Wendy (00:02.282)
Hi there, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. So glad you're here today. I'm going to talk about some of the, I think that the big trues that I have learned over the years about social media and marketing. Some of the things that I hear a lot within my coaches community and the BBB, which is my business building community for coaches. Some of the most common.
struggles and challenges that people find themselves up against when it comes to creating content and showing up on social media. We're gonna go through those and I'm gonna hopefully give you some really great insight and ideas around how to change the way you think about those things and how to pick the right platform for you and how to pick the right medium for you in terms of how you deliver content and just how to practice it and get better at it. So we're gonna talk about all of those things. Before I get into that,
Just a reminder that we have regular open houses for the BBB, my business building community. It is a one year membership program where I give very focused business support to you as you build your business in the first five or so years of your business. You also get access to an enormous content library that is organized by topic that provides you with bite-sized video lessons on how to do all of the things that are important in building a small business as a coach from
marketing and website stuff to social media, to creating a really great, well-priced one-on-one coaching program, to creating a group program or online offer, to starting a podcast, to getting on other people's podcasts. These are some of the things that we cover in the content library. We also have regular office hours calls twice a week. You get access to one of those calls live every week and you can watch the other one by replay.
And then we have a masterclass every month where I bring an expert in or I talk about a topic in great detail for an hour or so and do a little workshop with you so that you can learn a little more about something that you are currently feeling stuck in or struggling around in building your business. We also have a tech and socials call every month, which is an opportunity for you to ask questions from one of our resident coach experts on tech and all things social media to get you unstuck.
Wendy (02:20.662)
And we also do a copy call every month. And we have a bunch of other things that are part of that community. So there's an open house for that every couple of months. We have one in the month of November. If you're curious about that and you'd like to join us, just go to wendymcallum.com forward slash BBB and register using the form at the top of the page for the next open house. If you don't see a form there, send me a note and I will make sure that you get the information that you need about the next open house.
The open house is an opportunity for you to learn a little bit more about the BBB to figure out whether it might be a good fit for you and also to attend a live office hours call with the current members of the BBB. You will learn so much from the questions that they ask and you will see that you are not alone in this and that there are lots of common challenges and struggles that coaches go through. And you will also have an opportunity to ask any questions that you have about your own business right now. So again, there is an open house happening in the month of November.
If you're listening to this podcast, when it airs, then there will be one on November 21st at noon Eastern. And you can register for that at wendymcallum.com forward slash BBB. If you're listening to this podcast episode at a later date, go there and check the website for whatever the next open house date is. And I would absolutely love to meet you there if you're a listener of this podcast. Okay, let's get into it. Some of the social media stuff that I hear the most in the BBB and some of the things that I...
learned over the years of building my own coaching business. I have been on a number of different platforms over the years. I've always been on Facebook. I started there. I use it very little now. So my Instagram content auto posts to Facebook and have a large following on Facebook, but it's just not a platform that I feel super excited about right now. So I don't spend a lot of time there outside of that auto posting.
But I also, when I started, I had a Twitter account and I have a LinkedIn account and I've like dabbled in different things, currently have a TikTok account. Like I know a lot, a little about a lot of different platforms and I've spent a lot of time on all of them. And I've certainly learned lots of lessons over the years on social media. And social media has changed in terms of how it helps small business owners. It used to be very, very helpful.
Wendy (04:36.31)
in the early days. And by early days, I mean, you 14 years ago when I first launched my work Facebook account. It was a really easy place for me to build an audience and boosting posts, throwing a little money behind an ad or a post to boost it and get it out there to more people actually paid off. And I could see the results from that really, really quickly. But that is not the case anymore. And we are just all of us now just absolutely inundated.
with content on various social media platforms. And it's just a really different world now with all the influencers out there and the algorithms. And this is a place where people get easily overwhelmed. I think probably the most common thing I hear from new coaches who join the BBB is that they're really resistant to social media. They don't know what to do with it from a business perspective. It overwhelms them. It's sometimes really, really scary for them to get out there and start posting about.
their coaching business and their story. And they don't know how to do it. There are just so many technical details to it that feel overwhelming. So let's talk about some of those things today. Obviously we can't cover all of it, but let's talk about some of them. So the first thing I would say to you is if you are feeling overwhelmed by social media right now as a business, as a coach trying to build a business, just pick a couple platforms and ditch the rest of them.
