andrea: Um, but I can't go very far because I've got kids and I've I was you before kids used to working like flying all over, right?
• 9:00
  Andrea: I couldn't do that anymore, um, just based on my like life circumstances.
• 9:04
  Andrea: And so I started doing like local networking, and then I met my now business partner.
• 9:08
  Andrea: We worked on a few projects together, and now we run a common marketing agency together.
• 9:15
  Mariah: That is wild, like it's wild.
• 9:19
  Mariah: It's like back in 2024, you would have never known that it's like, oh, this is going to, I'm gonna be not only going from like an agency with all of these people, then you kind of went solo dolo for a hot minute, and then it was just like you making decisions, you doing your own thing.
• 9:37
  Mariah: And then it's like, and then you go into a partnership.
• 9:40
  Mariah: It's like us in the online business space.
• 9:42
  Mariah: I feel like we're sold one of two things.
• 9:44
  Mariah: You either stay like solo dolo, or it's like you grow an agency.
• 9:48
  Mariah: Partnerships like aren't even talked about really.
• 9:51
  Andrea: No.
• 9:52
  Andrea: And what's wild is I think that they could actually be very beneficial to a lot of people, especially in the marketing space, because I'm social media all the way.
• 10:00
  Andrea: I do a lot of content marketing and that sort of thing.
• 10:03
  Andrea: And he's like web design, uh, Google ads, SEO, right?
• 10:08
  Andrea: It's just like all the things that I don't do, he does.
• 10:12
  Andrea: And so it felt like a really natural, like we um our first project we were working on, you know, the tiny homes um client.
• 10:20
  Andrea: And so he'd been running Google ads with for them for years.
• 10:22
  Andrea: So I come into it and I'm like, oh, this is a she shed.
• 10:26
  Andrea: And he was like, Oh, what?
• 10:28
  Andrea: I was like, it's a she shed.
• 10:29
  Andrea: And so, like, we built this whole um campaign around she sheds that they would have never thought about before.
• 10:35
  Andrea: And they were like, Oh, dad.
• 10:37
  Andrea: So it's like our our brains work differently, but in a compatible way.
• 10:42
  Andrea: And so it's like we're able to go a bit farther.
• 10:44
  Andrea: So it's it's something I would have never like if you told me I would be in a partnership with a man, I'd be like, never in a million years.
• 10:50
  Andrea: Um, and so now here we are, and I'm like, oh, it just makes sense.
• 10:55
  Shay: Can you take us back in time a bit?
• 10:57
  Shay: I think like um we talk a lot about like that gap of like you kind of you did the first thing, you transitioned out of it for whatever reason, and now you're entering a new chapter.
• 11:07
  Shay: What about the partnership and the in-person?
• 11:09
  Shay: Like, what was feeling good or like what were the signals that you looked for that were like, oh yeah, I think this is it, I think this is what I want to run for.
• 11:18
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 11:18
  Andrea: So I think for me, it was feeling like my, like I got to use my skill set.
• 11:24
  Andrea: And I think especially in the age of AI, I personally was feeling behind.
• 11:28
  Andrea: I don't know about y'all, but like things are moving so fast.
• 11:32
  Andrea: Um, and I felt like I was struggling to keep up.
• 11:34
  Andrea: And especially in social media, it's like all the platforms are changing so constantly.
• 11:38
  Andrea: I basically took like a little bit of a kind of sabbatical while I was, you know, trying to figure out what the heck my baby was all about, right?
• 11:46
  Andrea: And so um when I cut was coming back into it, I was feeling behind in the online space, but with the local community, I I felt like I was a golden goose.
• 11:56
  Andrea: Like they were like, you can do what with what?
• 11:59
  Andrea: I was like, oh my gosh, this feels great.
• 12:01
  Andrea: Like I can go into a space like the she shed client and be like, this is a she shed, like let's just create some content around this and then they'll sell like hot cakes, right?
• 12:09
  Andrea: And so it felt like I felt smart.
• 12:13
  Andrea: And so I was like, I want to keep doing this.
• 12:15
  Andrea: And so part of it is just like it felt really good to kind of use my expertise.
• 12:20
  Andrea: I live in a fairly small town that I would say is probably digitally like about 10 years behind.
• 12:25
  Andrea: Um, and so it felt good to be able to come into this space and be able to help update people to kind of modern marketing and things like that.
• 12:36
  Mariah: Yeah, it's funny because you live very close to Buffalo, and like that's what I've always said about Buffalo.
• 12:44
  Mariah: Buffalo is at least five years behind, and that's why when I started my business, I didn't grow locally.
• 12:51
  Mariah: I went to like one meetup, like one or two meetups, and like the creative community, they were all photographers and they all hated SEO, and then they were also trying to game it, and then I was like, you guys don't get it.
• 13:02
  Mariah: And then it was like, I'm just gonna stay online and like help people over here, and that's how I grew my entire business.
• 13:08
  Mariah: And I feel like this is really common.
• 13:10
  Mariah: Like when you grow an online business, you have to learn so much fucking shit, especially especially over like a long period of time that like we forget how many skills we accumulate.
• 13:22
  Mariah: And then you come back, and like if I were to tell my in-person business friend, like, oh, you can do X, Y, and Z.
• 13:29
  Mariah: Like they just learned about Canva.
• 13:31
  Mariah: Yeah.
• 13:31
  Mariah: Like last year, my friend's like, I have a Canva Pro account.
• 13:34
  Mariah: And I was like, listen, I've been having a Canva Pro account.
• 13:38
  Mariah: Girl, like, did you know that you can do this?
• 13:40
  Mariah: And she was like, Wait, what?
• 13:41
  Mariah: Because they're customizing templates.
• 13:44
  Mariah: Yeah, do you know what I mean?
• 13:45
  Mariah: They're not using it to its full potential because they don't need to, because like their space doesn't demand that level of depth with the internet the way that ours did.
• 13:57
  Mariah: Yeah.
• 13:58
  Mariah: So it's that's gotta feel incredible to just be like, oh, you can like being in the online space, you just see so many doors that are open that the in-person business owner is like, oh fuck, I had no clue.
• 14:13
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 14:14
  Andrea: I mean sometimes I'm like, oh, that's cute.
• 14:16
  Andrea: Like we learn can yay, you know, but then some of it is like, no, we really I I feel like I make a if I can brag about myself for a sec, I feel like I can make a bigger impact because no one of our clients is like the virtual golf simulator um client, and they are like handwriting appointments.
• 14:34
  Andrea: Like people have to call and they're like writing it in a book.
• 14:38
  Andrea: And I was like, okay, like let's update this.
• 14:41
  Andrea: Like, even though this isn't really my lane per se, like that's air quotes.
• 14:46
  Andrea: I feel like I could look at it and be like, at least let's set up a Square account.
• 14:49
  Andrea: Come on, right?
• 14:50
  Andrea: Like, and people can book online, let's bring it to 2026.
• 14:53
  Andrea: And so I like help them with that process because if I'm posting on Instagram and you want like younger people in here, we need an online booking system, right?
• 15:01
  Andrea: And so it's like simple things like that that can make a huge difference for these businesses, and it makes me feel super duper smart coming in and going, this is something that's not really my lane, but it's technology and it's something that a lot of my clients use.
• 15:14
  Andrea: So I'm more than happy to like help you figure out how to use it.
• 15:19
  Shay: Yeah, it's reminding me of two things.
• 15:21
  Shay: One is like uh that idea of you you just have to be a chapter ahead, right?
• 15:26
  Shay: And so, like you, I would get I know what you mean of like you're like, well, I'm not an expert systems analyst, like, I don't know how to set up this amazing booking system.
• 15:35
  Shay: They don't need it at that level, they need just the step one that you know, and I think a lot of us have a bit of like impostoriness, but the other thing that reminded me of, I think some of the best business advice I've ever gotten is go to where you can be a big fish in a small pond, right?
• 15:50
  Shay: And it sounds like that's what you've done.
• 15:52
  Shay: You know, you've kind of brought together all this experience and history, and now you're like, oh, look, I can like hit grand slams here in my local market and help these people in a lot of different ways, not even like what I thought.
• 16:05
  Shay: And one thing I'm particularly interested by is what are you noticing about like the difference in your clients when you're like working locally versus like online?
• 16:14
  Andrea: Yes.
• 16:15
  Andrea: Well, I think the hardest part for me is that they're a lot more serious.
• 16:20
  Andrea: I'm just not a serious person.
• 16:24
  Andrea: Um, and so I have found that challenging.
