How To Overcome Social Media Posting Anxiety as a Solopreneur

Watch the Episode on YouTube

Joe and Carly are slowly warming up to social media, but it certainly isn’t their comfort zone. 

Figuring out where your audience is and how to effectively communicate with them is a challenge.

Growth can seem to take forever. And just when you think you’ve cracked the code, an algorithm changes. So what are you supposed to do?

Today we are joined by Lauren Litt, of Lil Shameless Plug, who runs a business helping entrepreneurs who hate social media, but know they need it for their business. Sound familiar?

We invited her on to discuss things like:

• What solopreneurs often do wrong when it comes to their social media strategy
• How solopreneurs should approach social media differently than larger companies
• How to become more confident on social media, especially with video
• Whether or not you need to post like an influencer to be successful

And so much more, so be sure to tune in!

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

Connect with Lauren Litt

• Connect on Instagram.

Favorite Quotes About Success:

"The way you do everything is the way you do anything, and vice versa."

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Starter gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out SoloSuite Starter!

About Lauren Litt

Lauren Litt, owner and lead Social Media Manager at Lil Shameless Plug. Lil Shameless Plug is dedicated to the curation and creation of quality content for the female entrepreneur who is ready to take her business growth to the next level. 

Working as an actor for over a decade showed Lauren that while she had many incredibly talented friends, not all of them knew how to promote themselves online. So, in 2074,she started Lil Shameless Plug with the goal of helping creative entrepreneurs build an online web presence and to coach them on how to find their audience and expand their communities. 

Since launching Lil Shameless Plug, Lauren has expanded her offerings to include a course that teaches business owners how to stay consistent with social media and build a community by showing up as their authentic selves, all while avoiding burnout and overwhelm. 

Lauren's clients have experienced a renewed relationship with social media. With her guidance, they create a simplified plan that they can follow consistently - one that feels fun and allows them to stay genuine and engaged with their audience. 

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on Apple Podcasts Thanks!

Full Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: 00:00

If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know that Joe and I are slowly warming up to social media, but it certainly isn't our comfort zone. I'm a millennial and I feel like posting online should come a lot more naturally, but it just doesn't. Video is intimidating. Figuring out where your audience is and how to effectively communicate with them is a challenge. Growth can seem to take forever.

Carly Ries: 00:20

And just when you think you've cracked the code, an algorithm changes. So what are you supposed to do? Well, today we're joined by Lauren Litt of Lil Shameless Plug who runs a business helping entrepreneurs who hate social media, but know they need it for their

Carly Ries: 00:35

business. Sound familiar? We invited her on to discuss things like what soloheypreneurs often do wrong when it comes to their social media strategy, how solopreneurs should approach social media differently than larger companies, how to become more confident on social media, especially with video, and whether or not you need to post like an influencer to be successful.

Carly Ries: 00:55

We talk about this and so much more, so be sure to tune in. You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my co host Joe Rando and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of 1. We take pride in being part of Lifestarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work.

Carly Ries: 01:34

And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around, or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Okay. So before we jump into this episode, I just have to share this new free offer we have called the Solo Suite Starter.

Carly Ries: 02:00

Being a solopreneur is awesome, but it's not easy. It's hard to get noticed, and most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone until now. LifeStarr's Solo Suite gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one person business. So if you're lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even if you're just lonely running a company of 1. Be sure to check out Solo Suite Starter at LifeStarr.com and click on products and pricing at the top menu.

Carly Ries: 02:33

It's the first one in the drop down. Again, it's totally free, so check it out at LifeStarr.com. Click on products and pricing, and it's the first one in the menu. Hope to see you there. Lauren, we are so happy to have you today.

Carly Ries: 02:48

Welcome to the show. It's funny because we've had quite a few people on here talking about social media. And what I really want to get to today and we'll we'll have a few other random questions in there. The big thing for today is confidence. I'm a millennial. I lack that confidence with social media.

Carly Ries: 03:15

For some reason, I didn't get that bug with our generation. You might be younger than me,

Lauren Litt: 03:20

Well I'm an elder millennial, actually.

