Podcasts about thestaceyharris

Stacey Harris, CEO of a dynamic Digital Media Agency is my lastest guest. She tells us how she went from being a Stay at Home Mommy to building her business and eventually changing roles with her husband to be the breadwinner for her family. I loved to hear how she navigated moving into a new role with her husband and how they make their relationship work while running the business. Mindset gems here for those holding themselves back from business growth.   Stacey Harris is a social media strategist and trainer working with frustrated entrepreneurs who are tired of spending hours online with no results. Through her podcast, live video, membership community, and coaching she helps business owners take control of their social and actually see results so they can have the impact they desire. You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris at www.thestaceyharris.com and over on Instagram at @TheStaceyHarris. Social Media Instagram.com/thestaceyharris Facebook.com/thestaceyharris linkedin.com/in/thestaceyharris twitter.com/thestaceyharris

During episode 015 I talk with Stacey Harris about all things streamlining to make room for your unlimited success.  This was a conversation that just kept on giving and I can't wait to hear what you think. Join us to discuss beyond the episode: businessbeyondbelief.com/yes The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses. Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris at www.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris.

Welcome to episode 354 of Hit the Mic with the Stacey Harris. Hello. We are going to talk podcasting today because I'm guessing that if you listen to this podcast, you probably enjoy podcasts. You might think to yourself, "Should I have a podcast?" The answer is maybe, all right? However, the answer is definitely no if you don't do the things first, we are going to talk about. Some of these are lessons learned through doing it the wrong way. Some of these are lessons learned through doing it the right way, but all of them are lessons. They're lessons that I hope that you can learn earlier than I learned them, all right? Let's jump right in. I want to keep this brief because again, I want to keep this actionable. If you do not know yet, FYI, there is a free Launch Your Podcast training at thestaceyharris.com/launchyourpodcast that takes some of the stuff we're going to talk about today and amplifies it. Even better, you want to go all the way in, there is a full-on five-module podcast program inside of Hit The Mic Backstage, as well as some podcasting trainings on growing your audience, et cetera, et cetera, so hitthemicbackstage.com to get those. If you're not sure, you're still feeling this out, stick with me, and let's talk about some things. Number one thing that I think everyone should do and something that I didn't do nearly early enough in my own podcast was build a plan to repurpose, meaning audio is great. Podcasting is amazing. We all hear the stats of how podcasting is the only way to go, but here's the deal. It might not be for you. For me, it definitely isn't. In fact, a lot of people who consume this show don't listen to it. They actually read the transcript that goes up on the show notes page every week. I have a lot, a lot of people who consume the content that way. They don't actually listen to the show. They read it, and that's cool. How ever you best receive the value, as long as you take action on it, I don't care. On the flip side, some people prefer to produce video even though they want to have an audio podcast. Great. Record videos. Rip the audio. Make them a podcast. Get the whole thing transcribed, and do a blog post. Now you've taken one piece of content you've created, and it's consumable in three ways. We've talked a lot about doing this with Facebook lives. You can do it that way. You can do it prerecorded so you can still batch. Either one is fine. Some combination of the two is okay, but when you're building your podcast plan, when you're thinking about launching your show, I want you to take a beat and think about the repurposing of it. Think about how you can evolve it into being multiple things. Another example with this show and you may have heard me talk about this in the past, but you may not have, in addition to the podcast being transcribed and it being in full transcript on the show notes of my own website, this gets edited into guest posts. Every Wednesday, a version of this podcast, an abbreviated version of this podcast goes live on LinkedIn. Also, those get submitted to sites like YFS Magazine and Huffington Post and places like that where I can regularly supply additional value. Now, as I was saying, it's one of the words you've heard me say a couple of times is plan. The next thing I want to talk about is really building a plan. This is something we talk a lot about in the Launch Your Podcast free training, so if you hear me say build a plan, and you're freaking out, be sure you check out that free training because we actually walk through it over the course of four days, so that you can really actually figure out how to build your plan and actually do it. When I talk about planning, the first step is always knowing who your audience is, because real talk, all of the other information comes from that piece of information. If you want to know how frequently you should be sending out new episodes, how long your episodes should be, if you should have guests, all of that comes from knowing who's listening. A really good real-life experience for me with that was when I first launched this show in 2012. Oh my gosh. In 2012, I had no freaking idea who was really listening. I really didn't. I had an idea of who my ideal client was, certainly not in the same specific way I do now, so this is one of those lessons I learned the hard way. I just made it up. I just made a choice, and we did 30 to 60-minute episodes twice a week, so people could, I don't know, listen to them from me, listen to me ramble for a really long time, I guess. I don't know. As the clarity around who my ideal client was and who my ideal listener was and how I wanted to connect and serve and my goals for what they did with this content became more clear and in all honesty evolved a little bit, I realized that I really prefer to air on the side of brevity. I preferred to keep these short and actionable because that's what my ideal listener prefers. Now, there might be some of you who wish I went live or I put out more episodes. Now, we only have one episode a week now. We used to have two episodes a week up until this year, actually. That's why there's so many past episodes I'm guaranteeing. I can't think of anyone who has every told me they listen to all 300 and, well now, 54 episodes of this show. If you have, send me a note. I will send you a price because I'm genuinely curious of just anyone who has listened to every single episode of the show. There's a ton of past content now, so if you need more me, listen to that. Check out the YouTube channel. All of those things. There's just lots of different ways I'm getting value. Again, it came down to knowing who my listeners were and knowing what I wanted them to do and how I wanted them to consume that. Not just this value but all of the value in my business. Be really clear on that because that will help you all the other questions. The other reason I told that story is you'll notice that it's not the same now. Like I mentioned, we used to do two episodes a week. One with a guest, one just me. They were somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour long. I don't think we ever had any that were longer than an hour. We may have had a couple that were. We may have had a couple that were like an hour and five minutes that were interviews, but I can't think of any stand-alone episodes I did where it was any longer than 45 minutes. That's just really long. That's like three of today's episodes. That's a lot. Again, it was twice a week. Now, we very, very, very, very rarely have guests. We go live or we put out new episodes just once a week. They're usually again just me because we don't have guests. They usually are somewhere between 10 and 20, usually somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes long, because again, I want this to be consumable. I want this to be actionable. The other thing I have learned about my podcast listeners, this is not the only show you listen to, and so I want you to have time to listen to all the shows you want to be listening to each and every week so that you can keep up, all right? All right, so build a plan to repurpose. Number two, just build a plan. The last thing I want to talk about is feeding off number two. You need to know why you want a podcast. Now, on a completely appropriate answer to this question is I want to entertain people. My favorite podcast in the world is actually not a business podcast. It's actually one of the few podcasts I listen to that isn't a business podcast. It's called The West Wing Weekly. It's fantastic. The other favorite podcast of mine is the Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. I'm a big fan of storytelling. I'm a big fan of the West Wing, and so those two are my go-to's. They have a much different format than this show does because the goals of those shows are different than the goal of my show. Me setting up something like a West Wing Weekly or a Kevin Pollak's Chat Show is completely not in line with the why I podcast. Why I podcast is to, and I've said these words several times now, we could turn it into a drinking game, for you guys to consume this and then take action on it. I don't want consumption for consumption's sake. If you are going to listen to this and then literally do nothing with it ever, just stop listening. Seriously, because my goal for you is for you to see movement, for you to see change, for you to grow and evolve and progress and get more comfortable with content marketing and e-mail marketing and social media marketing. All the different pieces that are digital marketing. I want you to make changes. That means you have to take action. That means I need to set you up for success by making this really actionable, really easy to follow, giving you very logical next steps and giving you all the tools I can to get you to take that action, to get you to implement, all right? That's my why. Again, that's very different from a West Wing Weekly or a Kevin Pollak's Chat Show or even some of the other business podcasts I listen to. Know what your why is. Know the purpose for you in building this show. Now, on the flip side of that, my other why, of course, is this is a piece of my marketing. This is a preview of the kind of content and feel and vibe you get from working with me, especially for those of you who are interested in Hit the Mic backstage. That is the next logical step, the next upgrade to this show. It's the VIP version of this show. Obviously, that's a factor as well. Again, even the existence of Hit the Mic Backstage feeds into my overall why which is to get people to take action. That's why the trainings in there are also really easy to implement, really easy to take action on and really clear. You notice I don't have a lot of fluff. I don't try to make things particularly complicated. In fact, I try to make them as simple as internet marketing will allow me to make them, because social media networks like to have a certain amount of in-built difficulty. I don't know. For funsies, I guess. I try to make things as simple and as clear as I can, so again, people are taking that action. They're seeing those results. Even my marketing funnel kind of why feeds back to that general core why, which succinctly as I can make it, I want people to stop telling me their dumb. It really is. I do not want to hear anyone every tell me again that they are dumb when it comes to this stuff, because you're not dumb. You just don't know this stuff yet. We can fix that. I cannot fix dumb. I can fix you not knowing something, all right? That's it. Powered through. Now, go take action since I just went on a total soapbox moment about you guys taking action when listening to this show. Next logical step, check out thestaceyharris.com/launchyourpodcast. If you're on the show notes page, there's a link to it here. Here you go. Go check that out. It's totally free, four-day training. In addition to that four days, spoiler alert, in the very first e-mail I send you after you sign up, there is a ... I think it's 60 minutes. It might be half an hour. There's a full-on webinar master class version of the four-day training, so you can get it all now. Then, work through it with me over the course of the four days. If you have questions, facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris, twitter.com/thestaceyharris. Let me know there. I'm happy to answer them. If you really want to jump in, you really want to take action, you really want the VIP experience to this very show, Hit The Mic Backstage is the place to go. Check it out. We have a brand new training launch this month all about prepping your business for a time off, whether that time off was totally intended or not and, and, and, and we've got ask me anything coming up, so be sure you don't miss out on that. I will see you backstage. Bye.

Welcome to Episode 347 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. It's a new month and that's means today we're talking about three things you need to know right now. Often these are network updates and things like that. But, this month I actually want to talk about some more strategy stuff, because there are a lot of questions coming up in some one-on-one calls I've had and in Backstage about when to do these things or if an idea is crazy. I want to just dispel all of that right up front, all right? Running Ads to Content Three things you must know right now in May. First things first, the idea of running ads to content. This is a really great brand awareness goal, because again, you can lead with value by leading with your content. Often times, we think an ad can only be run if it's immediately going to pay off in an opt-in or immediately going to pay off in a purchase. That's not the case. In fact, I often run ads that really have no larger goal in the immediate future than getting my page, my content, my face in front of my target audience. That's often the only immediate goal I have, so sometimes that will mean driving traffic to a video that's around Facebook. I'm not even driving traffic away from Facebook. I'm just driving them to value or driving them to a text only post or an image post. Again, right on Facebook that I want them to engage with. Or run an ad to a piece of content like this episode. It really is just about putting the content and the value in front of my target audience, so that when I follow that up with a pitch for a webinar or an opt-in of some kind of a membership trial or just straight up Backstage or whatever it is the next step is for that person. It's not the first time they've seen me. It really is that simple guys. So, your immediate goal to not have to be, "I'm going to get an opt-in. I'm going to make a sale." Your immediate goal can simply be brand awareness and the best, best, best way to establish brand awareness. The best way to build credibility and get those good feels from the people who are seeing your content. Give them value. We talk about value a lot. We talk about content and focusing on giving. But, this is a prime example of where that may cost you a little. That's okay. Honestly, I love running small budget ads to a look-a-like audience for content. I'll run an ad for an episode of Hit the Mike TV. We do weekly Facebook lives and we call it into my TV and I'll actually boost that post and target that to a look-a-like audience. Especially with the new custom audiences. Based on the people who watched a certain percentage of the video originally. Yeah. You can do that. It's a really, really powerful way for me to get the exact same people who are already enjoying content ... More people like them. So, I can actually drive views to a video. Often my videos will have some kind of call to action, so that may net me an opt-in to something or a purchase or something. But, more often than not. You know what it does definitely net me? A like on the page, a comment I can engage with, and touch point. Those touch points are valuable. We've talked a lot about touch points and the process of sales and it takes seven touches for somebody to really respond to something. In the land of the two second attention spans that touch point has increased, so find ways you can interact with people. You could have those touch points that are filled with value and ads to content, ads to value, ads for the sake of brand recognition are a powerful first step. Okay. Maintaining Your Organic Content Number two, don't forget to support any ads you're running, that are for something that's got an immediate goal of an opt-in or a purchase. Be sure you're supporting that with really good solid organic content. Now, when I say organic content I mean content you are not paying to get in front of somebody. I don't mean, "Oh, I need to have six pieces of my blog content go out today, because I'm running an ad for this challenge." That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying a good mixture ... Yeah, some of it's also going to be promo for that challenge, especially if you're running those ads as dark posts. Well, double especially if you're just boosting post. If you're running an ad campaign, I'm hoping some of them are dark posts, but promo posts, content posts,  your content strategy that you usually have for your Facebook page needs to still be executing. Don't say, "Oh, I'm running this ad campaign, so I either need to do one of two things." These are the two major mistakes I see people make. They go to one way, which is, "I'm not going to post anything on page, because I'm spending time creating my ads and I forget about it," in most cases. Or they go the other way and it's, "Oh, I need to sale, sale, sale, sale, sale to support the ad campaign." No, keep it business as usual with a little extra. Meaning a little extra may be some of that promo stuff. A little extra maybe an extra push to content, because your content has an opt-in on it for that same challenge, because remember these pieces of our digital marketing plan they all work together, so our content is supporting whatever ad campaign we're running. Make sure those things are all supporting each other. Now, some of you are going, "Well, obviously because I run ads all the time. I couldn't just turn my page off." But, there's some of you who only run ads from time to time and what I'm seeing a lot and what I'm having in conversations with some of these people are they're forgetting the organic side of things. So, do not leave that real estate abandoned. Keep it business as usual. You got to be providing the content. You got to be sharing the other people's content. You got to be doing the promo. You got to, got to, got to support that foundation. Because here's the thing, if you're running an ad to a cold audience they may take a step before they click the link and go over to your landing page. What they may do is actually click on your name or your page name and go check out who you are on Facebook. They may want to see some credibility factor right there on Facebook before they click this link into lala land. How many times have you done that? I do a lot when I get an ad to a company I've never heard of before, because I want to know what their vibe it. Is this legit? Make sure you're taking some time to reassure that that credibility is going to be there. Okay? Short-Term Social Media Number three, this month inside of Hit the Mike Backstage if you haven't yet checked this out we've got the short-term social media strategy training. This is all about adding to your strategy or building your strategy for those short-term pieces of social now. We've got Facebook stories. We've got Instagram stories. We've got Snapchat stories. It means looking at how those fit into your social. One of things I really like about this and we talk about this in the Backstage training, so again, check that out because it's really cool. This is your chance to connect as a person. By as a person, I don't mean you have to be a personal brand for this to be well executed. In fact, I really encourage you to look at some of the massive brand stories that happen on Snapchat and happen on Instagram because they're executing at a really high level telling some really cool stories in a way that allows us to actually ... Ready for this? Connect with them. There's a personality even if it's not a person. Back to my rant here. This short-term stuff really allows us to connect with that personality. See those behind the scenes, invest in the experience that's happening in this business and in this company. It allows us to really get connected with the message, with the brand, with the soul of what's going on in a really tactical connected, shifting into that community mindset kind of way. That's why I love this short-term social stuff. Now, if you are somebody who's a personal brand. I know a lot of you are. Maybe you're an info entrepreneur where you're talking about health coaching or business coaching or life coaching or relationship coaching or career coaching and it's your name on the letterhead in the sense that you are a personal brand. A lot like I am here at The Stacey Harris. Those stories become exponentially more valuable, because guess what? Your community they don't want your brand personality. They straight up want you. They want to see what you're doing, how you're running your business, how you're executing that new health routine. They want to see what's going on. You know? Recently, there's a really great example of this happening in a long-term strategy way, but also in a short-term strategy. There's a personal trainer named Michael Canty who is on YouTube. He has a brand called On the Regimen. He's fantastic at executing this kind of thing. He, right now, is working on a cut situation meaning he's cutting calories. He's at a deficit. He's trimming up further for summer, because he wanted to. Not only did he make a YouTube video about this he's been sharing it on his YouTube channel. If you follow him on Snapchat you'll actually see kind of like what's he's eating, what he's doing. He is showing that he's living this. He's showing the good, the bad, and the ugly. He's showing the, "I'm hungry and being on a deficit sucks." He's showing the, "This is fantastic I cut and I feel good." Whatever. He's actually making his community a part of that experience, which not only connects you with him as a person. Not only reminds you, "Hey, he knows what he's doing, because he's telling me all of these things. He's establishing his expertise." But, he's also connecting with you. "He gets what I'm trying to do. He gets what I want to do. He gets how this feels. He get when this sucks. I'm going to be able to say, "This sucks," and I'll know that he understands that." That is valuable. Stories allow you to do that in a really cool way. Don't forget your voice. Stories, whether it's Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram, they allow you to connect in a way we're not seeing in a whole lot of other places. So, that's a fit for your brand and I'm guessing it is. It's just might be a way bit about changing how you execute it. Make sure you're looking at is as make sure you go over and watch that training inside of Hit the Mike Backstage. That's it. That's our three things for this month. If you have any questions, any time at all, head over to the website, TheStaceyHarris.com. Ask them there. Even better, come check out the private community inside of Hit the Mike Backstage. Because of course, you can ask questions there anytime. All right. I will see you very soon. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 342 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Today we're sitting down and talking about another social media management tool. This week we're talking about viraltag. Before we get into the specifics of viraltag though, I want to make a small disclaimer that I make whenever I do any of these kinds of episodes, and that is this. The social media tool that is best is the one you're going to use. If you are not going to use it, it doesn't matter how awesome, how free, how expensive, how feature filled, how whatever. It won't work. Okay? If you love the tool you're using now, great. Use it. If you don't think that viraltag's a fit for you, that's okay you're not broken. The tool you're going to find the best results with is the one you're going to use. With that said, let's break down viraltag because for a lot of you, it might be a perfect solution. Cool? Cool. Starting off, viraltag. Let's talk about some features. You've got the ability to schedule content for all of the big guys: Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc. which is a great, great place to start because not everybody has all of those features. You can also do things like upload content and schedule it in bulk. Meaning you can hit sort of all the places you need to get content to or if you have somebody who maybe writes your content for you, they can send you say, a Google spreadsheet or an excel document or whatever for your approval, and then they can upload all of those at one time into viraltag without having to sort of go in and schedule everything one by one. That's really, really powerful. Also, you can create a slightly different post for the same piece of content all at one time. Meaning, I can upload a video or an image and create the Instagram post, the Pinterest post, the Twitter post, and the Facebook post at one time without having to upload that image four times. That is a huge, huge time saver. It's not something I've seen with a lot of other networks. There's also integrations with things like Canva and RSS feed so you can create images and handle your content curation right inside a viraltag. I know for a lot of you being able to do things in one place is really, really valuable. With that said, one last really awesome feature and then a feature that I wish was there. The awesome feature being evergreen content, post recycling. The ability to have a queue that goes out and tweets go out and out and out and then when it's empty, it sort of cycles through again. I know a lot of you are using tools like MeetEdgar. I use eClincher to do that. I believe Sendable does that. More and more tools are adding this feature because it's a great way for us on the content curator side, our creator side of things, to keep sharing past content that still has value. And viraltag allows you to do that as well. Now a not so great feature, or a missing feature really, is there's no social listening. With viraltag, it's all about broadcast. It's not about conversation, so you're still going to need to go use the networks or another tool to actually manage your incoming message, at replies, comments, things like that. However, the broadcast side of this tool is really solid as far as the amount of networks you're talking to, post recycling, allowing you to add your RSS feeds and things like that so you can do your content creation all in one tool. There's a really great thing called Circles that allow you to create like little communities of people to collaborate with friends and peers and really, colleagues, JV partners, whatever so you can kind of share each other's content and grow your reach. That's really, really powerful. Especially for those of you who are on the blogger podcaster content side of your business model. That can be a really great way to increase your reach, grow your network and support people putting out content is going to serve your audience and really get your content in front of more people who maybe aren't yet in your audience, but are a perfect fit for your audience. That's really cool. The other thing is there some analytics. You can pull in your Google analytics, you're going to have Pinterest, Instagram analytics so you can see how your content is doing. You guys know, you know, how valuable that is. You can absolutely make sure that you're tied in and connected to your numbers. That's features. A lot of great features. Really, really like the layout. I really like the way it looks. If that fits your needs, that's worth checking out. The next step of course, is pricing. We always talk about sort of where these price points fit into the grand scheme of things. There is a monthly and an annual option. I'm going to talk about it from a monthly perspective. For one user, ten social profiles you have $29 per month for the individual. That is going to leave out any team sort of option, as well as things like Google analytics and advanced visual analytics. However, those options do come up when you talk about the small business option, which is $99 a month. What's cool is at that $29 a month, you do have the post recycling option, which, again, is killer. That's actually a really great price point to have that option as well. That's worth checking out, guys. Then of course you can save 20% when you do the annual option, and you pay once a year. On this sort of note, I've had a couple people ask me if I prefer to pay monthly or annually for social media tools. I pay monthly for social media tools because there are new tools all of the time. If I find something different I don't want to be tied into a one year commitment or I've already paid for it at least with a social media tool. That's just me. I think for most people, the annual option is really great if your business can afford the upfront cost because it's taken care of and there's usually a savings. Generally speaking, you will not jump around tools very often. I don't actually jump around tools very often, I try a lot of new tools. I've been with eClincher for quite awhile now. I think right about a year. But because I have serious shiny object syndrome when it comes to social media tools, I tend to pay monthly. That's something I wanted to mention. The last thing I mentioned I want to talk about, is who is this tool going to be best for? I think this tool is really solid for those of you who are in the content space, the media space. Vloggers, bloggers, podcasters. Because there is such a really great curation and community, and recycled content, we're talking all of the major networks that needed to be tied into like Pinterest, and Instagram, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Tumblr, etc. I would definitely say for you guys. However, if you're somebody who wants to use one tool for your listening and your broadcasting, viraltag may not be a fit because again, there's none of that listening and engagement side of things inside of this tool. You're going to want to pay attention to that. However, I have to say of all of the tools I've used including eClincher which I use, I liked the Pinterest scheduling inside of this tool the best. If that's something that's really important you, I thought this looked the best of all the Pinterest scheduling tools I've used. That's just a random side note. But that's viraltag. Check it out. If this is something that sounds like it's a fit for you, check it out. But again, there is not one tool to rule them all. This is absolutely a contender as far as being a valuable place to look the next time you need a new tool for social media management. All right? If you have any questions about viral tag or finding the best tool for you, or you want recommendations, come on over to the Facebook page and ask that there. Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris. They're questions I get quite frequently. What's cool about asking them on the Facebook page is other people can answer them as well. Again, the tool that's best is the one you'll use. If you check out viraltag, there is a 14 day free trial, no credit card required. You can at least get in and get a feel for it. If you love, go with it. It's about what you'll use. All right? All right. Of course for all of the latest social media tools and network news, the best place to go is HittheMicBackstage.com. They are the community that finds out first, the latest and greatest like all of the cool news that has come out in March with Facebook ads and Instagram stuff. Some of the stuff we're going to talk about next week on the three things you must know about social media in April. Yeah, guys Backstage already knows it because I told them. All right? Check out HittheMicBackstage.com to join us backstage and I will see you backstage! Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Viraltag Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 340 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Hello hello. We're going to talk about something I have been using to grow my community this year and something that you really need to be using. We alluded to this in the "3 Things You Must Know" episode last week, but we're going to dive in deeper, and it's going live. First thing I want you to know, going live doesn't have to be a certain place, a certain frequency, a certain length of time. Going live might look different for each one of you. For me right now, it has really meant using Facebook Live. My community is there, my audience is there, my attention is there honestly. It's been kind of a no brainer for me to use that. Then disperse that content in the other places, meaning that Facebook Live episode can go up on YouTube. I can share snippets of it in my story on Instagram and Snapchat. I can really break that out; I can share that YouTube video on Twitter and LinkedIn. I really can use that Facebook Live content in all of the places. There are some tools that will let you to go live in multiple places, I have not found one yet that I find reliable and quality enough to share with you and give a recommendation. Stayed tuned, I am on the hunt for something like that. For me, and honestly for a lot of you listening; the great entry point, a great place to get started, a great place to just start taking action is going to be Facebook Live. It really is a simple, simple way to go live. So do it, go live. I want to talk a little bit about the two big objections I get to going live because I see these all the time when I'm talking to clients, or we're talking in the membership community about how to go live and if you should do it. I want to combat these two big pushbacks. Number one; it doesn't have to be brand new content and it doesn't have to be content that exists only in that Facebook Live, or YouTube Live, or Periscope, or Instagram Live or whatever. Repurpose this stuff guys. Use your most popular blog posts as a great way to get started on doing video. Break those tips down into a series of videos, and then use that call to action to point them back to the full blog post on the website. You know your audience is interested in that, or it wouldn't be your most popular blog post. See what I'm saying? A great way that I have been doing this is taking pieces of trainings, or webinars, or podcast content and just repurposing that into video. By repurposing it, I mean really, really simply saying, "Hey, here's a little chunk of this content. If you want more, go over here." Sometimes that's join us at Hit the Mic Backstage. Sometimes that's join us on the podcast, sometimes that's go read this blog post. Whatever it is; it's taking a piece of something I've already created and presenting it in a new way. The big value point for this guys, is that not only is it a time saver for us, and you've heard me sing the praises of repurposing enough times that I don't need to do that; on the flip side of that, you're going to allow that content to reach a whole new audience, to reach some people who maybe prefer video or happen to be tuned in and just didn't see that blog post or that podcast. You're giving it to them in another way so that they can connect with it, so they can get what they need. I say this all the time, but it's our job to get them from problem to solution. If you're not getting them from problem to solution, you're not doing your job guys. Repurposing our content really allows us to present something in a way that's going to connect with them. Honestly, maybe they read the blog post, they listened to the podcast, but this time is the time that makes the difference. Maybe it's because there's the face to face feel with video. Maybe it's because of the timing; it could honestly be a hundred different things. What again is important is that it connects. Push past this idea that you have to create another thing, that you have to do something else. It's not necessary. The other piece of feedback I get, the other little bit of pushback I get to going live, and where I want to spend the bulk of our time today is talking about the tech. I get that it can feel scary if this is something that you have not done before and you're a tiny bit tech-phobic, as I know some of you are. It's literally never been easier to create video for your business. A; live is pretty forgiving, especially since most of us can do it from our smart phones, which by the way have pretty decent little cameras on them these days. Up until like maybe a month ago, six weeks ago, it was the nicest camera I'd ever owned, I was on my iPhone 6s Plus. I do now have a separate camera that I use for pre-recorded video that's a little nicer than my iPhone, but honestly not that much nicer than my iPhone. Don't underestimate the value of your iPhone camera or if you have an Android, your Android camera. Your smart phone camera is pretty damned good. In the case of Facebook, and in the case of, YouTube's rolling this out for the mobile app; Twitter, now you can go live from the Twitter app, you don't even need the Periscope app anymore guys. You can use your already existing Twitter app. You open it up and you hit go live. Same with your Facebook, same with Instagram. Literally all the places and all you need is your phone. If you want to go super techy you can add a stand, you can add a little tripod. I actually have one and I'll put the link in the comments, I'm sorry in the resources section of the show notes. I actually have a little, I don't know, I think this thing is four inches tall. It's got a little bracket on the top of it that holds my iPhone. It's got bendy legs that I can hang it around things and hold it if I want to. Again, set this up on your desk, go live. There's not a big tech barrier. Now if you want to go a little more pro, if you want to do something a little more advanced; that's also totally possible. I use a tool called OBS, it allows me to stream from my desktop into Facebook. Some of you may very well have already noticed that Facebook is letting you go live right from your desktop. Again, the barrier to entry is not high here. I like to use OBS though because I can do some kind of advanced things. I keep it pretty simple. I'll be honest, I don't do any super high end production stuff just because I want my focus to be on the content and providing value to you. In the spirit of full transparency, it's also because that's not my forte. I have simple things, but it allows me to really quickly, and seamlessly, and semi-attractively move between maybe a solid photo that's up in the pre-show, to me on camera, to my desktop and me, or just my desktop; that I can really move pretty quickly into showing you guys something on my computer if I want to be doing that, or again, talking to the viewers face to face if I want to be doing that. That's why I like OBS. The other cool thing with OBS is I'm able to schedule a Facebook Live in advance right through Facebook. If you want to know more about using OBS and scheduling Facebook Live and things like that, I actually just released, at the beginning of this a month, a brand new training all about going live inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. We do an OBS walkthrough, and we talk about scheduling Facebook Live and all of that stuff in that training. That would be the place to go to get a handle on that tech. There you go, I just lowered that barrier to entry for you too. It does not have to be complicated, it does not have to mean a super crazy studio, and built-in stuff, and lights, and cameras, and a permanent structure as part of your office. It can mean that, it 100% can mean that. If that is what you want to do, do it. Don't let having to have that stop you from doing anything. In fact, right now grab your iPhone, go live and put together proof of concept. Make sure that this is going to be something that A; you're going to actually do because you're going to be really upset you spent thousands of dollars building in this whole live studio when you never go live on Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube, or Instagram, or anything, so start going live. Also, I find the best way to figure out exactly what it is I'm going to need tech and gear wise is to start doing whatever it is I'm going to do. In many, many cases I have discovered once I started doing something that I needed something that I didn't think of. Even more often than that, I find that I didn't need something I thought "I had to have". Anybody with me? Everybody sort of shamelessly raise your hands, because I know I'm not alone on that one. That's it, that's what I wanted to talk about because it really is, it's been a big part of what I've done. We've shifted this year into doing just one podcast episode a week, and in that it's not that I'm actually creating less content, it's that I'm creating different content. That's because, for the first now, what is it 10 weeks, 8 weeks of this year; since the beginning of January, I have gone live once per week minimum. There have been a couple of times where I've gone live more often than that because we've done challenges; we did the podcasting challenge in January, we did the Facebook ads challenge in February. During both of those weeks I went live four times in a week instead of just once per week, which was super fun but I'll be honest, not something I'm going to commit to doing all of the time, but it was a really good time. Just start doing it guys, because it has, it's been a really powerful piece for my engagement. It's been a really great driver into Hit the Mic Backstage. It's also been a really great traffic driver to my email list. I found going live on my page as part of the challenges really grew the traffic for those challenges during the challenge. The ads were obviously done because we're in the challenge, but I found my list increasing each day I went live because people were seeing live and finding out about the challenge. Maybe they had heard about it but they had forgotten to sign up, or they had heard about it and went, "Eh, I don't know." Then they saw a video and they were like, "Dude, I'm totally in" and signed up. I'm seeing the growth, I'm seeing the numbers and I want you to see them too. Don't let tech and don't let fear that you have to create something else prevent you from doing this. All right, you deserve it, your audience deserves it, and your social media and your community numbers will thank you and will grow. We're going to talk a little bit about live later in the month too, so say tuned. In two weeks I'm going to talk about some of the mistakes I've made and lessons I've learned. Make sure that you check that out. Actually no, I'm totally lying to you; that's next week. In two weeks we're go into a social media tool review, so stay tuned for that too, all right. Also, every Thursday, usually on Thursdays ... Okay, it's been on Thursdays always but I know for a fact it's going to be on a Tuesday coming up, that's why I'm saying usually, just in the sake of full transparency guys. Once a week you will find me live on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris. If you haven't followed me yet, go ahead and like that page, that's where you'll find me. Of course, if you would rather watch the replay on YouTube you can do that; YouTube.com/TheStaceyHarris. Guess what guys, the best place to connect with me, the best place to find out information like this way sooner than you're going to get it here because I'm in there all the time; Hit the Mic Backstage. If you haven't joined us yet, fix that. It is the next step after this podcast to get even more value, even more information, and you know what? A little accountability to take actions, because you've invested and you're spending the time there. If you tell me you're going to do something, I'm going to ask you if you did it. Come join us at Hitthemicbackstage.com and I will see you backstage. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage OBS Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 335 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. It is the first Tuesday of the month which means three things you must know about social media this month is what's happening today. We are going to break down the three things I want you to know in February 2017, some of these things are updates with networks, some of these things are going to be relevant to you no matter what month it is, because I want you to pay attention to some things as you're moving into the middle of the first quarter of this lovely new year. Let's jump right in. Number one, and this is one of those things that I want you to remind yourself of every month, stay consistent. February is notoriously the time where we have all long-since ditched our New Year's Resolutions. However, this is also really, really true for those goals and commitments you made in January for your marketing for this year. You said this is the year I'm going to get visible. This is the year I'm going to be consistent. This is the year I'm going to do "whatever" when it comes to your social media. Here it is February and maybe, just maybe, you're falling off the track a little bit. You have let go of some of that steam and momentum you had coming out of December into January, and you're just not being consistent. I'm seeing this already a lot with Facebook lives. I know a lot of you emailed me at the end of last year and the beginning of this year and said, "Oh hey, I'm going to totally stay consistent. I'm going to do weekly, daily, twice weekly," whatever it was, Facebook lives. "I'm going to go live and provide that content, and I'm going to repurpose it," and so on and so forth. No more. Here we are in February and a lot of you have done one or two, maybe even three Facebook lives and now you're kind of like, "Eh, I just don't have enough time, I just can't," whatever. Here's the deal guys, just like any other thing ... eating healthy, exercising, learning a new skill ... you have to stay with it until it's a habit. You're not going to see results the first three times you do it. I always think about this when I'm at the gym and I'm doing something new and I'm like, "This sucks and I don't want to," but I still don't want to the third time. By the third time I've done it, I'm not suddenly super thin and super buff. That's not what's happening. The same is true for your Facebook lives. You are not yet really in a habit to do it, and you're probably not seeing massive earth-shaking results just yet. You might even be one of the people who have emailed me and said, "You know, I'm just not getting a lot of people to show up live." Okay, I want you to push through that because here's the thing ... you've done it three times. You've given them no reason to expect you to consistently show up forever and ever ... okay, maybe not forever and ever, but over and over again. I want you and I challenge you to look at the replay stuff. Look at the comments you're getting in your replay. My guess is you're probably getting a lot of engagement of views there because people just haven't caught on live. That's okay. You're just using the live time to create the content and if you get the engagement, awesome. You might not always, and you certainly probably won't ... that was a terrible sentence structure ... you very likely won't in the first three times you do it. Keep going, stay consistent. The same is true if you're starting to post on new networks or you're trying different ad strategies or you're adjusting something with your opt-in. Stay consistent, get consistent if you haven't been consistent, and stay with it. Stay in the room, keep doing the work, it will pay off. One of the things I try and remind myself all the time when it comes to these kind of things is the business I have right now is the result of the marketing I did three to six months ago. I learned this lesson over and over and over again, but it's absolutely true. The business I have right now is the result of the marketing I did three to six months ago. If you're three in and you're not seeing epic, earth-shattering results from whatever change you've made, you probably won't for another month or two. Stay with it, okay? Stay with it, stay consistent. Number two Facebook lives, in that same vein, have gotten a big update. We can now go live right from your desktop meaning you no longer need to use your mobile device to do it. This is a really, really cool update. I'm really excited to see them rolling this out because I think there are a lot of people who were really freaked out by the idea of doing it on their device because they were worried about the quality with running on wifi, maybe their wifi's not so hot, or their service isn't great, or they didn't know what to do with their phone. They didn't want to buy a tripod or whatever. It's just going to make it that much easier for you to do a high quality Facebook live broadcast and deliver value to your audience. You'll see this option below your status update box on your page. As of the recording of this they're still rolling it out, not everyone has it yet. I'm hoping by the time you hear this that has changed, but they are rolling it out relatively slowly as Facebook tends to do, because when you have a bazillion- I'm just going to pretend that's a real number- users, you got to roll it out a little bit slower. If you don't have it yet be patient, you will have it soon. Again, this is going to be on your page and your profile. One thing to remember though guys, pay attention to this, if you're doing a Facebook live to market, to provide content that relates to your business, to leads, to profits, it needs to happen on your page, not your profile. Although it's exciting that it's coming out to pages and profiles, I'll be honest, the likelihood that I'm ever going to go live on my profile is pretty much zero because there's no value for me there from a business perspective which is, as you probably know, the only reason I use Facebook. Be sure that if you are using your profile it's for personal stuff, if you're using your page it's for business stuff and that you're going live using the desktop feature if you haven't, because that's super cool. If you have questions about that, you want to know more about it, hit us up inside Hit the Mic Backstage, we are talking all about live content all of the time in there because it's something that Facebook is changing and evolving really quickly. I also have updated the Facebook guide that sits inside Hit the Mic Backstage, which includes entire training on using it to go live. Check that out. Number three, the final thing, what we're going to wrap up this episode on, is ads. I know a lot of you have settled into the new year and you're launching programs and things like that, and you're probably seeing a lot of ads for programs right now. We're just in one of those phases where it feels like a lot of people are launching, a lot of big people are launching, and it can feel really impossible to stand up against that, to get seen amongst that. Take a step back, remember to keep an eye on your game, and really focus your ads on your audience. Make sure that your audience is clear. I don't mean like, they're clear on who you are but I mean, you're clear on who they are so that you can be doing the right targeting because that's one of the biggest mistakes I'm seeing. We're going to talk a lot, a lot, a lot about Facebook ads this month because so many of you are launching. In fact, I'm looking at my schedule and we're really probably going to talk about Facebook ads in one way or another for the rest of this month. You can also check out the Facebook ads checklist which is right at the bottom of the show notes page for this episode, so if you go to TheStaceyHarris.com/Episode335 you'll see it. I really, really, really, really, really, really want you guys to make sure you're doing ads the right way so that's why we're going to spend a ton of time talking about it. That's why I just spent a ton of time updating the training inside of Hit the Mic Backstage all around ads. In fact it's not just one training, it's an entire module inside of the guide which consists of I think five trainings total. Pay attention to this. If you're going to be running ads make sure you're clear on your targeting, make sure you're clear on your budget, make sure you are giving them a clear call to action, make sure you're putting the ads in the right places as the right times and not trying to broadcast to everybody all of the time in the hopes that it lands somewhere. I really want to see you guys executing ads the right away and again, that's why we're going to spend so much time this month talking about ads. That's why we've got that free checklist for you and guide, and that's why we have the massive overhaul on the trainings inside of the Backstage community. If you really are ready to up-level your ads or you really want to see success with your launch and running some ads for that launch, come in and check that out. Again, HittheMicBackstage.com is where you'll join us for that. I'm super excited for this month because of the ads talk, because I know again a lot of you are getting ready to launch and I want you to be super clear on what's happening. Again, just for today, I want you guys to make sure you've got three things totally on point. You're clear on your budget, you're clear on your goals, and you're clear on your target audience. If you can be clear on those three things you will be far and away ahead of a whole lot of people creating ads. Again, make sure you're clear on those three things. All right? All right. Thank you for listening, I've had a great time with you. It's time for me to go now though. I want to encourage you to join us inside of Hit the Mic Backstage because we are doing a lot of talk about ads. In fact, we are going live next week to talk about Facebook ads and what you need to know now when it comes to Facebook ads. We just revamped the trainings inside the Facebook guide, all around Facebook but specifically ads for sure. Check that stuff out. Again it's HittheMicBackstage.com, and I will see you Backstage. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 333 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Today we're answering a question I get all the time, the "how often" question. We're going to talk about how often you should be creating content, because it really hinges on three other questions. There is not, contrary to what Pinterest infographics may tell you, one perfect answer to this question. It really depends on the answers to a few other questions. We're going to go through those questions so that you can figure out the answer for you because, guess what, guys, it might be different than the answer for me. Just like my answer now is different than my answer was a year ago or two years ago or three years ago when we started this show. As you might know, we moved from two episodes a week to one episode a week moving into 2017. It's been a little weird because I created 300 and something episodes of the show going twice a week for three years, almost four years, so it's a little strange still, I'll be honest, but again, it became about, what is the answer to these questions. That's why I wanted to present this to you, because this answer might even be different for you now than it was before. Go through this. Remember there's not one right answer to this question. If you say, "Well, you know, you do episode once a week, maybe that's what I should do." No, not necessarily. Okay, so let's jump in. First things first, real talk, guys, your schedule. If you are currently doing the side hustle thing, then committing to doing five blog posts, podcast episodes, videos, whatever it is, a week, is going to be really, really, really difficult. Even if you're full time, it's still going to be really difficult. Five episodes a week is a lot. Five pieces of valuable content a week is a lot, so that might feel impossible to you, then that's not the best place to start. Or maybe you have gone full time but you have the content to do more than once a month. That may feel like just not enough for you. Great, if your schedule allows you to do more, do more. Factor in, first and foremost, what is your schedule? When do you have the time and space to create value? One little thing I want you to notice about that statement is, I didn't say to create content. I said, to create value. If you say, "Oh, well I can absolutely bust out six or seven blog posts a day, no problem, easy breezy." How much value are you going to be able to find in that content when you're busting out six or seven pieces a day? Not a lot. Certainly if you're doing that five days a week. It's tough. Now, full disclosure, I do tend to do four-ish episodes of these when I record them, but I don't do that every day, I do that every few weeks. I'm trying to get to a point where I'm doing this once a month where I record four weeks of podcasts in a day. That, A, it took me time to get there, B, I know the answer to a lot of other questions, so it's easier for me to create content. Also, C, it's the structure I've built that allows me to do that. I'm not creating that every day. Make sure there's value in there, okay. How much valuable content can you currently create in your schedule? Now, if you say, "Oh, well, I can absolutely do once a month." Do once a month. That's totally okay. Maximize that content, really use that content in as many ways as you can. I would rather see you honestly putting out one spectacular piece of content a month that you repurpose and you reuse and you promote the bejeezus out of, than eight half hearted pieces of content a month because you go twice a week, absolutely. First things first, what does your schedule allow? Number two, how much content is your audience consuming? This actually was one that I had to get really, really comfortable with at the end of 2016 when I was thinking about my marketing plans, content, social media, email, in person, everything for 2017. As I was laying out those content plans and marketing plans I was realizing that to do some of the new things I wanted to do, I was going to be adding a lot of extra content. For example, we've ruled out weekly lives, so we're going live once a week now, which I absolutely love doing, but when you figure out that, "Okay, I'm going to go live once a week. I've got two podcasts a week. We want to do this guest post. We want to do this LinkedIn Publisher post. I was putting out essentially four to six pieces of content per week, which is spectacular. It's great, it's all valuable. A lot of it's repurposed, awesome. It's a lot to promote, it's a lot to give my audience to consume, and it's a lot from an audience perspective for them to consume. I don't want people to spend all of their time consuming my free content. From a business perspective, the next logical step to Hit the Mic, you know we're all about transparency here so this is going to be a really transparent sentence, the next logical step, as I've set it up, to Hit the Mic, if you enjoy this podcast, is Hit the Mic Backstage, it's this podcast plus, it is this podcast with more detailed trainings, one on one access to me. It's this podcast even better. Here's the deal, if I give you guys so much free content to consume, you'll never make it back there. That's just a straight up real transparent sentence, okay? Think about how much content your audience is consuming. Are you going to overwhelm them by giving them too much to consume? That's a big reason we stepped back to only one, because also there is such a library of episodes to listen to. Now, full disclosure, I have zero interest in you going back and listening to episode one of this show, because, a, I don't think it's as awesome as this episode is. I like to believe that I am getting better every episode. I cannot bear the idea of even me going to listen to episode number one. Also, episode number one, if I remember correctly, is about Facebook Ads. It's three years old now, which means it's outdated. I don't think anyone's going to go through and sort of like, "I'm going to start at the beginning." However, with that said, there's still a huge library of content for people to dig through already there. It made sense for me to say, "Hey, my audience has a lot. My audience is doing a lot of consuming already. If I want to add more things, I'm going to need to make sure that I am taking some of these things out. I'm going to need to make sure that what's here is here for a reason. What's here is providing value. Because if it's not, then it's not serving anybody's goal and that's not going to be valuable and it's not going to be useful." Again, we come back to this place of value, we come back to this place of purpose. Think about your audience and how much they have to consume and how much they're willing to consume, all right? Number three, we've talked about your schedule, we've talked about your audience and their consumption style. Next let's talk about your funnel. Like I mentioned, kind of briefly in the last one, for me, Hit the Mic Backstage is a logical next step to this show. It is this show plus. I want to make sure that the purpose of this show is to get you from here to there. Now, there are a lot of you who don't need that and who want to just listen to this show and that's absolutely wonderful and listen away and I appreciate you listening. There are also a lot of you who are saying, "Really? That's what Hit the Mic Backstage is? I'm going to go check that out right now." To you, I say, "Welcome backstage." There's also a large section of people who are like, "I don't know, there's just so much here. Can I really ... Do I have time to go there and add that and blah, blah, blah, and I love the podcast and I want to listen to the podcast and blah, blah, blah, blah." You've now shut down. I know that third audience, because that's how I am with a lot of pieces of content, that's how I am with a lot of people. That's the other reason we have pulled back a little. We have replaced that Friday episode with other pieces of content, absolutely, but I'm not just continuing to add more, because again, I don't want my audience to fit into overwhelm because that's going to get them to jump out of the funnel. Where does your free content sit in your funnel? What is the goal? What is the purpose from a marketing standpoint, of your content? I would rather have less frequency and more targeted, more focused, more specific content that gets you guys to the logical next step of the funnel if that's a step you need to take. Now, if that's not a step you need to take, that's fine. Listen to the show, I love you, we're great, cool, thanks, welcome, thanks for being a part of the community, welcome to the community, whatever. For those who backstage is the solution, for those who are like, "Yes, thank you. I want it. I need it. Take my money." I want to make that solution easy. I want to make that answer easy. I want to make that answer obvious. This content needs to be really serving up that next goal, and so when you're looking at, what does your content frequency need to be, you have to to look at your goals. Because you're not creating content for the sake of content. You're not creating content for funsies. You're not creating content because, you know, well that's the thing to do. No, you're creating it because you want to help someone solve a problem. The best way, as we've talked about in past episodes, to get them to the solution, is to walk them there, is to guide them there, down the path from problem to solution, and that's all the sales funnel is. Where does your content fit in your sales funnel? By the way, this content can be podcasts, this content can be blog posts, this content can be live video, this content can be prerecorded video, this content could be something from each of those categories. I know for me, it's something from each of those categories. We do weekly live shows, we've got the podcast, the podcast gets repurposed in the blog post, we may be adding, because we're doing some cool stuff back behind the scenes, some more recorded video to the mix, because it's super fun to do and it converts and you guys seem to love it. Whatever it is, whatever piece of content you're creating, I don't care what the type is, it's got to serve a goal in your business and it's got to serve your audience in getting them to their goals from problem to solution. To recap, what does your schedule allow you to create value? How often? How often is your audience available to consume that value? Three, know your goal. Where does it fit in your funnel? If your goal is to get them into a membership site, then daily content might be a little bit of a reach, because guess what, I'm going to be so busy consuming your daily content I have no time to consume your membership content. Pay attention to that, all right? Big note, we are starting today, on the 24th is day one of the three day Launch Your Podcast Challenge. We're going to go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we'll have wrap up call on Friday. All of that's going to happen live over on Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris. If you want to make sure you're getting the emails and you're getting where you need to go and you're launching your podcast now, check out the show notes for this episode, TheStaceyHarris.com/episode333. All the way down at the bottom of the post you'll see a link to the Launch Your Podcast Challenge, get on a list, you'll get the emails. I know this is starting the day this goes live, that's okay, join us anyways, join us over the live streams over on the Facebook page. Even if you don't necessarily want to launch a podcast, if you want to get serious about any kind of content, this is going to help, because we're going to talk about a lot of the fundamentals of planning that, and really getting content that your audience is actually going to want to consume and that's going to solve their problems, it's going to get them again from problem to solution, which is what a sales funnel is for. Okay? What's your content for? I will see you backstage.   Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 324 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Let's do it guys, let's talk about the money. I sit back at the end of every year and I try to pay attention to what I spend. I do this more regularly than once a year now that Charles handles the bookkeeping, just full transparency. I'm much better at it when somebody else does the day-to-day of it, but I do like to evaluate what's going out because I want to know that I'm getting the value and that value may not be dollar-for-dollar, but I want to make sure that I'm getting what I need out of the financial exchange. I sat down and I've been looking at the investments I made this year and so I want to tell you guys about the four best investments I made in 2016. I'm not going to be naming physical things you can buy, really more the mental investments I made that were financial investments as well, but they may be different for you as far as the specific thing. That will make more sense once I go on so I will just go on. Are you ready to jump in? Let's jump in.   Number one, and I'm doing this in no particular order, by the way. The first one we're going to talk about: focused coaching and mentorship. At different stages in my business I've thought I need need a coach or I need a mastermind, and I was always right. I did, I needed a coach or I needed a mastermind and the programs I invested in have been fantastic. The coaches I've worked with, the masterminds I've been a part of, all wonderful. However, I needed this year something really focused on my goals in a way that I've not done before. Generally when I've been this focused on something it's been from the perspective of a program. However, this year I really wanted coaching that was super specific to my goals, and so that's exactly what I did this year. I invested in what was going to move my goal closer. I'm still in some of those investments, but that was hands down one of the best investments I made in my business because it was specific to what my goals were.  I wasn't trying to figure something out or working with somebody who could do nine different things for me and who was going to work on my mindset and who was going to work marketing and who was going to work on my program development. No, I got what I needed, so if you need to build and launch a program, find somebody who does that. If you need help with your money mindset, find somebody who does that. If you need help with your social media, find somebody who does that. By the way, I do that. Whatever it is, your needs. It may mean working with a couple of different people throughout the year. I try not to be working with more than one person or thing at a time because I'm very cognizant of the percentage of my time that is working on my business versus actually working on my business from the perspective of creating content, executing the things that I talk about with these coaches and these masterminds, so that's important. Pay attention to that. Find what it is you need. Absolutely if you have somebody you're working with on your mindset and you have somebody who you're working with on a program development, that does not need to be the same person. Get specific. Get really, really specific about what you need when you need it and do that. That's been huge for me. Number two, saying no to things that weren't a fit. This was not a "I laid money on the table" kind of thing, but this was a "I didn't take money off the table" kind of thing. It definitely cost me this year on things I said no to. However, saying no to those allowed me to make money somewhere else that was more in line with what my goals were. We had possible management clients and we had possible consulting things and we had opportunities to invest in sponsorships or to invest in events, and I said no. I said no because they weren't aligned with m goals at the time. I'm not saying that they were bad things or bad opportunities. Some of them were really, really fantastic, but they weren't a fit for where I was right then or where I'm going in my immediate future, so I said no. I think that's an investment that early in our business we're really, really afraid to make, but can be one of the most rewarding and most freeing investments we make. I challenge you in 2017 to invest more in saying no, because man, oh man does it pay dividends. You have the ability to do things that are aligned with you. You have the ability to do things that are what you're interested in and what you want to be doing, and that's incredibly powerful. Invest in the no. It's a game changer. All right, number three, physical gear. We talk a lot about our investments from a software perspective but one of the best investments I made this year was physical gear. I updated my iPhone and, full disclosure, I wasn't terribly out of date. I had a 6+ and now I have a 6S+. I'll probably have a 7 in the next few months. I think I'm actually going to wait until the 8. I made a conscious choice to just wait until the 8. I'm just waiting until the 8, or whatever comes out next year, but we also upgraded for Charles. He was working on a laptop and we moved him to a desktop and it has been a huge productivity increaser because just the nature of the machine he is working on and his setup and his flow is a lot better now. If you're working on a machine that's way outdated or way not serving your needs anymore, it's costing you time. Change it. In the land of live video and SnapChat and Instagram stories and photo sharing, you want to make sure that your gear can hold up to that. You want to make sure that your gear is going to serve those needs, so if you have a phone that's eight years old and it has terrible camera and terrible memory life and terrible battery life, that's hindering your business. I talked to somebody not too long ago, and they were like, "Yeah, I'd love to do SnapChat but it won't work on my phone because my phone's so old. You're leaving marketing money on the table because you refuse to upgrade your device. No. I'm not saying go out and spend a fortune on your gear. What I am saying is making sure that your gear serves your goals. If that means to need to upgrade, find a way to do that. Hustle the cash. Set a goal and achieve it. You can do it, but you got to be willing to say, "This is what we're doing." All right? Physical gear, that was a big upgrade for us this year and probably one of the best investments we made this year from a delivering great content, delivering great photos, and a productivity thing. That's really important. My fourth one was actually, I thought, a personal investment, but it's actually kind of a business investment as well, and that's my health. I started working out one-on-one with a trainer in the second half of this year, and it's been absolutely incredible. Earlier in the year I started investing really committed, dedicated time to running, to working out, and then I upgraded further to the trainer, and it's been a game changer. Not only do I feel better, and I'm starting to look a little better, if I do say so myself, but I feel stronger. I feel more confident. My posture is better. I'm more energetic. I feel better. All of that plays into my ability to hustle, to work, to make money, to serve my goals, to be there for my family. It really checks all of the other boxes. Also I would say, probably my best, most important investment is my health. It's easy, really easy as entrepreneurs, especially if you're doing the solo hustle thing, to leave that to the side, to not prioritize it, to say, "Oh, I'll get to that. When X, Y, Z happens or you know, whatever, then I'll definitely, I'll make that a priority again." I said "Enough of that," and I made it a priority now, and I'm so glad I did because it feels good and it really does pay dividends all the other places in my life, including my business. All right? There it is, four investments I made this year. Some financial, some a little less financial, saying no, but all absolutely critical. I want to hear from you though, so come over to Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris, that's the Facebook page, or over on Twitter, Twitter.com/TheStaceyHarris if you prefer to tweet me, and let me know what the single best investment you made this year was. I want to know, and the really cool thing is is it can encourage the people around us to invest in themselves, to spend the money, spend the time, whatever it is to make their lives and their businesses better. Let's inspire each other, all right? If you're totally at a loss, you're like, "I didn't invest at all this year," head over to Hit the Mic Backstage. Let's invest a little bit of time and a tiny bit of money into making your social media marketing better because it will definitely pay dividends. All right? All right. I will see you Backstage.   Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 323 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Welcome, welcome, to another episode. This week we're going to talk content marketing, and really I want to talk about three things you must know when it comes to your content marketing, because there's a lot of information out there about how you have to do X, Y, Z. If you don't do A, B, C, you're going to fail terribly. I want to do a little reality check with what is actually necessary for your content marketing. We're going to break down the three things I want you to know when it comes to content marketing. Again, we're going to keep this short and sweet, because I want you to take action on this stuff. What I want you to do is I want you to do me a solid, I want you to listen to this episode, and then I want you to come over to Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris, and let's hang out. Hit the post about this episode, and let me know your thoughts. How will you deal with this and if there are any truths I missed, and your favorite way to market with content. Yeah? Let's do that. Head over to the Facebook page, again, The Stacey Harris over on Facebook. I can't wait to hear from you and hear about the action you take on this episode. With all of that said are you ready to jump in? I'm going to imagine that you just said yes, let's go.   