The Social Media Millionaire™ Secrets

Speaker 1: [Music] when you know exactly what your audience needs to hear from you when you understand how to essentially get in their head what needs to be said for them to come down that customer journey and make a purchase decision you can do that on threads you can do that in a video you can do that on a podcast you can adapt it to any platform because that's the real skill you should be learning not how to make a Tik Tok go viral you don't need to know how to make a Tik Tok go viral you need to know what happens in somebody's brain to hit a buy button that's what you need to know and then you can adapt that to any platform I'm Melanie bar welcome back to the shilp podcast your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you crave I'm here to talk about everything from Having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through challenges I live in the city now but I grew up in a town of a thousand people I've navigated major life leaps a senior level corporate career worked in professional sports and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business technology family and making meaningful connections with you and the Sheil Community I also love a good workout and dose of selfcare magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so turn up the audio open your favorite notes not app grab your favorite drink and here we go welcome back to the Shila podcast thank you for joining us Kenda you are the founder and CEO of Laney media the social media millionaire membership and the social media millionaire programs you hit your first seven figures within 12 months of starting your business what key strategies helped you grow so quickly and how can other brands and businesses achieve success like that too so the reason that we were able to grow so quickly is because one we make decisions fast and two is because everything we do is backed by buyer and consumer psychology every decision that we make and so we don't make a decision we don't launch an offer we don't send an email we don't post an Instagram story without understanding the psychology of how that's going to play and how it's going to essentially resonate with our audience and so we know that everything that we do is going to be impactful so therefore we're able to be incredibly strategic and intentional and move the needle a lot faster than other businesses that's so smart because so often we buy something based on what we feel and you can catch someone in the right moment that's thinking about something that they need and if the messaging is right I do it all the time something will pop up and I'm like oh yeah I was just thinking I need that and it's becoming more and more scary as things are popping up that we actually are in need of but that is so smart SM to look at all your social and make sure that you're relating to your audience in that way what is the biggest mistake businesses making on social media and how can they pivot their strategies to increase engagement and drive sales the biggest mistake is not taking that buyer psychology into account I'm sure you see it people post they're like hey we have this offer or I have this course or I'm offering this thing and that's not enough just telling people that you have a thing that's not marketing that's telling people that you have a thing and so what truly is going to get people to buy that thing is you anticipating their needs and their desires you being able to like you said catch them at that right place right time where you're almost able to explain what they're going through better than they could articulate it themselves that's the secret there and so So when you say we buy things emotionally the science behind that if you've ever heard like we buy with emotion and we justify with logic it's because when it comes to buyer behavior and buyer psychology we buy and we make impulse decisions with our Primal brain not our rational brain and so that Primal brain is old it's the oldest most Primal part of us and it's there literally just to Keep Us Alive to keep us safe it's constantly assessing for threats assessing for danger it's very selfish and it's very me oriented and so it it is constantly trying to keep us safe keep us from missing out on things and it's very knee-jerk reaction very emotional and so that's why we buy with emotion and then we try to justify with our logical rational brain so that we don't feel bad about spending that money so that we don't have that buyer's remorse and what you can with the buyer psychology and with understanding that and understanding your consumers when it comes to your brand on social media is you can basically understand that there's four personalities there's four ways that people buy and so that basically means that there's only four categories of things that people really care about when they decide to make a purchase decision and so that gives you a roadmap into the mind of every consumer that you could possibly encounter it they're one of the four and so with that understanding you make sure that you are allowing each of those four buyer types to have that blueprint that they need to get to to make a sale accessible to them on your social media and suddenly your sales Skyrocket so it's just about speaking to them in the way they need to be spoken to and it doesn't come naturally to us because each of us are typically only one of those buyer types so then we're missing out on speaking to the other 75% of buyers I did get lost in your social looking at that one post that went through exactly what you just said and it's so smart to dive that deep into it because so often as business owners and leaders we are busy working on the offerings and making sure clients are happy and we don't always take that time to dive so deep but it would make a business leader so much more money and life so much easier it's just like systems if you take the time to put the right systems in place your business is going to function so much better exactly let's say you have a post that reaches 10,000 people imagine if your post if you're creating the content the way that you currently are you're only speaking to 25% of those 10,000 people that you worked so hard to get in front of whereas if you understand how to weave the things in that are going to be activating to 100% of the people suddenly that post was a lot more impactful that 10,000 people actually is going to come to your profile they're actually going to now of course are you going to get 100% no but you're able to have a much higher percentage than you would have if you're just creating the way that you would think that you should create for Brands looking to scale to seven figures how do you recommend they balance organic social media growth with paid advertising efforts so here's my hot take I don't think that unless you're already actively doing seven figures from organic I don't think that you should be running ads and here's my reasoning for