So if you've made the mistake, which many people do have like starting an account everywhere, starting a TikTok and Instagram, a LinkedIn, a Facebook, you know, all the rest of it, just pair it back to a couple. And when it comes to figuring out which platforms you want to focus on, I honestly think there are two questions that are most important questions. The first question is, where are your people? So when you think about your dream client, that person that you would really love to work with,
and who you are excited to start creating some programming for. Where does that person hang out in terms of social media? Are they on TikTok or are they more likely to be on Facebook? Are they on Instagram or are they more likely to spend their time on LinkedIn? These are really good questions. That's the place to start. Where are my people? And then the second piece, which is equally important, is where am I comfortable? What is the platform that I am the most comfortable with? I
Wendy (07:01.174)
I'm not comfortable on TikTok. My social media person uploads reels and things to my TikTok account. I have nothing to do with it. And I'm totally owning that right now. The reason I don't is because I don't want to know about TikTok. I love Instagram. I'm used to Instagram now. I understand it, I understand how it works. That's my primary platform. So where are my people and where am I most comfortable? And if you've got five different social media accounts started right now, just park a few of them. Just park them. You don't need to delete them, just park them.
and focus in on one or two of them. And if there's a way for you to do easy auto posting, so for example, if the two platforms that you choose are within the meta suite, you can auto post between them. So you can post on Instagram and have it set up to automatically post on your Facebook the same content so you don't have to do it twice, set that up, make this as easy as possible for you. But it needs to feel good for you. And it definitely needs to be a place where the people are that you want to be working with more, right? So that's the place to start.
Now, the next thing that I hear a lot from people is that they are really uncomfortable posting because they're so worried about getting attacked. You know, there's just, as we all know, social media can be a really nasty place. There are lots of trolls out there and people who just seem to. I'm not even entirely sure how this serves them, but they get something from it, obviously, or they wouldn't do it, but just, you know, post the meanest comments and just be out there looking for for people to pick on.
And so a lot of my coaches say, I don't want to open myself up to that. I'm just not interested in that. And I get that. And there are ways to minimize the likelihood that that happens. And if you're not somebody who wants to be out there, you know, being a bit of a shit-disturber, saying things that are, you know, controversial but important to you, which you might be, which is great, go ahead and do that. But know that if you do that, you will absolutely deal with trolls and with awful people.
And there are ways to kind of harden your shell if that's you. But if that's not you, if you're more like me, you're like, I'm not really interested in controversy. I'm kind of like, I'm over that. I just want to put my message out there and help people. Then there are a couple of things that I think can be really helpful in terms of touchstones for this. the biggest one is tell the truth. And what I always say to my coaches is, is this thing that you're going to share true for you?
Wendy (09:27.518)
Is this your actual truthful experience? Is this how it felt for you? Is this what you experienced? If so, it's true and you get to share it if you want to. And if somebody comes back and attacks you or criticizes you, as long as it's true, you can say, this was true for me. It might not be true for you, but this was true for me, or this was true for my client that I helped. Is it true in terms of the experience? And then the other thing is, is it true in terms of the research and the science?
And so I'm always gonna encourage you to be very careful about posting things online, make sure that you have fact checked them and that they are in fact, true, factually true. If you are posting facts and a lot of coaches are out there posting facts about their particular area of practice. So I think tell the truth as obvious as that sounds is actually a really great place to post from.
Is this true for me or is this true for someone that I support and know? Or is this true factually? Does the research support this? If so, if you do get attacked on that thing, there's a pretty easy response, which is, this was true for me. It may not be true for you. here's the here's the, you know, the citation or the study or the article that backs me up on this. So that can be really helpful just to focus on that. I also am.
always suggesting coaches because one of the, I think one of the biggest mistakes I see in terms of social media posts from my newer coaches is that they're afraid to post anything specific. So they keep it super general. But what happens when you keep your posts really general like that is that nobody stops to read it because it's not actually providing any helpful information because the really general stuff is everywhere. It's easy to find, everybody already knows it. So for example, saying, putting a post up that says,
Hydrating is really important. You should try to drink eight glasses of water a day. Not helpful to anybody. Everybody knows that, right? Or during menopause, women tend to experience, know, 80 % of women experience sleep disruptions. I just made up that number, by the way. That's probably not factually true, but a post like that, it's not that interesting to people. Get really specific. Get into the habit of checking your content to make sure that there's actually something
Wendy (11:43.784)
really valuable that somebody's gonna learn from it. So for example, instead of saying being hydrated is really important for your overall wellness, you could say, here are eight reasons you didn't know about or eight tips that you probably haven't incorporated that can help you stay hydrated without drinking more water, right? So there's an example of like a really specific post with some facts in there. There's a hook built into that too. That is there's something interesting. like, I see that I'm like, wait, how?