Carly Ries: 03:23

So elder millennial. Joe, are you aware of this term that we are now called elder millennial?

Joe Rando: 03:28

Yes. Well, I think you're breaking up the millennials because what is it? From 81, I think.

Joe Rando: 03:36

81 Yeah.

Lauren Litt: 03:38

You're an elder millennial if you actually ever, dialed a phone.

Joe Rando: 03:44

So I'm an elder millennial. Cool.

Lauren Litt: 03:47

And then, had to switch into the phase.

Carly Ries: 03:51

I am right there. That term for me is right up there with geriatric pregnancy. Terms just need to go. I don't like the name. I don't like those phrases.

Carly Ries: 04:00

I feel like we need to rebrand.

Lauren Litt: 04:03

I love it because I feel like it separates me from the millennials when people complain about them. I'll be like, well, I'm an elder millennial, so no, that's not me.

Carly Ries: 04:10

I have years of wisdom beyond Years.

Joe Rando: 04:15

Can I claim to be a young boomer?

Carly Ries: 04:18

Yes. You can. Take it.

Joe Rando: 04:21

I'm gonna take it.

Carly Ries: 04:23

Well, Lauren, let's just dive right in. I mean, there are gazillion questions that can be asked when it comes to social media. But I guess, you work with solopreneurs. You understand the landscape.

Carly Ries: 04:34

Let's start off with the love hate relationship. What what most solopreneurs do wrong before we get into this whole confidence thing? What just pains you when you see it?

Lauren Litt: 04:45

I don't know that it pains me, but I feel bad that people come in with this misconception, which is that, oh, my gosh. I won't be able to use social media because I don't have 10,000 followers. I'm never going to get these platforms to work for me. They really focus on vanity metrics and, oh, I can't put out 10 pieces of content every day, so, therefore, I can't do this.

Lauren Litt: 05:07

And those are the wrong things to focus on because very few people are actually going to get that 10,000, 100,000 followers. But you can have a micro niche account, which is 3 to 5000 followers and have a really successful solopreneur business.

Carly Ries: 05:23

I think that is such a great point. And just for our listeners who are just getting started, you said vanity metrics. let's talk really quick about what those are for people that aren't familiar.

Lauren Litt: 05:32

So we all know what vanity means. Right? It's when we're focused on ourselves. So when we're talking about vanity metrics, these are outwardly facing numbers that appear as if, they mean something, but they actually don't.

Lauren Litt: 05:44

So these are your follower counts. The number, on LinkedIn like 500 plus, you know, that number. Any likes really at this point on your content because it is not truly an engagement metric anymore that they're really using to use in the algorithm. So it's anything like that. Anything that is outwardly focused that doesn't actually tell us the real story of your business, which is, are people clicking through to your website? Are they actually purchasing your downloadable recipe kit? These are things that actually matter versus those follower whatever

Lauren Litt: 06:18

count.

Carly Ries: 06:19

And I have definitely downloaded whatever recipe kit you were just talking about.

Lauren Litt: 06:24

I have 5 of them. I'm sure.

Carly Ries: 06:26

Okay. So you said it you don't need a gabillion followers. You could just have that niche. But when you're starting out, for me, it was so awkward to be, like, here's how you do this with lead gen and blah blah blah.

Carly Ries: 06:39

Marketing, marketing, marketing. Here are my 20 followers. It's like there's that balance of I really do know what I'm talking about but I haven't grown that base yet. We're just confidence playing at that point. How can people trust their gut and be, like, just keep going because I do know what I'm talking about.

Lauren Litt: 06:58

Yeah. So we're all gonna channel Dory. Right? Just keep swimming here. And how I help people overcome that issue of like, oh, my gosh, but nobody's really listening or nobody's here, is to truly center the client. So what we do is we actually, you know, every solopreneur has heard, let's get really clear about who your client is. I want you to actually write that person on a little post it that you can put right next to the camera that you're talking to. And that way it doesn't feel like you're speaking into a void, you're actually speaking to one particular person. You're focusing in on what do I need to tell for me, I love working with, you know, people at the beginnings of their businesses.

Lauren Litt: 07:41

So, what do I need to tell this person about their social media in order to get them to that next step today? And that way, it's no longer about you because when you're focusing on the followers or, you know, did anybody watch this video, you make it about yourself. But when you truly center your client and center what they need to hear, even if one person sees it, you know that you've made that connection and it's working.

Joe Rando: 08:04

This person that you're talking to on a post it note on your monitor, would you call this a persona? Is this like somebody that you've kind of specked out as, kind of characteristics, age range, education level, job, title Whatever.

Lauren Litt: 08:19

Yes, That kind of stuff. And also like, what drink are they having? If you go to the bar, what are they watching? Really get clear about that. I like to use this example, I have this client Bob. Bob is not a millennial. He's not even an elder millennial. And his ideal client, we call her the lady about town. The lady about town is in her late sixties. She's about to retire or retired. She's got a lot of discretionary income. She loves to drink martinis with her friends. The lady about town.

Lauren Litt: 08:50

So when Bob is making content, he is speaking to the lady about town, and he knows very clearly who that is.

Carly Ries: 08:57

That's a great point. So okay. So narrowing it down to that one person can kinda take the scary out of posting thing. But here's the thing. Video is also very scary.

Carly Ries: 09:08

I was telling you earlier, If I was put in front of a room with 10,000 people, it wouldn't scare me. I used to do stand up comedy. I do not have that stage fright fear that, what is ike, the number one fear people have. I'm flat for whatever reason. However, putting a video on social media, I am just so awkward with it. Joe and I have talked about it a 1000000 times. How can people get comfortable with video specifically?

Lauren Litt: 09:35

Do you mind if we get more specific with you about what that fear might be?

Carly Ries: 09:40

Oh, yes. Let's do it.

Lauren Litt: 09:42

So when you think about opening up your your camera and and getting ready to do a live, what is it that's coming to mind? What is the fear for you?

Carly Ries: 09:53

So we joke that, and my husband's the best. He's very loving, but he does say that I speak in cursive because I talk so quickly. So I think part of it is just, like, stumbling over my words a little bit. I don't know. It just feels very exposing, I guess. It just feels like a very vulnerable state. I don't know if I have any actual basis for that, but it's just that feeling I get. Joe and I, we had a TikTok phase that, is no longer.

Carly Ries: 10:30

We're done with that phase. But it was something that I feel, like what's the opposite of an older millennial, a younger millennial? I think generations after us just can so quickly be like, la la la la, like, get ready with me, blah, blah, blah. And for me, I had to do 10, 15 recordings to get that one. And maybe they do also, and I just don't see it. But I felt like a perfectionist. I felt like you need to be a perfectionist almost for something that shouldn't look perfect.

Lauren Litt: 11:00

Great. So we've got that you're feeling super vulnerable and that you have, this perfectionist technique around it. Joe, what were you gonna say?

Joe Rando: 11:06

No. I was just curious, are you talking about the Solopreneur Success Secrets videos?

Carly Ries: 11:11

Yeah. These little these little short short reels, We put them on YouTube, TikTok. It was kind of fun. Didn't do a lot. We probably should've stuck with it, but, it was, yeah. I was just just curious. So that's what you're talking about.

Carly Ries: 11:32

That's and I would love to continue doing those videos. Not necessarily, would you? In theory. Yeah. But I but and now as much from a here's your success secret number 42, but just as a okay, you guys.

Carly Ries: 11:48

I just finished this interview with Warren Litt. It was so awesome. Like, just more off the cuff and I'm sorry. I cut you off, but I wanna know where you are gonna go with that.