Speaker 1: personal opinion is that you should be able to very easily and that's what we do for our clients is hit seven figures with Organic content alone and it shouldn't take you very much time to create that content if you're creating that psychology back content because every piece that you're creating is a lot more impactful so we spend one to two hours a week on content creation that's how you get to your first seven figures and then once you know exactly what is going to convert you know exactly what to say to get people to buy if you want to throw gasoline on the fire then you can with your ad spend but you shouldn't be doing it before if you can't hit seven figures organically because people so well and your marketing isn't that dialed in you shouldn't be spending money to figure out what people need to hear from you I had a feeling you were going to say that and thank for being so honest and real because there's a lot of agencies that won't go that deep with a client's content to actually make it convert yeah and it makes me really angry because you also you'll now I'm going on a tangent you'll see these anen you'll see these business coaches and they're like we'll make you a ton of money but what they don't tell you is on top of the five or $10,000 that you're going to pay for their services you're also going to pay an additional 5 10 20 30 50,000 for them to P around and test these ads but if you understood the psychology yourself you could test it for free over a 90day period and make way more money without cutting into your profit margins that's something I'm very passionate about so smart no I love it thank you for being so real and honest about that too because as you were talking I was thinking of all of the agencies out there that are just spending the money that is not really necessary if you take the time to do that deep dive work yeah and it's not it's not rocket science it's already been spelled out for us the psychology has been tested and proven the information is there you just have to consume it and take a little bit of time testing it for your industry and then run with it with social media trends constantly changing how can Business Leaders create a sustainable strategy that builds both presence and profitability over time by building it on the foundation of consumer psychology because Trends don't matter platforms don't matter platforms are going to come and go Trends are going to come and go but human psychology is not going to change and so if you understand what happens in someone's brain for them to decide to buy something you can apply that to any platform in the world you can apply that to any product any industry in the world at any time it's Timeless I'm loving this conversation because there's so many different platforms there's so many shiny new things and I just said yesterday to a strategist that I have to stop looking at all the shiny things because I love Tech and I want to know how it all works but you are so right about applying that human behavior and how it's not going to change and thank you for bringing that to the Forefront because if someone focuses on that they can clear out the noise so much easier because there is so much noise yeah when you know exactly what your audience needs to hear from you when you understand how to essentially get in their head what needs to be said for them to come down that customer journey and make a purchase decision you can do that on threads you can do that in a video you can do that on a podcast you can adapt it to any platform because that's the real skill you should be learning not how to make a Tik Tok go viral you don't need to know how to make a Tik Tok go viral you need to know what happens in somebody's brain to hit a buy button that's what you need to know and then you can adapt that to any platform and then you will always have a business you'll always have control over your Revenue you'll never have to worry about oh my Tik Tok got shut down no one cares because you can adapt that same strategy to your email list it's fine so interesting and I saw that post that you put out too you've mentored over a thousand Brands what are the common traits or habits of most successful entrepreneurs and businesses you've worked with they are willing to post the damn content even if they hate it even if they hate the way they look in the video even if they are worried that they're going to get hate comments even if they are embarrassed that people from high school are going to see it or their friends in family they are willing to hit the post button and that is the biggest common denominator is that they're willing to do the things that are uncomfortable and the thing is that yes they learn the strategies yes they follow it to a tea but the reason that they're able to do that is because they're disciplined and what it all comes down to because you can watch all the modules you can learn all the things you can read thousands of books you can watch hours of training but if you don't actually go out and implement it if you don't actually put it to use then you're not going to get anywhere and by far that's usually the biggest bottleneck is hitting record on the video hitting record on the podcast and then actually posting it and it's the people that are willing to be beginners the people that are willing to look silly on camera and sound stupid in their first 50 videos it's those people that are always very successful that's so true and to someone who's sitting there looking at everybody doing what they want to do but not taking that first step what advice would you give them make it as small of a first step as you possibly can if hitting the record button on your camera feels too big for you then script out a video as script in out a video feels too big for you do market research if market research feels too big for you then do some competitor analysis if you don't know how to do competitor analysis read a book about it watch a YouTube video about it find the smallest First Step that you could possibly take and do that because you only have to do 1% every day in 100 days you'll have 100% it doesn't have to be 100% today and 100% tomorrow it can be the smallest bit of progress but progress is progress momentum is momentum and it will build on itself the other thing I would say is read the one thing and read The Compound Effect those are very impactful I think for new business owners and for people that are just getting started and you're so right because usually