AL 011: Is It Time to Stop Building on Social Media?

AL 011: Is It Time to Stop Building on Social Media?

Liz Wilcox: Oh my goodness. Come on in. Come on in. Welcome to another bite-sized episode of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, AskLiz edition, where you submit your questions, do that, the link is in the show notes, and I answer them. And every person that I answer on the show gets a free T-shirt because who doesn’t love free advice and free swag?

So I’m loving this. I hope you’re loving it. Leave a review if you are, and, I mean, leave a review if you’re not. I wanna know. I wanna know how to do better. I am still new around this SPI block, so you gotta tell me what is up. You gotta.

All right, so today we are talking to Julie. Let’s listen in and hear, uh, why she’s on the struggle bus today.

Julie Kleinhans: Hi, Liz. My name is Julie Kleinhans from Reshape and Recover. I help people recover from overeating and emotional eating so they can achieve lasting weight loss and freedom with food.

One challenge I face is that many people don’t want others to know that they’re struggling with food. They’re often hesitant to engage publicly with posts, comment on content, or register for workshops because it feels embarrassing or too personal.

I also don’t want to send direct messages or emails that might make someone feel singled out or judged.

How would you suggest that I use marketing, email marketing, or any other kind of marketing and relationship building to attract people who need help but may be reluctant to publicly admit they’re struggling?

Liz Wilcox: Okay, Julie, I love this question because… And you might, if you were listening, you might not have picked up on it. She said, “People don’t want to talk in the comments because it’s embarrassing.” So don’t be a social media queen, in my opinion, right? Like, and I say it with love, right? Pat is so good at the social media, especially in the Pokemon space.

That stuff is just blowing up. People are rabid over there to talk in the comments section, on lives, show their face, go to Card Parties. You know, his last Card Party had 10,000 people in it over in Fort Lauderdale, I think it was. Shout out Deep Pocket Monster and the gang. But yeah, Julie’s right. There are some niches, niches?

How do you pronounce it? Let me know. Email me. Let me know. There are some topics that don’t really lend themselves to that kind of online community, public community, I should say. So why don’t we look for places where they already are, and they already are talking about it, where they can maybe be a little more anonymous, right?

Or they’ve already moved past the this is embarrassing to the I want to make a change. So I’m talking about, in that case, private groups, right? And I say it with love, you’re not the only person doing what you do. So there are people who have managed to break past that, I don’t know, humiliation, embarrassment barrier and get people into their groups.

So there are Facebook groups, private groups, things like that, where your people are already hanging out, already talking. YouTube comment sections. Look for videos that you think your ideal person would listen to, would watch. And read those comments. Interact with those people. Honestly, even just interacting, even if you’re not like, “Hey, I’m Julie, da, da, da, da, da,” like you can give them encouragement. Especially on YouTube, like instead of trying to create your own content, go to other people’s content on Instagram, Facebook, et cetera.

Go to other people’s content and talk with people there because while you might think nobody wants to talk about it, there are some people that just have that sort of it factor that can get people talking about things that are embarrassing. I mean, raise your hand if you’ve been scrolling TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, whatever, and you saw some stuff and you were like, “I wish we knew less about each other. I didn’t need to know that about that creator”, right? We are just putting all of our business out there, Julie. We really are. So I know people are putting their business out there, and maybe that’s it as well. Maybe we let go of the idea that all of our clients are so embarrassed that they’re not gonna speak publicly.

Maybe we, we think about the client a little differently. Like, if you face this head-on, you will get people that are ready to face this head-on, right? So if you, if you do wanna go the content route, create content around, “Here’s how I’m different. Here’s what I would never do. 10 things I would say if I wasn’t afraid to hurt your feelings. 10 things I would say if you and I both could get over the embarrassment of weight loss.” You know, content like that, where you’re moving people out of this, “I know it’s embarrassing. Oh my gosh, don’t comment if you don’t want to,” into, you know, “Hey, this is the thing.” And then you can even use something like ManyChat for that DM automation, right?