What? I can get hydrated without drinking more water? How do I do that? Right? So get specific with your posts. General posts nobody slows their squirrel for. People just scroll on by. You wanna make sure it's something that's really, really interesting and specificity is important. So as a new coach, don't be afraid to get specific. Again, if you're worried about posting it, is it true? Is it true for you? Is it factually true? Right? And if the answer is yes, then it's
probably okay to post, right? Okay. Perfection will kill you when it comes to social media. my gosh, the number of conversations we have about this in the BBB about social media, where I'm just giving, I'm constantly throwing out challenges to my coaches. Okay, this week I wanna see you posting every single day. I want you to get on there and do a live video every single day. I want to see you get on there.
and have one piece of content every day for seven days. And I want you to not overthink it because perfection is the thing that keeps people stuck. Here are some helpful things to remember about social media. Most people don't see your posts. I get that that's a double-edged sword, that you're thinking, wait, why am I doing this if nobody's seeing it? But the upside of that, the upside of the algorithm that doesn't serve you very well, especially when you have a really small audience and you're just starting out, is that nobody sees it if it's not perfect either. Also,
Imperfection is interesting. Perfection is boring. People are interested in imperfection. Showing up and not being perfect or making mistakes or laughing about the fact that you don't know how to do this yet or celebrating the fact that this is your first Instagram live post and it took you three months to work your confidence up to actually get on here live and you'd love it if people would just hit the like button, let you know that they actually watch this.
Wendy (14:02.73)
That's the kind of stuff that people actually want to see. That makes you interesting, it makes you real. So if you're striving for perfection and that is keeping you stuck and away from actually posting content anywhere, whether it's on social media or blogging or starting a podcast or doing any of it, I want you to remember imperfection is actually what sells. It is what people are interested in. It is what will cause people to follow you and to stick with you because they wanna see you succeed. They wanna see you get better.
And the coaches that have followed my advice in the BBB and have started just systematically posting every single day or four times a week or whatever schedule they agree to. And they do it no matter what, whether they think it's great or whether they think it's not so great content, whether they think it's perfect or they think it's not so perfect and it's got flaws in it, they put it up anyway. Those are the coaches that I see the most improvement with. I can think of a particular coach who about a year ago was in this place where she was feeling very, very nervous about starting to put content out there on social media, live stuff.
and I have watched her challenge herself over the year to the point where she now shows up. The first time she did it, I sent her a message and said, I think there's like an air conditioner or a fan on in the background. I couldn't hear you very well. And she has gone from that to a place where she shows up, she looks so great, she looks professional. By no means is it perfect, but it's so real and it's so good and it's so easy now. And that is because she has continued to practice it. So perfection kills, imperfection is interesting. That's what I want you to remember.
I also want to talk about the importance of getting a little bit vulnerable and sharing your story. Because that's really what we're on social media for. It's called social media for a reason, right? It's about creating some social connection. And I get that it doesn't do that in so many ways, guys. I get it. But I think if you want to connect with someone on there, if you want someone to to actually stop and read your post or watch your video or listen to you,
It has to be interesting and it has to be something that peaks their curiosity and there's nothing people love more than a story. So if you can share something about yourself, if you can get a little bit vulnerable, these are the things that people will actually stop and listen to. And as I've said in other episodes, vulnerability and shared story is what helps you to create that like no trust factor faster than anything else. So what can you share about yourself?
Wendy (16:25.94)
And listen, you don't have to get into like your deep dark secrets here. You want to be sharing something that feels comfortable to you, but a little bit personal. I mean, I had a video a while ago where I shared like the before and after of my desk one day when I cleaned up my office. Super popular video, right? Like I didn't share anything that was particularly sensitive or personal, but I did show people that I'm just like them and that my desk is a mess and that there's kind of a life-changing thing that happens when you spend.
an hour or two gutting your office, shredding all your old stuff and cleaning off your desk surface. Suddenly there's this space created for creativity and that feels really amazing. So get a little bit personal, get a little bit vulnerable. I have also shared incredibly vulnerable things on my social media. I have a post on my beep burnout and booze page on Instagram, which is my personal coaching page that is titled, I'm not an alcoholic and here's why.