no matter how big the first step is the hardest yeah tell us about storytelling and how it plays a role in social media storytelling is huge in social media because people don't want to be talked at they want to be talked to we know even going back cuz I can't shut up about the psychology people are craving that human connection and we've heard that over and over people are craving that realness they're craving that interpersonal communication they're really craving authenticity and I think one of the best ways that we're able to create that authenticity is by really creating these stories that allow people to relate to our journey and we can be very strategic in the way that we use this storytelling because something that a lot of people ask is how do I not share too much or how do I have a personal brand without sharing my entire life story on the internet how do I still maintain some privacy and how do I have this founder focused brand without telling them all about where I live and my children's names and this and that and the other thing and so storytelling is actually what I found to be a very valuable tool in allowing you to protect that privacy and have some semblance of anonymity while still building those personal connections with people in your audience and so being able to share or get your point across from an anecdotal point of view or explaining kind of the things that you've walked through rather than giving people three tips and tricks for how to do something if you can explain why you know this thing through sharing your story of why you know this thing that's going to be a lot more impactful and then as a byproduct of that people feel like they know you people have that familiarity with you and also as another byproduct of that those videos tend to be longer they tend to be able to be stretched into multiple Parts which goes back to that mere exposure effect in sales psychology so the more people have interaction with you the more familiarity they have the more they trust you the more you become the go-to person in their mind simply just because they've seen you more and so storytelling does a lot of things but some of the more tangible things is that the videos tend to be longer you can break them into multiple parts and people tend to want to follow you to get the rest of the story so it can be very impactful actually for follower growth and for that mere exposure effect and building that connectivity and trust and actually lowering the the risk barrier when it comes to people actually making a purchase decision with you and then of course it builds that connectivity where people feel like they know you they're getting pieces of you and pieces of your story but they're pieces that you are comfortable sharing they're pieces that you have pulled out that aren't like super invasive to you so you're able to share you're able to have these connection points but again you're not necessarily giving your entire life story so you're still able to maintain some semblance of privacy as well and that's so smart because so often we see a brand and we want to know the founder and it is hard for Founders to try to separate the business versus their personal brand so that is top of mind for so many business owners and leaders yeah exactly but I do think founder centered content is where a lot of the industry is going and that it's very important but I do think that people are going to get mad about this but I think engineered authenticity is really going to be the way to go because true authenticity where people are oversharing that's dying out because people understand that their actions have consequences and digital Footprints are forever and people are also really I think learning the value of having things that are offline and so engineered authenticity where people are pulling out things from their personal story and we talk about this all the time on my socials with like your business butterfly effect so people understand how you got here they have context as to who you are and why they should listen to you but they also don't know the nitty-gritty of everything that's happening in your life but they're given enough to chew on that satisfies them is been a really impactful way to move forward because it it seems to quench people's thirst for that authenticity and connection but it still offers people the comfort and privacy that they're really wanting and it's so interesting to see that shift we went through a time where it was share something deeply personal right and now you can see the shift of coming out of that like I used to work for the Los Angeles Dodgers and there were very few women and it's during that time that I became passionate about empowering women and I thought that recently because of everything you're talking about and that shift I thought why don't I share that story as to why I am so passionate because it took me a while to find a female Mentor within Sports So it's talking about that why you're right I can completely see that shift yeah 100% if people understand why you do things then there's going to be so much more of a movement behind your brand it's going to be so much stronger and it's something that people can be locked into and I think there's something to be said for going beyond your brand values sharing those externally which brands have done for years and actually letting your audience almost be shareholders in your brand and letting them feel like they have a stake in the vision because I personally think that's what's going to allow for Brands to have have stability in the future because we're going to continue to see different platforms shift and Rise and Fall so if you don't want your brand to be bound to Tik Tok then your audience needs to be really tied to your brand and feel like they have a stake in it that's probably going to be the way to do it as someone who overcame personal challenges to achieve incredible success what mindset shifts do you believe are essential for entrepreneurs who want to grow their brand and reach new levels so here's a controversial hot take that I'll probably be brawling with a mindset coach in the street about but please share I can't wait to hear now on the edge of my seat you can catch me brawling with mindset coaches on threads I take issue with what I call the toxic positivity in the online space in the business space where you hustle hard you work hard to get what you want and you show up positive with a good attitud ude and you manifest and you put positivity into the universe and the universe will give it back to you I take issue with that and the reason that I take issue with that is because what I found is that some of my most powerful impact and the things that mean the most to me