Or you could just say, you know, “DM me the word.” You don’t have to publicly. But again, I, I would rather you just face it head-on because, yeah, it’s embarrassing, it’s, it’s very private, but not everyone who has weight to lose is so embarrassed that they do nothing. People are moved to action every day. So again, if, if you’re gonna create your own content, create content that moves them to action.

Now, you can look at, and again, I already kinda mentioned this, but, like, look at your competitors or look at the people that are doing what you’re doing. And not to copy them, but just to see how they are getting people to engage. You know, the weight loss industry is huge. I know that there are big accounts out there where people are talking.

So make a list of what you like that they’re doing and what you don’t like, and again, create content around that. Now, I wanna circle back to my original thing about if people are so embarrassed or, you know, you feel like people are so embarrassed there’s just no way they’re gonna engage in your content.

Again, I say with love, don’t create content. Go on podcasts where people in the privacy of their own home and cars and headphones can listen about weight loss. Go into those private groups that they’re already hanging out. Go to Reddit. Reddit has so many subreddits, so many forums. Make a name for yourself over there as somebody who helps them.

Go into those YouTube comment sections, Facebook groups, et cetera. Find these people where they already are. And Julie, Julie’s super well-spoken, and shout out Julie because she’s a member of the SPI Community, and so I’ve done an audit for her. I’ve done all the… I’ve, I’ve looked at her stuff thoroughly.

It is really, really good. And so I super recommend, like, doing the podcast circuit, like going on podcasts or finding people that are doing something similar to you and doing collaborations, right? You could host your own event, and you could even say in the copy, like, “This is private. Sign up with your email address,” and you get, let’s say, you know, you’ve got a couple friends in the industry.

So you host the event. Maybe it’s a one-day event, 10 talks in one day about the different ways to lose weight and shame, right? Lose weight and the shame, right? And you get Shahara, Kayden, Zachary, Junaid, Pat, Liz. You get all of these speakers, Nahaku. You get these speakers, and they promote to their list.

And I’m not just talking to Julie here. Social media is not the end-all be-all in audience building. There are so many other ways to build your audience, and you guys already know if you’ve been listening to the podcast. Leave a review, #OPP. I’m down with OPP, other people’s platforms, right? So if you can link arms with friends that have similar size platforms as you or maybe a little bigger, et cetera, you’re gonna go farther faster.

Or is it further faster? I don’t know. Uh, grammar nerds, help me out. So Julie, that is what I suggest for you. Oh, and also be direct. So if you’re gonna create content, when you go on these podcasts, when you do private talks, when you’re in the comment sections, be direct. Tell people exactly what you said in the thingy that you just sent me.

“I know this is hard. I know it’s embarrassing. You don’t wanna publicly admit that you’re struggling.” And then share stories that you have of relating to that embarrassment, relating to that shame, and call them out. Call them in and… Call them out and call them in, right? Say things like, “Here’s my story. Here’s how I got through it. Here’s what I want for you. You might be X. Together, we can get you to Y.” And then get past clients. So Julie, I know you’ve got past clients because you are so good at this, and your clients love you so much. And get on the phone with them. Have them give you the words to say.

Interview them. Why did you go with me even when it felt embarrassing? You know what I mean?

All right. So let me recap this for everybody. Number one, if content creation, if you’re convinced, you know, nobody’s gonna comment, nobody’s gonna DM, it’s embarrassing, I don’t wanna, you know, assault their feelings, so to speak, don’t do content. Don’t go on social media. Go on podcasts. Go into private groups. Find YouTube comment sections, Reddit forums where people are already discussing. Become the expert that can help them, the helpful friend in that group that can move them towards change.

If you must go on social media, look at what your competition is doing. Again, we’re not copying them, but we’re gonna make a list of what you like and what you don’t like, and you’re gonna create content around that.

And the last thing is to just be direct. Tell your subscribers or your potential subscribers, “I know this is hard, embarrassing.” Use their words, the words that you’re gonna get from working with past clients for all the years you’ve been working with them.

Also, you can interview them. Use those words to reach those people. All right, Julie, I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait for you to find the right people, to serve them, to help them live a better, happier, healthy life. I’ll see all of you on the next episode.

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