BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 37.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bird Means Business podcast. I am so happy that you are tuning in today, and I am excited about what we're going to talk about. It was actually a question that I received via email from one of you, and of course, I'll make sure to keep the person and the business anonymous. But it seems like a question that other people could have so I decided to share the wealth. 

Now before we get started I want to share a listener shout-out. Ashley East is a beautiful, radiant, young lady who actually recently shared that she listened to Episode 35 and loved it. And she is just an incredible person who is building a strong community of women. And she recently asked me to share on our podcast about building a legacy with your business while you're working a nine to five. It was a lot of fun, and I was super honored to be able to share to her, her tribe, as she's growing it. I just think she's an all-around great motivational person. So Ashley, thanks for the love, thanks for tuning in, and for sharing the podcast. 

All right, I just need y’all to know real quick. It is 12:23 in the morning, and I am leaving for vacation tomorrow with my family. Actually, today and I'm so excited about it. But I needed to get this recorded. I am behind on batching content, but I am showing up, and I am here and I'm excited to share this episode with you. So, just needed to share that. 

Okay, so before we get started, I want you to know, one of the ways you can work with me, and that is a strategy session. So you might have a question like, one that I'm going to share today, or any other question around your business where you really want to kind of dive deeper. And this is kind of how it works. You would go to birdwilliams.com/strategy. You will read through, fill out. There's like a contract. There is a proposal. You can select as many sessions as you want. You can actually pay the invoice, all of that right there on my website. And you'll automatically receive an email to schedule our first session. You'll receive an automatic questionnaire so that I can learn more about where you are in your business and where you need help. And we will dive right into our first session. It lasts an hour. During the session, we'll come up with a game plan together of exactly what happens next. And what do I need to do next. So that's everyone's question based on your specific needs. And you'll also get an audio recording of that session. Then you'll go and implement the gameplan into your business and we'll have a 30-minute follow-up session as well, where I can kind of insert any questions around what came up, what did you discover, what do you need to do next. People will book these in different ways. Some just one-off one hour sessions with the 30 minute follow up call and others will say you know I want to do this often I want to do this every month for three months and then do it quarterly because I really need someone to kind of hold me accountable as I'm walking this thing out. 

Here's what Lauren had to say, “I love Ashley's podcast Bird Means Business because she dropped so many gems and so much wisdom that can be put into action. The podcast actually inspired me to book a strategy session because I was confident she would deliver that same wisdom and the personalized strategic support I needed. As a solopreneur, I often feel overwhelmed by all the ideas floating around in my head. I'm not sure where to start, and how to prioritize. Our strategy session did not disappoint. I have much less overwhelm and a clear direction for the next phase of my growing business, thanks to Ashley.” It was so great working with Lauren. If it's something that you think could be helpful for you in your business go to birdwilliams.com/strategy to get started. 

All right. So let's jump into the episode. So here's the question that was asked, in short, should I repost my business posts on my personal page? And I want to clarify that this person meant, should I take content that was posted on my business page, either a post or a story, and then kind of share it over to my personal page. They're not talking about, should I talk about my business from my personal page. It's really just kind of sharing the content, right? And this person was also doing this with almost every single post. Yeah, any kind of any new posts, they would just go and share it to their personal page. So I want to start off by saying, this is a no-judgment zone, at all. We're all adults. You can do whatever you want in your business. This is not a space where you should feel like you're doing something wrong. If you feel like this is something you really want to do and it works for your business. Amazing. I even had questions around this when I first launched my business. I had my personal page where I kind of just posted whatever I want, and had no real rhyme or reason to it and I liked it that way. It felt freeing, and that's what it's still used for. And I was launching this business, you know, Instagram and social media platforms and I thought, I'm gonna have to be more kind of professional and consistent. I have more followers obviously on my personal page. How do I make this balance? So what I'm going to do is I'm going to literally break down his question, and I'm going to insert my answer along with the question that he asks. And at the end, I'll kind of summarize my answer altogether. So this is really honestly how I read emails, anytime I get an email. I don't know if anyone else does this, but I kind of automatically start responding. I literally will go ahead and click reply, enter my intro, and I'll literally start asking questions, typing in my answers to help form it so I don't have to go back and remember everything. That's how we're gonna do it today on the podcast. So here we go.

First, he says it initially felt like the right thing to do, but then I felt like I should stop. So here's my little two cents on that. So you've probably heard that phrase, “Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime.” So I'm going to teach you to fish here because instead of me just giving you answers to things, I want you to learn how to find answers for yourself in any business situation. I want to equip and empower you to learn how to think through these types of things in your business beyond this one question. 