Lauren Litt: 12:01

No. That's good. Okay. So it sounds like you do have a real fear of being harmed on the platform. That's that vulnerability. Right? And, also, you're very So there's 2 things we need to coach around right here. Number 1 is, yes, there are trolls online. It is a vulnerable space and people can be mean to you. So we need to address that fear and talk about, okay, what would that actually look like if someone were to say that my hair was extra frizzy today or, you know, get really personal about something because I'm a woman and I don't know what I'm saying, like, whatever that is. we're going to create a plan for what the action would be if that were to happen. And when that plan is in place, I find that people feel a lot more comfortable because they're like, okay, well, if the worst were to happen, here's my plan of action and here's how I'm gonna take care of that, and I know I'm gonna be safe because it is a scary place. I myself, many, many years ago was doxed, in a really scary way where my phone number was released and people were calling and leaving very terrifying voice mails on my phone. So this is truly a scary place. I understand that very well. And to just say, like, well, I feel vulnerable and that's just silly. Like, no. You really need to think that through and be like, what am I scared of, and how can I protect myself from this? So that's one piece.

Lauren Litt: 13:26

And it's probably not gonna happen, you know, but it could. The other piece, the perfectionist piece, when you first learned to walk, were you perfect?

Carly Ries: 13:37

So perfect. I was like, child prodigy walkers.

Lauren Litt: 13:43

You just, like, took a step. You're, like, I got this, you all.

Carly Ries: 13:47

No. I was not perfect.

Lauren Litt: 13:49

And really, social media shows us this more than anything else. I think, that if you start something and you do it for 30 days, okay, fine. When you do it for a year, when you've doing it for 2 years, 3 years, that's when you start to get really, really good. And a lot of us, especially when we're talking to solopreneurs, people at the beginning of their journey, like, you know this because the 1st year in business is your hardest year. It is the worst.

Lauren Litt: 14:15

I don't know how any anybody gets past it, you know, but, at some point, the things that felt really difficult become easier, And it's the same way with social media. You are doing a new skill set, and you have entertainment background, which is fabulous. You're going to do fantastic if you can tell a joke because people love that. But it's a different form of storytelling. It's a very short form of storytelling where you don't have an hour or 15 minutes or even 5 minutes to really get through your point. So it's gonna take practice to get better at it.

Carly Ries: 14:48

Practice, Joe. Well, and that's what's so funny is we do these interviews all the time and I'll swing in, like, 2 minutes ahead of time and be like, alright. Let's do this. It doesn't seem scary to me, but we're on video right now. I have my camera on, and this will be released to the interwebs, and it's fine.

Joe Rando: 15:05

You weren't like that when we first started doing video, and I was really uncomfortable too. You know, even when we first started doing audio podcasting, in the beginning, it was pretty uncomfortable at first. I mean, at least I thought it was. It took me a little while before I said, okay. I feel alright about this. But Yeah.

Lauren Litt: 15:25

And, like, I've been shocked when people are like, oh my gosh, you're so confident on your profile. I just love watching you. I'm like, you do? Because, like, in my head, there's still that voice. You know, I call her Karen.

Lauren Litt: 15:35

She's a real b I t c h. And, you know, like, she is still saying those things to me. So we all hear this. You know, we're all experiencing it. And even if you think someone is absolutely perfect and fabulous, they're having second guesses and wondering about tripping over a word or whatever.

Lauren Litt: 15:57

But the other thing is the perfectly, perfectly, perfectly produced content doesn't perform as well as me walking down the street and, like, oh my god. My dog stopped and now I have to, you know, handle this real life situation. People are more interested in you when you're a human.

Joe Rando: 16:14

That's so true. For me, I see these highly produced videos. I'm like, yeah. Swipe, you know, next one. And then you see somebody, just kind of, I don't know, just shooting straight. And that's engaging. I agree.

Lauren Litt: 16:28

I cannot tell you how many people I follow who sit in their car and talk to me. I'm, like, yes.

Carly Ries: 16:34

That's what I aspire to do. In my car and record myself. Dream big guys. Well, Lauren, it's so funny because you said something about frizzy hair which watching this on YouTube, but Lauren has fab hair. So I don't know what she's talking about.

Carly Ries: 16:49

But correct me if I'm wrong, you have something related to your hair routine and social media. What what is that? When you said that it reminded me and I was like, oh, I meant to ask you about this.

Lauren Litt: 17:00

I like to say that your approach to your content on social media should be a lot more like my hair routine. And what I mean by that is I have super curly hair. If you can't see it, I have 2c3a curls, which means they're really big. Joe, you probably have very curly hair as well.

Joe Rando: 17:17

Yeah. But I've never had it measured in terms of a code.

Lauren Litt: 17:23

You might be a 2 c, 2 b, 2 c curl. Yeah. It's a larger wave.

Carly Ries: 17:30

Your appointment tomorrow. Joe, you should ask your barber.

Joe Rando: 17:32

I am desperate to get to that haircut. It's late. So I gotta show you a picture of me when I was in a rock band in the seventies. You'll see my curls.

Lauren Litt: 17:43

Okay. If I do not see this posted on your LinkedIn when this episode comes up, we have all failed.

Joe Rando: 17:47

No. Absolutely not.

Lauren Litt: 17:50

Okay. So I've got this big hair. Right? And what that means is I cannot wash my hair every day. If I wash my hair every day, one, it takes me about an hour and a half to 2 hours to wash it, plop it, dry it, put all the stuff in it, and then scrunch. Like, it's just a very long, very intense process. And that means I would lose 2 hours of my day every day. So if we're talking about content, if we're talking about taking that to an online space, a really good piece of content, especially when you're gets getting started could take you an hour to 2 hours because it's a new skill that you're learning. You will not have the time as a solopreneur to put that excellent content out every day or even twice a day, but you can probably put that excellent piece of content out once a week. And if you were to do a once a week content plan with engagement on the side, you are already ahead of about 80% of the people out there. On LinkedIn specifically, I think it's something like 86 percent of people post less than one time a week. So the bar is really low to actually be a quote, unquote consistent poster.

Carly Ries: 18:58

Joe, we post 5 times a week at minimum.

Lauren Litt: 19:01

Y'all are doing great.

Carly Ries: 19:04

Joe the literal rock star is now a social media rock star. Yes. He is.

Joe Rando: 19:13

5 yeah. It's not easy 5 times a week, though. I'll give you that. I mean, there's this time that goes into that, especially if you want it to be worthwhile. I mean, it's easy enough too, I see some of the stuff people post and I'm like, oh, wow. That really took a good part of 30 seconds. But a lot of people do great stuff. And so if you wanna post, I think it's not worth doing it unless you're willing to put something up that's helpful.

Lauren Litt: 19:37

And my prediction for this year, you know, we've got everybody is really leaning into AI tools, and I do think there's a time and a place for AI in and in helping you create content is definitely part of it. But if you just take the AI post and throw them up, you are like every other person out there. So what can you do to set yourself apart? How can you put your own spin on what's coming out of our lovely friend, chat GPT?

Carly Ries: 20:03

We always joke that for people that have listened to our podcast, they've heard this a 1000000 times. But if Delve is in your social media post or emojis to the extreme That's for sure taken directly from Chat GPT.

Lauren Litt: 20:16

Absolutely.

Joe Rando: 20:17

One of my recent posts on LinkedIn was confessing that I have a fear of emojis because I don't know if I'm using them right. So I started using Chat GPT to put when I wanna use some emojis, I have Chat GPT put them in for me to make sure I'm using the right ones because it's damn good at them.

Lauren Litt: 20:33

Yeah. It's obsessed with emojis. We wanna be, like, calm it down.

Joe Rando: 20:37

Don't change the words, but make the dashes into emojis, and then I delete 3 quarters of them because it goes nuts,

Carly Ries: 20:43

The new debate as to whether the prayer emoji is that or a high five?

Lauren Litt: 20:49

Oh, people think it's a high five?

Carly Ries: 20:50

There's like a new thing where people are like, is that actual, like, a prayer emoji or is it a high five?

Lauren Litt: 20:55

It's a prayer because it's at the bottom. If it was at the top of the screen and we saw little hands

Carly Ries: 21:00

If you go look at it now, it's like, everything's on the top.

Joe Rando: 21:04

Yeah. somebody put that on my post. Right?

Carly Ries: 21:07

Yeah. You can't unsee it once you see it.

Lauren Litt: 21:09

Oh, no.

Carly Ries: 21:10

I know I forever changed your life. You're welcome.

Carly Ries: 21:14

Well, speaking of all the confusion with this, the other quotable thing that you left me with I was intrigued by before you and I hopped on or before all 3 of us hopped on the phone. You talk about living in the messy middle with social media. What does that mean?

Lauren Litt: 21:31

That's because I am a recovering perfectionist forever and ever. And, what I mean by that is I know I'm not gonna be as good today as I will be in a year. I've already said this, but, like, I embrace my mistakes. You know, I just put up a really quick reel on my personal account, like, a couple days ago, and I didn't notice before I posted it, but the caption that I picked kind of because Instagram was having its lovely issues, kinda cut off some of the word, and it was like a little ugly and a little messy. And I was like, well, I could take the whole thing down and try to recreate my timing and the little, like, thought that I had had, or I can just leave it.

Lauren Litt: 22:12

And I left it. You know? It's doing great. I have, like, 11 comments on it. I'm happy. I'm happy with where it is in the engagement because the point isn't let me show the world how perfect I am. The point is how can I connect with you and get some engagement going right now?

Carly Ries: 22:30

I am so happy you just said 11 comments because the thing that I wanna reiterate with solopreneurs is so many of us only need a handful of clients and you don't need to speak to to the entire world. A lot of solopreneurs need 2 or 3 people to fund their bank account and that's it. And so sometimes people are, like, well, I need a 1,000 comments or a 1000000 shares to make a post successful. That is not true. If you have 11 comments and it is your target audience and it's who you're really talking to, that's awesome.

Carly Ries: 23:01

So I'm so glad you said that.

Joe Rando: 23:03

I saw it at Inbound this past September. I saw this guy, Dale Bertrand, speak, and he was talking more about content marketing, but it I think it applies across the board. And he said, all this stuff we're doing with content, and I think a lot of what people are doing with social media, doesn't lead to conversions. It doesn't lead to customers or even, you know, to leads that could maybe become customers. You know, I can probably put out some great story about some wonderful thing that happened with my kids when they were little and people would love it, and they get all kinds of responses and hearts, and it's not gonna convert. A lot of content we put out there is the same thing. It's like people might might consume it. I wrote an article a few years ago at my last company, my last startup, and I wrote about shopping in the 22nd century. It was a comedy thing I did because I've been asked to predict shopping in 10 years.

Joe Rando: 23:53

And I said, I can't do that, but I can do the 22nd century. So I wrote this comedic blog for our company, Trade Area Systems, and it became the number one hit on Google for life in the 22nd century. Didn't do a damn thing for the business. Not one customer, nothing, but there it was getting tons of clicks. So, you know, it was a lesson for me.

Lauren Litt: 24:20

There's 2 things that came up for me while you were sharing. Number 1 is the conversion rates are so low, but as you pointed out, Carly, like, we don't need many for our business. For my business, I'm looking for 9 more clients this year. I can serve 10 in this VIP experience that I've created. I can only serve 10 people in a year.

Lauren Litt: 24:38

That's all I wanna do. That's all I need. Right? So I need 9 more connections this year. And the percentages that we're talking about, if you have a super highly engaged account, 3% of everybody that follows you is going to click through and get on your email list. And then we have to think about, okay, and maybe 6 percent of the people from your email list are gonna buy from you. It's tiny, tiny, tiny numbers. Right? That's why people get all obsessed and worried about how many people are following me, how many people are on my email list, all that stuff. But the better your engagement rates are, the more people are going to want to click through and you see those percentages go higher.

Lauren Litt: 25:18

That's when I was talking about the micro niche accounts, those these 3,000 follower accounts. Their percentage rates can be something like 10, 11%. That's huge. You know, my personal account, I have like 760 followers. I'm the worst social media person ever.

Carly Ries: 25:35

I know your pain.

Lauren Litt: 25:37

I struggle to post too. But, on my own personal account, my engagement rate is 10 to 15% always. No matter when I'm posting, if I haven't posted in a while, when I go in and I look at all of the people watching things, all of the people commenting, all of the people liking, I'm getting a 10 to 15% engagement rate based on the month. That's unheard of. Now I also have a tiny account and I'm very engaged with my followers.