Number one, there is no one way to do this. I podcast, I podcast because I like to podcast, I enjoy recording these shows, I enjoy editing these shows, I enjoy communicating in this way. I hope you enjoy consuming content in this way, because you're listening right now. If you don't enjoy it, you should stop listening, that's just basic information there. There's no right way to create content for you, you may be golden with video, you be an exceptional write, and rocking out blog posts is the way to go for you. There is no one way to do it. Yes, you have to look at who your ideal clients are, and how they like to consume content. You happen to be one of my ideal clients because you like to consume content this way. That works out for me. Maybe your audience is all about reading, they want to be able to read. I'll be honest, that's one of the reason we added show notes with a direct transcript for these podcasts, is because I had so many people who were like, "I love your content, but I just ... I prefer to read. You're the only podcast that I can listen to, but I prefer to read it." Now we have transcripts for you guys. I think Denise Duffield-Thomas does the best job of showing you there's no one way. She actually produces content every week in three different ways. It's just one piece of content. She's got a video, and that transcript full from the video is the blog post with a video embedded, and you can also get it in audio form as a podcast, so you can take it with you if you want. Again, she's not creating three different kinds of content, she's taking one piece of content and repurposing it into three things, so that she can get to everybody the way they want to consume content. Again, there's not just one way. Do what works for you. Initially, you don't have to repurpose it into all of the things, you can start one place.  Number two, is it's not forever. If right now you really enjoy writing blog posts, great. If in six months you decide to launch a podcast, fantastic. If in five years you decide you want to do something like Denise does where you have a video that gets repurposed into written content and audio content, fantastic. You're not stuck with this forever. Right now I am toying with the idea of making some changes for this show next year. This show doesn't look like it did from the store. Now, this show is not going away, but I might make some changes to the format. I might change the frequency, or the days they go live, those are things we have changed over the course of the last three years we've been doing this show. I change the days that the episodes go live, for a while it was Tuesday and Thursday, and then it went back to Tuesday and Friday, I think we started with Tuesday and Friday as well. We've always done two episodes a week, but that might change. I might do more, I might do less, you never know. We use to have guests every other episode and now we don't. It's not forever. You're not stuck with it. You can make changes. Don't let a fear that you're going to choose the wrong prevent you from choosing anything. Fearing the wrong choice is way, way, worse than just making the wrong choice. In reality you may very well choose the right choice, and even if you choose something that you don't love, or you choose something that you need shift a little, at least you have that information, and that experience, to learn from, and to build on. Pay attention to that. Again, as much as there's not one right way, there's also not a wrong way. As long as you're taking action, or moving forward, you're providing value for your audience. Those are the boxes you want to check. That's the important stuff to think about, not necessarily this, "Oh well I didn't do that. So and so said I have to. Oh now I've started doing this so I have to do it forever." No, that's the last thing I want you to worry about. I want you to worry about getting value out there. Find the way and start doing it, okay? Number three, and again we're wrapping this up short and sweet style today, reuse, repurpose, recycle. I go back to Denise because she's a fantastic example. She creates one piece of content. She records video. From there, that is converted into a blog post by doing a transcript, and a podcast, because the audio is ripped out. She doesn't have to create three different pieces of content. I do something very similar, however I only create two pieces of content. We have the podcast and the transcript because the blog post, but here's the way that I converted it even further, and I don't know if Denise does this, she might, I then take these transcripts that are actually on the show notes page. This is what's going to be guest posts for ... Right now I'm looking at Q1, so I'm actually having these transcripts that I'm doing right now formatted into posts so they can go up on Linked In, so they can go on Huff Post, so they can go on YFS Magazine, so they can go on Social Media Today, so they can go in all of these different places when I want to reach those audiences, and drive traffic back to my site. I'm still using this in different ways. Another really great example of this is my friend, Brandy Lawson, and she actually started her's with Facebook Live. She would do a Facebook Live, and then that would get converted into a blog post for her website. Now she could even just embed that Facebook Live, or even better, she could upload to YouTube, and then embed the YouTube video. Then she could rip the audio and make it a podcast as well. Now she didn't do that, but you can see how creating a piece of live content that feeds your social media channel can then turn into YouTube content, website content, and again, you can take that transcript and turn it into guest post content as well. Really, really, find every last ounce that you can get of this content. That's going to be the key to content marketing that I think the most people are missing. I think we talk a lot about being in creation mode. We talk a lot about having to create something else, having to feed the content machine, having to think of something new, or brainstorm new ideas, or get out there in a new way, but sometimes we don't talk about really sucking every last bit of value out of content. I've talked about it a lot over the last couple of months just because it's been really top of mind. I think nearing this end of the year where we're all kind of thinking, "What do I need to do to make sure that I am making the most of my time, and getting everything I need to get out value wise to feed my business," and et cetera, et cetera. Now is a really good time to take stock of what you already have and find ways to do more with it. Like I said, one of my things on my to do list this week is to go through and start prioritizing what old episodes of this show are going to get transcripts, because I want to make sure that those episodes get repurposed too. Again, that can be turned into guest post content, that could be turned into Linked In Publisher content, and it can all feed back to driving traffic to my content, which of course drives traffic to the ways you can pay me. That's really the sweet spot, right? All right so that's what I've got for you today. Again to recap, number one, there's no one way, there's no one right way. Number two, it's not forever. You can make changes. It can evolve, that's totally okay. Number three, reuse, repurpose, recycle. Literally if you only get one thing out of this really quick episode, reuse, repurpose, recycle. All right? All right. If you want to find even more ways to drive content to your website, or traffic to your website, excuse me, if you want to find out even more great blogging tips, podcasting tips, video tips, et cetera, join us Backstage. That's the place to be. Really, that's our bread and butter there, is we're talking about doing this stuff your way. We're talking about doing this stuff the way that works for your schedule, for your life, for your business, we're not talking about adding 600 more things to your to do list, all right? Come join us backstage. Connect with me, connect with our other kickass members. I will see you backstage. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 320 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.  All right, so recently we talked about repurposing content and recycling content for social media. Today I want to talk about actually breathing life into the content that's on your website. Finding new ways to drive traffic to it or just straight up reviving it, updating it, repurposing it. That's what we're going to talk about today because your value continues to be valuable. I want to make sure that you are getting every last drop of value for your own business out of the value you're providing your community because the struggle is real when it comes to creating content. As you may know, if you've listened to this show for a while, I'm actually recording this at the very beginning of November and this will go live at the very end of November and I am in ... This week has been back to back to back to back recording days where I'm recording 4, 5, 6 episodes a day of the podcast. That just reminds me how important it is for me to literally get all the use out of the stuff that I create, because as much fun as it is for me to create this content, the real fun is when you guys use the content and you get value from it and you see results from it and it works for you, whatever that is in that episode. I got to find as many ways as possible to get it in front of you, so that's really what breathing life back into your content is all about. We're going to talk about 2 ways to do this. We're going to talk about updating your content, and we're going to talk about repurposing your content. Both of these are parts and options when it comes to knowing that your content can get seen again , can be valuable again, and can really help website traffic and things like that. Cool? Cool. Let's start with updating. Depending on the way you put your content out, updating can actually look like a couple of things. Let's start with just the bare bones simplest. Let's start with blog posts. Written blog post, the best way to update it is to go in and just update it. Change any links that might be broken. Change any facts that may have changed. A great example of this is if you are somebody who like me who is in the social media space, things like Facebook measurements, graphic measurements, or tools you're using, or things like that. That stuff can get outdated because I'm discovering new things, networks are making changes, new things are coming out all of the time. That information evolves quite frequently and so that's going to be your simplest thing. Go in and just straight update the facts, update links and thinks like that. The next way to update might be to add to it. Maybe you have learned something else. Maybe you found another tip. You can always just add a couple of sentences. Change one of the points, update one of the points, give one of the points more priority than you did. You really are just going to go in an straight update the text. Now when it comes to updating something like a podcast or a video series, it can be a little trickier because you now have media that you have go and edit and things like that, but there's still a way. Really, the best way you can do it is to update the text that's on the page that is alongside your video or alongside you're audio. We're doing this right now by going through and adding transcripts to the show notes. For the last, maybe 40 episodes, we've done transcripts with every episode, but we are just starting to go back and work through some of our most popular episodes and give an update to those show notes by adding a transcript of the show. Again, this is great from an SEO perspective because we're adding more keywords, but also it's great from and SEO perspective because now all of that look like new content. In addition to that as it gets seen again, it's got more value, it's got new value and there's going to be people who are a fan of listening to that episode and who want to use it as a resource. That was actually one of the biggest requests I got from people when they ask for transcripts, it was really about, "Hey, these are great but I wish I had a reference so I can bookmark something or highlight something. I didn't have to listen to the episode to find one point you made." That's a big part of the reason the transcripts exist. That's why going back and adding those back in the past episodes is going to be such a valuable way to update it. Again, there's SEO value for me, there is incredible value for the audience in that fact that it's a new way to consume that content. Also there are people who are starting to find my site who don't particularly want to listen to me, which is fine, and if you're one of them, you're totally reading this and hello. Now you don't have to listen to me. You can skim a podcast and find the points you need instead of listening to me with all of my charm and wonder. For those of you who are listening, thank you. That's a really valuable thing I can add as far as updating and breathing new life into the first, I think we started at 280, so the first 279 episodes of the show. The other way we can do that with video is again, add transcripts but also updating our resources, updating those links, updating the information that we added in the resource section a lot like we do when we update a blog post, making sure those links still work. That's probably one of the biggest things that I'm probably really terrible at doing, which is going through and checking our broken links and making sure that those links that are on past show notes episodes are still working because we have had guests on the show in the first year or so whose websites aren't around anymore because they've changed their domains or they've gone out of business or whatever. That's an important thing to factor in. Once we have updated them, how can we drive more traffic? Well A, you can do things like recycle your content, which I'll leave a link in the resource section on the show notes page over at The Stacey Harris to the episode we talked about recycling social media content. We're driving traffic to old episodes of this show all the time, especially through Twitter and LinkedIn and Google+, which yes, I still use Google+, I just don't actually use it from a social perspective, just as a broadcast tool, but that's a whole other episode. I can continue to drive traffic to that. On the flipside, I can do other things. I can, for example, take these transcripts that I have from my episodes, write guest posts using that transcript and then use that to drive traffic back to the original podcast episode. That's right, I'm now using this to drive traffic as well as build my credibility and expose myself to a new audience. Even as I was saying that, it felt wrong, but you know what I'm saying. Getting in front of new people, showcasing what we do here on this show to a group of people who maybe haven't heard the show yet. That's a really powerful way to repurpose content and ideas and value I've already created. The same can be done with a blog post. Take a section of that blog post, maybe build off of it a little bit, tweak it, make it a guest post, and you just have to drive traffic back to your blog post. You can do that on a lot of sites but I think the simplest, the lowest barrier to entry, start using the LinkedIn publisher platform to do that. You can build it right there on LinkedIn, it goes out, your connections all get a notification and voila, you're not driving traffic back to your site using value you created a while ago in some cases. That's a really powerful way to repurpose your content. On the flipside, if there's one way you have created it already, create it in another way. For a long time, in addition this show, we also had Hit the Mic TV which was a video show we did on YouTube and a lot of those episodes were parts of things we talked about here on the podcast because it was a smaller show. We kept it under 10 minutes, usually. I think most of time it came under 5 minutes. A lot of times it would be a smaller idea or a piece of something we talked about here on the podcast. Again, I wasn't reinventing the wheel, I was just creating the same value in a different medium so it could connect with a different group of people, just like when I used the transcripts to create guest posts, maybe that don't link back to the podcast page. I'm still using that same value to connect to an audience in a different way. Now we're doing it through a written blog post instead of a podcast, but guess what? The value point, the connection, the content is quite often the same, it's just a matter of saying hey, this is the value in a way that you prefer to consume it. This is a way you can connect with someone where maybe the don't already know you exist or maybe they don't like podcasts or maybe they prefer not to read blog posts or whatever it is for them and for you. Really look at ways you can take that same value you've already created and use it in a new way on a new site. That's really what it comes down to when it comes down to how to breathe life into content that maybe hasn't seen the light of internet days in a while. Okay, so update it and repurpose it. That is the way to go. Of course head over to the show notes page, TheStaceyHarris.com is where you'll find it and check out the link to recycling social media content because that's a great way to continue to drive traffic to these old posts through social. I will see you guys on Friday.   Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage 3 Things You Must Know About Maximizing Your Content Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 319 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. It's Friday and that means another 3 things episode. This week we're going a little bit left of center and we're going to talk about personal branding. I think this is such an important topic because there are some misconceptions around personal branding and having shifted to a personal brand a couple of years ago, I have learned a lot. A lot, a lot, so I want to share that with you because I know that there are a lot of questions about what's involved with being a personal brand and if you have any sense of yourself left. That's what we're going to talk about. These are the 3 things you must know about personal branding. Number 1, it's not actually about you. I know, it seems strange, almost counter-intuitive because personal branding, I'm a person, on the brand, it's about me, but it's not really about you. It still ultimately about how you serve your community, whether you are a company that serves your community, or a person that serves the community, whether you are a product-based brand or an info-based brand or a service-based brand. Ultimately it comes down to solving the problem. It comes down to being the solution, and being the solution, again, not about you. It is about your customers, it is about your clients, it's about your buyers, whatever it is for you. That's what it's about. Personal brand, not actually about you, and some of you are heaving a huge sigh of relief right now. You're like, "Wow! It's not about me. I don't have to be the center of this in the sense that I have to be on all the time and talk about myself at length ad nauseam," some might say. No, really, it's ultimately still about being a solution, being a value to the people who need your value, your expertise, your product, whatever. Again, personal branding, not actually about you. All branding in fact, guys. Pay attention to this. Not about us. It's about the end consumer. Number 2, it's not about all of you. Often times the question I get probably most frequently about being a personal brand is, "Well what do I keep private?" This comes up a lot with social media in general, this what is for me and what is for everybody else? A lot of it is still not at all involved in your brand or your business. I am a business owner, I own the company. I am definitely a personal brand. I mean, TheStaceyHarris.com is the website. I run a membership site where I'm doing trainings, I'm answering questions. It's not outsourced to some third party team. I do this podcast. I run all my social. Here's the deal, though. That's not my whole life. There's a whole section of my business an my life that don't all overlap, that don't intersect. For example, you will not see pictures of my son on my website. I think the only place you'll see him on social is if we are actual good friends on Facebook, meaning I actually have you in the close friend category. You will occasionally, and by occasionally I do mean 3 or 4 times a year, see a picture of kid. If you follow me on Snapchat, from time to time we will have fun with silly faces. That's it. He's not on my Instagram feed, I don't tweet about him. I don't post about him on any of business pages on Facebook. That's it. Although, he's a massive part of my life. My husband is another great example. You do hear about him. You will occasionally see photos of him because he works for me, because he's who you reach when you email for questions about Backstage or though the website, you reach him first. You'll hear about him but you don't hear about our marriage. You don't hear about that kind of thing, our personal lives. Occasionally on Snapchat and stuff there'll be a date night kind of vibe. I think Snapchat is by far and away my most personal social media outlet, but it's not ... Our relationship is not a part of our brand. He happens to be a part of the support of this brand. He happens to be a part of the team, but our life together isn't fodder for content or anything like that. I'm saying there's anything wrong with anyone who doesn't do it this way or who does include their kids in stuff. That's a branding choice you have to make. What I'm saying is you don't have to choose to do that. You don't have to choose to pull back the curtain completely and share every last bit of yourself when you're a personal brand. No. The Stacey Harris is a section of my personality. I'm probably, in all honesty, an amplified version of a section of my personality and it definitely comes out when I do this podcast, it definitely comes out when I do things like Facebook Lives and webinars. It definitely comes out in Backstage. It definitely comes out when I speak at events or when I go to networking things or when I go to conferences or whatever, but this is not me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is an amplified version of the best, most professional part of me, which is saying something, guys, that this is most professional I get. I think that it's so important to let yourself off the hook when it comes to this idea that you have to be fully transparent with everything in your life, because you don't. That's not what a personal brand about. A personal brand is about giving a face and a personality that's definitely aligned with who you are. Trust me, having been somebody who sort of faked a way through a personality for the better part of a year and a half with my brand. It's tough, it's exhausting. It's much easier to be me, the sort of amplified version of me, but ultimately, it's a section of me. It's the part that serves you because again, it's not about me. I could happily share about my kid and my husband and my interests outside of business stuff, but that's not really of any really value to you. I think the best example of this is we're coming off election time and we're going into the holidays. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the states, so we're full on in the holiday season now. You never see me mention holidays on my social media. You never see me talk about politics on my social media, and that's not because I don't celebrate Christmas. You guys know I'm crazy for Christmas, that's why I take December off, but that's not what you're coming to me for. Does that make sense? Again, you don't have to be all of you. You don't have to share every last detail of your life and personality. You can keep things that are yours and I think that's a huge fear and I want you to let go of that. The third thing is it's not the only way to be successful. I think, especially for a lot of you who are in the coaching space, who are in the infopreneur kind of space where you're teaching and you're sharing your information and your knowledge and your value that way, it can get scary easy to get wrapped up in the idea that this is the only way to be successful. It can be scary easy to look at the Marie Forleos and the Gary Vaynerchuks and the Maury Smiths and the Jay Baers and the Danielle LaPortes and whoever else is on your list and think they are all personal brands. I have to emulate that to be successful. First of all, emulating their personal brand is never going to make you successful because you're not them. The whole value in a personal brand is you're the only one. 2, Gary V. has an entire brand that's not him, okay? You talk about the fact that he was first successful with Wine Library and yes, he was on that and he put himself ... But that was in marketing a larger brand. Yes, he is a successful personal brand, but also that brand helps support and is only a small part of VaynerMedia. It's not the only way to be successful, okay? Apple was successful even though Steve Jobs has a separate personal brand as the head of Apple. Apple was still its own brand. Apple's continued to go on without Steve Jobs, for better or worse. Think about ... I'm a big Disney fan. I think you guys know that. I'm a big Disney fan and I think about Disney as a brand has lived way past Walt Disney. If there's any sense of personal brand in the Disney brand, it's Mickey Mouse, hands down. Again, there's not one way to be successful. There are a ton of small businesses who are doing an amazing job. There's a tone of micro-businesses who are doing an amazing job selling information, selling services, and selling products as a company brand without the personal brand piece. Don't feel like it's the only way to be successful. There is not one way to be successful, okay? There are a lot of ways to be successful. You have to find the one that works for you, okay? That's it. That's the 3 things I wanted you to know about personal branding. If you have more questions about branding, we had Kaye Putman join us who helped me develop my brand. Inside of Backstage, we've got an interview and training with her where we talk about branding. I've also got a couple of episodes around branding that I'll leave in the show notes for you. We've had Julie Cottineau and Kay Putman also on the show to talk branding. Those are great resources when it comes to branding, whether you're a personal brand or a company brand and those people and teams can help you get through that process and figuring out what it is you are and what it is you're going to do. Check out those resources over at TheStaceyHarris.com and I will see you on Tuesday.  Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Episode 27 – Better Branding with Julie Cottineau Episode 101 – Brands That Stand Out with Julie Cottineau Episode 129 – Personal or Company Branding with Kaye Putnam Episode 261 – Book Review: Twist by Julie Cottineau Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 317 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. Let's talk podcasting. I get a lot of questions about podcasting, especially now that we're 300, now 317 episodes into the show which apparently means I know stuff. One of the most common hurdles for podcasters, or wannabe podcasters rather, is what to talk about. That's what we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about the 3 things you must know about choosing a podcast topic because A, it is not as difficult as you think it is and B, I want you to stop using this as an excuse to no hit record on a podcast because that's what some of you guys are doing. I know things. Let's talk about choosing a podcast topic and let's jump right in. I want to keep this episode pretty brief because I want you guys to be taking action on it, so we're going to jump right in today. Number 1, what problem do you want to solve for your audience? What problem do they have that they are looking to you for? That could be inspiration, that could be understanding, that could be education, that could be training, that could be permission to take things less seriously. It could be a lot of things and I'm talking in sort of a grand scale. In the abstract at a really, really bird's eye level, what problem are you trying to solve? This might be the problem your trying to solve in your business in a lot of other ways, but now this podcast is how you manifest. For example, I have a podcast because a problem I want to solve is I want you guys to stop telling me you're dumb. I get a lot of I'm dumb when it comes to Twitter. I don't know anything about podcasting. I'm dumb when it comes to technology. I'm dumb when it comes to Facebook, and I hate it. Honestly. It drives me crazy because you're not dumb just because you don't know something. It just means you haven't learned it yet, and some stuff you don't have to know. That doesn't make you dumb, it just makes you focused, okay? That's the sort of grandiose problem I want to solve with this show. That leads to me doing 2 episodes a week answering questions in a way that's very driven by making you not feel dumb. Making you understand that you can figure this stuff out, that you don't have to know everything, and that it's okay to just learn it as you go or say forget it, I don't need to know it, because that's cool too. There are things in this world I have learned I do not need to know. I do not need to know a lot of things. I can't think of anything right now off the top of my head that isn't insane, but I don't need to know a lot of things. I don't need to know how my car works. I don't. I just want it to work. It's the joy of marrying a mechanic, I guess, because he can deal with those kind of things but I genuinely don't have any interest in knowing it, I don't have any need to know it, okay? There are things in my business I don't need to know. I don't need to know how the SEO on my site works. I know some, but I don't need to know it all. I A, have a plugin that gets me a lot of the way there, that helps with my limited knowledge. If I really, really want to amp up the SEO, I will hire someone who does know, because it's just not something I need to know. I do not need to know how to custom code my website because A, I have WordPress and B, I have developers. They know that stuff, okay? Social media, podcasting, that may be stuff you don't need to know a whole lot about, but that's the point of me doing this show is so that you don't feel dumb. You can get the minimum viable knowledge that you need, you can dive deeper if you want more than that minimum viable knowledge, or you can say, you know what? I can hire Stacey. I can hire somebody else who can take care of that for me, and that's okay. Number 1, what problem are you trying to solve? What are you trying to give your listeners. Number 2, who are your listeners? Who do you want listening to the show? Now for 9 and half out of 10 of you, it's going to be who you ultimately want to buy something in your business, but the important distinction to make is what section of you customer base do you want listening to your show? As an example, I don't tend to get a lot of consulting clients where I do large scale launch strategies and things like that through the podcast. Most of those people don't listen to this show. However, this is a primary way that people find out about and jump into Backstage. It's kind of your next logical step after listening to the podcast because it's the podcast plus, so to speak. It's the podcast where we dive deeper on all the things we talk about here and you get one-on-one attention from me in the Facebook group. You put profile in there, I do a profile review just for you. You ask for feedback, I give you feedback. It doesn't have to be that all of your clients will come from your podcast, but what section of your business do you want really to be fueled by your podcast? In a lot of ways, it's going to make the best sense if it's sort of your passive income or your one-to-many income kind of base. For a lot of podcasters, it's how they fuel their one-on-one business, their one-on-one coaching or one-on-one consulting. I know a few really successful health coaches and fitness coaches who have built, personal trainers, who have built their businesses through podcasting, through sharing their information because they're able to really showcase their expertise, but also give people an insight into their personality and who they are and how they talk and how they work and all of that through their show. People can feel really connected to them and then it's a logical next step to hire them. Get really clear on who you want listening. Not just age, rank, and serial number kind of stuff, not just like, "Oh well she's a 25 year old female and she's a stay-at-home mom." That is not an ideal listener profile anymore than it's an ideal client profile. I spoke at an event in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago now, a month ago now, 6 weeks ago now, something like that, in October. It's November now. In October. Somebody asked about their ideal clients and where they should be spending time on social and I said ... Where they should be spending time on social to connect with their clients and I asked who their ideal clients were. They said shallow middle-aged women who don't want to get old. I was like, "Well let me just raise my hand, dear." Then I asked her what middle-aged was. She said, I don't know, like 30 to 65. I was like, "First of all, not middle aged. That's all adult women." Almost all adult women. That's super general. That's really hard targets, impossible to figure out what kind of content to create, who to speak to, how often to do your show, sponsors, all of that stuff when you talk about a range that large. Get really specific. Who are they? What else are they listening to? What magazines do they subscribe to? What websites do they check out? What email lists are they on? What experts are they paying attention to in your space and in spaces around yours? Get really, really ridiculously clear on who do you want listening to the show? Number 3, what we're going to wrap it up with is where does this podcast fit in your overall business model? Again, that's going to tell you a lot about what you should be talking about when you think about, okay, where does this fit? Again, I don't talk about a ton of really, super, high-level big business kind of tactics and tools here because although my consulting clients are going to be interested in that stuff, they're not listening to this show. For most of the people listening to this show, they're trying to figure it out. They're trying to DIY it. They're trying to work with their new social media manager. They're trying to grow their business. They're trying to really support their micro-business in social media, on social media, and use it as a tool for that so what I talk about is different because I'm feeding into the Backstage part of my business model, not the high-level consulting. Not even, honestly, our social media management arm of the business. Those clients don't come through the podcast. They come through referral, they come through networking events, they come through social, but they don't come through the podcast. I know where this fits into my overall marketing funnel and into my overall business model. As sort of heartless as that sounds, It's critical because it's impossible to serve everyone all the time with your content. When you get clear on who you're talking to, what problem you solve for them, and where you're trying to move them to in your business, where in your business you can help them even more, it gets really easy to pick your topic, it's really easy to build your editorial calendar. Start with those 3 things and it's going to make all the difference as you move forward in really understanding what it is you talk about on your podcast week after week, month after month, year after year, all right? All right, if you want to learn more about launching your podcast, if you're ready to shift from idea to actual podcast, I've got 2 things to tell you. We've got a brand new podcast training that we just launched this month. It's totally free. You can find it over at TheStaceyHarris.com/Podcast. Also there is a gear list inside of there, as in I'm talking about all the gear you need to start and run your show. It's not as much as you think it is. Also, we've got inside of Hit the Mic Backstage, the 5 module Rock Star Guide to Podcasting program where I actually teach you from start to finish how to record, edit, and launch your podcast, whether you're a PC user or a Mac user. Also check that out. That's all inside of Backstage, so $40 a month. You can join us for as long as you need it. If you do check out the free training, though, there might be a 7 day, $1 trial for Backstage, and by might I mean there definitely is. Check that out if you want to give it a try, if you want to see if it's a fit for you. If you love, you stay in, fantastic. It's not a fit, you cancel, no hard feelings, we're all good, okay? All right. I will see you backstage and I will see you on Tuesday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Free Launch Your Podcast Training Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 314 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. I'm really excited today because I'm going to empower you to really look at your Facebook page objectively. I'm going to walk you through the three things that I really want you to be doing whenever you assess what's happening with your profile on Facebook and by profile I should say page because remember we're using our Facebook pages for marketing and not our Facebook profile. Basically I'm going to teach you to DIY a Facebook page review. I love, love, love talking about reviews. We actually do them once a month inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. Every month we do profile reviews so members leave me a link and we review absolutely any profile. Basically, what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the steps I take and the three major things I look for. There's definitely other things I look for but these are the three biggest missteps I see people making and so I want you to DIY yourself an objective look at your page. Okay? I want you to look at this and look at this from the perspective of somebody else's view, how it would look to a potential customer, how it would look to a potential client, a new lead, somebody who doesn't know who you are, doesn't know what you do and has just found your page or maybe they just got to your page from your website but they are not super clear on who you are. Ready to jump in? DIY Facebook page review.   All right, up first we're going to start right at the top of the page with your graphic. With the new Facebook page layout rolled out over the course of the summer, I say over the course of the summer because seriously they trickled out to people but pretty sure everybody has it now. With the new review, you see we have a larger unobstructed cover image. We've got our profile photo which is also a little bit larger to the left and then we have a massive call to action button. I want you to look at these three pieces first and foremost because here's the real talk, that's the first thing anybody sees. It's a huge, huge opportunity for you to connect with your audience, for you to connect with the people who are landing on this page. Make sure that that image is an image that tells me who you are as in an image of you if you're a personal brand. If you're not, a very clear logo or a team photo something like that. The thing to consider though is the bulk of the time that I see this image is going to be after I hit the like button and when you share status update or when I see an ad from your page. Make sure that as good as this image looks in this, air quote, "full size," make sure it also looks good in the smaller size which you can get really clearly in looking at that status box just under the like button where you would post the status. That gives you a better idea of what it's going to look like in the feed. It looks good both ways. It's eye catching both ways but make sure again it's you, okay? Especially for those personal brands. Most of you listening to the show are freelancers and coaches and any infopreneur space or providing services and when I buy something from you or I hire you for something, it really is about you so don't hide. Use that photo space to connect, okay? Also with that photo, make sure that when I click on that photo, the description isn't blank. Point me somewhere. Learn more about theStaceyHarris.com/about, that's what mine says because I want to use every opportunity to drive them away from Facebook and to my website because Facebook is distracting. My website is fairly focused on what I want you to do. Make sure that you're taking every inch of real estate that you get to point them some place, to get them to do something. The same is true with that cover photo. Again, we have a large, unobstructed cover photo. I'll actually put the sizes in the show notes of the episode down the resources section so you can actually create these. Canva is a great way to do it. If you have Photoshop and the expertise to use Photoshop, use Photoshop. I often create quick ones in Canva. In fact I just recently created one for the new free podcasting training that I'm offering. That's the cover photo now and guess what? I made that cover photo in Canva. If you look at the show notes page for this episode and you look down at the opt in at the bottom Facebook ads, I created that in Canva. Don't think you have to hire a designer. If you do not have the wherewithal to do that or the connections to do that, don't let that be a barrier to prevent you from creating something or really using that space to drive something somewhere to drive traffic to taking a specific action. Use that space. You can absolutely create something simple in Canva. You can actually create something really gorgeous in Canva or yes, hire a designer it that's what you want to do. Use the space. Okay? Use it. Then, make sure that that cover image ties in with that call to action button so for example, as I mentioned, the free podcast training is what's in the cover image on my page right now. When you hit that sign up button it takes you right to the actual lead page that you sign up for that training in. See how clever that is? It really is about making it a no brainer for people but also the description for that cover image also includes a link to that same lead page. If someone clicks on the cover image, I'm still able to point them to where I want them to go. I'm still able to get them to take the action that I want them to take. It's not about over-complicating this. It's not about making this more difficult than it needs to be. It's about keeping it really simple and really clear. Here's a free podcast training. Sign up. It's that simple. You can do this with an opt in before I had the podcast training up there I had just a straight up promo for Backstage. It said, Hit the Mic Backstage and then there's a little [blog 00:07:05] about what it is and the cost and then there was that sign up button. Again, super, super simple but tie it together. This is such a common misstep so really use these three pieces in conjunction. Really use these three pieces to be a really strong initial touch point for you and the person looking at your page whether a lead or a potential client ... A lot of you are speakers. A lot of you are building JV partners, an affiliate income. When people look at whether they want to hire you to speak, when people look at whether they want to partner with you, when people look about whether they want to have you on their podcast or have you write a guest post for them, these are the things that we're looking at so make sure you have your house in order and that initial touch point is so important because not a lot of people are going to scroll real far. Some people may literally only engage with that image that's in your profile, that image that's in your cover and maybe your like information or that first post or two that you have on your page. Maybe sure you're using this real estate. Okay? Number two. Don't forget your about information. Again, especially when people are looking at hiring you or they are looking at hiring you to speak or they are looking to purchase something from you, they are digging into who you are. Maybe you've wet their beak and they are excited and they want to know all the things, they might actually venture into your about area. Make sure that it's updated. We actually did a profile review several months ago now in Hit the Mic Backstage and I was talking about the about area for somebody and I went and showed them my about area as an example because they hadn't filled theirs out at all. I realized and I probably shouldn't tell the story but I'm going to. Mine was horribly outdated, horribly outdated. I referenced programs that didn't exist anymore. I didn't have any mention of Backstage which is a huge part of my business. I had to go through and update it. Make sure you do that especially when you're DIYing your Facebook page review. This is a good time to clean the house so make sure the phone numbers are updated, the address is updated if you have a physical space or a mailing address. Make sure that your descriptions are current, your links are current. Make sure all of that stuff is there and easy to consume for your clients or potential clients and all of that. Edit that page info, check out that about area make sure it's up to date. Yes, this is a mistake I'm totally teaching you guys out of experience. I was so embarrassed in doing this for review but you know, I'm all about transparency guys. That's what happened. Also, make sure that you have regular times to go check in with this stuff. Make sure that you go in and update this information whenever there's a change. Recently we moved from Arizona to California and so I need to update the address because our mailing address is different now because we have a California mailing address now. My phone number stayed the same but my address has changed so I need to update that there. Make sure that you do that stuff. All right, we started with our cover images and profile images then we talked about our about area. The third thing I want you to evaluate is your actual content. The best way to do this is not to scroll through your post and look at that reach number. That is not the best way. What I want you to do is I want you to actually go into your insights. I want you to actually go in and look at your reach and your page views and your likes and how people are engaging with your videos and your post and the action people are taking on your page. The people who like your page, are they your target demographic? Because if they are not, then you've got a whole bigger problem you need to deal with. It's not going to matter how good a page is, how engaging your post are if you're talking to the wrong audience, jump into your insights and actually look at these things because no profile review is complete without looking at the analytics. This is something that we don't get to do when we do our profile reviews in Backstage and that's why we have a how to use your insights training inside of Backstage because you have to look at these numbers. You have to see how your content is actually doing and that reach number or how many likes it got is not always an indicator of how your content is actually doing. Make sure, make sure without any doubts you're looking at these insights regularly and really digging deep into them whenever you're doing a profile review, whenever you're breaking down your page and its ROI and how it's performing and how it's delivering as far as part of your marketing strategy. Okay? The things I really want you to pay attention to is I really want you to pay attention to the people and making sure that you're talking to the right people. Don't only look at who your fans are made up of but also look at that people reached and people engaged because often just because your fans are totally on track you'll find that the people reached are slightly off track. The best example of this that I've got is I had a client who booked a one on one call with me and she didn't really understand her insights. We dug into her insights together and what was really interesting is in looking through her insights she was telling me this is who our target market is and I don't feel like this section of them are really on Facebook. I think they are out of the age range. When we looked at it in fact, not only were they a huge section of the people who like the page, they were the most engaged of the audience and the most commonly reached but they had kept writing content that was to a demographic that was a little bit younger because they were so convinced that they weren't able to reach this older age group on Facebook. When in reality, that's exactly who their Facebook audience was. Knowing who this is, knowing who's engaging with your page, who's actually seeing the content from your page, who actually likes your page, it's going to be hugely informative in how you write your copy, the kinds of call to action you create and how you use it. Because oftentimes you'll find that you'll reach two sections of your audience but you don't reach them in the same places. You reach them in different networks or you reach them with different copy. Pay attention to that. The other thing I want you to look at is I actually want you to look at your content so actually look at your post not only will it tell you when your fans are online and the post types that are doing well but you will actually see all your post published down below and you can look at the type of post it was. If you did any targeting with it, the reach of it, the engagement. What I think is interesting here is play with some of that targeting, customize your audience especially if you're one of those groups that's again talking to two different maybe age groups with the same page. Maybe look at, "Hey, this isn't going to speak to that group so let's target to this smaller demographic and then we'll have another post that we target to this other smaller demographic instead of one post that tries to speak to all the people." Then you can go look at these numbers and you can see what performed well, what connected with people. You can see what types of content or posting from the perspective of a link or video or a photo. You can see the topics that are really connecting so use this information to really, really look at, "Hey, this is what's actually happening." Not just the reach, not just, "Oh, this is how many people Facebook tells me this post actually gotten in front of." No, look at how they are engaging with it. Look at all of the information. You can actually click on the post and you'll get even more information like the likes, the likes that happen on the post versus shares, comments, comments on the post versus comments on shares, shares on the post versus shares from other shares. You can also look at clicks. You can actually see if people are clicking the links because often they won't comment or like a post but they will click on the link and in a lot of cases that's the goal. You may think, "This didn't performed really well. It got a big reach but no one is engaging with it but everyone clicked the link," not everyone necessarily but a lot of people clicked the link so it did performed well. Okay? This is why digging into the insights is so important because that's not information you're going to get from just looking at the front of your profile and saying, "Oh it reached 2,000 people, fantastic." Okay? All right. That's it, that's really what I wanted to pay attention to. The front end, make sure that top of your real estate those graphics are on point. Make sure you keep your about area updated and make sure you are regularly digging into your insights. If you have more questions or you want my eyes on your profile, be sure to join us Backstage. This is the exact kind of stuff that I built that community to do. We do have an entire training on how to use Facebook insights which is hugely popular and not used by enough of you so come check it out. All right, hitthemicbackstage.com to see how you can join us inside of the community and check out the brand new ... It's not so brand new anymore I guess but I'm still really excited about it, the really cool private community right inside of our site. Okay. I'll see you on Friday.

Welcome to episode 304 of Hit the Mic with the Stacey Harris. I want to talk about manifesting today. Before you throw in the towel, and you're like, "Stace, don't get all woo on me," give me a minute. Because the reality is is a lot of the things that we need to do for our mindset, and for manifesting our goals, really comes out of pretty logical stuff. It really comes down to things that we need to do to be successful on social, to be successful with our email marketing, and to be successful as entrepreneurs. Before you discount this stuff as sort of like out there, or a little left field, or woo woo, or however you want to describe it, hippy dippy as my family occasionally refers to it, is realize that a lot of this is very logical. A lot of this is stuff you need to be doing to set yourself up for success anyways. If like me, you already lean a little to the woo, you're going to enjoy this episode definitely because we're talking about some of the things that you can be integrating into how you run your business, which can make it feel a lot more aligned with you, and can also make it a lot more successful. That's what we're going to talk about today. What learning about manifesting taught me about marketing. First of all, big shout out to Denise Duffield-Thomas, who has an amazing free manifesting course, a great book, and of course a larger program called Get Rich Lucky Bitch, of which I'm a part of, and an affiliate for, full disclosure. If you happen to click on the links in the show notes, I may at some point, and you decide to purchase something, I may get a commission. That in no way impacts my recommendation of it. I've been a part of the program for I want to say almost two years now. It's been a game changer for my business, and so I'm happy to share it with you guys. I learned about manifesting from Denise Duffield-Thomas. Someone recommended her book, Get Rich Lucky Bitch, to me. I read it. I consumed it as quickly as possible. I read it again. I loved it. I really went back and forth purchasing her program. At every level, at every extra bit of work I've done about manifesting, it's impacted my business not just from a income level, from, "Wow, I made more money," sort of thing, but I've learned a lot about my business and how I market. That's what I want to talk about. One of the things that Denise Duffield-Thomas, and a lot of people who talk about manifesting talk about is clarity, sort of knowing what you want, and being really clear in telling the universe, or whoever, whatever, what it is. For me, it's always been telling me really clearly what I want. Because when I know very specifically what I'm working towards, it makes it really easy for me to keep going. Meaning one of the easiest ways for me to get off track on a goal is to not know exactly what my next step is. If I don't know exactly what my next step is, I tend to stop stepping. I tend to sort of move in a new direction, or go backwards, or just stand still with something. For me, it really, it really does come down to clarity, knowing exactly what my goal is. For example, let's say you're launching a new program, and you want to have a hundred sign ups. Great. That informs everything you do before that. Whether you want to call it setting small goals, or aligning yourself with the universe, or making an action step list, the reality is the same. That clarity of your end result is what allows you to start walking the path towards that goal by taking actions, by acting as if whatever side of things you want to talk about it from. For me, when I focus in on specifically what am I trying to create? What am I trying to manifest as far as a result? It really moves me down the road of clarity, because again, I know I want to have X result at the end. What does it take for me to get to X result? Then, what small actions can I take to keep nudging myself towards that goal, and keep really moving myself forward, and acting as if this is all coming together? What result is that, and what steps do I take to get there? From a marketing perspective, when I get really clear and I get really clear on what those steps are, I also force myself to get really clear on, "Okay, great, I want to get a hundred people into this program. I don't want to just get a hundred regular people in this program, I want to get a hundred perfect people into this program." Who are those perfect people? Now I'm getting really clear on my goals and my ideal clients. Because again, manifesting is fueled by clarity, and it's fueled by starting to take action in the direction you're going. Guess what? Marketing is fueled by action, and fueled by clarity, and that's the same stuff. Oh my gosh, I know. For me, getting really clear on where I'm going was one of the primary ways that learning how to manifest, and really being an active manifester in my business and in my personal life really helped me from a marketing perspective. Let's talk about another way. It got me to stretch my goals. Early in my business, I had some very, very simple goals. For example, when I started On Demand Virtual Assistant, the very first business I owned, my goal was simply to make a little extra money, some vacation money, maybe some money to put away for Colin's education. I didn't have any grandiose goals of even a thousand dollars a month. Just a few extra hundred dollars a month to give me something to do and to add a little extra padding to my family's income. Now, here we sit, five years later, and some change, and I own a company that my husband also works for, that allows us an incredible amount of freedom as far as time off, but also allows us a lot of financial freedom. That came from stretching my goals, from pushing, going, "Okay, well great. I manifested this. Now what else can I do?" From a business perspective, that's been great from the idea of by my business has grown, but also it really allowed me to stretch my goals from, "Well, I bet I could get a hundred people on my email list," to, "I bet I could get a thousand people on my email list," to, "I bet I could get a hundred thousand on my email list." Now, I don't yet have a hundred thousand people on my email list. That's one I'm still working on, but because I've done the mindset work on manifesting, and what's possible, and understanding my limitations, I've gotten a really larger sense of what's possible, and a larger sense of I can push. I can keep pushing. I can keep moving. Yes, absolutely, one of the things I am always actively working on improving at is celebrating the smaller wins, like when I got a hundred people on my email list, or when I got a thousand people on my email list, or how I will celebrate when I get a hundred thousand people on my email list, instead of moving the goal post before I get to the goal. It really did show me how to expand my idea around what's possible. That is really powerful when it comes to marketing because you'll kind of get the results you expect to get because you will take the action to get exact, precisely those results. When I'm talking about, "Oh, you know, well maybe I can get a hundred people on my email list," I'm going to take a hundred people actions. Now that I'm thinking about, "I can get a hundred thousand people on my email list," I'm taking actions to get that level of people because my mindset is allowing me to play in that space. It's allowing me to be creative in that space. From a marketing perspective, I'm open to new ideas. I'm learning new techniques. I'm executing new tactics. I'm utilizing new tools. Because again, the mindset around being able to manifest more, being able to hustle for more, being able to achieve more, really allows me to think in a bigger way, all the way around. Also, I'm able to create things that are bigger, and cooler, and of more service to my community, because again, I'm thinking at that level. I'm being more expansive. From a marketing and business perspective, changing my mindset around what I could manifest and what was possible was absolutely a game changer. We talked about it from kind of a tactical perspective in the sort of clarity, ideal clients, it gave me the push to be really active and executing things. For me, that part of manifesting alone has paid for its own education, if you will. Taking the time to do that work. I don't just mean sort of investment from a financial, "I bought this program," or, "I read this book," or, "I downloaded this freebie." I mean from a doing the work on my actual mindset. Doing the work on my actual manifesting abilities, and investing that time in exercising that muscle and growing that skill, something I'm by no means done at. I have lots of growth ahead of me. I think Denise sums it up beautifully when she talks about it being something that happens forever. Because there is sort of this you reach one level, and then there's new stuff to deal with. What's powerful is the confidence, the doing the work and putting in the time, and the actual execution of doing better at this stuff, it's such a confidence builder. Again, I don't just mean buying the program, buying the book, downloading the freebie, whatever. I'm talking about the actual time invested in doing it has been critical for my growth. Again, from a really tactile point of like it forced me to get really clear on what I wanted, and where I was going, and who I was talking to, and how I executed that, but also in a confidence perspective and a growth, and what was possible, and an idea, and a creative space as well. Personally, what I love most about Denise Duffield-Thomas is she balances these two things very well. Inside of Get Rich Lucky Bitch, there is a bonus program, and she talks about it's called the Do It Quick Lucky Bitch. It was something she released a very long time ago. It's like a little ten day mini program thing. One of the things I love about it is a couple of the days are, "Okay, take a scary action. Do something." She talks about it in the book, and she talks about it in the program. She also talks about it in her free manifesting course, which there's a link to in the show notes.  If you have been interested in the idea of learning more about manifesting, or what that meant, or there's this tingle for you to be more open to that kind of thing, Denise is a great entry point, because she does pair it with very logical, "Now you've got to do stuff." It not about just writing down the goal and then it happens, but it is about getting really clear on the goal, what the goal is, so that you can take little steps to get closer to it every day, and execute to get there. Because again, as always, action and execution, it's the dream maker. It is the game changer. It is the silver bullet. Do that. Head over and check that out. Again, TheStaceyHarris.com/Episode304. I have a link to Denise's free manifesting course. If you're on the email list, if you're on the VIP list, you saw last week I emailed out a link to something that I do, because I've been thinking a lot about this, because I took ... I ended up taking a lot of the summer off, which was completely unplanned, between some family stuff that happened in my personal life, and our move, and things like that, I ended up not working very much. Really, it's awesome because I realized, and I could be grateful for, the fact that my business not only survived, it kind of thrived. It did really well this summer, because I've done this work beforehand to put these kind of things in place. I knew that because I maintained doing one very important manifesting thing, which is tracking. I tracked every single penny that I made over the course of the Summer, whether I was working or not, I tracked everything I received. I could say very comfortably, "Hey, I did all right,' instead of going, "Oh, I didn't work, so I didn't make any money." Because the two things are no longer attached to my business, which is something I manifested, and something I continue to manifest on a larger scale. Again, check out Denise Duffield-Thomas' stuff. She's got some really cools stuff coming out this month. I want you to be aware of it. Check out that freebie on manifesting. Be sure to check out her website. I'll have links to her website, as well as the money tracking article that she wrote, as well as the free manifesting course. I will see you on Friday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Denise Duffield-Thomas Denises' Money Tracking Article Get Rich Lucky Bitch Bootcamp Denises' Free Manifesting Training Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 299 of Hit the Mic thee Stacey Harris. Hello, hello, episode 299 is here and we're going to talk about maximizing your content today. I know you are producing amazing content each and every week, or month, or whenever you create content. Are you making the most of that content? Are you really making sure it's getting in front of the right eyes, or ears? Creation for creation's sake does not grow your business. That's not content marketing, that's just creation. I want to make sure that you are really maximizing that content, getting the most out of every single bit of it, and really using it to serve your audience. Ultimately that's why we create content, is to serve our audience. If we don't tell them about the content, or we don't produce it in a way that they consume it, or if we don't produce the kind of content they actually need, it's not going to do us or them any good. Let's start with talking about the content they actually want and need to consume. I want to talk about this in 2 ways. I want to talk about it from the perspective of actually sort of building out your editorial calendar, and then also making it consumable for them. First let's talk about your editorial calendar. I know I've talked about editorial calendars on the show before, but it's worth remembering that there's not just 1 way to build that. There are a lot of ways. I use Google calendars, I just have a editorial calendar setup in my Google calendar. It's not on my regular appointment calendar, it's just sort of in it's own calendar. That's really nice because it makes it really easy for me to see what's ahead, what's coming up. It also makes it really easy for me to move things around. Here's the deal, when it comes to editorial calendars, you are creating something that is just going to be there to make things easier. It is not sort of set in stone, rules to live by, the only options. If you get inspired, or you have a question that keeps coming up, or you just have something you have to talk about right then, move whatever was on the calendar. It's not sort of your commitment, and you have to do it, and it's the only way it can be. No, it's totally flexible. Remember again, this is to make things easier for you, not more difficult. That's why I like having Google calendar cause I can just move it around if I need to. I do probably once a month where I decide to shift around because I want to talk to somebody right then, or something new comes up, or whatever. That's first and foremost, find a tool that's going to let you build an editorial calendar. If you're a paper and pencil person, use paper and pencil, that's cool. For a long time I actually had a monthly paper calendar, and I wrote it out on the days of the month. Next up, how do we find out what goes on in that editorial calendar? I like to use the content, and the questions I'm getting from my community already. The questions that come up in Hit the Mic backstage all the time, the questions that come up when I am engaging in other Facebook groups, the questions that come over and over again on client calls. If you're somebody who is doing discovery calls, sales calls, those kinds of things, the questions that come up over and over again there. The problems that are coming up in those calls over and over again, those are great content because it's content that's going to very easily feed into a discovery call. It's really easy to convert on that content. Q and A's that you do, whether it's on a Facebook live, or in your Facebook group, or in other Facebook groups, or on your Facebook page, or over on Twitter. The things that people are talking about in Twitter chats. Sometimes I will sneak peeks at the questions that are coming up on some of the big social media Twitter chats, and that's going to help me inform what I should talk about in the content, the things that people are confused about. The struggles that are coming up over and over again. If they already have these questions, start answering them. It's really that simple. Answer what they've already got. Then put it in a format that's easy for your content, or your consumers to actually consume, your audience to consume. If that's audio's, do podcasts. If that's videos, do videos. Do Facebook lives, whatever. If that's written content, do blog posts. Later on we're going to talk about why doing it in multiple ways is a really, really good thing. That's first and foremost is focus in on what your audience needs and wants. If you're writing content for the sake of content, or you're recording podcasts for the sake of recording podcasts and it's not actually helping your audience, you're kind of wasting your time. You're actually super duper colossally wasting your time, and I don't want to see you doing that. Check out what your audience wants and needs. Number 2, don't forget to share it. This one is so, so easy and so, so mishandled in a lot of ways. Some of you are producing just epicly awesome content, and you're just not sharing it. When you create content use your strategy, use your social media strategy. Share it on your networks, schedule it into your social media foundation. Be putting it out in your networks, be talking about it all the time. If you have a Facebook live coming up on Thursday and you got a new blog post going out on Tuesday, then the great thing to talk about on that Facebook live would be something from that blog post on Tuesday. You can push that traffic back to that post. Make sure you're sharing it, and you're sharing it in all the places. If you see a question come up, and you've answered that question so thoroughly with great resources and a blog post, you don't need to rewrite that blog post in response to the question. Give them a little bit of an answer, give them some immediate value, sort of instant gratification answer. Then say, "I dive way deep inside of this post," or, "On this podcast episode," and then link to it. That's not being sleazy, that's not being promo-ey that's helping them, that's providing them with the resource they're requesting. I do again, like to give them that little bit of value saying sort of, "Here's the quick answer, but here's way more information in this post," so that I'm not just sort of driving traffic to my site without any sort of regard for a reason to go there. Absolutely share that content. Remember, if you're not telling people about it, it's going to be really hard for them to find it. It's going to be really hard for them to use it, and learn from it, and get better because of it. Share it in all the places. This goes back to using your plan, building your strategy, what networks are you on, how often do you share? Then it goes to what tools are you using? Are you using something like a HootSuite, or a co-schedule, or a MeetEdgar, or a eClincher, or a Buffer, or whatever it is you're using. Then where on your calendar do you have time to fill those tools so that this content is being shared? That this content is being seen, and this content is actually providing the value that this content is intended to provide. Again, share, share, share. Number 3, repurpose it everywhere. I was terrible about this, and I'm undoing that actively right now. This is episode 299 of this show, on Tuesday we'll go live with episode 300. I have literally hundreds of episodes of this podcast, and some of them have been repurposed, but a lot of them haven't. I can go through and I can utilize that content for a lot of things. An example, now with this show immediately after I hit done and export on the recording for this, and it goes into my website and all of that ... or I'm sorry, it goes into iTunes and it's all set. I also get a transcription made, I use Rev.com to create my transcripts. Then that transcript, with a couple of edits for clarity, go right into the show notes. There is 2 ways to consume this content. Moving forward when I get back into doing regular Facebook lives now that we're settled here in California, we're going to be re-purposing that into podcast episodes, we're going to be re-purposing that into YouTube content with transcripts. I want you to be able to consume video, audio, or that in written format if that is what you want to consume, that's how you best consume content. I want it available in every way, and then I take those transcripts and they get edited further to be guest posts. I take parts of that, and I turn it into a LinkedIn publisher post. Those publisher posts can feed back to my podcast on my website. You can also then take that and make quote graphics, and tweet-able takeaways, and everything else from 1 piece of content. All of that knowledge, all of that value, I want you to be re-purposing it, I want you to make it literally all the things. Then be sure that you're going in and you're keeping content updated. If you have added new resources, or you've talked about sort of 1 of the things you talked about in a blog post, go in and link it to the other post, go in and add some information. Keep your content fresh, keep your content updated and actionable so that people can utilize it over, and over, and over again. Then re-share it, go back to number 2 and share it over again. When I repurpose content I share all the ways I repurposed it. Pretty much all of my guest posts are also podcasts. I don't just share 1 or the other, I share both all the time using the recycle cues in eClincher. Make sure you're giving your content a lifespan it deserves. Not just the 3 days after you posted it, but forever and ever. Re-purposing it can be a great way to breathe new life into content that already exists. To recap, maximizing our content. Make sure you're creating content that your audience wants and needs, make sure you're sharing that content, and make sure you're re-purposing that content. These are the things that are going to make the difference in whether your content is content marketing, or just content that exists on the internet that no one ever sees. All right, reminder. Tuesday, we're live for episode 300. We're going to talk about 300 episodes podcasting, we're going to talk about what I got going on as far as this show and my commitment to you in the next 300 episodes, we're also going to have prizes. I'm going to be giving away some very cool stuff. Also make sure you join us live at 9:00 AM Pacific on Tuesday the 20th, September 20th, right here. Go to TheStaceyHarris.com/Episode300 and you can get an email reminder to join us. If you have any questions, best place to ask questions is inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. Let me know in the comments on the show notes. I will see you on Tuesday live. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Episode 300 Invite Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 298 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Hello, hello, 298, here we are, and we're going to talk a little bit about if you're actually marketing on social media or if maybe you're just spending a lot of time on social media which, as a heads up, not the same thing. I want to dive in on this because I've been having a lot of conversations with people through consulting calls and networking things and this has been coming up for probably the last 6 or 8 months, where people will tell me that they're spending a lot of time on social and they're just not seeing results. They spend hours everyday in Facebook groups and on Twitter and on Facebook, or the really common one right now is Facebook and LinkedIn. "I was spending tonnes of time on LinkedIn, but I'm just not seeing results." I asked them some questions. I say, "Well, what groups are you spending time in? What kind of content are you posting? What your analytics telling you about the content? How's it be reacted to? How's it being engaged with? How's it being seen? What networks are driving traffic back to your site?" They go, "Well, I can't think of any specific groups," or, "I'm in this group, and this group and this group, but I don't actually post that much in those ones." They can't tell me what information they're getting from their analytics because they're not getting any information from their analytics because they're not posting content consistently and if they are posting even irregularly, they're not checking their numbers. They can't tell me anything they're actually doing on LinkedIn, any people they're engaging with or connecting with, the kind of connections and conversations they're trying to have, and that tells me that they're not actually using these tools to market. What's happening is they're lurking. They're reading a lot of posts, they're scrolling a lot, and scrolling is the enemy because what happens is it's like winding a clock. You're just moving time. You're not actually doing anything productive, and that's why I want you to do a few things differently with your social media time, and that's what we're going to break down today, and these are hints that I've given you guys some of them before. We're going to look at them a little differently today, but when you do these things, it gives you a clear course of action to follow.   