• 16:27
  Andrea: Um, but I will say they are all so much more committed than the online business space.
• 16:33
  Andrea: Um, I found that online business, like with that agency, our client turnover was great at like nine months, right?
• 16:40
  Andrea: Nine, ten months, we would we keep a client here locally.
• 16:43
  Andrea: They're like, nope, you're it, you're it for years and years.
• 16:46
  Andrea: And I'm like, this is so different than what I'm used to.
• 16:50
  Andrea: Um, so it's it's got its pros and cons, but honestly, I like it in a way that I didn't think I would.
• 16:57
  Andrea: Like, um, I went yesterday to the zoo with my two girls.
• 17:01
  Andrea: Um, they loved it by the way.
• 17:03
  Andrea: And uh the the lady who's driving the um the like tram stopped me.
• 17:08
  Andrea: She was like, Are you Andrea Jones?
• 17:10
  Andrea: I was like, oh who wants to know?
• 17:12
  Andrea: You know, and she was like, I follow you online.
• 17:15
  Andrea: I run whatever, whatever.
• 17:16
  Andrea: I'm like, oh my gosh, hi, hello.
• 17:18
  Andrea: And so it's like it's such a different experience for me, but I kind of like it.
• 17:22
  Andrea: Like I feel like I'm contributing in a meaningful way instead of being like online staring at like pixels on a screen.
• 17:31
  Mariah: Yeah, it's this weird thing that happens online where it's like the barrier to entry is technically low because all you need is like to pick well, all you need is like an Instagram account, technically.
• 17:44
  Mariah: I would argue that it's like if you want to take it seriously, you need a website, so you have to pay for like domain and hosting.
• 17:49
  Mariah: But like that's not always the case.
• 17:51
  Mariah: We got TikTokers making crazy money without even a website or anything that they own.
• 17:56
  Mariah: And I think because the barrier to entry is so low and you don't have to have a lot of skin in the game, you can kind of dip in and out.
• 18:05
  Mariah: Like the flexibility kind of comes to bite you in the ass.
• 18:08
  Mariah: Where it's like when you're a local business owner, it's almost like, no, everybody knows me as like the golf simulator bitch, and like I gotta get this to work.
• 18:18
  Mariah: Like, this is like what I am golf.
• 18:20
  Mariah: Like, I like this is what I have to do.
• 18:23
  Mariah: And so you just have way more skin in the game.
• 18:26
  Mariah: And I think what's different, me and my husband were just talking about this.
• 18:30
  Mariah: When you make money in person, it feels different than making money online.
• 18:35
  Mariah: Like, I have a friend that had a hundred thousand dollar launch.
• 18:38
  Mariah: She made a hundred thousand dollars in a month.
• 18:40
  Mariah: I was talking to her and she was like, listen, it's incredible.
• 18:43
  Mariah: I am so grateful.
• 18:44
  Mariah: Also, why does it feel like monopoly money?
• 18:47
  Mariah: Why does it like not even feel real?
• 18:49
  Mariah: Which is absolutely like that is an insane amount of money to make in such a short time frame.
• 18:54
  Mariah: But it's like because you're not meeting people in person, I'm just online and then I go downstairs and I feed my dog and I walk outside.
• 19:01
  Mariah: Like, it doesn't feel like real life.
• 19:04
  Mariah: But then when me and Andrew were selling fucking sourdough bread and cookies for two dollars and made a hundred dollars at a market.
• 19:10
  Mariah: We had cold hard cash in our hands and met the people that bought our sourdough scones and we got the feedback.
• 19:17
  Mariah: That hundred dollars felt like we made a million dollars.
• 19:20
  Mariah: We're going out to eat, and I was like, dinner, it's on the market.
• 19:25
  Mariah: Like, oh, we're good.
• 19:26
  Mariah: But like it just feels so different in person.
• 19:31
  Mariah: It really does.
• 19:33
  Andrea: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:34
  Andrea: Like, so one of our clients is the local municipality here, and um, they wrote us a check and like mailed it to our office to pay for their invoice.
• 19:44
  Andrea: We were like, what even is a check?
• 19:46
  Andrea: Like, do people still have these?
• 19:48
  Andrea: And so it is real in that way, but we're able to do so much more.
• 19:51
  Andrea: Like the same client, we just did this huge um summer campaign where we went out and filmed around town, like locally.
• 19:59
  Andrea: And previously I would have to have like another vendor to do that, but I was able to support with even things like, oh, we gotta get this shot because I live here.
• 20:10
  Andrea: Like I know where these places are.
• 20:12
  Andrea: And so it was just so fun to have that connection.
• 20:15
  Andrea: And so that's what I've been really enjoying about a lot of this work is like it can be fun and it feels, like you said, a lot more tangible than some of the online space, not to knock any of my online clients because we still do actually have a number of, I would actually say more of our clients are still online than local at this point, but I try to do a lot more locally when I can just because it does feel more tangible.
• 20:44
  Mariah: All right, y'all.
• 20:46
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  Mariah: We turned a PDF space into an insane resource.
• 21:40
  Mariah: It's like nothing you've seen before, and you're gonna love it because you're gonna find exactly what you need quickly and easily without scrolling through endless show notes.
• 21:50
  Mariah: It's free to use and interact with.
• 21:53
  Mariah: Click the link in the show notes to check it out.
• 22:04
  Shay: Kind of pivoting a bit, but not really.
• 22:06
  Shay: You mentioned this idea of fun, and I on your website you talk about the playful side, and like we yes, we're balancing strategy, but we have this more like joy, and we can bring like this levity into things.
• 22:17
  Shay: One thing Ryan, I was talking about before we got on with you was like social media is your zone of genius.
• 22:24
  Shay: And we're curious as two people who lately have been kind of feeling a bit yuck about social media.
• 22:29
  Shay: How do you you make it seem fun and you make it seem like something I want to be a part of?
• 22:33
  Shay: Tell me about like how your take on social media and like how do you keep it kind of fun and playful?
• 22:38
  Andrea: Yeah, a lot of people feel that way, honestly.
• 22:40
  Andrea: The yuck of it all.
• 22:42
  Andrea: I think it's when it becomes like a have to do versus a want-to-do.
• 22:46
  Andrea: Um, like I have to do this for my business.
• 22:48
  Andrea: And suddenly we're like, I'd rather balance my QuickBooks.
• 22:51
  Andrea: Like, I just I really cannot.
• 22:54
  Andrea: Um, and so for me, I don't like social media because I tend to be um more so in my DMs than creating content.
• 23:02
  Andrea: And I think this is like where people kind of lose the plot a little bit with social media, is they're like, okay, check, posted Instagram, right?
• 23:10
  Andrea: And then they're gone.
• 23:12
  Andrea: I uh honestly lately, especially the past four years of my life, since I had kids, I do not post as much as I used to.
• 23:19
  Andrea: I just don't have it in me.
• 23:20
  Andrea: Um, if I have energy, it's gone to those little guys, not not my uh social media.
• 23:26
  Andrea: And so I tend to, you know, be in my DMs, send a little um voice note message to someone, check in on someone I hadn't seen in a while.
• 23:34
  Andrea: And I'll be honest, I'll say to them, I like even my family, they're like, Did you see my no, I'm not scrolling.
• 23:39
  Andrea: I did not see your post.
• 23:40
  Andrea: If you want me to see something, text it to me because like I'm not scrolling like that.
• 23:45
  Andrea: But I will check my DMs.
• 23:47
  Andrea: I do watch stories a lot too on Instagram, and I'll scroll through threads occasionally and like chime into conversations, but I'm not online as much as I have been in the past, and I don't create as much content.
• 24:00
  Andrea: I like to think of it as like eating too much candy can make you sick.
• 24:03
  Andrea: It's like, okay, posting too much content on social media can make you feel sick.
• 24:07
  Andrea: So, like, you gotta figure out the like little treats that you like that can help you grow your business without it feeling like such a drag.
• 24:14
  Andrea: The other thing is I think people try too hard to do something that they actually don't want to do.
• 24:20
  Andrea: So, like, I'm a talker, I like talking.
• 24:22
  Andrea: I'll create videos all day long, no problem.
• 24:25
  Andrea: If you ask me to write even a carousel post, you lost me.
• 24:29
  Andrea: Like, I have to have my team do those because I literally like I it makes my skin crawl.
• 24:34
  Andrea: I don't know why.
• 24:34
  Andrea: Just can I say it instead of writing it, please.
• 24:37
  Andrea: Um, and so that's kind of my philosophy about social media.