Lauren Litt: 26:01

I treat them like people. You know? The other thing that you talked about, Joe, is saying like, oh, I'd created this post that was, you know, my kids or I wrote this thing about shopping in the 22nd century. That's what I call your give content. It's content that has nothing to do with your business but is going to connect with your followers.

Lauren Litt: 26:19

I talk about my dogs a lot. People really like to hear about my dogs. Nobody's clicking on my link because I've talked about Viola's PT and how good she did today. You know? But they are going to be like, Lauren's a relatable human. That's so funny that she spends so much money on her dogs. Like, they feel closer to me now. And so when I do get around to that 20% of content that's saying, hey, I've got 9 more spots this year. They're more likely to be like, I wanna learn more about Lauren and her programs. So that's the other thing to think about when you're sharing.

Joe Rando: 26:51

Interesting perspective. Very different from how I was thinking about it.

Lauren Litt: 26:55

How do you think about it?

Joe Rando: 26:57

Well, I always think every post has to be targeted toward adding value to my target market, you know, to my prospect. I hadn't thought about the idea that maybe doing something a little off just to be relatable and human and fun might be worth worthwhile. you know, I have to noodle on that because that's not how my brain was working.

Lauren Litt: 27:21

Well, let's go back to Bob, my client Bob and his lady about town. That client, she's, you know, this hoodie toity woman who's set to retire, she's got lots of discretionary income, She freaking loves a wine Wednesday post. You all, Bob does not sell wine. He doesn't sell it in the store.

Lauren Litt: 27:38

It is not something that he is part of. He appreciates a glass of wine. But when we share wine Wednesday, oh my gosh, are those women liking and sharing and following. And then when we share about the olive oil that he sells, they're like, oh, yeah. Bob's great. He gets me. And they go and they buy whatever new olive oils in the store. So it's a balance, but it's important to do because it makes us human.

Carly Ries: 28:01

Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, I love the idea of just tailoring everything to your own business because so many people just do what they think they're supposed to do or look for the numbers that they think they should look for. And it's so funny because Joe is in agreement with this. But, a year or 2 ago, we were going back and forth about having a Facebook page and whether we needed a Facebook page. I was over Facebook at that point. Like, I was just like, nope. I don't want it anymore. We don't have a Facebook page, but, since that's like the I feel like first starting solopreneurs, the first thing they think of was social media. They're like, I need a Facebook page, And I want to know what your take is on that just because it's something that we talked about so much. I actually have a friend who's starting a business and her first thing was, oh, I need to get my Facebook page up. And I had my opinions, but what are yours?

Lauren Litt: 28:55

So we're seeing a really interesting resurgence in Facebook I don't know what they've changed. I don't know what's happening. But as of, like, November of 2022, I don't have any clients that are tech well, except for Bob because of his ideal base.

Lauren Litt: 29:10

But I don't have any other clients who are on Facebook and actually post regularly on Facebook. Most other people are what we call, in a holding pattern where once a month we're just putting a post. Just to be like, the business is alive. You know, here's the best performing post from LinkedIn. We're just popping that onto the Facebook page. Complete duplication.

Lauren Litt: 29:31

But out of nowhere, these holding accounts started to get more engagement and followers. And we were like, we haven't been posting more than once a month. It's not like the content all of a sudden got so much better than it was before then. So I think Facebook realized that we were all like, we hate Facebook. We don't wanna be on here anymore, and they pushed too far about how they were doing Facebook.

Lauren Litt: 29:52

So I like to say, when you start your business, grab every platform that you can at least so you own your name. And then you're going to put up, you know, the banner, make sure your logo's the same on everything. And on every platform that you are not gonna be spending time on, you're going to pin a post at the top that says something like, hey. Thanks for finding me on Facebook. I'm not here very much.

Lauren Litt: 30:14

Come find me on Instagram at get social happy. And then they know, oh, you are in business. I know where to find you if I actually wanna follow you.

Carly Ries: 30:23

So I have a question. That's a really good idea, and I actually thought about that. And, Joe, maybe we should put that on our Facebook page, but it's still up.

Joe Rando: 30:32

It exists. Yeah. I gotta check.