that I care the most about and things that have really changed so many people's lives has come out of actually a lot of pain and negativity and self-loathing and things that I wish I could change about myself as an example of that one of the things that I share quite often is the fact that it was very hard for me to get on camera for the first time and get on social media and start creating content because I was very self-conscious about my prosthetic eye and growing up with eye cancer growing up with being the different one being called the Cyclops kid in in class that wears on you and on one hand yeah you have a thicker skin but on another hand you're constantly hearing the things that you already think about yourself so it's just confirming what you already thought and when I started posting on social media in a way it was partially it was to appease my husband who kept saying why don't you share this information that you have on social media I was like man get off my back bro yes he's the best he's like why don't you share this and so part of it was to get him off my back but part of it was also I think in the convoluted way as I've reflected to prove to myself confirmation bias that the people on the internet they were going to confirm for me that like there there was something wrong with me that this looked super weird and was super ugly and like that it was going to be super noticeable on camera and in a lot of ways I got that confirmation cuz I I got the hate comments and I got the negative comments and all of that I'm so sorry that you got that and see it's like on one hand it it was negative and it was the confirmation negatively that I was looking for but on the other hand what I also got Beyond those comments was people saying I've been wanting to create content so badly and I also have a prosthetic eye and I was so self-conscious about it but seeing you create content inspired me to be able to do it amazing and I got messages from parents who had children that had the same kind of cancer that I had and just an outpouring of support and then as I brought on clients for Consulting and helping them create their own social content I realized that there's a lot of other reasons and there's a lot of other people that are self-conscious to be on camera it's not just me and my One Singular eyeball there's a lot of self-conscious people lot people a lot of for all different kinds of reasons it was almost like the thing that I hated so much about myself became an inspiration to a lot of people because it was like she can do it and she's still getting like these awful comments I can sure do it the thing that I hate about myself isn't even noticeable so if she can do it I sure can and so that's where to come full circle back to the mindset shift sometimes the negative thing is actually something that you can lean into sometimes it's something that will resonate with a lot of people sometimes if you dig into where it hurts that's the thing that if you can buckle down and bear it it'll Inspire and impact a lot of people for good and so I guess the mindset shift is instead of trying to get rid of the negative thing or shy away from it or cure the issue maybe lean into it maybe explore it a little bit and maybe see if it's something that could be leveraged for powerful impact maybe it's something that people could resonate with maybe it's something that could be used to inspire thank you for sharing that story with us and for rising up because you are empowering so many to do more of what they actually want to do they're sitting there with the inside of them and they want to do it so badly so thank you for sharing your story and empowering so many other people thank you and when something happens like that you think I could give up or I could give it all I've got yeah thank you for giving it all that you've got that means a lot to me try to just do that every day because with every negative comment there's 10 positive ones it's gotten to a point now where it's okay this was worth it I see it now it's interesting cuz I have 10 almost 11y old twins and people will say things to them and I'm just thinking that through this because as it relates to my twins and I'll say just because somebody says something about you doesn't mean it's true so it's hard to know that and it's hard to think that because growing up in a world of social media anybody can say anything to you on group chats or social and it's really important to think through that social toughness and mental toughness and you know what it's actually been an interesting tool for me because I've been on social media long enough now and gotten enough negative comments that I've been able to pick out 9 5% of them don't bother me at all I just scroll right on by but the 5% that do it's been really interesting because I've been able to dial in on those and be like why does this bother me and there's been a lot of them that I've been able to work through and so it's been almost an interesting self-discovery where it's a diagnostic thing sometimes I'll get a comment where I'm like I'm surprised that bothered me so much let me think through that let me reflect on that a little bit and then the next time I get the comment it doesn't bother me as much so it's Al been really interesting like form of self-discovery almost wow I didn't realize I had a problem with that about myself I guess I do I guess I can work on that I think it can also probably be used as fuel too 100% magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy we've talked a lot about business today what do you do for you to make sure you're finding and living your joy part of the reason that I initially wanted to even have a business in the beginning was because I just wanted to financially be in a place where I would be able to have my horses and be able to Barrel race and one of the things that we were just able to do is we just moved into this house which is also on horse property so I can have our horses right in the backyard and so that's like my one thing that I don't really share with the internet I'll make the occasional post when I go writing but that's my one thing just for me is riding the horses and I'm wanting to get back into competing and barrel racing so that's my thing I love that and nature and animals they can take us out of our business world and our business mind thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your knowledge and for sharing your story and uplifting so many people please share with us how and where we can find you I'm at Kanda dolany on Instagram Lany media on Tik Tok at kendan on Tik Tok our podcast is the social media millionaire we're on YouTube We're everywhere thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave