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Social Media Business with Carrie Wilkerson

I just went over exactly what we've learned over the past two days and an important thing to understand is a lot of folks out there you might not have. Or maybe you're working directly with your own clients on their Facebook pages. Maybe you're a freelancer or you're an entrepreneur, or maybe you just dropped out of corporate and you're using creativelive courses to build your own brand. But you want kind of to make some side income as you do that well, selling the strategies that you've learned on this Facebook course is a great way to do that. And in the next segment, we're going to focus on how you guys can build your brand and build your business by selling social media consulting. So I believe as far as audience members go, we have honor. That's doing sales of social strategies. Anyone else focused on selling social strategies to end customers? Nobody. Great, cause most of you okay, Chris, you're doing or Susan Ad, You're doing a little bit of this. Go ahead and pick up the microp...

hone and let me know what kinds of things you're selling on social or selling to your clients for their social media presence currently. Well, I'm gonna be expanding traditional consulting business with with corporate into the small business environment. So that's what I'm gonna do with this. That's then, that's great. And, you know, if you're watching round and maybe you're looking to get a job in social Media, I really want you to hear from Cindy here in a second. So I'm gonna ask Cindy to pick up the microphone and we're gonna go to her in a second because she took this judgy she learned in the earlier segments and did something last night. That was really incredible. So, Cindy, why don't you tell us a little bit about that story? Well, actually, what I'm going to do with it is I was able to land a final interview this morning and got that all scheduled just couple minutes ago. But I'm gonna go through all my notes and come up with, like, a PowerPoint presentation to discuss in my in my interview on how we can use Facebook. Better to engage with our current and also future customer and just be clear, Cindy, This was specifically an interview for a social media of social media role and related activities like email marketing at a fairly large company, right? They're not that big right now. You're gonna make him the biggest company in the world, right? Exactly. Cindy. A round of applause or taking action so fast, it's really it's really, really fantastic. So again, those of you watching right now, if you want to go in the social space, this segment is for you. And, you know, to be quite honest with you, I am fairly young. And I don't have the kind of expertise in building big businesses, especially consulting businesses like the guest does that. I'm gonna bring on stage here in a second. Now, before I do that, I want to tell you a little bit about Carrie Wilkerson before I bring her on stage. No, it was 12 years ago after she adopted two of her Children and she had to stay home and figure out how to build a brand from home while her husband was working in corporate and she she hustled. She set up this very cool office to post pictures of it on our Facebook page all the time. She's not only worked with some of the biggest names in the industry when it comes to authors, consultants and speakers. But she understands to get down in the nitty gritty. What is profit margin mean, and how do you optimize that in a sales post on Facebook? What kind of product mix should John be selling on his Facebook page, ranging from timely things to sell versus new things to sell or things that relate to current events? We talked about that in the last segment, but Carry really knows what she's talking about. Her brand is called The Barefoot Executive Guys, please help me introduce Carrie Wilkerson to this age again a long time. It's been a long, long time. Want to jump in here? This is my spot. This is your spot, guys. You really don't want to miss what Carrie is about to present. So if you're excited about learning from Kerry about how to build your own business, understanding all the economics of what that looks like and selling social media content or strategies via that business, you want to go to hell dot com ford slash Check in right now, toe. Let us know that you're ready, toe learn and in the meantime, I want a flashback to John because, John, you know, you have a chocolate business and you're from Australia were still thrilled you're here. You're doing really, really well. And you have to question and last segment about what? A cell on your Facebook page and you and carry out a good dialogue. Did you find that shaggy to be really valuable? Yeah, of course. Definitely. So what do you think you're gonna go to market with? You talk to through five specific things you could sell on your Facebook page? What do you most excited about? Selling? I was just selling the top five. But now I've changed my strategy. I'm definitely gonna put a theme product in there. So when I come closer to Christmas, I'll dio my wife doesn't beautiful hamper box. I put that at Easter. I'll do four Easter products, but still have my world famous white chocolate honey comb. So, at all different stages, I'll do it your way. Well, great. Well, guys, John, we appreciate that. All right, guys, let's jump in care. I'm gonna pass that controls over to you and let you take it away. Said no, man, ever and She's fast here. Okay, so I'm so glad to be here. I am going to correct a couple things in my bio. Please. I started my first business 16 years ago because of the birth. Theodore option of my older two kids literally became a mom overnight. Left the company the school that I was teaching for and all the other jobs that I did to become a mom. They came from a tough situation and they needed round the clock. Mom. So I didn't start a business because I was passionate about business. I didn't start a business because I have this great idea. I didn't start of business