Carly Ries: 30:34

Does Facebook knock you at all for that? I mean, I would assume not if you go to Instagram since it's all, like, our meta. You could put LinkedIn.

Lauren Litt: 30:41

You can put whatever you want. They're not gonna knock you at all.

Carly Ries: 30:44

Interesting. Okay. Because for some reason I thought that if you were to do that, they'd be like, well, we don't wanna send them to our competitors.

Lauren Litt: 30:50

So it is an outbound link, you know, and posts with outbound links don't get as much reach as posts with no outbound link, but and that's true on every platform. But our goal isn't reach. Our goal is when someone puts in little shameless plug, you know, on Google, all of those things that pop up, which Facebook is gonna pop up, LinkedIn's gonna pop up, all of these companies pay a ton of money to be on page 1 of Google. Like, I don't even know if my website, which is not good. Please don't go to web my website, shows up on page 1. So you just wanna make sure that, like, okay. If I'm in business, where are people finding me and do I look in business if that's the place that they're going?

Carly Ries: 31:33

Alright. Well, you settled it.

Lauren Litt: 31:36

So you don't have to post all the time. that's wonderful.

Carly Ries: 31:40

what I've got from this episode is to be confident, be you, and talk to that one person and everything else will kinda take care of itself. But, I guess, my parting words, if you could leave our audience with your parting words and your advice for social media when you are first starting out, what would it be?

Lauren Litt: 32:00

The reason why I do what I do is because I'm so clear about how powerful these platforms are. And if you're alive at all today, you know that we live in a really interesting environment and an interesting world. And if you've started a business, it's because you have a calling. I don't care if it's to sell olive oils like Bob or if it's to be a coach and help someone through a divorce. Like, you have a calling and a bigger reason for life. If we can take these platforms and share our message and share our own way of making the world a better place, I think we are all doing our part. So that's what I wanna leave you all with.

Carly Ries: 32:35

Your parting words are much more profound than mine, so thank you for sharing that. And, Lauren, we ask all of our guests this question because we are always so curious what people have to say. What is your favorite quote about success?

Lauren Litt: 32:49

I'm so excited to share. The way you do everything is the way you do anything and vice versa.

Carly Ries: 32:54

Yeah. I like it.

Joe Rando: 32:58

Recursive.

Carly Ries: 32:59

Makes you think. I like it. We haven't heard that one yet too. We have some repeats on here a lot. Is it a loren original?

Lauren Litt: 33:07

No. It's definitely not. I think people like the Dalai Lama, some people say, other people, like, there's a lot. I looked it up once. I finally was like, oh, I have a quote, and I'm gonna share it. Nobody knows who said it first.

Carly Ries: 33:16

Well, we'll anonymous it.

Joe Rando: 33:23

Claim it.

Carly Ries: 33:24

Yeah. Exactly.

Lauren Litt: 33:26

Do not do that to me.

Carly Ries: 33:32

They'll be like, look at this woman. She's a Karen. You were telling us to not send people to your website because it is a work in progress. So if people want to to learn more about you and become one of the 9 people that you can work with this year. Where can they find you?

Lauren Litt: 33:47

Please come visit me on Instagram. I practice what I preach, which is that I really focus on one platform and make sure I'm really good at that before I spread my wings. So come on over to Instagram. My brand new Instagram account is @getsocialhappy And I promise if you come follow me, I will give you a shout out. We'll say hi, and I'll answer any social questions you got.

Carly Ries: 34:08

Awesome. Well, Joe, I'm feeling more confident. Bring on the camera. Let's do this. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in today.

Carly Ries: 34:16

Lauren, thank you so much for joining us today as well. This has been so great. And as usual, Joe, what do what do we wanna end the show with? What do we wanna ask? 5 stars?

Lauren Litt: 34:33

Five stars.

Carly Ries: 34:33

We love 5 star reviews, especially on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to our show. Subscribe on YouTube. Refer a friend. Shout it in the grocery store how awesome the aspiring solopreneur is. We would so appreciate it. And until next time, we will see you next week, and have a great day.

Closing: 34:53

You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.