My teach you to fish moment here is to listen to your intuition. When he says it initially felt right but then something changed. That's intuition. So, we've all heard this and we know this. Don't ignore it, right? And that doesn't mean that 100% of the time, you just abruptly stop what you're doing, it completely changed courses. Now sometimes it does mean that. But it doesn't mean that all the time. It just means that you sit with it. If something is going off inside you, it's like, this is weird I was doing this one way this whole time but all of a sudden it kind of feels weird. Like, don't ignore that. You know, really create space for it and just sit with it. It might be 24 hours. I often time just sleep on it. Let me just sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning unless I just have such a strong conviction about it. It might mean that you go and ask someone, someone close to you. Or even like a coach or someone like me. But you don't ignore it is the point. So this intuition will become your BFF throughout your entire entrepreneurial journey. So just kind of get used to listening to that nudging inside of you. Okay? 

Okay, this is going back to his question. He says, “Because I didn't want to spam or bother anyone unintentionally, and if they liked the business content, they would go to the business page.” So this is where he's kind of thinking through his question throughout the email and so that's when he says that part. So will it come across as spammy, think about it like this, why did people start following your personal page in the first place? Probably because they wanted to see whatever you were posting. If you were posting about your personal life, and that's really why they're there. But more importantly was kind of his last revelation, which is, “if they like the business content, they would go to the business page.” Yes, yes, and yes. So it's important to understand that people are going to buy into your Instagram page, whether it's your personal or business because of the content that they think they're going to get. So if all of a sudden, on your personal page, it starts to be about something else, you kind of switch courses, especially if you aren’t intentional about notifying people about that. It could come across as like, oh, okay, this is kind of going in a different direction. I didn't really sign up for this. Again, it depends on how you've kind of informed your audience about all of this, but it's just something to consider. Okay? But the last part I just love. “If they like your business content, they're gonna go to your business page.” 

Okay. Going back to his email, he says, but I was talking to some friends recently, and I realized there are a lot of people in my network who are still unaware that I'm even doing this and he means doing this business. Oh, yeah, there's a whole podcast episode in the works on why and how to launch your business intentionally and different ways that can look. So for now, so that I don't make this episode super-duper long, I'll just say, reposting your business content on your personal page is not the best marketing strategy. There are so many great marketing strategies, and that's not maybe the best one. 

So, we'll break it down a little bit more in this episode. But I will talk about what it looks like to intentionally launch your business so that your friends and family and people in your personal network can be very aware of what you're doing and buy-in if it's something that either they're interested in or they know people who would be interested in it. 

Next, he says, maybe it's not a big deal to reshare my content personally especially while the business is growing. Okay, two points of response to that. One, there's balance. First off, ultimately, like I said, you decide what you want to do in your business. It's up to you. And, side note, another kind of teach a man to fish moment. Throughout your entrepreneurial journey, you're going to be getting a lot of advice from different people. People you read about, or people like me who post about things, or podcast episodes and all of that. And some of it will be conflicting, even from experts at times. So it's very important that even when it comes from someone you respect, and maybe it just doesn't sit right with you. Like, I see what she's saying, and I get it. Logically that makes sense but I don't know why it doesn't really feel right to me. It doesn't resonate with me. Ultimately, remember this is your business and you really should do what aligns most with your core values and your intention in your business. So, that's first off I just want to make it super-duper clear that you got to do what feels right and best to you as you take in expert advice. 

And so, I just want to touch on when he says, “while the business is growing”. Okay, we really want this to be real, organic growth, right? You don't want an Instagram following full of your family and friends. You know what I mean? Like, not ultimately. Like my mom, she doesn't have Instagram. But if she did, she would totally be following all my stuff. She definitely listens to the podcast, like every now and then, because my sister helps her figure it out. But the point is, is that my mom isn't going to need to buy any of my services or doesn't need my help because she's not in the middle of launching a business. You want people on your Instagram who are your ideal client. So, it's okay to start off with friends and family. I did too. That naturally happens. But even as you grow your business you want to make sure that you are attracting the right people and that your Instagram is serving people that you're setting out to serve in your business. 

You should always, always, always be putting out content and running your business with that in mind. So, maybe they're following you personally, but if so, and they’re an ideal client. It won't take you posting all the time to your personal page for them to go follow your business page. If my cousin launches a juice company, and I am so into juices, and I'm an ideal client of hers. Regardless of the fact that I'm her cousin, when I see her post about it and, of course, I'm gonna hope as she intentionally launches, I'm like yeah, I'm gonna go follow this. I don't even want friends, I don't ask friends of mine to follow my business Instagram. I don't expect them to. I mean, if they do, that's great and awesome and I love them and I would do the same thing for a friend just out of support. But ultimately, you want to have people in your audience who are true people you could serve. So I'm hoping all of this makes sense and hoping that it comes off kind too. I don't mean to be too direct. But I just want to make sure that we're on the same page about all of that. 