• 24:41
  Andrea: Some people are like trying to do the thing that they naturally don't even like doing.
• 24:46
  Andrea: And so now they're they're really not doing it on social media because they don't like doing the creating the videos anyways, they don't like writing the posts anyways.
• 24:55
  Andrea: And so part of it is like a mix of do less and find the little bit that you like and then just do that.
• 25:03
  Mariah: Do you think that you networking in person has helped your intentional approach on social media simply because, like I guess I hear people, especially when they're trying to focus on social media, they're like similar to what you're saying.
• 25:21
  Mariah: I have to post, I heard I have to post three to five times a week.
• 25:24
  Mariah: I have to post a carousel because that's what's popular, whatever, whatever.
• 25:28
  Mariah: And then half of the time, I'm like, you've only been in business two years.
• 25:32
  Mariah: Go and shake hands with people, go network, go be a weirdo at the networking thing.
• 25:38
  Mariah: Because we're all weirdos, like yeah, just go and connect in person.
• 25:42
  Mariah: So, like bringing that local networking, like, does that make social media easier for you and maybe even your clients, like your social media clients?
• 25:50
  Mariah: Like, I know that they kind of outsource to you, but it's like, do you still tell them to like go and get involved locally?
• 25:56
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 25:56
  Andrea: So people don't like hearing that, but I think social media is like one of the last marketing pieces you add to like your marketing ecosystem.
• 26:06
  Andrea: And it's why lately I've been talking a lot more about like marketing strategies as a whole versus social media.
• 26:13
  Andrea: So, for example, I recently got a referral, like paid and full referral from Chat GPT um for a strategy session that had almost nothing to do with my social media.
• 26:26
  Andrea: This person just asked Chat GPT a series of questions, it recommended a number of people.
• 26:31
  Andrea: She read all of our websites, found mine, and was like, this is it, and paid.
• 26:35
  Andrea: I feel like people discount the actual path that clients take from like, I don't know who you are to like, here's my money.
• 26:44
  Andrea: Social media is a piece of that, yes, but it's such a small piece compared to like everything else in your marketing.
• 26:51
  Andrea: And so with a lot of our clients, so I had a client come to us recently who wanted to run to run Facebook ads in the agency.
• 26:58
  Andrea: She said, I have this offer, I run it, want to run ads.
• 27:01
  Andrea: We're looking at our website and like we cannot run ads to this website.
• 27:05
  Andrea: Your social media is okay, but your website and your lead magnet just doesn't make sense for your offer.
• 27:13
  Andrea: And so we spent the last four months reworking all of that, and now we're running ads.
• 27:19
  Andrea: And so I think some people try to just skip straight to like, oh, we just need more people to see this.
• 27:25
  Andrea: And it's like, no, no, no.
• 27:26
  Andrea: Like, we can get there and we will get there, but like there's so many steps along the way.
• 27:30
  Andrea: So for a lot of our clients, it's like, what are the actual pieces that make a difference?
• 27:35
  Andrea: And and sometimes it's not social media, it just really depends on the business model.
• 27:40
  Andrea: For local business, yes, SEO social media.
• 27:43
  Andrea: Like, you don't really need a lot else, and even your social media doesn't need to be fancy.
• 27:47
  Andrea: Here's what we're doing today.
• 27:49
  Andrea: Like, literally, that's all you need, right?
• 27:51
  Andrea: Um, but for more complex businesses, we do need a more complex marketing ecosystem.
• 27:58
  Andrea: Social media is a small piece of that, yes, but there's other things like SEO and your messaging and your website and like your funnels and all of that that make a way bigger impact than social media.
• 28:13
  Shay: I really like what you're saying there because honestly, like when I phrased the question to you, I was thinking about social media as just posting content, and then your answer was like, okay, yeah, remember that's just one little piece of it.
• 28:26
  Shay: So I imagine that most people think of it like that.
• 28:28
  Shay: And I really liked what you said about thinking of it as a nurturing tool.
• 28:32
  Shay: I think a lot of us don't really factor in how important that is of the building relationships and the checking in with people and the watching stories and all that kind of like ongoing relationship type building that can happen on social media.
• 28:46
  Shay: Like that piece to me, when you're talking about like where I want to go, that's where I want to go more than like typing something up, making a carousel, whatever.
• 28:54
  Shay: And it's good to remember that that's valuable too and can be very helpful for your business.
• 28:59
  Shay: And I think about like all the relationships I've made and all the networking and all the connections just by meeting people and then staying in touch with them online.
• 29:07
  Shay: So I really appreciate that.
• 29:09
  Shay: I really like what you said about like lean in to what you like and do that instead of what I think the tendency is is try to punish yourself.
• 29:18
  Shay: Like, oh, I hate writing, so I'm gonna block off this time and I'm gonna sit down and shut off everything.
• 29:24
  Shay: And like, it's almost like you're punishing yourself to do the thing you hate when if it's talking and you can just sit down and do it and it's done in 15 minutes.
• 29:31
  Shay: Oh my God.
• 29:32
  Shay: And we're living in a time where you could talk and have something else turn it into a carousel for you, right?
• 29:36
  Shay: So like I really appreciate that's a very nuanced take on social media, and it's making me realize, like, oh, I don't hate this, it's not as yuck as I thought it was.
• 29:46
  Shay: And I it's just a really good take.
• 29:48
  Shay: I appreciate that.
• 29:49
  Shay: And so the other thing I also wanted to chat with you about we talk a lot on the podcast.
• 29:55
  Shay: People following their curiosity often go through this journey.
• 29:58
  Shay: We have this like first thing we chase, we get a little burnt out, we go through this middle period where it's like, what am I doing next?
• 30:04
  Shay: And then I see you, and I know that nothing's ever totally solved, but it seems like you're in a better fit, a better situation, kind of on the other side.
• 30:11
  Shay: You evaluated what you liked, what your skills were, and now you've built something new.
• 30:15
  Shay: I'm curious, like behind the scenes, why is this feeling more sustainable for you?
• 30:20
  Shay: Like, does it feel better?
• 30:22
  Shay: You know, you still have two kids.
• 30:24
  Shay: I'm sure they still take a lot of attention.
• 30:25
  Shay: Like, why does this feel like a better fit versus when you are running the agency?
• 30:29
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 30:30
  Andrea: Oh, that's a good question.
• 30:32
  Andrea: So, a couple things.
• 30:35
  Andrea: One, we have fewer clients at Uncommon than I did at the agency, and we have all contractors still employees.
• 30:43
  Andrea: So I felt like I had a huge commitment to my employees specifically, like full-time salary employees, totally different than working with a set of contractors who you just need when whenever you have a project, right?
• 30:57
  Andrea: And so emotionally, I that kind of pressure right now, like the we we can fluctuate as things fluctuate with that business.
• 31:07
  Andrea: So there's less of my commitment needed over there.
• 31:09
  Andrea: Plus, I have a business partner who can take half the, you know, half of that burden as well.
• 31:15
  Andrea: Um so that feels different as well.
• 31:19
  Andrea: Um, the other piece to it is I did mention I I um in the process of getting a divorce, so like energetically too, I'm just in a different life season, right?
• 31:30
  Andrea: Like I think a lot of the like online business space doesn't talk about this a lot, where like I'm in a season of my life where um my like I just feel at peace more, and so my business feels at peace more, um, even though it's pretty similar to what it was before, technically speaking, like my days are similar.
• 31:49
  Andrea: And even like little things.
• 31:51
  Andrea: Um, with my business partner and I, we we got an office space, we tried working in person, which was fine for a little bit, but we're both introverts, we're both homebodies.
• 32:00
  Andrea: So, like we ended up um switching to a virtual office instead.
• 32:04
  Andrea: And now we both work from home and we just meet up once a week for meetings, and that works better as well.
• 32:09
  Andrea: So, like we're still figuring out some of those pieces.
• 32:13
  Andrea: Um, so I think that's a big like behind the scenes piece is like, is it perfect?
• 32:17
  Andrea: No, it's still messy.
• 32:18
  Andrea: I'm still trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing with my personal life because I don't need like, um, I I don't have my kids all of the time.
• 32:25
  Andrea: So when I don't have them, there's just like lots of time where I'm like, what am I what am I doing?
• 32:29
  Andrea: Like, what do I do myself?
• 32:31
  Andrea: Um, and so sometimes that is a lot harder.
• 32:34
  Andrea: Um, but what I will say about the business is that I find myself having more creativity by allowing myself to be more flexible with what the business can look like.
• 32:45
  Andrea: Whereas when I had the agency, it was like 50, 60, 70 hour work weeks.
• 32:51
  Andrea: Um, because I was like the sales and marketing driver for that, because it was a personal brand, because it was driven by me, and I was a strategist.
• 32:59
  Andrea: So I'm doing all of our client strategy and doing all the sales and marketing, like that's a different amount of energy needed versus now that can be like dispersed a little bit.
• 33:10
  Andrea: But what I'll also say too is that like the market has shifted.
• 33:16
  Andrea: So when I was at my peak, like 2022, this is like we we are just two years after the pandemic.
• 33:22
  Andrea: My business like boomed during the pandemic because everyone had to turn digital and everyone was trying to figure out social media and social media was all we had for a while, right?
• 33:32
  Andrea: And so now I do like people people are like, we we want to be outside, right?
• 33:36
  Andrea: And so I feel like that also has shifted things a lot from like a pressure point of view.
• 33:42
  Andrea: Um, but in full transparency, like my revenue looks totally different.
• 33:46
  Andrea: Like I can't brag about million-dollar agencies anymore, right?
• 33:49
  Andrea: Like it just looks different, and I'm okay with that.
• 33:52
  Andrea: But I think that's like that I feel responsible to even met like I have to mention that as well.
• 33:57
  Andrea: Like it just looks different, and so I feel differently about it.
• 34:02
  Mariah: Thank you for sharing that.
• 34:03
  Mariah: I feel like it it just goes back to kind of like what we talk about on the podcast so often, which is like define what success means to you.
• 34:11
  Mariah: Because if success is a million-dollar agency, well, then you're gonna do what it takes in order to get that.
• 34:17
  Mariah: If success is having a peaceful life, where you have space to like hang out with your kids without having your brain ooze out of your ears because you're always thinking about work, that's not success.
• 34:31
  Mariah: It's like you want that success where it's like it feels good.
• 34:34
  Mariah: And I think reminding ourselves that like our definition of success can change with the season.
• 34:40
  Mariah: The more that we get to know ourselves, the more that we get to know the market, the more that we get to know our zone of genius, the more that we allow flexibility within ourselves.
• 34:49
  Mariah: I don't know about you, but like in that space in 2020, 2021, 2022, I felt very much like I had to prove myself.
• 34:58
  Mariah: Like, cause I was so stuck in this online business bubble.
• 35:02
  Mariah: Everybody was getting swept in in these like 20k months, and it was like all like number shouting type stuff.
• 35:09
  Mariah: And it was, I just got swept up in this big hubaloo, and then I was like, wait, like I have to prove that I'm really smart and like that I can do this.
• 35:19
  Mariah: And then I was stuck creating a business based on somebody else's version of success.
• 35:25
  Mariah: Like 2020 is when I started playing around with like having some agency clients, and it was fucking awful.
• 35:32
  Mariah: It was the worst thing I've ever done in my entire life.
• 35:33
  Mariah: I was like, listen, y'all sold the business like a couple months later, and I was like, I have never been so happy to not have a client anymore.
• 35:40
  Mariah: I love you guys, and I'm so glad I never want to do done for you work like in that capacity ever again.
• 35:47
  Mariah: But like I wouldn't have known that unless I actually did it.
• 35:51
  Mariah: Yeah.
• 35:52
  Mariah: But it just goes to show like your story and so many other people's stories too that are, I feel like that are we're starting to share them a little bit more because people are going on these journeys.
• 36:04
  Mariah: But it's like you had a successful business before, you have a successful business now, and they're completely different, maybe not on the outside in terms of like what services you're offering, but like how they feel to you, the season of life that you're in.
• 36:18
  Mariah: And I think it's just like really fucking cool permission to like you can create whatever you want, but you have to quiet down and take note of these breadcrumbs and take note what's stressing you out.
• 36:29
  Mariah: Like, if you're working too much, then what are you gonna do about it?
• 36:32
  Mariah: Because nobody's coming to save you.
• 36:34
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 36:35
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 36:35
  Andrea: And so what you mentioned earlier about the sourdough bread, I think is a lot what a lot of like our peers are going through right now.
• 36:42
  Andrea: Like, so many of them are like seeking something different and a little bit more like concrete and tangible and tactile.
• 36:51
  Andrea: And so I'll also say that is for me too.
• 36:54
  Andrea: Like one of my dreams right now is when I retire, I am going to own a little romance bookstore by the beach and just like work a couple months a year when it's beach season and then leave me alone the rest of the year.
• 37:08
  Andrea: And I'm just gonna read and write my little romance novels.
• 37:12
  Andrea: And that's like my little like, oh, I don't have to be on the internet, like dream, right?
• 37:17
  Andrea: And so I think that there is this like part of us too that's craving that for those of us who are in this business.
• 37:24
  Andrea: And I've just come to the terms of like being okay with that.
• 37:27
  Andrea: Like it used to be like either or.
• 37:29
  Andrea: Like, you know how we all have those dreams where like, I'm done with this, I'm shutting down my business and I'm going to now I'm like, no, I think eventually I'm gonna transition into having this little like physical store or something similar where I can take my skills and move them somewhere else and like do something differently, and that's okay.
• 37:47
  Andrea: And so I think that's part of what this process has taught me is that the people who don't matter will have a lot to say about it, and the people who do matter will be there to champion me anyways, right?
• 38:00
  Andrea: And so I'm just kind of like following my instinct with a lot of these things and also like doing the things that will pay the bills because I'm with you, Mariah, in that like client work is not the most fun for me.
• 38:13
  Andrea: It's a lot of client management, to be honest, and it's a lot of managing people's emotions, and I find that exhausting.
• 38:19
  Andrea: However, with an agency, I have other people who can support me with that, with like account managers and things like that.
• 38:26
  Andrea: And so I find it a little less stressful, but that a client work pays a lot of bills.
• 38:30
  Andrea: And so, um, do I want to do this forever?
• 38:34
  Andrea: No.
• 38:34
  Andrea: Can I use my skills on this right now?
• 38:36
  Andrea: Absolutely, yes.
• 38:40
  Shay: I really like the bigger message here.
• 38:42
  Shay: You've brought up that this idea of like business can be flexible, and that's like the big piece that you've brought into this new business.
• 38:48
  Shay: You know, you can kind of set up your schedule and how you're working with clients and where and all the pieces at some point you realize, like, oh, I can I'm the one in charge here.
• 38:58
  Shay: I'm the one that can change these things, and none of this is set in stone.
• 39:01
  Shay: And I think that's really liberating for me at least, of realizing, like, oh, I can do this however I want, even though I learned it this way.
• 39:08
  Shay: And it was good I went through the that process.
• 39:10
  Shay: I learned a lot about myself, but now I get to like make it my own.
• 39:13
  Shay: And the second point you made about seasons has been coming up a lot, and I really appreciate it.
• 39:17
  Shay: Like, we all, if we're lucky, can have a ton of chapters in our career, and we're gonna change as humans and we're gonna learn new skills and we're gonna get curious about new things, and like, what a blessing.
• 39:30
  Shay: And I definitely had that like all or nothing mindset of like, oh no, you know, it's like I can't have one and the other.
• 39:36
  Shay: It's only this, and I got to do this for the rest of my life, and that's when I'm gonna build a big career around.
• 39:40
  Shay: And it's like, no, I met this really cool older lady.
• 39:42
  Shay: She was in her 60s, and she said she had a different career for every decade of her life.
• 39:47
  Shay: And she was like a chef in that decade and really well respected, and she'd built a name for herself.
• 39:52
  Shay: But what she was doing in the previous decade was something totally different.
• 39:55
  Shay: And I was like, that's cool.
• 39:56
  Shay: Like, that's the life I want to live.
• 39:58
  Shay: Why am I feeling guilty about that?
• 40:00
  Shay: Like, it's the both ends.
• 40:01
  Shay: Like, if you have something you're doing right now, I don't think anything is ever going to fulfill us 100% of the time.
• 40:06
  Shay: Of course, our brains are gonna be thinking about the next thing.
• 40:09
  Shay: That's the wonderful thing about our brains.
• 40:11
  Shay: Like, what a wonderful gift that we have.
• 40:13
  Shay: So I really love romance bookshop by the beach.
• 40:15
  Shay: I have like my heaven in the woods, Airbnb retreat fantasy, you know.
• 40:20
  Shay: Like, I feel like most people I talk to have some version of the getting in real life.
• 40:25
  Shay: And that's life, right?
• 40:26
  Shay: Like maybe we were inside on the internet for a while, and then we'll have a season or a chapter of our life that's like totally swinging in the opposite direction.