because I was a genius coder in my dorm room or dissatisfied with college life. I started a business because I needed to earn some money so I could be home with my kids. Um, it literally was that. So I'm not the girl. I don't I haven't watched all the session jet. I'm not the girl that's going to say whatever you're passionate about. Do that and you'll make a ton of money. I'm not that girl. I'm gonna say, Let's get our heads on straight. Let's worry about profit margins. Looking expenses. Let's look at what you're good at or what you have some training in and some skills in, and let's go solve some problems in the market. Fair enough. Fair enough. And I will warn you, I'm not a warm, fuzzy bunny. In case you haven't gotten that vibe yet. I am a mom of four, so I'm a little bit drill sergeant. A little bit of teacher, former to CNN says that I'm blunt, but with love, I like that. So there you see what I did there CNN that I didn't get to see how I did that. Everybody else with Forbes blah blah for stop. Well, you need a less. There you go. I've been been represented by Fox and also CNN, so the left and the right all equally recognized me. And so let's let's dive in. If you guys want Teoh, I will not just be addressing for social business because I think that business is business as solving problems of solving problems, and any time that you can exchange cash for a solution to a problem or something of value doesn't always have to be cash a Facebook page. The first thing you ask for the first currency you asked for is what, like when you're building an email list. She talk to you about building your email list, and the currency you asked for, according to Lynette, is your email address. So ah, lot of that Seth Godin would say, is based in permission to We're asking permission toe offer solutions. We're not saying Hey, I want your money. Nope, we're saying I went to help serve you in that need that you have now, Sometimes in the wine in the chocolate business that gets fuzzy because you say what? Really? I'm not solving a need for them, but you are. If they're going to be drinking anyway, they might as well be having a defining moment. But they're going to be having chocolate anyway. It might as well be the finest chocolate put together by your wife. How beautiful is that story? I hope that in yourselves copy that it's handcrafted by your wife, right? You are not asking for a sale ever. I don't care who has said what over the last two days, you're never asking for a sale you're offering to solve their problem. Can we agree on that. Everybody agree on that type in the chat box. Well, I just took over your chat box to deny. Sorry, that's kind of make sure on Twitter Facebook you use the HASHTAG, especially if you have any questions will fly through. But we have lots of time for questions we dio Okay, so let's talk a little bit about breaking the rules. You guys can tell him on stage barefoot. I work in the middle of nowhere. Texas and I've raised four kids in addition to the ones that I adopted had two more the old fashioned way. My kids range in age from 7 to 19 and I have built every business that I've built at home with the kids. Um, no fancy office, no big team. It's what I do. I break the rules. I don't do what people say I should do or what has to be done or or what's proper. I build business around my priorities in my life, and I want you to do the same. And I believe in business. Sometimes the way you get great and the way you stand out among all the noise and the static is that you break the rules. You don't do what everybody says you should do or have to do or must. Do we spend all of our middle school and teenager years trying to fit in, And then we spend our college years like trying to celebrate how different we are right? And then when we get in business were like, Well, we're like everybody else. Why aren't we doing better? Was because you're like everybody else, and if all you can compete with this price or speed of delivery, you're not going to do very well. You have to have some unique strategies and you have to be willing to break the rules. So we're going to talk a little bit about that now. Commit to drive engagement There was a movie that Kevin Costner was in that we all love Field of dreams and field of dreams. Field it. Shut up! Everyone that's not a millennial will know what I'm talking about. I'm dead serious. A movie with Kevin Costner. You familiar? Don't even know you are too hard for too was working. Teoh Field of Dreams. He has this vision. He keeps hearing this voice and what does the voice say If you build it, they will come. Unfortunately, as business owners, we believe that about our Facebook page. And we believe that about our website, right? It's just like saying I built my house in the neighborhood. Why isn't anybody showing up for lunch? Well, why don't they show up for lunch just cause you have a new house? You haven't invited him. They don't know your address. They don't know where you are. You have to commit to drive engagement. This is what's going to stand you out. Stop waiting for people to come to you if you're single and you're in the dating scene. First of all, I'm so sorry. And second of all, second of all, unless your rock star like this one attracting all the 50 year old he can handle do not meddle in that age bracket. But you are just single and cute is a matter how you are, how smart you are, how much you make, how attractive you are. You have to commit to some engagement. You have to go where the people are or bring the people to you. Can we agree on that? Yeah. OK, so You either have to sign up with what ifs website or you have to go frequent the club scene or goto churches or concerts or hang out with groups. Whatever that looks like, your business is the same. I'm from Texas. I guess he probably used my fishing example. So I'm gonna use a cattle roundup. Example. I can build a pin for my cattle and I can leave the gate open and wait for them to come put themselves in the pin or the corral, whatever your term, Whatever. You're bonanza that you might have watched. But it's more effective if I saddle up my horse, go out with my last so and round them up. There's a picture about on her Facebook page. If you'd like to check that out of me on a horse, not likely bringing him into your corral and then doing what? Closing the gate, right. We got cattlemen in Australia. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We speak chocolate and cowboys were good, so you have to commit to drive engagement. You have to be present. You have to tell people your Facebook pages. There. You have to tell people where your website is. You have to tell people where to show up and connect with you or your solution or your photography. You could stay. I'm gonna be at the gazebo at the Main Street Park between here and here doing photo sampler shoots all day this beautiful day and tell people where to find you and show up and have photo shoots. You could tell people where to find your product, where to find your solutions. You have to commit to drive engagement. You have to put some time into it. Gone are the days of the fish jumping in the boat or the cows jumping in the pin. You really have to go get them. You're competing against so many people online. And I promise you, in the 16 years that I've been doing business, I've seen the evolution. I've seen where it used to be. People would put their email in the box just for anything like for a newsletter. Oh, yes. Please email me because I love email. You remember answering machines don't even answer. I remember answering machines like we get home, we run home as newlyweds or young professionals and we go, Oh, nobody cold nobody need me. Right? And now the blinking light. We just don't even pay attention to wear that way with our email. So now people are much more guarded with those currencies, So commit to drive engagement. I got a slow down. Okay. I love this too. You already talked with Lynette about your email list? Guys, email is the highest form of permission email and SMS. It is. You cannot count on Facebook to be there tomorrow. Zuckerberg could have a mood swing. He could have a change. He could sell out, he could whatever. And it could be gone. And what recourse do you have? And just for those of you wondering, Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO Facebook, you have to remember, it's not a platform that you own, right? Exactly. That was like having my own little subtitle here, but taller my space that, like I wasn't even on my space. I'm not even old enough to have been on MySpace, but my space people had all their business contacts there. They talked their courses on how to do my space. And what happened? How relevant is my space now? Not if you had your business aspect. Assets in my space, then your assets are no longer relevant no longer. They're not even liability. They're just not. So you've got to focus on not only committing to engagement that we already talked about, but you have to commit to getting people to the email list. Love, the buying strategy that you shared and your new technology genius really is. But here's what's more valuable to me, then the dollars I made on every sale. By the way, should I tell? Everybody Had already did. Was doing well. Did you refresh it? And so I got 100 likes over the break. I get 100 lights on this just on the break on the brake. Wow. And then, um, 2020 people purchased nine bucks each, just like the Grand Canyon, only less space. There's an echo. So 20 sales there were only $7 apiece, But what's more valuable to me personally, then, that $7 per sale? Anybody? I get the emails of people with credit cards that are willing to buy online Boom done new buyers in that email. Those of you that bought Yep, that's why you're valuable and I'm gonna send you that extra bonus this week with the audio video because I love you. And I love my email readers if they're just now tuning in and they missed when you published it, the easiest way to find you on Facebook is just a search on Facebook and the barefoot executive executive. I should pop up there. Um, okay, so you have to commit to also grow in your email list even if you sell chocolate, even if you sell wine. Even if you felt consulting your email list is your best asset, those people are going to be your best buyers. Your biggest fans, your biggest evangelists and your most bankable buyers. Buyers like that. Trust me. Write that down, Spires. Carrie Wilkerson, barefoot executive Barefoot is, um, all right, and I like this. Tell them about the sales. Your drop, You drive. Don't apologize for being in business. Don't. I've never yet been into target where they said, I'm sorry. We're gonna have to charge you for that. Crazy never never happened. I've never been into Macy's or Nordstroms or Neiman's or anywhere where they apologize for charging me for something. Never been to a restaurant where I had the expectation of eating for free. Never. Unless you're a coupon person. If you're one of those free coupon persons, much respect to you. But I'm not. But I've never been where I was exchanging something of value that I didn't expect to pay for it. People get it, they get it. Unless you've spoiled them, unless you've trained them, conditioned them to cheap or free. And if you have, go ahead and close out that business. Change your name rebrand. Start over. It's okay. We won't tell. We won't tell. Um, tell them you're going to be making offers. Tell them you have solutions to what they're looking for. They want solutions. This is a harsh example. But I like to use it because it it just makes good sense. If I had the cure for cancer, if I had the cure for cancer, I would not apologize for telling the world about it for solving that issue. I would also not apologize for charging for the medications or the treatment or office time, right, because I would have to control the flow and I would have to see who really was that interested? I would not apologize. That's a harsh example. And then they're still gonna be some people in the chat room. They'll say. But if you have the cure for cancer, it should be free. Okay, go. Just go with the example for a second. Just don't be contrary, contrary and step away from the keyboard. But you people have to know so earlier. Somebody asked a question. How soon should you get into the buying cycle with people? I think as soon as possible. Carry who? Remember who asked that the did you guys have any questions about the buying cycle? And how about how about operates earlier, too? Yeah, maybe something may have been somebody in the living in the little apple right there. And so for those people, I would say, get them buying as quickly as possible. If they're coming onto your email list on the thank you page, offer them, you know, an offer or okay. And I'm not gonna even get into funnel because we're skipping the funnel. Do that. But before you and before we move forward, carry. Let's make sure we get any of these questions online, answered Chris. Are folks asking questions about breaking the rules. Everyone's out of breaking their roles. But what questions they have for Carrie, you know, we don't have to money on breaking the rules. People are just wanting some opinions. We had a lot of people talking earlier about the difference between offering e books and webinars and different freebies to try to get people any insight on that. Are they asking what is the best offer? Teoh. And what is the perfect price point? And what is the perfect media is that it's big. But they just said that any insight on specifically E books versus Webinars, what could be a better way to drive people in? I think the answer to that is yes, number one. And this is this is excellent advice, no matter what business you're in. So write this down. I think Number one, what is the thing you will actually create? What is the thing that you have personally the least resistance to? If Nathan tells me, Owen, online video series is the best three videos that are fully scripted. That, uh, I'm gonna say Nope. Got four kids running around. I don't have time to set about the equipment. I don't wanna have to get cute that day. No, I don't want to do it, but I could do some checklists and a template and audio like that. I have very little resistance to that. Then I would say, Chris, that's what you create. If you say well, what converts the best I would say, Well, you could probably answer that best when you create two of those things yourself and test, um, to your audience. Chris's audience is not going to test the same ways My audience. Nathan's audience is not going to test the same. My audience has proven that they like toe watch my short videos for barefoot executive TV, but they dont like video sales letters. They don't like long, long, long webinars. Unless there live, they like live, I guess. Maybe my energy. I have a little energy, but but I've shown that my audience loves templates and checklists and two Duce, right? Your audience may like something very different, so I can say I'm trying to dial back the tough love I'm going to say, Stop looking for the perfect formula and just do something for the love and guys speaking, Look, speaking about looking for the love. When you're trying to figure out what to offer and how to offer, it will move forward to the next side. Now carry, and I'll help folks understand exactly how you know when you're thinking about. Once you have that off or whether it's an audio file, any book you want to make sure you craft the first, the bait, the best Facebook posts don't get exposure on that. And we've put together an E book with a bunch of examples of exactly how to do this, and you'll get access to that as part of the bonus material for this course. You know, we're getting close to wrapping up, and you grab that by clicking the buy now button below. Carry. Did you have something to add to that? No, I think you just have to test. I think you have to test and the post that we put up today for mine. It's a test. I already have two or three other content ideas in my head of different mediums and share one or two of those. Okay, so another thing that I have is a slide deck that I did called profit pullers. Six ways to pull profit from your existing business. It's a slide deck in a live webinar. I did. I'll take the slide deck and I'll do probably a 15 to 18 minute audio that will go with it. I'll bundle that up for $17. My prediction is that also hundreds of units of that and it's also if you look at the language ing 66 ways to pull profit from your existing business, who does that automatically eliminate people that don't have a business? Right? So you wanna be working right? So So now that I'm working with people that already have businesses, etcetera, that that would be a way to kind of segment your list a little differently. It also would test that media versus just the straight e book. If you were testing templates or downloadable, that implies that people are doing that people are actively hand on in doing so. Those are just a few to two great examples, and guys will dive into the studio audience. We have here real quick just talking about testing. Now, Michael, I know you've just launched a new book, which folk confined itself employed king dot com, Ford slash Get connect in this book, you did a great job curating, which we talked about earlier segments. But now you have to figure out, How do you sell this book? Have you thought about maybe two different tests to run to figure out what'll sell that book the best? Well, I D's Twitter a lot to promote the book, and what I do is I also rephrase a lot of folks who are quoted in the book Ah yourself and I'll tag them in the tweets and send out. And in that tweet has a link to Amazon to purchase the book. Great. So, Carrie, he's he's maybe testing with some different naming. You have any other tests he could run, maybe pulling segments of the book out as little snippets. What ideas do you have? Yeah, I like that. The other thing I would test is that the White board like overview of this is what you should do it. How not necessarily reading the book or, you know, we've always done the download, the first chapter here, etcetera. But if you really do kind of an overview content and draw out a couple of models of the book and a little bit of training 6 to 7 minutes max. Then that's a good captain and a good promo to get people more interested in the book to some of the pros and kinds of books are that unless you really kill him with that initial content, people have this this funny, consumptive nature about books. Do you know that most people that buy books don't read past like the first chapter? It's crazy. It's like this, a journal in Rush that they get. And then they put the book down, main him and give them that hit first. Then they don't have a need to go by the book necessarily. And when I'm talking to you and talking to me because that's been my list builder for about four years, has been a chapter in my book. I'm now switching to a video. Siri's talking about some concepts of the book and people's feedback from the book so that everybody that hasn't read it till super left out incidently. The name of that book is a barefoot executive, and your book is connect eso page two of the book. Actually, before they even purchased the book, they can download a free audio, and it's a whole course that I have. And that's where I'm capturing the email addresses. So if they buy the book, they buy the book. If not the definitely putting their email address in Great. So it's like you have a choice. Would you like to enter email or by the book? Either way, Michael wins, Right, right. The other thing that I did on Twitter anytime somebody says something nice, cause I know you're super involved on that platform Anytime somebody says something nice, go ahead in favor of that. Put that feed directly on the book page so that when they're looking at the book page, you have a scrolling feed of people raving about you or the book. I'm just spitting all over this stage. It gives a cool chocolate sally. So So that's another thing that's just like built in testimony of the credibility. Incidentally, that works in any market that the Twitter feed of favorites. Anytime somebody says something nice or compliment, you are compliments your work or your brand or your book. Favorite it. Then there's a plug in that you can put on your WordPress site. It's just scrolling like people want eyes a long time. So talking about social proof for a quick let's maybe dive into David's business with defined wines. Those of you watching right now, if you have a physical products, you're really a lot like David. So when David's testing carat, maybe how to sell defined wines, we talked in the last segment a little bit about understanding profit margin so that David can understand the marketing spend he can put into maybe running separate tests. So what kinds of things would you are, David? Maybe What have you tested so far? Different models of how to sell more bottles of define wine. What we do a combination of, ah, uploading videos to just photo posts to even the cover photos sometimes get different engagements. We boosted posts. We've done some sidebar advertisement. So we've done. We have done some experimenting, and video seems to be our biggest return. Great podcasts. It'll not too much? No, we did at the beginning, but no. So course we can't talk about wine and social media without talking about Gary Vader. Chuck, our buddy Gary Viti. Um, have you have you met? Very fantastic thing is awesome at what I would say worked for, Gary said. He never just overtly sold he educated people. He decided their number one fear was choosing the wrong wine. You looking like the wine idiot right and choosing the wrong line. And so he just educated people and and brought wine top of mind to them. Wine for the working man. Why? For the whatever your brand, I would say it's probably a little bit more highbrow than his brand waas. You know at that point. So I think maybe even a fine wine podcast or a defining moment podcast that you just popped in once a week, maybe did 15 to 18 minutes on, uh, you know, somebody that called in or road in about the unassisted double play that their seven year old did, and they decided that was their defining moment. That's such a great hash tag. Great instagram. I see the whole campaign and my head talk to Kim Garst about that campaign. That would be amazing, but I think you know, a podcast or even a short video, or I don't think you have to go full on to our Ustream like he did he like everything that he does. That was a little much, but I think just some short bursts of content where you're just educating people on breaking up a bottle, open a bottle with them again. I can't say that's my market. I'm not a wine drinker, and I'm not a kind of sore at all. But to me, I think that would be. I think that would ease people's fears about doing wine, and then when they trust you, that's who they want to buy from. So these are all great. These are great points. You also want to keep in mind with the attention span of consumers these days. And this is a topical online right now. Whether you're a blogger like Michael, maybe your photographer, an artist like Angeline, you want to make sure that your product or your content putting out is easily consumed. And I don't mean physically consumed. I mean with the eyes, and it's easy. We talked in the first thing about using status updates like yes or no, or fill in the blank, easy to digest kinds of content. So why don't you mind is I love this David's brand define I mean, that's just a powerful thing. And if you can create as Kerry mentioned these, like really short podcasts of people talking about their defining moments and how they celebrated those moments with your wine, that could be powerful. And for those of you watching right now, that might have been thinking about getting into podcasting or anything like that. You should check out Greg Hickman and John Lee do Mrs Podcasting course they didn't creativelive where they walk through the exact steps you need to get started with podcasting, and, of course, you can take those snippets and podcasts and re share them through your other channels, like Facebook and Instagram.