Okay, so in summary. First off, I would intentionally launch my business. I would do it intentionally. I'm not going to just like kind of fall into a new business, “Hey guys, like I'm just doing this thing on the side.” No. When I launched Bird Williams, I want to share it now but I'm going to share my strategy in the episode that I'm going to come out within the next few weeks. I'm just saying that because it's not really planned, but it's coming, it's coming, where I'll share kind of like how I launched my business intentionally. So that's what I would do first. Then I would not repost every single business post on my personal page. And you can decide where you draw the line. But what I do in my life, in my business, is seldomly, when it feels right, I will post. I will share something about my business on my personal page, but it won't always be just direct sharing of the content. And I will always put a personal spin on it. So, for example, y'all know that Terry's Take is at the end of every single episode. That's my three-year-old. He's almost four. And I'm lowkey obsessed with Terry’s Takes because they're hilarious. The one from last week about his dad just melted my entire heart. It was the sweetest thing ever. So, I will share Terry's Take every now and then, on my personal page and kind of laugh about silly stuff he says. And again, make it personal because the people on my personal page are following me for personal stuff. So this is subtly marketing the podcast when I do this when I'm sharing Terry's Take from the episode. But that's not my intention. I just think I just have one of the funniest little boys in the world so that's why I do it. But I will also share big moments for my business on my personal page like when I launched my business, of course. Or even, I think I did like a six-month post when my business was six months and I did it on my personal page. But again, I had a personal spin to it. Why did this mean so much to me, and it was a different piece of content. It wasn't just forwarding or reposting something over. Okay? 

Next, I would say don't allow this to be a crutch. I don't want you to allow your personal page to be a crutch, because you're relying on that larger follower base of your personal page to kind of build your business page. And again, that's not a good strategy. Also, if you're always sharing your content from your business to your personal page, then people might think, well I don't really need to follow their business page cause they always post their business stuff on the personal page. 

And then next I want you to remember that Instagram, and social media in general, really, is just one way to connect with your audience. It is a powerful and wonderful tool, but it's just one tool. And remember, you don't own it. If Instagram decides to shut down, a few years ago there was like this blackout where nothing was refreshing, no one could post. It was crazy. In our social media age, it was like this crazy Instagram, like kind of blackout day. Or if there's more of the pay-to-play where ads are making it more difficult for your posts to be seen because, Instagram and Facebook decide hey, we want people to pay with ads and those are the posts that are going to be seen. Basically, if they decide to change things up, even with the algorithm, you're kind of tied to whatever they're doing. It’s not something you own. And you don't want that to be the only way that you can connect with your people because you don't control it, or own it. For example, another option is having a non-spammy email marketing strategy, and this has tons of benefits. I think I need to do an episode on this too because it's super-duper powerful. I felt weird about when I launched my business because I get a bazillion emails a day, and I was not excited about adding to the mix of that for other people. But I found that it's a really great way to connect with my audience, and I share more in-depth stuff there and updates there, and it's just great. It's a great way, and again it's something that I own. I actually pay to have the email list, an email service provider. So it's good. It is something that I can control. I can send an email whenever I want. Of course, it's still technology. So nothing's perfect. But it's not like social media where it's just really kind of out of your hands. You don't want your entire audience to only know to connect with you on social media and not know how to get in touch with you anywhere else. 

All right. So my last point is just going to be this. I would rather have 100 engaged followers, than 10,000 followers who are just kind of indifferent, or just apathetic or just they're, like, because they're my friends. The algorithm favors engagement. So not just likes, but also sharing your content or saving your posts or commenting. And if people aren't engaging, it basically tells Instagram that people don't want to see your posts. So remember it's more about engagement on your posts, instead of just getting a whole bunch of followers. You want your followers to actually be active on your posts. And the followers that will be active and engaged on your posts are the ones that are supposed to be there, the ones that are interested in your content, the ones that are needing your product or service. So I could go on and on about all of this, and I actually gave even more specific tips to this person who reached out to me in email about this. 

So if you ever run into a question like this in your business, please don't hesitate to shoot me a DM on Instagram, or email me at hello@birdwilliams.com. I love to go in when it comes to these types of things. If you want a deeper dive, like I said, if you want to go deeper into a pain point in your business and need more strategy around it and to have accountability as you make these big moves in your business, book a strategy session with me. You can go to birdwilliams.com/strategy, and you can set everything up there. 

Last question. Have you subscribed to my podcast? This will ensure that you get every single episode and that you don't miss a thing. Also, please, please, please, tell all of your entrepreneur friends about Bird Means Business. All right. Talk to y’all next week.