• 40:33
  Shay: But I really appreciate that stance on and that perspective.
• 40:37
  Shay: There's one other thing, Andrea, you shared we have um our guests share some ideas and we talk about ideas of things to talk about before we get on this call.
• 40:46
  Shay: And one thing that we had in your notes file here was how to help someone find their point of view when they feel like everything else has already been sold.
• 40:54
  Shay: And that was something I wanted to talk to you about.
• 40:56
  Shay: Like, I personally struggle with that of just it's the back to my yuck on social media.
• 41:03
  Shay: It's loud, it's full of slap these days.
• 41:05
  Shay: That's the biggest change with AI.
• 41:07
  Shay: It's like it's louder now and it's more messy than it's ever been.
• 41:11
  Shay: And it just feels like it's all been said, and why would I say anything?
• 41:13
  Shay: So I would love to hear you talk a bit about like these days, what is it like to find a unique point of view and like how do you help people navigate through that?
• 41:21
  Andrea: Yeah, you're right.
• 41:22
  Andrea: There is so much, and I think it is like whatever the opposite of AI is, right?
• 41:27
  Andrea: So the imperfect, the real, the raw, the like the stuff that makes us human, you know?
• 41:33
  Andrea: And I think it is that multi-layered approach, right?
• 41:36
  Andrea: You could tell a story about you wanting a uh Airbnb cabin in the woods, and that's different than me wanting a bookshop.
• 41:43
  Andrea: It's different than the sourdough bread, right?
• 41:45
  Andrea: So it's like those stories are what people crave.
• 41:49
  Andrea: I like to call this the reality TV version of our business, where it's like, we wanna see the fight.
• 41:55
  Andrea: We wanna see the messy, we wanna see, you know what I mean?
• 41:58
  Andrea: Like show us the real thing.
• 42:00
  Andrea: And so I think that that's that's really where social media can can be fun.
• 42:05
  Andrea: Um, is how do we how do we show up with our with our business, with our offer the way that it is, but still stand apart from our competitors.
• 42:15
  Andrea: And it's us, like the founder, the creator behind the scenes, the people that actually work with us.
• 42:19
  Andrea: And if you have a business that's in multiple people, it's like show that perspective.
• 42:23
  Andrea: Like I follow a local eye doctor on um Instagram that's local to me.
• 42:28
  Andrea: The whole staff is in there making videos.
• 42:31
  Andrea: And I like every single one of them.
• 42:32
  Andrea: And I'm like, well, when I get my eyes checked, I know where I'm gonna go because they think fun.
• 42:37
  Andrea: You know what I mean?
• 42:38
  Andrea: And so I feel like that's the kind of stuff that AI can't do, at least yet.
• 42:42
  Andrea: Please don't do that.
• 42:44
  Andrea: Um, and so I feel like that's the kind of stuff where where social media can really be helpful.
• 42:51
  Andrea: But to your point about like finding a point of view, I actually find social media to be challenging to share that point of view because of it, the container.
• 42:59
  Andrea: So it just kind of depends on how your clients want to absorb that information.
• 43:04
  Andrea: So a lot of my clients in my uh in my network, they like long form content, uh, podcasts, YouTube videos.
• 43:13
  Andrea: Like, sure they'll find me on social media, but that when they want to learn something, when they want to have their beliefs challenged, when they want to explore new topics, they're listening to my podcasts.
• 43:26
  Andrea: They're not like getting all of that from like 60 second video, right?
• 43:30
  Andrea: And so I do find that the social media can help to like show my personality and show some of my thoughts, but most of my people kind of get my like ethos from long form content.
• 43:41
  Andrea: And so for a lot of them, I've been really guiding my clients into that.
• 43:45
  Andrea: Now, local business, I think, is in a category of its own, and product business as well is in a category of its own.
• 43:51
  Andrea: But if you're like a coach, consultant, service provider, or you're selling your brain as the product, then having that like Like long-form content somewhere else outside of social media is all they'll care about.
• 44:05
  Andrea: Like you, like you kind of have to.
• 44:07
  Andrea: Um, and then the other businesses, product local, like they can get away with not having that because the product is just different, right?
• 44:15
  Andrea: And so the the perspective though can still be embedded there.
• 44:19
  Andrea: Um, you know, if you if you're a local business and you both sell books, for instance, how are is how's your bookshop different from this other bookshop?
• 44:27
  Andrea: It's your perspective of the bookshop.
• 44:30
  Andrea: So do you offer diverse stories?
• 44:32
  Andrea: Is it your location?
• 44:34
  Andrea: Do you have authors come and speak?
• 44:35
  Andrea: Like all of those things can really shape the perspective.
• 44:38
  Andrea: And so it's really like highlighting the layers of all of that on social media and in your marketing in its entirety that can really help bring that unique perspective to life.
• 44:49
  Mariah: I love your perspective on this so much.
• 44:52
  Mariah: I've never heard of social media person.
• 44:55
  Mariah: So like in this conversation, you're just like, I think social media is a very small piece of your marketing channel.
• 45:01
  Mariah: And then for some, you're like, I think that the quick, like hit videos, the short form videos are not the container that makes sense for a lot of people to share their point of view.
• 45:13
  Mariah: And so your perspective is so fresh on this because it's the complete opposite of what we're hearing all the time, where it's like, listen, I know Instagram has changed, honey, but all you gotta do is do the trial reels and you gotta yap a little bit, and then everybody will come.
• 45:30
  Mariah: And it's like, that sounds fucking exhausting.
• 45:33
  Mariah: I'm not doing that.
• 45:34
  Mariah: Like, I'm I'm not playing that game.
• 45:37
  Mariah: And I think your perspective, like what it makes me think of is that A, I think especially people that are newer to business and they're really pulled into the online aspects or the digital aspect of business, think that the only way to market is Instagram.
• 45:52
  Mariah: I don't know if you get that locally, but like half of the time locally, I say, What are you doing for marketing?
• 45:57
  Mariah: And they're like, Well, I don't post on Instagram a lot.
• 45:59
  Mariah: And I'm like, bitch, I didn't ask about Instagram.
• 46:02
  Mariah: Like, we we didn't even get to that platform.
• 46:04
  Mariah: Like, what?
• 46:05
  Mariah: I'm talking about your home marketing there, girl.
• 46:07
  Mariah: But like they instantly just think that Instagram is like the only way to market.
• 46:13
  Mariah: And then they keep themselves in this box when really there's so many different ways to market, and there's this huge ecosystem where it's like if you can create long-form content, you can take those snippets, and it's like social media's only role is to like remind people that you're alive and to remind people that like this is what you sell.
• 46:38
  Mariah: Like, I don't create a lot of content on social media, specifically for social media.
• 46:42
  Mariah: My threads, I'm talking about my husband and my puppy and my birthday and my this and my that.
• 46:46
  Mariah: And then on Instagram, I'm just like posting randomly sometimes, but it's like I'm still getting consistent clients.
• 46:52
  Mariah: People still find me on Instagram, they find me on threads, they find me on all of these.
• 46:56
  Mariah: And it's just because I remind people that I'm alive.
• 47:00
  unknown: Yeah.
• 47:01
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 47:01
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 47:02
  Andrea: And so I think that that's so I think the challenges there was at Instagram like peak, like heyday, where it that was possible.
• 47:10
  Andrea: I would want to say the last time that was possible was probably 2016, where you could create an Instagram account and just have that and like a PayPal link and then like make money.
• 47:19
  Andrea: That was 10 years ago, y'all.
• 47:21
  Andrea: Like 10 years ago.
• 47:22
  Andrea: That's a long time in the internet world.
• 47:25
  Andrea: And so that is not possible for most people.
• 47:28
  Andrea: And I know there's this lovely lady who did the yap challenge.
• 47:32
  Andrea: She had in a phenomenal business coach behind her, and she capitalized on a movement.
• 47:36
  Andrea: She is a rarity.
• 47:38
  Andrea: I did a whole podcast episode on her because I thought it was brilliant, and um, there's a lot for us to learn from that.
• 47:43
  Andrea: We're not all gonna be a yap challenge person, okay?
• 47:47
  Andrea: So I think it's like we we have two things happening here.
• 47:51
  Andrea: One, we're missing the heyday of social media where we could like post all the time.
• 47:56
  Andrea: And even this client we just got who ha who wanted to run ads, like it's not where you put a dollar in the Facebook machine, you get five dollars back.
• 48:02
  Andrea: Like, we can't do that anymore.