It's all going to start with doing things like building a social media strategy, knowing where you're spending time, and then where within that channel you're spending time, what kind of content you're posting, who you're talking to. All of that's going to come from your social media strategy and I definitely encourage you to take a step back and build one of those if you haven't yet, but I want to talk more today about the tactile, spending your time on social, tracking it, using it wisely, and really making it work for you because, and I know you've heard me say this before, there is absolutely 1 finite resource for me. I cannot produce more time. I can make more money, I can meet new people, I can get new clients, I can find new people to support me, I can expand my team, I can outsource new things to contractors and automate things. I cannot actually produce more hours in my day. I can't even produce more seconds in my day, so I am ridiculously conscientious about how I spend my time. When I feel like I am wasting time, that will drive me crazy faster than anything else because I only get so much in the day, especially when you're somebody who like me, is very intentional about not working all of the time, who is very specific about what hours I want to work and when I don't want to be working, because I don't want to go down that rabbit hole that I was early in my business, working crazy, obscene long days, and I realized in going through that, the reason I was doing that sometimes was because I was not using the time throughout the day very wisely. That's why I'm so specific about how I spend my time and there are definitely times where I'm better at this than others, which is the other part of the reason I'm sharing this episode today. If you're somebody who's hearing me say these things and they're like, "Absolutely. I'm so protective of my time. I'm not wasting time anywhere," yet you can think about to the last couple of weeks or the last couple of months, I know this is true for me, where you're like, "Oh, I probably could have been more productive then. I probably could have been more productive today. I could probably be more productive right now," then keep listening, because here's the deal. This is one of those muscles that we have to keep exercising. I just recently in the last couple weeks, started looking at a new way to track what I'm doing everyday and tracking my time and my tasks, and I went back to looking at my default calendar and when I did things, because I needed to tighten this up again. Hang with me through these things that we're going to talk about today because they're absolutely going to change how you spend your time on social. Okay? Number 1, what exactly is in your social media foundation? Knowing what needs to be in that foundation, and taking a step back in case you haven't heard me talking about social media foundations before, social media foundations are the things that have to go out. Your content, your promo, your upcoming events, your webinars, your opt-ins, your curated content from other sources. It's just stuff that has to go out every single week, and if you don't know what's in that list, it's going to get really hard for you to batch task that because you're going to be all over the place. You're going to be pulling things from here, pulling things from there, doing a little of this, doing a little of that. The very thing I want you to do is get really clear on what goes in your social media foundation because that is going to be the first thing we're actually going to put on our calendar and schedule time for. Sit down and think about how your foundation is created. For example, we have 2 episodes of this show that go out every single week. Right now, it's Tuesdays and Fridays. It's been that for a while, most of the last 298 episodes. I know that every week those 2 episodes need to go out, so I make sure that those get scheduled. Now, in full disclosure, I don't do that. Charles, who is my right hand here at The Stacey Harris, he does that. Maybe you have a VA doing it, maybe you have an admin in your office that does it, maybe you have your high school kid do it, I don't know. Maybe you do it, however it gets done. You have to know that that content's going out, and when it's going out. For example, I know that that goes out once the day of the episode goes live on Facebook, I know it goes out on Google Plus and LinkedIn, I also know it goes out everyday for 7 days for a new episode on Twitter. All that's actually written out in not just my big strategy document, but in a quick sheet social media doc. Anybody who joins the team can see exactly what needs to happen with the foundation. Number 2, we have recycled content, meaning the last 297 episodes before this one, and that is not to mention the 100ish, 75ish maybe episodes we did of "Hit The Mic TV," blog content, guest content I've done on other sites. All of that goes in queues, and we use eClincher so we can actually build queues that recycle the content. That way, they can go out automatically. We don't have to update that every week. That takes a little bit of the time we have to spend putting in that foundation, but we know what frequency that's scheduled for, and again, it's in our quick sheet for the foundation, knowing exactly what needs to go out in that foundation, because those new episodes need to get added to that queue. Next up, I know how much curated content goes to each source, so again, this is in that quick sheet. I do 2 episodes a day for Facebook, or 3 pieces for LinkedIn, or whatever it is in your strategy. Put that into your quick sheet. Then, the last piece is any additional promo. I've got some opt-in promo and backstage promo that goes in, again, a recycled queue using eClincher so that we don't have to fill that up. Then, I've got a couple of pieces that get added in when there's something going on, whether maybe I'm a part of an online summit, or I'm speaking at a conference, or I've got an event going on, or I'm doing a webinar, or we're doing an especially big membership push, or maybe we've got SocialPro launching, whatever it is, we have space for that in the foundation, and again, all of this is in a quick sheet, so I want you to take a step back and realize exactly what needs to go in your social media foundation, and then you're going to do part 2 of this first one, which is schedule that. I suggest starting with 2 hours a week. If you want to put in a little elbow room, do 3 hours. As you get more comfortable doing it, you will get faster, but you need to make sure this is actually on your calendar. Marie Forleo says this and I really, really love it. If it's not on your calendar, it's not real. If it's not scheduled, it's not real. For me, that's ridiculously true because there's always going to be something else that's coming to grab your attention. There's always going to be something else that's going, "Oh, I'm an emergency. Come pay attention to me," and rarely are these things actually emergencies, but they are shiny objects, they are attention pullers. As my friend, Brandy Lawson over at TekGrl.com says, it's a squirrel moment. "Squirrel!," and it'll pull you away. However, if you come back to your calendar and you know that Monday from 3 to 5, this is what you do, then awesome. Monday, from 3 to 5, this is what you do. It will become habit. Figure out what that time is, put it on your calendar, and treat it like a client. Give it the same priority, the same importance, the same intentionality that you would give your client work, because if you don't do that, if you skip over this, you will not have client work at the same maybe consistency as you currently do, or maybe you're already struggling with that consistency and you'd like to see that consistency happen. Continually, consistent marketing, quality marketing, that gets you there. This is a key part of it. It's a huge component to that. So, outline exactly what's in that social media foundation, build a quick sheet that outlines it, and then schedule it, and then actually doing it, because FYI, listening to this episode, not going to change anything. Only if you go take action on what I'm talking about on this episode will you see change. Part 2, networking on social. The stuff that's got to happen day in, day out. Figure out those 2 primary networks I've talked about in the past. Again, this is going to go back to that strategy you've already built. They get time on your calendar every single day. 15 minute chunks of time. Not an hour, not 2 hours, 15 minute chunks of time. Depending on what network it is, depending on what your needs are, what your level of involvement is, how many is gig to be up to you. I do 4 to 6 per day, so an hour to an hour and a 1/2 on social. These, again, go on the calendar. You're going to schedule these again because if it's not on the calendar, it's not real. Actually schedule these in on your calendar. Again, 15 minute chunks of time. I am not asking you to take an hour out of the middle of your day. I'm asking for 15 minutes here, and 15 minutes there, and you're going to assign these things specific tasks, so maybe it's respond to people on Twitter, maybe it's send LinkedIn invitations, maybe it's respond to LinkedIn invitations, maybe it's engage in a LinkedIn group, maybe it's answer questions in a specific Facebook group, and then you're gig to go in and do those things. Now, the tasks you assign, I don't want it to be "Check Twitter." I don't want it to be, "Look at Facebook groups," because that's going to lead to scrolling. I want something specific and actionable. "Post question in 'Hit The Mic Backstage.' Post question in my private community," whatever your Facebook group is. "Answer questions, respond to 5 posts in XYZ group." Knowing exactly how you're spending that 15 minutes. Give that 15 minutes a goal, because now you're going to go from scrolling and looking for something to do on social to knowing exactly where you're going and exactly what you're executing on. When you know exactly what you're doing and exactly what you're executing on, it's really easy when you're done to see whether that was done or not. When you say, "Oh, I've got 15 minutes of Facebook time," there's nothing to say, "Okay, this is what I did with this time, and now I can measure these results." There's no way to check in on that. When you say, "I'm going to answer 5 questions in my Facebook group, my free Facebook group that I have," it's really, really easy to go, "Yep, I answered 5 questions. Here's the resulting conversations, here's what happened with those 5 interactions. Here's how those relationships moved forward." There is a clarity that comes from that specific task, that comes from knowing exactly what it is you're executing on, okay? That's what I want you to do. I really, really challenge you to take action on this episode. Right now, stop what you're doing, unless it's driving. Stop what you're doing, and actually say, "This is when I'm going to execute on building my 1 sheet, scheduling my social time, scheduling my daily social interaction time, and then do that. Then, let me know, okay? Here's some accountability. I want you to reach out to me. Tell me that you've done this. Tell me that you're going to do this. I will check, okay? Let me know. Go over to the Facebook page, or Twitter. I You'll really find me anywhere at TheStaceyHarris, okay? Check in because I want to see action on this episode. This one is one of those ones that's newly a good episode if you guys do stuff with it, all right? Speaking of good episodes, next Tuesday, the big 300. I'm excited, I won't lie. I'm going to do a live show. We're going to talk about podcasting lessons, we're going to talk about what's going on in social right now, we're going to talk about all sorts of cool stuff. If you want to find out when and get an email reminder, and have the first crack at some prizes that we're going to be giving away, yes prizes, prizes, free stuff, come hang out. Go on over to TheStaceyHarris.com/episode300 and you will find a link to submit your email address and let me know that you want a reminder. I will send you a reminder and say, "Hey, we're going to be live. Come join us." Then, we'll be live on that same page next Tuesday, September 20th, at 9am Pacific Time, which makes it 12 Eastern. I had to do the math in my head real quick. Join us. It's going to be a really good time. 300 episodes, just about 3 years. I think technically October or November is 3 years of this show, but 300 episodes, that's nuts. I will see you there. Join me live. Thanks for listening. I will see you on Friday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Sit down 1 on 1 with The Stacey Harris Episode 300 Invite Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 297 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. All right guys, 297. We're going to talk about something that I feel like a lot of social media people are afraid to talk about, and that's the three things you must know about hating your social media. Sadly, many of you e-mail me and tweet me and send me notes on Facebook and things like that, and let me know you hate social media, and you hate doing it, and you hate everything about using it at as a marketing tool. I want to take a look at that, and tell you what you can do to make it better, maybe let you off the hook on a couple of things, and really establish the idea in your mind that you can like your social media. It can be cool. It can be great. It can be fantastic. It can be powerful. It can be connected. It can be engaging. For as long as you hate it, your audience is probably going to feel that you hate it, which is not generally something we tend to want to engage in in any way, shape, or form. That's why I want to talk about the three things you must know about hating your social media. Let's start with this. Number one thing you must know: Take a step back. I want you to really look at your social media objectively, and that's going to mean turning off your computer and stepping back and really thinking about a couple of things. One, what do you hate about your social media? Don't just tell me you hate doing it. Don't just tell me you hate Facebook. Tell me what it is that rubs you the wrong way when it comes to social media. Is it a lack of engagement? It is that you feel like it's not working? Is it that you feel like you're doing it all the time? What is it specifically? I want you to actually write this down. What do you hate about your social media? Then, I want you to tell me what you love about your social media. Is it that it's connected you to really amazing people? Is it that it's a great tool to help you grow your business? Is it that you just super love Snapchat like me? What is it that you love about your social media? Write down both of those things, love and hate, because that's going to give you a really clear picture of where maybe some changes need to be made. That's what we're going to talk about step two, so I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but once you have that brain dumped out you will probably feel better just instantaneously because you're not going to be twisting yourself about. You're not going to be twisting around this idea that it's this thing you have to do, and it's this thing you hate, because now you know exactly what you hate about it and exactly what you love about it. We can make less of what you hate, and more of what you love. The next thing I want you to do as far as stepping back is really remember why you're doing this. I don't mean, "Oh, because it helps me get clients." Why do you want to get more clients? What change are you trying to make in the world? What impact are you trying to have on people's lives? What freedom are you trying to create in your own life? What are your revenue goals? What do those goals mean for you and your life and your family and your business? Think about your why's, your big picture stuff, and then go back to that list of things you love and hate and think about the things that you could more of on the love list and think about the things maybe you could mitigate on the hate list to make it worth it. Or, to step away from completely. Then, I want you to turn your computer back on, and I want you to take a really honest look at your numbers. What networks are you on? Write those all down, and then tell me what's happening on each of those networks. By me, I mean the piece of paper you're writing all this down on. What are your Facebook numbers look like? What are your Twitter numbers look like? How many people are engaging? What clients can you connect with conversations that happened on Twitter or Instagram or whatever? Where can you see your funnel growing because of Facebook ads or whatever it is? Think about what's working in social media, because that's where we want to focus our energy. That's where we want to create more of that, and once we know what that is, it makes it really easy for us to dissect it. Now, the reason I want you to start with stepping back is this: Most people who tell me they hate their social media hate it because they don't actually know what's happening. They feel like they're throwing a ton of time and or a ton of money at something that's just not working. When they step back and they look at what they love and what they hate and really why they're doing it, and then they look at their numbers, which is something, unfortunately, almost none of you are actually doing, you can see the impact it's actually having as far as as getting you to your goals. Or, you can get a really frank look at the fact that it's not working, and you can figure out how to change that. All right? That's what I want you to do first is I want you to take that step back. The second thing I want you to do is I want you to focus. Again, a lot of the people who tell me they hate their social media are trying to do one major thing wrong, and that's be everything all the time in all the places. That is really hard to keep up, and it's really hard to do successfully on all fronts. Instead, I want you to go with the two and two method. Meaning, you have two primary networks, and you have two secondary networks. That's it. Again, two primary networks. This is where you're going spend your time each and every day. This is going to get priority attention. These are going to be your bread and butter as far as community and connections and engagement and content. Then, two secondary networks. Support networks. Maybe they support your brand. Maybe they are networks you're trying out. You want to see how they fit. Maybe they're networks you really love but maybe you don't have a massive audience yet, i.e. Snapchat. For me, anyways. What is it? Two primaries and two secondaries. I want you to focus all of your energy there. Stop trying to be on every single network that pops up. Sometimes chasing the next thing just causes us to leave the thing that's working. That's not to say that you're not going to have to change and evolve, and that new networks don't have any credibility, but let's not all of our monkeys in the new basket, okay? Let's keep some of your monkeys in the baskets that they like. I don't know why we have monkeys in baskets. I am not the metaphor queen. If you listen to "Your Biz BFF", the podcast I do with my co-host and business partner Brandy Lawson you know this, but monkeys in baskets is what we're going with guys. Back on track, speaking of focus, I want you to focus on, again, those two primary networks and those two secondary networks. In addition to that, I want you to have focused social media time. Again, a lot of what I hear from people who tell me they hate their social media is that it's a time suck. That they're spending all of this time on Facebook. I always really love when clients tell me "I spent three hours yesterday on Facebook, and I don't know what I did." Then I go and look, and I don't any comments. I don't see any posts. I don't see any engagement in groups. I don't see any activity at all. That's because they spent three hours lurking and clicking and not engaging. I want you to have scheduled social media time with focused tasks. Meaning, you're going to say I've got two hours a day to do my content curation and scheduling of the foundation for the week. Then, each of the rest of the week I have two, three, maybe four fifteen minute chunks of time, and each of those chunks of time have a very specific task. That task may be to engage on your page. That may be to re-tweet. That may be to respond to messages. That maybe to answers questions in a group. Whatever it is, it's focused time to do a specific task. That way, you really start to see the impact each task is having on your core following, your engagement, and your bottom line. That's what really matters, right? Again, focused time in focused places. We're not being everything all the time to all the people everywhere. No. We're spending the right time in the right places presenting the right brand and answering the right questions for the right people. It's as simple as that. I know it's not that simple, but it really is simple. Once you embrace the narrowing, you will see growth. The third thing I want to talk about that might help you not hate your social media anymore. Outsourcing. Now, outsourcing can look like a lot of different things. It doesn't have you be you hand over a fat load of money and the entirety of your social media every month. There are so many other options. You can hire somebody who, like me, is a strategist and does strategy consulting where you work with someone and they build you a strategy, and you, and possibly your team, go and implement. You can book a one-off social media coaching session with someone like me or someone else that does a one hour coaching and you work through strategy. You work through some of your blog, some content suggestions, how can we make this better? Maybe they review your numbers and give you some feedback. I have a lot of clients actually who have started doing monthly one hour calls with me. Once a month, we sit down for an hour, and we do an honest evaluation of their social media. They have somebody who runs their social media alongside them, or in some cases they're DIYers and they're doing their social media on their own, but it helps them to sit down with a strategist once a month and say, "Here's where I'm at. Here's where I want to be. What can we do differently? Here's what I'm loving." In a lot of cases they start with, "This is what I'm hating. How do we fix this?" That's a really good way for you to outsource your social media or outsource parts of your social media and get some external feedback and get some external advice on what needs to change. Again, this doesn't have to look like one thing. It can look like lots of things. Maybe it's you outsource just the foundation part, and you handle the engagement. That's what a lot of our management clients really like to do is we take care of the boring stuff, the stuff that has to go out, the content curation and things like that, and then they handle the part where they're talking to their community and they're building relationships and they're having a good time doing that. That's the part they like, but it gets possible when you have a really solid foundation. Or, you could be talking to somebody who's full on handling everything. They're doing all of your social media management. That's another outsource option that comes in at a range of price ranges and it comes in a range of skillsets. Interview a lot of people. If they're not willing to answer every single one of your questions, run immediately in the other direction. If they're not ever willing to explain anything to you, run immediately in the other direction. In some cases, it comes down to maybe hiring a strategist to help you find a manager who can execute the strategy they've built for you. Again, this can look like any combination of things that works for you and your budget, but I encourage you to get some outside support. If you just hate your social media right now, you're just frustrated with it and it's not doing what you want and you don't like it and you have to see a change, book a coaching session. There's so much we can accomplish in an hour, and sometimes just talking to somebody for an hour and getting some positive feedback and getting really honest about what's working and what's not working and where you need to be focusing and how you're wasting your time and getting some outside perspective on that can make a massive difference. Book a one-on-one session with me or with someone else and get that clarity so that you know what your next steps are. Again, this doesn't have to be a huge time investment. It doesn't have to be a huge financial investment. It just has to be you moving forward in a positive space with your social because, trust me, for as long as you hate it, your audience will feel it, and it will continue to not work. That is just going to increase your frustration, not your bottom line. Okay? All right. That is episode 297. In case you don't get the e-mails every Tuesday, which you totally should, I have big news. Episode 300 is coming up. It is just a few episodes away now. A little less than a week. It's a week from Tuesday actually. We're going to do a live episode for episode 300 where I will be also unveiling the brand new Hit the Mic Backstage site and membership community for ... Well, the membership community's not brand new, but the membership site where all of the stuff lives is going to have a brand new look. Come check that. Head over to TheStaceyHarris.com/episode300, and you will see the invite page so that I can e-mail you a little reminder and let you know that we're going to be live.    Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Sit down 1 on 1 with The Stacey Harris Episode 300 Invite Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 296 of Hit the Mic with the Stacey Harris. Today I'm answering, possibly one of the most common Facebook ads questions. Which is how much should I be spending? There are a lot of questions around setting a Facebook ads budget and how much you should be spending and how often you should be spending it and how long you should be running ads for. Those are the 3 questions we're going to answer today. We're going to start with setting your budget and what that budget means. We're going to talk about how often to be running the same ads and we're going to wrap it up by talking about your overall budget. How often you're going to be running ads from a budget of a monthly perspective or annually and sort of that perspective. Let's jump right in.   