And it's probably my one of my most popular posts and it gets reposted regularly because it's very vulnerable and I talk about why that word doesn't work for me. But at the same time why I decided to stop drinking. Again, story. It's a little bit vulnerable and personal people like it, people identify with it. It makes me real, right? So share your story. If you haven't yet share little little bits of your story or little bits of your little bits of your life, even if it's like this is my here I am in the morning.
you know, trying to open up my eyes with this massive cup of coffee. Here's what I've got planned for the day. What have you got planned? Just sharing something a little bit more personal instead of just these very kind of, you know, I think oftentimes we see these posts and it's like, I've seen this post a million times before. I'm not gonna stop for this. On that same note, you need a hook. Every time you post content on social media, you need to be thinking about how do I get this person in right away? A hook is literally like an interesting,
first few words that are going to make somebody stop scrolling and listen longer or read longer. So for example, the hook, why I'm not an alcoholic, it's a pretty powerful hook for the people who follow me on that page, which is all about stress management and gray area drinking and all the rest of it. Like that's the kind of thing that someone's gonna stop and read. The word I tells them basically this is gonna be a personal story and.
Wendy (18:46.9)
there's a little bit of controversy about that label of alcoholic. So you want to have something that's going to stop their scroll. So if you're doing a live video, start with make sure that that first sentence that you say that's going to come up in captions on your video is really interesting and intriguing, right? It might be, you are not going to believe what happened to me on the way to the grocery store this morning. If I see that I'm going to want to keep listening, right, because it's interesting.
or it might be three things I learned today that blew my mind. you know, four things I wish I had learned before I went through menopause or, you know, I love the numbers things could help because it helps to frame and you probably noticed that in my podcast episodes that I frame things I'll do like 10 things I wish I'd known or whatever, because it helps you to structure that post.
but it's something really interesting. The number one key to getting off the the diet train or something like that. Something interesting, you need to make sure that that first thing that you say or write or the caption on your video or the, if you've got a static post with a graphic image that the image or the text on that image is something that's gonna cause someone to say, my gosh, I need to read the rest of this. Otherwise, they're just not going to look at it.
And the less people look at it, the less the algorithm is likely to serve it up to them, right? So that's important. You also need to create some interaction. Critically important for the algorithm, critically important to get people to actually read on. You wanna be making sure you're asking people questions, asking them to chime in, asking them to do something, to take some action from your posts on social media. It could be as simple as like hit the like button if this...
If after you know, if this feels like you to like whatever it is you're talking about, but it could also be like in one word, tell me how you feel about meal planning and just something you want it to be easy. You want the action that you're asking them to take to be really easy because if it's too complicated, people will just keep scrolling. But you you want to make sure that you ask them for that. Right. So interaction is really, really key. This is why I love lives.
Wendy (21:10.868)
I love going live places. I love hosting live workshops and presentations. I don't do those on socials very much. I do those separately, get people to register for live workshops, open houses, those types of things. I love them because it gives me the opportunity to interact with people and ask them questions. That's how you build that like no trust. And on social media, if you get that interaction going, the algorithm loves it. And you can also interact in DMs, in the DMs, which is something I'm learning and getting better at.
So actually going in, somebody likes my post or makes a comment on my post, sending them a direct message and saying, hey, I loved your thoughts on that, or I loved your answer to that. I'm curious to know where you are in this part of the process. And then you can maybe start a conversation with them, right? So creating interaction, as scary as that might feel, is a really important part of effective social media and also of building your following. Okay.
Last but not least, there's so many things I could say about this, but I don't wanna talk about this for too long. I like to keep these episodes relatively short. This one will probably be 25 or 26 minutes. You've got to find the medium that feels good to you. This is like the butt at the end of this. Even though I'm talking about pick a couple platforms, always tell the truth, get specific, get your hooks in there. Don't try to be too perfect, post regularly, interactions key, all those things I'm talking about. At the end of the day,
If you are not comfortable with the medium, that is the type of content, the way you are delivering the content, it is almost a waste of time, honestly. Now, as I said earlier, you're not gonna be comfortable with all these things right out of the gate. You're gonna have to practice them to get more comfortable. But if it is something that just feels completely out of the box and not even possible for you, then you're not gonna post regularly. It's going to be very clear that you're not comfortable doing it. The content's not gonna be very good.