• 48:04
  Andrea: It just doesn't happen that way.
• 48:05
  Andrea: And even when you get there, try$100,000 and then maybe you get$500,000 back, right?
• 48:11
  Andrea: Like it's gonna take a lot of time.
• 48:13
  Andrea: So that's the first thing.
• 48:14
  Andrea: And then the second piece to it is I think business owners, y'all are not gonna like this, have so much ego.
• 48:22
  Andrea: We we have so much ego that we're like, well, I know it didn't work for everyone else, but it's gonna work for me.
• 48:28
  Andrea: It's gonna work for me.
• 48:29
  Andrea: Like, why are we like this?
• 48:31
  Mariah: That's literally what I think in my head.
• 48:33
  Mariah: I'm just like, listen, I know that like 99% of podcasts flop, but like my podcast girl, I'm gonna take this to the next level.
• 48:42
  Andrea: Gonna work for me.
• 48:43
  Andrea: Yeah, I'm gonna be super mega famous, right?
• 48:46
  Andrea: I'm gonna go viral, whatever it is.
• 48:48
  Andrea: And so I do think that we're like constantly contending with our ego, especially on social media, because it's so public.
• 48:55
  Andrea: Like people, we like we post, anyone can look at it and see it.
• 48:59
  Andrea: And that potential is what gets us in trouble because anyone could look at it and can see it.
• 49:05
  Andrea: And then we get disappointed when like 12 people listen at it and we're like, okay, I'll I'll post again, I'll try again, right?
• 49:13
  Andrea: And so it's we put ourselves in this cycle of like trying to make it into something that it's not.
• 49:19
  Andrea: So I think social media absolutely plays a role in marketing ecosystems.
• 49:24
  Andrea: I love it, I still do.
• 49:26
  Andrea: And for a lot of my clients, we go back a few steps and work on their entire marketing with social media being a piece of it, but kind of having a whole marketing ecosystem that really works for them and like their offer and their preferences and their real business and not like whatever Alex or Mosey or whatever his name is is doing right now, right?
• 49:49
  Shay: Anyways, I just kind of text from Alice or a notice of his threads this morning, and I was like, I don't need to know what Alex is doing all the time, so I appreciate you saying that.
• 49:58
  Shay: Yeah.
• 49:58
  Shay: Um, I I really like what you're saying, Andrea.
• 50:01
  Shay: It sounds so logical to me, you and Mariah, but the idea of considering your whole sales funnel and how someone finds you, gets to know you, builds enough trust with you to purchase your product, it doesn't really get talked about a lot in marketing.
• 50:15
  Shay: Like literally, when people come to you and say my marketing is not working, typically they mean I'm not posting, I don't think I'm posting enough on social media.
• 50:23
  Shay: I'm not making enough Instagram posts.
• 50:25
  Shay: And really, what you're saying is like, that's a decade ago that we're talking about that stuff.
• 50:29
  Shay: That's just one piece of the puzzle these days.
• 50:32
  Shay: And I really like the more holistic idea that you're talking about.
• 50:35
  Shay: My background's in web design.
• 50:37
  Shay: So I can't tell you how many clients I've talked to that are trying to throw money into an ads budget that's driving people to a website that makes you look like trash.
• 50:46
  Shay: And it's like, no, the website also has to stand up to this person.
• 50:50
  Shay: That's like your salesperson online.
• 50:51
  Shay: And it's funny that gets lost in the equation.
• 50:54
  Shay: And people, no, no, if I just add more money, then it will come out the other side as sales, right?
• 50:59
  Shay: You know, and it's like, no.
• 51:01
  Shay: So I really, really appreciate the holistic approach.
• 51:03
  Shay: And I'm wondering, we've talked a lot about bang for your buck, right?
• 51:08
  Shay: And maybe these days it's not as effective for people to invest all their efforts into making content.
• 51:12
  Shay: Yes, it's awesome to get found and kind of pop up in people's heads every once in a while, but you can have a nice long form video that someone can.
• 51:20
  Shay: I'm in sales and I can tell you we're all making decisions based on vibe.
• 51:24
  Shay: So, like, I love the idea of sending people towards long form.
• 51:27
  Shay: And and I totally believe you that people could watch one video and be like, she's itch, her brain works like my brain.
• 51:32
  Shay: She's got that vibe.
• 51:33
  Shay: I'm working with her.
• 51:34
  Shay: I don't even want to look anywhere else.
• 51:36
  Shay: And like, that's the magic.
• 51:37
  Shay: That's the juice.
• 51:38
  Shay: So I'm wondering these days, where are you finding clients getting more bang for their buck?
• 51:42
  Shay: Like, what is the Instagram of 10 years ago?
• 51:45
  Shay: And I I know that's not a simple answer, but like, where do you find people getting a lot of return?
• 51:49
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 51:50
  Andrea: Um, I love this question because I feel like every time someone asks it, they want that, like, oh, just on Instagram, like they want that answer.
• 51:57
  Andrea: But it is more complicated.
• 51:59
  Andrea: And I find it depends on the business model.
• 52:01
  Andrea: So, like a lot of my clients right now, I work with a lot of therapists, um, and they are doing phenomenally on TikTok, creating longer videos longer than a minute, and on YouTube.
• 52:17
  Andrea: So people are searching for them on those two platforms.
• 52:21
  Andrea: We're repurposing content into blogs mostly so that AI can read it and recommend them.
• 52:30
  Andrea: Like, it's not the answer people want, right?
• 52:34
  Andrea: Uh, for my local clients, it's Google listings.
• 52:38
  Andrea: Um, get your you need your clients to leave reviews on your Google.
• 52:42
  Andrea: I don't, I don't care how you do it, but um, the Golf Simulator, we just put an M NFC tap tag thing like right on the front desk.
• 52:51
  Andrea: Reviews are going up.
• 52:53
  Andrea: Like people just do it without like the person who's checking them out asks people to leave a review.
• 52:57
  Andrea: Is it glamorous?
• 52:58
  Andrea: You know, of course they want the big photo shoot with the video and the uh all the reels to post on social media, and that does help.
• 53:06
  Andrea: But most people for local, they're like searching for you.
• 53:10
  Andrea: So like you need to just be where they're looking.
• 53:13
  Andrea: Um, and so it's not it's not the answer people want.
• 53:16
  Andrea: But that's what I've been telling people is if you have a business where people are buying your brain, then you need to be you need to have a podcast or a YouTube video.
• 53:26
  Andrea: Ideally, YouTube because it's a little more searchable.
• 53:28
  Andrea: Um, some people don't like video though, so we'll do podcasts.
• 53:31
  Andrea: We can do blogs, but they're not, even though people love blogs, consumers, especially younger consumers, they're just not reading.
• 53:42
  Andrea: But the tools are reading them that can help direct people to them.
• 53:45
  Andrea: Um, and then if you're if you sell a product, offer local something that people are searching for, be where they're searching.
• 53:52
  Andrea: Um, you know, we have a client who works with um Gen Alpha.
• 53:57
  Andrea: That's the young, young kids.
• 53:59
  Andrea: Their parents, millennials, are finding products for them on TikTok.
• 54:06
  Andrea: So, yeah, sure, you can pay an influencer to create an Instagram video, but that video may also need to be on TikTok because that's where they're looking for it.
• 54:15
  Andrea: And so it's it's kind of it's a nuanced answer, but it's the the kind of underlying theme is like you had to figure out where your people are and where they already are looking for you, and then just go there.
• 54:26
  Mariah: Okay.
• 54:26
  Mariah: This leads me to a follow-up question because I have started networking quite a bit in person.
• 54:34
  Mariah: And when I, it's so funny, I just like assume that everybody understands what like SEO means.
• 54:40
  Mariah: And I remember I was introducing myself at like a networking meeting, and I'm like, hey, I'm Mariah, I'm an SEO consultant and educator, and like half of the room had no idea what like SEO meant.
• 54:49
  Mariah: And I had to be like, it's search engine optimization.
• 54:55
  Mariah: And like I forget how limited some people's view of marketing can be when they're doing their own business.
• 55:03
  Mariah: And so I would start talking about SEO and marketing and like SEO was so nuanced, it takes into account everything.
• 55:10
  Mariah: It takes into especially now, it takes into account your podcast, your blog, your you like everything on the internet, your Google listing, everything falls into this SEO bucket now.
• 55:20
  Mariah: But that's overwhelming to business owners where it's like, say they're solo dolo.
• 55:25
  Mariah: Let's say that they're like a lash, like an eyelash artist or something like that.