I want to start by talking about setting your ads budget and what that budget means. There really isn't any sort of magical number that your ads budget needs to be. You can a $50 ads budget, you could have a $50,000 ads budget. What's really relevant is how you work with that budget and what that budget means for things like targeting and frequency and placement. Also realizing that during different times your Facebook ads budget may go a little further or maybe not quite as far as you'd hoped. Really be aware of what your budget needs. In this section I want to talk about an ads budget for a campaign. I have a couple of things that I want you to know when you're setting your ads budget. A, set your budget before you do anything else. Realize how much you are willing to invest in this Facebook ad. If it's $100, great. If it's $500, fantastic. If that's $5,000, whohoo for you. What it needs to be though is set, it needs to be known how much you're going to spend on this campaign. Once you've set that ads budget you need to stick with that ads budget. Let's say you have a smaller budget, maybe you have $100 or $200 to spend on a list building campaign. A webinar or driving traffic through an opt in or a piece of content or whatever but the goal is list building. You have, let's say $200, to spend. $200 is a smaller budget, it may feel huge to you and that's okay but it is, in the grand scheme of Facebook ads, a smaller ad budget. It doesn't mean that it's impossible, it doesn't mean that you won't see results but you're likely not going to get 2,000 new people on your email listing from spending $200 on Facebook ads. Be aware of that, set your expectations. Next, realize that with a smaller ad budget you really want to make sure that you're being really really clear on who you're targeting. You want that targeting to be pretty specific because you don't want to be spending money on ads that are not sitting in front of the right people. Not getting seen by the people who you want to be clicking and signing up for your email list. Know your targeting. The smaller your budget the less room you have for creative targeting. You want to be really really targeted so you know you're talking to the right people. Next, you really want to make sure that you're setting your campaign up so it is a daily budget instead of a lifetime budget. This can really impact how you're positioned in the feed and the priority you get. I have found that daily budgets just seem to spend better, spend more consistently and get placement more consistently. I don't have any sort of information from Facebook saying this is true. They're really really tight lipped about what the algorithm is. I'm just saying, from testing, I've found that a daily budget that equals out to a lifetime budget works a lot easier. Let's say you have a $200 ad budget, maybe you're spending $20 a day for 10 days or maybe you're spending $100 a day for 2 days. However it is you want to parse that out. Setting a daily budget is going to be really important. You want to make sure you have your targeting really tight and you want to make sure your budget is set per day. Next, I really want you to factor in your positioning. Where are you putting them? Right side bar ads on Facebook tend to be less effective. When I'm dealing with a small budget, and even when I'm dealing with a larger budget to be honest with you, I don't tend to put ads over there because I don't see a return on those ad dollar investments at the same level I do as a news feed ad. On the flip side of that, I have found a lot of success with Instagram ads and so I'll put a little more of my budget into an Instagram ad. Pay attention to where you're seeing success and make sure you're separating out where positioning so you can turn off parts of your ad if they're just not working as effectively and you can move that budget around if you need to. again, there's not really a magical number but it is critical that you know your budget and you account for it when you are factoring in positioning, targeting and how you're actually going to spend the budget. Again, not a magical number. There's a lot of people saying you have to be able to spend $10,000 before you should even talk about Facebook ads and that's crap. Total utter crap. What I want you to do instead is realize that whatever budget you have, and this is the magic of Facebook ads, whatever budget you have, you can see success with Facebook. You're not going to see the massive success somebody with at $10,000 budget is going to see in your first campaign if you've got a $1,000 budget or a $100 budget but you can still totally see some success. Quite frankly, if you're just getting started with Facebook ads, you've never ever ever run one and your DIYing it, don't go spending $10,000 because likely a lot of the return on your first Facebook ad investment will be learning, will be education, will be paid training. You will learn a lot about your ads, your audience and your goals in the future, in that first campaign. Don't come out of the gate wanting to spend 10 grand. It's not an effective use of that 10 grand. Number 2, how long should ads be running for? This is one of those questions I get a lot and I want to bring this up because there's 2 factors. A, it's going to go back to what your budget is and how much you can spend. Also, think about the people on the receiving end. If you are somebody who's got a really tight target, a really niched area, likely they're going to see your ads over and over and over again. If you have 1 ad you run for 3 months and yes, I have seen this happen from some major players by the way, you're going to get reported as spam, you're going to get hidden and that's because people are sick of seeing the same post. You do want to make sure you're changing it up, no matter what your budget is. I generally let ads run no more than 7 days and then I may run an ad to the exact same people with the exact same goal but the copy and or the graphic, generally speaking the graphic, is definitely changed but often I'll change the copy as well. It's different and that's because sometimes that 2nd, that follow up ad if you will, will be more effective because I've kind of [inaudible 00:08:16] them with that first ad. Sometimes I'll get people to sign up again because they don't realize it's the same thing which is weird by the way. That happens occasionally with webinars or they'll have forgotten they signed up, it's a whole thing.  I try and change it up, no more than 7 days. Also realize that, from a budget perspective, if you're talking about running a new ad every week to your evergreen opt in, maybe you run a challenge or you've got a free eBook, you need to be setting a secondary budget. You need to be setting not just a campaign budget but you also need to be aware, for yourself, of what your monthly ad budget is. This is something that doesn't get talked about enough when it comes to talking about budgets. It's not just that campaign budget that you need to worry about. We talk about, okay, well I'm running this ad campaign for 14 days and I'm going to spend $1,000. Fantastic. I also boosted this post for $20 and this post for $20 and this post for $20, oh, and these other 2 posts. Now I've spent $1,100 this month and you know what, I actually want to run a 2nd campaign the 2nd 2 weeks of the month that is targeting people who clicked but didn't buy, a retargeting campaign. I'm going to give that ad campaign another $500.  Now you've spent $1,600, not the $1,000 that you initially intended to spend. Realize, when you go out to set your budget, that you need to have a line in your monthly budget that says, this is what I spent on Facebook ads. This is the maximum that I spent on Facebook ads. You can actually go in and set a limit on your account of how much you can spend on Facebook if you want to make sure. Maybe you have somebody helping or maybe you don't very good self control when it comes to hitting that boost button which I have actually heard from clients. You can actually set a cap so it won't spend any more than that cap. You can actually set that, I should say. Figure out what your monthly budget is, as well as your campaign budget, and that's going to impact the length of time or how many different kinds of ads you create. It really comes down to knowing how much you're going to spend, sticking to it, knowing your audience and knowing your goals. That's how you're going to maximize any ad budget. Whether it's $100, $1,000, $100,000. It really is going to be maximized by knowing the strategic stuff first and then also factoring in that your ad alone is not the savior or the fault point if your ad campaign is not successful. It may be what came after, it may be the landing page, it may be the funnel they're going into, it may be the follow up that's happening. There are a lot of moving pieces so make sure you are aware of all of them, don't just say Facebook ads don't work because you ran a Facebook ad campaign and no one signed up. Pay attention. Especially if you're seeing a lot of clicks to a landing page and the landing page isn't working, that is not the fault of the ad. That's the fault of the landing page. If you have any questions when it comes to Facebook ads, head over to TheStaceyHarris.com. That is where you can get a Facebook ads checklist, so all the things you need to be going through before you build your Facebook ads and also, a guide to staying on Facebook's good side. This is a totally free bundle but check it out. Also, if you go to the show notes page for this episode you'll see a link at the bottom of the show notes to sign up for that as well. If you really are ready to take this to the next level, be sure to join us in Hit the Mic Backstage because inside Hit the Mic Backstage we have an entire Facebook program which has an entire module around Facebook ads and how to build them. We've also got a couple of additional Facebook ads trainings. Plus, there's a Facebook group where you can ask me questions about your Facebook ads which is killer. I will see you guys Friday. Bye.    Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

All right, guys. 287. In this episode we're going to talk about the 3 things you need to know about social media in August of 2016 because today is August 5th, 2016, the very first Friday in August. There are some things happening. I know that social media is one of those things that can feel incredibly difficult to keep up with. It can feel like it's changing all the time and there's new services and there's new opportunities from old services and there's new networks and there's new things on old networks. It can be really overwhelming, but not if you have a go to resource and that's why I built this show and that's why I built Hit the Mic Backstage, the membership community. It's so that you could have a resource. In the spirit of that, we're going to be that resource today. We're going to talk about the 3 things I really want you to be paying attention to in August. Not all the things, just the 3 things that I'd like to see you paying attention to right now.   Let's get started with the biggest news right now that you're probably hearing about in all the places, Instagram stories. There are a few schools of thought when it comes to Instagram stories. Some Snapchat lovers are quite angry about Instagram stories, saying that it's a total rip off. Some are saying, "I didn't really want to do Snapchat, but now I can get that same purpose happening in a network I'm already using." Then there's people like me who are like, "Awesome. Look how Snapchat is being taken seriously as a competitor and they're seeing that this is really working and so there's making other option to do it. That's really cool." I fall in that camp. I think Instagram stories are very cool. I am still absolutely using Snapchat, of course it's only be a couple days. I don't see myself stopping using Snapchat because I do have different connections on Snapchat than I do on Instagram. However, much like we saw with something like a Meerkat and a Periscope, where Meerkat we had to build a new audience and that took a lot of effort, and where Periscope we already had our Twitter audience built in, or with Facebook Live where we already see we have our Facebook audience built in. I think that Instagram is going to be a great option for those people who were not feeling Snapchat, were not wanting to go over there, were not wanting to build an audience some place else. I will absolutely still be using Snapchat because, again, I have an audience there, but for a lot of my clients that I've talked to already about this who are just starting to get into the idea of maybe doing Snapchat or who have started Snapchat very loosely in the last couple of days and they have really sold Instagram audiences already, I'm saying, "Hey. Let's use Instagram stories." Again, I don't think that Instagram is going to be a Snapchat killer. I think that we've seen a lot of innovation coming out of Snapchat in the last honestly 8 months to a year. We've seen them make massive, massive changes to the user interface. We've seen them make massive, massive changes to things like how the service works, like introducing memories. I think we're going to see more of that innovation come as a response to this. We're seeing them partner with Bitmoji. I was thinking about it earlier, that's the one thing that I really miss in Instagram stories is I loved Bitmjoi integration. It's a really fun way to personalize a story with some fun graphics. I don't think this is going to be the killer that maybe people are thinking it is right now. I think we're going to see Snapchat hammer back in a really cool way, which the social media nerd in me is very excited to see. Amy Porterfield recently talked on a Facebook Live about Instagram stories and how she couldn't get into Snapchat, she never felt comfortable there, but she's really excited to use Instagram stories and then I watched one of her Instagram stories where she did a behind the scenes in her office. The exact kind of content I would expect to see from her on Snapchat, but it was an environment she was already comfortable in and she made a really great point in that Facebook Live. Sometimes as business owners, we have to make decisions and for you, it may be the decision of, what do you have the capacity to take in? Where are you comfortable spending your time? Where have you built your audience? Where is your audience responding to? Show up there. That's what's most important. I'm a big proponent of not trying to be all the places all the time. Instead, be in the right places at the right time. That's going to get you a lot further a lot faster. Yes, Instagram stories, amazingly cool, but I don't necessarily think they're going to be the end of Snapchat. If you want to see more about Instagram stories, I did a brief talk about Instagram stories on Facebook Live yesterday. I will link to that in the show notes so you can watch that if you'd like to watch the replay. If you want to dive even deeper, there's going to be a Instagram stories update to the Instagram training page inside of Hit the Mic Backstage next week, because it's only the 5th. Next week. You'll see that the week of the 8th. That's just a really great example of when something happens and so there's a bonus training in the community. Be sure to check that out, HittheMicBackstage.com. Number 2. We talked about Instagram stories, let's move to number 2. Facebook page changes. Some of you may be seeing a change to your Facebook page. Here's the thing. Not everybody can see it yet. This some things Facebook has been rolling out and testing for quite a while now. I think my first Backstage member probably mentioned that they had it 4, 5, maybe even 6 months ago. I just got the new layout. They're doing it a little differently. They're rolling it out by user and not by page so, for example, I have it now so all of the pages I see are now in this new format versus some pages being in the new format and some pages being in the old format, which I think is a really smart way to roll it out because, from a user perspective, I don't have to go back and forth between the way pages look. However, I really, really, really am excited for them to roll this out for everybody because I think the new page layout looks so much better. If you head over to Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris, that's my page, you'll see a snapshot of what it looks like now for those of you who don't yet have it. I'm hoping that they continue this roll out and they maybe speed up this roll out, however I appreciate that they do it at the pace that they do it at because there are a lot of users to roll it out to, but I'm really excited for you guys to see it. It looks amazing. It looks so much better. I'm really excited about this new change. It is going to mean some changes in your graphic sizes when it comes to your cover images and the way things are placed, but we also get a much bigger call to action button now. It's right under the cover photo and it's quite bit and it's quite blue and it's actually stands out which I really like. Our profile images are no longer going to sit on top of our cover image. We now have a round circle profile image that sits just to the left of the cover image. That side bar that you see on the right currently is now over on the left so where you see your page like and your page information and your videos and all that stuff is now on the right side of the page, so your eye goes right to content, which I really think is going to think a big, big help as far as getting people engaged with content on the page when they visit the page. Again, if you head over to Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris, I will have a snapshot over on the Facebook page of what it looks like right now for those of you who maybe have not seen it roll out to you yet. Cool. All right. Let's wrap it up with number 3. Number 3 is not a change or a new network or anything like that. In fact, it's really all about planning. I know a lot of you listening are service-based businesses and a fair amount of people listening are product-based businesses and all of you need to plan for one thing, the holidays. The time to plan for the holidays is not during the holidays. The time to make those plans is now. Especially if you're in a product-based business that perks up at the holiday season, maybe you're selling gifts or calendars or ornaments or holiday fare or whatever it is, the time to be planning what that needs to look like is right now. Figuring out your ad strategy, figuring out your budgets, figuring out your creative for your ads, figuring out your content. Make sure that you are taking some time to figure out what the marketing needs to look like through the holidays now. I think it's really easy to want to be in the moment and stay like, "I'll worry about that. It's so far away. It's only August," but, dude, it's August and, in a lot of cases, you're seeing people who are already starting their holiday shopping. You need to be on top of what's happening for your customer base. Are they people who are early shoppers? I know a couple of you who listen to this, because you've emailed me, create custom gifts, so custom jewelry, or etched glass, or paintings, those kind of things that people very commonly give as gifts. I'm guessing you need those to be ordered in the next several months, not in December. Now is the time to get your audience primed. Maybe they're not somebody who usually shops early, but they need to be ordering early from you. Let them know that. Start talking about it in your content. Start talking about that in your social. In a big, big way, you need to be planning what your social media's going to look like over the holidays. What needs to go out, what doesn't need to go out, what's going to be your ads focus. I know there are at least a couple of you where this is your big time of year. This is your big income generation time. Make sure you're taking advantage of that and you have built out your marketing plan like you would for any other launch. For another section of the audience who may be a little more like me where you slow down over the holidays, you also need to plan for that. I've talked about it a lot on this show. A lot of people have heard me talk about this. I take December off, so my content and my social and all of that stuff, it doesn't stop, but it needs to be done before we get to December so I'm looking at that. What needs to be done for me in the next few months to make sure that my business can maintain and even grow while I'm not working, or at least not working very much. That's the holiday planning I'm doing right now. What content needs to be created? What social needs to be created? What stuff needs to be scheduled? Are we going to have any automated stuff happening as far as challenges that are all through automation in my email service? What's going to be happening? How am I still going to continue to drive traffic to Hit the Mic Backstage? I also know that Hit the Mic Backstage does not tend to be a big Christmas gift, although that would be super cool. Super cool Christmas gift to give to your team members or your biz bff. I'm just saying, but I also know that that means I don't want to be trying to run Facebook ads up against everybody and their brother trying to sell Santa Hats, so I turn my ads off. That also means that I would rather have a big October November before that December ads blitz, but really it starts in November, where my cost per click and my cost per conversion goes way, way up. I have to figure that out right now because that stuff's going to need to be rolling very shortly. Whether you are somebody who gets really busy during the holidays or you're somebody who goes completely quiet during the holidays, the time to figure out what needs to be done is really right now. In August, that's what I encourage you to do. Do some planning for the holidays for December and make sure that your business is set up for that lean time or that really busy time. Just to recap before we go. Number 1, Instagram stories. Be sure to come over and watch the Facebook Live where I'm talking about Instagram stories as well as join us backstage for the walkthrough of Instagram stories. Facebook changes. Head over to the Facebook page and you'll see a screenshot of what the new look is and let me know on that post if you have it yet, because I'm very curious. Number 3, holiday planning. It needs to be happening. This is the month to start figuring that stuff up. Okay? All right. I will see you very soon, on Tuesday in fact. Have a great weekend. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Facebook Live on Instagram Stories Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show Get the Facebook Ads Checklist + Guide

^^Subscribe to the Biz Chix Podcast^^It helps us get noticed by more listeners and is the best way to thank Natalie for producing this show for you!Click to Join the Biz Chix community and get access to our Private Facebook Group for female entrepreneurs and women who want to quit their day job someday. It is a place you can go to get connected and share resources.-----------------------------------------------The Social Media Summer Camp Series concludes with this 10th episode sharing Social Media Tips Curated from the Biz Chix Community and experts in the series. Check out BizChix.com/SummerCamp for every episode and the Free PDF's that were offered for many of the episodes in the series. We curated them in one place for you! Tweetable: Don't miss the Social Media Summer Camp Series hosted by @bizchixpodcast. BizChix.com/SummerCamp   Inside This Episode Social Media Quick Tips @AnnaMSpooner  how to get started in social media with when you're just starting you're business [03:17] @NikaStewart how to do social media effectively and successfully [03:57] @jeffsieh tip on repurposing contents, including audio and video [04:50] tip on repurposing graphic images [05:33] @bizchixpodcast tip on repurposing videos from Periscope; what is the time length ideal for all platforms  [05:50] Natalie's favorite tools for creating fantastic images [12:11] how to connect with influencers and the media [13:45] how to use Periscope [17:15] @4kidsactivities tip on how to grow your Facebook organically [07:39] @JoAnneFunch tip on images for social media [11:30] @vickiemaris how to pay attention to our mics and improve the mic quality for live videos [17:25] @TheStaceyHarris & @carolesanek how to set up and use Google+ [18:55] @katiekrimitsos How to use Facebook groups for your business [21:14] Resources nataliejillfitness.com The Manly Pinterest Tips Show - With Special Guest Natalie Eckdahl Productivity Tool/Tip Canva PicMonkey Wordswag Social Oomph Meet Edgar Hootsuite Katch.me BizChix Episodes mentioned in this episode Episode 70: Katie Krimitsos is the Host of the Business Women Rock! Episode 105: Google Plus with Stacey Harris Ep 138: Twitter and Social Media Expert – Nika Stewart Ep 146: LinkedIn Strategies with JoAnne Funch Ep 167: Conference Takeaways, Tips & Tools – Social Media Marketing World Ep 179: Manly Pinterest Tips and Social Media Strategy with Jeff Sieh Facebook Organic Growth by Rachel Miller and Holly Homer of Kids Activities Blog   How to connect with contributors of this episode Anna Spooner @AnnaMSpooner Nike Stewart @NikaStewart Jeff Sieh @jeffsieh Rachel Miller & Homer Holly @4kidsactivities JoAnne Funch @JoAnneFunch Vickie Maris @vickiemaris Stacey Harris @TheStaceyHarris Carol Sanek @carolesanek Katie Krimitsos @katiekrimitsos Tweetable: Great #socialmedia quick tips in the latest episode of @bizchixpodcast. BizChix.com/iTunes Tweetable: You've got to listen to one of my favorite shows @bizchixpodcast. BizChix.com/iTunes #podcast #female #entrepreneurs Thanks for listening!Don't forget to - Join the Biz Chix community and get access to our Private Facebook Group for female entrepreneurs.-----------------------------------------------BizChix.com/189 has additional information and links from this episode. BizChix.com/SummerCamp has entire series listed and free PDF's.

STACEY Harris, is a powerhouse online entrepreneur, and the woman behind TheStaceyHarris.com, helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses. Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots, Stacey, is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. See her beautiful infographic show notes, plus her top tips and advice for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs at www.TodaysLeadingWomen.com or by clicking here!

The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses.   Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.   You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris atwww.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris.

Today’s Guest The Stacey Harris is one of those fantastic online businesswoman who does a great job of really expressing her personality online. I've had her on my list to interview for some time, and I'm excited to finally have her on the show as a guest. Also, she's going to be talking about Google+, which as you may know, is my least favorite social network. Yeah, I use it and I recognize its benefits, but I'm not in love with it. And Stacey is! So listen in and learn about how you can use Google+ to amplify your business online. Plus, you'll learn why she calls herself THE Stacey Harris. Yes, I wondered about that, too. About The Stacey Harris The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses. Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris at www.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris. The best program to pitch to your audience will be The Rock Star Guide to Google+ - http://thestaceyharris.com/googleplus What You’ll Learn Exactly why Google+ is so powerful and how you can benefit from using it Why you get more visibility online from using Google+ What to do if you're convinced that your ideal connections are not on Google+ Why the ROI is greater on Google+ And finally, why it's so important to establishe yourself there now Inspiring Women in Business Marie Forleo Denise Duffield-Thomas Nathalie Lussier Nicole Longstreet Julie Cottineau from Brand Twist Amanda Shoftner from Path of Least Revision Things We Discussed Hit the Mic Hit the Mic TV Connect With Stacey Facebook Twitter Google+ [SHP 62] How to Amplify Your Business Online With Google+, with The Stacey Harris http://wp.me/p3QOiq-NI #podcast

The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses. Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris at www.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris.

After my last Google+ episode I heard from a lot of you who said Google+ is just so different from Facebook and you can't understand it. Today I'm taking that on. I'm sharing 3 ways Google+ and Facebook are similar and 3 ways they're different. The other point I want to make before you listen to today's episode is that you don't need to abandon Facebook. Your social media egss need to be in lots of network baskets. Engage in multiple places. Even though my organic views and engagement have gone down on Facebook, also I'm not dropping as many ad dollars as I did previously. It's still the number 3 traffic driver to my website. Google+ just gives us another option that we should be using to share our content and engage with our communities. Resources Rock Star Guide to Google+ Connect with Me Email me at podcast@thestaceyharris.com Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show