So overall, it's just not gonna be a worthwhile strategy for you. Find a medium that feels good to you. Let me talk you through kind of mediums of what I mean by this. I may have one client in the BBB who hates social media. Her demographic is an older demographic who would be less likely to be active on most of the new social media platforms. And she just really strongly dislikes it and doesn't wanna be on there. But she's a fabulous writer. She's not very comfortable on video.
Wendy (23:31.414)
She's not comfortable live, she's not comfortable with the tech on social media, but she is an incredibly good writer. Her main marketing platform is a blog because that is a medium that feels really good to her and she spends time crafting very good blog posts with great hooks and she sends them out to her newsletter list, but she also posts them and shares them on social media. And that is a very...
deliberate strategy on her part that allows her to use social media in a way that actually works for her and feels comfortable for her. So there's not a lot of live posting happening on there. She's not sharing in her story. She's not doing any of those kind of typical things that somebody else might be doing on the platform. She is primarily focused on blogs and on building SEO to her website and by sharing that through social media and having that be the only thing that she does with social media. And that's great strategy. You know, some people are
really love interviewing. So they're really comfortable when they're talking to somebody else conversational style stuff. If that's you, there are lots of different ways that you can maximize that when it comes to social media, you can do Insta lives with other people with other accounts, you can invite someone on and have a conversation with them about something that they're an expert in or you can ask to go in front of their audience and talk about something that you're an expert in or you can maybe get on podcasts and share or even and this is something we do talk about a lot in the BBB.
If you're recording video content that you wanna use on Instagram or on your website or in a course, for example, and you really hate sitting in front of a screen and talking about something by yourself, do a Zoom call, invite somebody else and get them to actually interview you so that you're actually answering their questions. If a conversational style feels better to you and flows better for you, you can then go back and edit that content. You're probably gonna get much more natural video content from that. So again,
Maybe that's your medium. Maybe you're somebody who is really great at creating video content. I've become really good at creating video content and it's really easy for me now. It took a lot of practice. But if you're good at creating concise video content, then that might be the way to go in terms of content. Or maybe you're better just doing live stuff off the cuff and your stories are the place where you do that. And you find that time.
Wendy (25:51.944)
limit on the stories is perfect for you can get just little points across and you can share things over the course of your day as you're doing stuff. Maybe you're really, really good at writing great captions. That's where you really knock it out of the park and you can just create some really cool catching images with a hook on the image and then focus on a text-based caption as the way that you deliver content online. The key with all of this is to find what feels comfortable for you, what feels good to you.
because if it is not comfortable for you, that's gonna be so clear. At the same time, as I've said twice now, you need to know that none of this is probably gonna feel super comfortable to you the first time. So it's like, you're really picking the lesser of all the evils. And that's the thing that you're gonna work on practicing and honing and developing your skills around. But it's probably not a great idea to pick the one thing that you're the most terrified of and that you feel the least competent and confident around and start with that.
start with something that feels good. We all have different skill sets and there are different ways to use social media to your advantage, but it doesn't need to be as complicated and terrifying as we think it is. So hopefully that, don't think that, I think a lot of these points that I shared today are not points I've shared before on the podcast. Hopefully that gives you some new things to think about when it comes to social media and creating social media and just getting out there and experimenting with it and.
just doing your best with it because again, at the end of the day, nobody's perfect and nobody even likes perfect. So just get out there and have some fun with it and experiment with it and be you and be real and tell the truth and everything is gonna be fine. And again, if you are looking for more support around your business, you can always join us at an open house for the BBB. There is one coming up in November of 2024 if you're listening to this podcast right after it dropped.
There's probably still time to join that. can go to wendymccallum.com forward slash BBB and you'll find the form to register for that open house. If you're listening to this later on, there will be an upcoming open house. Go to that same web page, which I'll put in the show notes and sign up for the open house. I would absolutely love to meet more of you live. And the open house is a really great place for you to get to know me a little bit better, get to know a little bit about the BBB and also get some free coaching for me. So hopefully I will see you there. Have a great week.