• 55:30
  Mariah: They help people with like eyelash lifts.
• 55:32
  Mariah: And then it's like they just get so overwhelmed with social media or TikTok or Instagram or even doing their website.
• 55:41
  Mariah: And I personally have always found it so hard to give them recommendations because it's like marketing is not their zone of genius.
• 55:49
  Mariah: They have a different zone of genius.
• 55:51
  Mariah: My zone of genius is marketing.
• 55:53
  Mariah: All of us here on this podcast that are having a conversation, our zones of genius fall into this marketing and sales kind of aspect.
• 56:01
  Mariah: But so many, most businesses across the world, service-based, e-commerce, all of that, plumbers, it's just like their zone of genius is not marketing.
• 56:10
  Mariah: So, like, how do you empower these people?
• 56:16
  Mariah: Because a lot of them, especially when they're getting started, they don't have money to outsource it to hire an agency.
• 56:23
  Mariah: Like, what is the advice that you give these people that are kind of this in-between where it's like, I'm trying, I'm spending all this time adding lash extensions to my clients and I'm getting word of mouth, but I really want to take this up a notch.
• 56:35
  Mariah: What do I do if I don't have time to do things?
• 56:38
  Mariah: And I also am in this weird spot where I don't have the budget to hire an agency.
• 56:42
  Mariah: Yeah.
• 56:43
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 56:44
  Andrea: And this is such a common question, especially for our, like you say, solo dolo.
• 56:48
  Andrea: Um, so so let's take our lash extension artist.
• 56:52
  Andrea: Um, two things I want you to do.
• 56:55
  Andrea: One is you gotta um put the name of your city or town in your Instagram and make sure people can find you on Google.
• 57:07
  Andrea: Like step one, that is just a one-time thing, right?
• 57:12
  Andrea: Like, you just have to be findable somewhere, right?
• 57:15
  Andrea: Guys, she she said it, not me.
• 57:16
  Mariah: Like, she's backing up my SEO shit.
• 57:18
  Mariah: I didn't even say that.
• 57:19
  Andrea: Put it somewhere, and then the second thing is treat your social media like a portfolio.
• 57:26
  Andrea: Okay.
• 57:26
  Andrea: So, like when people find you, they need to be able to see what you can do.
• 57:31
  Andrea: And so I'll use a personal example too.
• 57:33
  Andrea: I've got lash extensions one time.
• 57:35
  Andrea: It's not for me.
• 57:36
  Andrea: I cannot lay there for three hours.
• 57:37
  Andrea: I'm sorry.
• 57:38
  Andrea: I just can't.
• 57:39
  Andrea: I love how they look, I can't do it, I can't keep up with it.
• 57:42
  Andrea: However, when I was looking for one specifically, I looked through about 10 to 15 Instagram accounts, specifically looking if they work with a black person, because I don't want somebody to mess up my eyes.
• 57:53
  Andrea: Like, this is my eyes.
• 57:55
  Andrea: So, like for me, I didn't even care if there was a recent post.
• 57:59
  Andrea: I just wanted to see an example, right?
• 58:02
  Andrea: Same thing if you're a tattoo artist, if you are a salon owner, like those types of businesses, your social media ends up being a portfolio.
• 58:12
  Andrea: And yeah, you post regularly, but you really don't have to post every day.
• 58:15
  Andrea: You don't even have to post every week, right?
• 58:18
  Andrea: So maybe just like a couple times a month, you update your portfolio, right?
• 58:23
  Andrea: But then you're treating your social media as a portfolio.
• 58:25
  Andrea: So be findable and then have something for people to look at when they find you.
• 58:28
  Andrea: And I think that that's the easiest way to go forward if you don't have a lot of time.
• 58:33
  Andrea: Are there other things you can be doing?
• 58:34
  Andrea: Yeah, absolutely.
• 58:35
  Andrea: But we want to get like 80% of like the main thing done first.
• 58:40
  Mariah: What about plumbers?
• 58:42
  Mariah: And I ask that because they do not have cute photos that you're asked to share it on social media.
• 58:49
  Mariah: So it's like, what are they doing?
• 58:52
  Andrea: Yeah, plumbers is different because people usually call for an emergency.
• 58:57
  Andrea: So your social media really isn't that important.
• 59:01
  Andrea: Um, for you, it's all about search and it's all about having a visible presence, usually a website that shows that you know what you're talking about, and then you answer the phone and I call.
• 59:13
  Andrea: Like some of this is not fancy, and I feel like people try to make it so fancy.
• 59:18
  Andrea: And you can, don't get me wrong, if you have like a plumbing, is it called an agency where you have like multiple people, then yeah, you can do the fun content.
• 59:26
  Andrea: And there's a lot of like kind of non-traditional businesses um getting attention now because they're doing fun things.
• 59:33
  Andrea: That's like phase 10, okay, babe.
• 59:35
  Andrea: You're on phase one.
• 59:36
  Andrea: We're gonna start with like website, and when people call, you're answering the phone.
• 59:40
  Andrea: That's sales.
• 59:41
  Andrea: That's not even marketing, that's just sales.
• 59:43
  Andrea: So we're gonna start there, and then once you grow, you grow from there.
• 59:46
  Andrea: Um, I'll use my my um the guy who cuts my grass as an example.
• 59:51
  Andrea: Um, I got his number from a friend.
• 59:54
  Andrea: He has no website, his business card looks like he wrote it by hand.
• 59:59
  Andrea: And I send him e-transfer every month.
• 1:00:02
  Andrea: He's booked and busy.
• 1:00:04
  Andrea: And I asked him, I was like, Are you looking to grow your business?
• 1:00:06
  Andrea: Like, you should have more than this.
• 1:00:07
  Andrea: And he's like, I have I'm turning people away.
• 1:00:10
  Andrea: And I was like, good for you.
• 1:00:11
  Andrea: So, like, sometimes we don't need all of that, right?
• 1:00:15
  Andrea: Like, try to figure out what works for you and and go with that.
• 1:00:19
  Andrea: And marketers will we'll try to sell you something because that's our job.
• 1:00:22
  Andrea: We're gonna try to sell you something, but we probably don't need it.
• 1:00:28
  Shay: That's so good.
• 1:00:29
  Shay: I appreciate you sharing all those real life stories.
• 1:00:31
  Shay: I think that makes it very real for me.
• 1:00:34
  Shay: Um I'm curious for you right now, like where we always like to ask people at the end of the podcast, like, where your curiosity is.
• 1:00:43
  Shay: And I keep wondering, like, as you're talking, I'm like, okay, what's next for her?
• 1:00:47
  Shay: What's next for her?
• 1:00:47
  Shay: What is she into right now?
• 1:00:49
  Shay: And so do you mind giving us a peek behind the scenes?
• 1:00:51
  Shay: Like, what where is your curiosity leading you?
• 1:00:53
  Shay: Like, what rabbit holes are you going down right now?
• 1:00:55
  Shay: What are you like hyper fixated or fascinated by?
• 1:00:58
  Andrea: Yes, okay.
• 1:00:59
  Andrea: I'm really into vibe coding.
• 1:01:01
  Andrea: Have y'all been doing it?
• 1:01:02
  unknown: At all.
• 1:01:03
  Andrea: My husband says I know a good about it.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:01:06
  Andrea: So vibe coding is like prompting like you would with ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever, but you're it's coding like websites and apps for you.
• 1:01:13
  Andrea: And my business partner and I have basically developed our own vibe coding tool after trying all of them, and like um, he's a developer by by trade, right?
• 1:01:23
  Andrea: And so we tried all of them, we're like, I wish you could do this, I wish I could do that.
• 1:01:26
  Andrea: So we like made our own and like we're deep in it, like about to launch a software.
• 1:01:32
  Andrea: Because we were like the last six months, we were like, Well, what if we did this?
• 1:01:35
  Andrea: What if we did that?
• 1:01:36
  Andrea: And like it's so amazing to me.
• 1:01:39
  Andrea: Like, our like if you go to uncommon.ca, which is our agency website, we vibe coded that entire website, which is bananas to say, as people like, we still do it the old-fashioned way for our clients, right?
• 1:01:51
  Andrea: Coding, hard coding websites.
• 1:01:53
  Andrea: But vibe coding is like AI for coding, and it's like a language-based um um large language model that can code.
• 1:02:04
  Andrea: So that's what I've been doing.
• 1:02:05
  Andrea: And I've been creating these like little micro apps for I can use for my clients.
• 1:02:10
  Andrea: Um, one of my clients, um, we built his whole website on a vibe coding because he didn't have the budget for like a customized website.
• 1:02:18
  Andrea: Um, we're adding in custom things like um custom dashboards and like having a whole custom inventory system.
• 1:02:26
  Andrea: And like doing all of this just by coding has been a very interesting exploration.
• 1:02:32
  Andrea: I will say though, people keep saying vibe coding like saves time.
• 1:02:36
  Andrea: It does not save time.
• 1:02:37
  Andrea: Uh in fact, as someone who has built websites, um, like WordPress websites, Squarespace websites, Wix, this takes way longer.
• 1:02:43
  Andrea: I don't like people, smarters again, are like, this one tool will change your entire life.
• 1:02:48
  Andrea: I'm like, no, no, no.
• 1:02:50
  Andrea: It is cool because it's highly customizable, especially for someone who knows like this much about coding.
• 1:02:55
  Andrea: Um, so that's been my hyperfixation is vibe coding, specifically through our software, which we're gonna launch very soon.
• 1:03:01
  Andrea: It's called uncommonable.
• 1:03:03
  Mariah: Oh my god, I love that.
• 1:03:05
  Mariah: How fun.
• 1:03:06
  Mariah: We uh we got the tea here first, fam.
• 1:03:08
  Mariah: Um that's it makes so much sense and it's so funny.
• 1:03:14
  Mariah: I'm glad that you said that it does like it's not quicker.
• 1:03:17
  Mariah: That's my issue with it, right?
• 1:03:18
  Mariah: Is like everybody's selling, like, just do this, and you're gonna save so much time, and then I get mad because I'm like, no, because I have to now tell it to recode the entire thing when I have to like change one word on it, and then I'm just annoyed and I wish that I could just go into the back end WordPress dashboard and elementor and just change the heading.
• 1:03:39
  Mariah: And I'm like, no, can we find a middle ground here of like I can vibe code the CMS, like the content management container, and then I can go back in and edit piece by piece because like redoing it all, and then I'm like watching it code and everything that it's doing, and I'm like, my head is spinning.
• 1:03:55
  Andrea: Yeah, that's exactly what we're trying.
• 1:03:57
  Andrea: That's exactly what we were running into.
• 1:03:59
  Andrea: It's like, oh, can you change this one word?
• 1:04:01
  Andrea: And then the whole thing looks different for some reason.
• 1:04:03
  Andrea: You're like, wait, no.
• 1:04:05
  Andrea: And you're like, no, go back.
• 1:04:06
  Andrea: Yeah, go back, go back.
• 1:04:07
  Andrea: Um, so yeah, I I find that it's interesting because I think that there's this perception of AI being cheaper and faster.
• 1:04:17
  Andrea: And I have not seen that to be exactly the case yet.
• 1:04:21
  Andrea: In some instances, it has definitely speeded up my process, but that's because I had a process to speed up.
• 1:04:28
  Andrea: I find when there are businesses who are starting from zero, I actually feel bad for the businesses that are building them with AI without creating a process first, because I almost guarantee it's taking them 10 times longer to do it this way.
• 1:04:41
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 1:04:41
  Andrea: Um, and then the output is just terrible.
• 1:04:44
  Andrea: Um, and so yeah, I'm I'm working on vibe coding, but also educating people around like, how can we do this ethically and how can we do it in a way that actually does help our business and doesn't like um cause us to look exactly like everybody else?
• 1:05:00
  Mariah: Yeah, that's a huge thing.
• 1:05:01
  Mariah: I have a member in my SEO membership, and he was making changes to his site, and he went from a WordPress site or a Wix site over to he's like coding with Claude, and it's like he had to come, he was like, Well, I um spent 16 hours working on this yesterday, and I was like, in 16 hours, I could create a custom site from scratch, like on Squarespace, and it's like he got like four pages done, which is great, but then it's just like the way that it looks, it looks similar to all of the other Claude coded websites.
• 1:05:33
  Mariah: So I'm excited to see what you guys create.
• 1:05:35
  Andrea: Yeah, and especially SEO, like from from the testing we've done, it's terrible.
• 1:05:41
  Andrea: Like it's so bad because we have to code it.
• 1:05:44
  Andrea: Like you you have to tell it what you need, but people don't know what you need.
• 1:05:48
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 1:05:48
  Andrea: If you don't know what to tell it, then your website might as well not exist.
• 1:05:52
  Andrea: So that's a huge step as well is like, okay, you built this thing, but can people find it?
• 1:05:57
  Andrea: Like, hello.
• 1:05:59
  Mariah: Amen, girl.
• 1:06:00
  Mariah: Amen.
• 1:06:00
  Mariah: Okay.
• 1:06:01
  Mariah: We dove in to so many different things.
• 1:06:05
  Mariah: If people really like your approach to social media, to business, to all of that, can you tell them how they can get more of your brain?
• 1:06:16
  Andrea: Yes, of course.
• 1:06:16
  Andrea: So the best place to start is my do less market better kit.
• 1:06:20
  Andrea: It's free.
• 1:06:21
  Andrea: It's on my website, um, where I walk you through kind of my framework and approach to marketing.
• 1:06:27
  Andrea: So if anything I said here today, you're like, oh, I like that I don't have to be on social media all the time, or I like that I can create long form content, or all of any of those things, I kind of put in this free training.
• 1:06:40
  Andrea: Um, and then you'll be into my wall.
• 1:06:41
  Andrea: So you can find it at online dream.com slash kit.
• 1:06:46
  Andrea: And then you also have you still have the lab too.
• 1:06:50
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 1:06:51
  Andrea: So um actually, if you join the kit, you'll get like an intro offer for the lab.
• 1:06:56
  Andrea: But the lab is like, oh my gosh, it's you get unlimited marketing strategy.
• 1:07:00
  Andrea: I don't know how else to say other than like my brain on anything that you want me to have my brain on um in the lab.
• 1:07:07
  Andrea: Plus, I have courses on every single platform Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, um, email, YouTube, everything is in there.
• 1:07:15
  Andrea: Um, and then I have guest experts come in and teach to fill in the gaps.
• 1:07:19
  Andrea: We do lots of challenges, we have lots of coworking and life support.
• 1:07:23
  Andrea: And yeah, it's just like it's so fun.
• 1:07:25
  Andrea: If you're if you're tired of like someone telling you to post every single day on Instagram, then this will probably be your day.
• 1:07:32
  Mariah: If you need somebody that's gonna help simplify social media in a way that doesn't make your brain fall out of your ears.
• 1:07:39
  Mariah: And I feel like if you want to be surrounded by people that feel the same, that's the thing with community.
• 1:07:44
  Mariah: We need community of like, I don't want to say necessarily like-minded people, but like that are similar in like how they want to approach their business and their marketing, because like you don't want to join a membership or a product with somebody like Alex Harmozy.
• 1:07:58
  Mariah: I don't even know if I said his name right, but it's like you don't want to join that if you ain't trying to hustle until you die.
• 1:08:05
  Andrea: Right, right.
• 1:08:06
  Andrea: And most of our members have like life is lifing, right?
• 1:08:09
  Andrea: Like it's like, oh, I have chronic illness, or I have to take care of my aging parents, or like me, I have two kids, one's four, one's two.
• 1:08:17
  Andrea: Like, I don't have time to be sent on Instagram all day.
• 1:08:19
  Andrea: So now what?
• 1:08:20
  Andrea: You know what I mean?
• 1:08:21
  Andrea: And so we kind of work through that question together.
• 1:08:24
  Mariah: Perfect.
• 1:08:25
  Mariah: Okay, so we are going to put the links to both of those two things in the show notes below.
• 1:08:32
  Mariah: And then do you is there a place where you like people to follow you, to connect with you, that type of thing?
• 1:08:39
  Andrea: Yeah, I'm Instagram all the way just because of the DMs, y'all.
• 1:08:43
  Andrea: Like, I love a good voice note DM.
• 1:08:45
  Andrea: Like, send me a voice note, I'll send you one back because it's really quick and easy for me.
• 1:08:49
  Andrea: I'm a talker, but I I spend a lot of my time on Instagram in the DMs, but I'm everywhere at online Drea, online D-R-E-A.
• 1:08:57
  Andrea: Um, yeah.
• 1:08:58
  Mariah: Okay, so we will put all of the links to that in the show notes below, but I think that we are ready to close this episode down.
• 1:09:06
  Mariah: So remember, friends, that you have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:09:10
  Mariah: Follow the nudge, ask questions, and let curiosity guide the way.
• 1:09:15
  Mariah: We'll see you in the next episode.