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Show Summary: In this episode of "Sales Made Easy," host Harry Spaight interviews guest Anna Addoms, an experienced entrepreneur and tech industry professional. They discuss various aspects of sales, selling, and building a startup business. Anna emphasizes the changing landscape of business, where personal connections and authenticity are becoming increasingly important.
They delve into the role of LinkedIn as a platform for sharing personal updates and expertise, and how it has evolved beyond its traditional reputation as a job searching and networking site. The conversation also touches on the use of technology tools to streamline business operations, such as the "letter" tool for content distribution and the importance of having an effective tech stack tailored to the specific business needs.
Anna shares valuable insights on growing a business, building online communities, and the benefits of maintaining a social media presence. They also discuss the significance of clarifying goals, building know, like, and trust, and leveraging one's existing network. Lastly, Anna introduces their membership community,
Overcome the Tech Overwhelm (OTTO), designed to provide affordable support for small business owners.Anna Addoms loves to talk about how to build a sustainable business, so you love what you do and make money, how to use technology and automation without overwhelm, and how to gain visibility and growth in your business without spending a lot of money while making your business work for you, the way you work, so you can focus on what you do best.
Anna is on a mission to make small business owners build their dreams through sustainable business growth and automation without tech overwhelm.
She has fifteen years of start-up operations, technology, and marketing experience in the mobile, luxury, and advertising sectors. She has served as the Director of Marketing and Partner Relations and managed a client portfolio with an average $20M per year budget.
Link to Join OTTO: https://wickedmarvelous.com/smeThanks for dropping by the Sales Made Easy podcast—presented with the integrity of Selling With Dignity.
Pulling up the anchor is your host, Harry Spaight, a sales and leadership luminary bringing in over 25 glorious years honed in the white-hot competitive world of office technology sales. With an assortment of brilliant entrepreneurs and sales savants as my co-conversationalists, we'll dissect invaluable insights to turbocharge business growth and touch on significant topics.
Adding a dash of humor to the mix because, let's face it, life's too short not to inject a hearty dose of laughter every once in a while.
Connect with me on LinkedIn via https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryspaight/ , and you can acquaint yourself with a snippet of 'Selling With Dignity' wisdom right here: https://sellingwithdignity.com/the-book/
Click, read, and be enlightened!
What is the good word? Today, we are going
Speaker:to talk a little bit about tech.
Speaker:As someone who is starting a business a couple of years ago, I had
Speaker:little knowledge of how much tech I would need to know.
Speaker:And thankfully, Along the way, I met a
Speaker:who. That would be Anna Adams of Wicked
Speaker:Marvelous, who is a techie, and she helps
Speaker:entrepreneurs. She is on a mission to make small
Speaker:business owners build their dreams through
Speaker:sustainable business growth and automation
Speaker:without tech overwhelm. Anna
Speaker:Adams, welcome to the Sales Made Easy Podcast. What's the
Speaker:good word? Thanks for having me, Harry. This is my favorite
Speaker:thing to talk about, and I'm so excited that you have found some help
Speaker:and that it's getting easier because Tech should not stop you
Speaker:from building business you love. Oh my goodness. It's
Speaker:funny. I so agree with what you said, but, You
Speaker:know, you mentioned tech overwhelm. When I first
Speaker:got started, I met this person you and I both know. She was
Speaker:just on my podcast, Kathy Spatina. And she's talking about
Speaker:all this tech. And I Hass is like, why would
Speaker:anyone need so much tech? And then
Speaker:I realized I wasn't doing nearly enough. And then when you start
Speaker:doing stuff, it's like, oh, tech would be really helpful. So
Speaker:let's start with What are a few things that people should
Speaker:be looking at as far as tech is concerned as
Speaker:a start up? You know, the solopreneur that's just starting
Speaker:out, maybe we start with them, and then we're gonna get into your background a
Speaker:little bit after that. How's that sound? That sounds great. So
Speaker:for brand new businesses, I have what
Speaker:I call a minimum viable tech stack. And this is
Speaker:the 3 primary things that you need in order to get your business
Speaker:started in the 1st 6 to 12 months. You can even stretch
Speaker:this to 18 months. But, usually, once you have these in place, you grow
Speaker:faster than you think you're gonna grow. So those 3 things
Speaker:are and the number 1 piece in this is set up an email
Speaker:marketing tool. Pick any email marketing platform because that is you're
Speaker:going to grow your audience without being ruled
Speaker:by social media algorithms. The
Speaker:next piece to that is having a simple website. That doesn't mean that you have
Speaker:to have this beautiful 5 page, 10 page,
Speaker:super in-depth website. You need some place to send people. You
Speaker:need a way to send them to a landing page, and you need to give
Speaker:them a way to start buying when you're ready to start
Speaker:selling. And The obvious one that you need
Speaker:beyond those 2 pieces is a payment processor. You need a
Speaker:way to help people Say yes
Speaker:and complete a purchase, and that is what a payment processor will do
Speaker:for you. So with those 3 pieces, you can
Speaker:Set your solid foundations. Start telling people what you
Speaker:do. Give them an option to invite them invite you into their
Speaker:world, and Take payment for business.
Speaker:Oh my goodness. That is gold right there for anyone
Speaker:just starting. I can't tell you how many things I got were
Speaker:which were none of those 3. So awesome. Let's
Speaker:so Let's just find out a little bit about you because that, I think, is
Speaker:a great start. So how did you get to become who you are,
Speaker:Anna Adams of wicked marvelous.
Speaker:Well, that's a great question. I So I was
Speaker:actually raised in the tech space. My dad
Speaker:ran AOL's biggest competitor during the 1st .com bubble, so
Speaker:I was those 2 innovation and search
Speaker:engines and the early days of the Internet. And Wow. You know,
Speaker:the very early days of Search advertising. So, like, it doesn't look
Speaker:anything like it does now. And
Speaker:I loved how all of the pieces fit together. So
Speaker:I spent a lot of time figuring out how it
Speaker:worked and wanting to understand it, and I'm a sponge of
Speaker:knowledge. So I just Wanna learn all the things all the time,
Speaker:and which has led me down some interesting paths. You would not
Speaker:expect that I went to art school, That I actually have a degree in English
Speaker:Lit and that I've worked in tech for 15 years. And
Speaker:so I when I left college, I Went straight into a start up
Speaker:role in Silicon Valley, and I worked in
Speaker:3 successive tech companies. And I burned out, like, clockwork Every 18
Speaker:months, realized I was doing something wrong because
Speaker:nobody should be burning out that often. And
Speaker:Then I realized that my biggest thing that I love to do is create
Speaker:and help people implement and build what they wanted to. And
Speaker:then I like to go on and find a new project. So that's what I
Speaker:started doing. I've been freelancing. I've owned my company for 11
Speaker:years, and my biggest goal is that
Speaker:I wanna help businesses, specifically small business owners, solopreneurs,
Speaker:and, creatives, create
Speaker:and grow businesses that work for them, that let them be do what
Speaker:they're super passionate about without being stuck in tech.
Speaker:Oh my goodness. I if I could only have
Speaker:3 wishes, one of those wishes would be, I
Speaker:wish I met Anna Adams sooner. You
Speaker:would've saved me many 1,000 of dollars to say
Speaker:the least. So The challenge that I
Speaker:had, and we'll just see if this is pretty common, is I wrote a
Speaker:book, and then people started telling me that I need this and I need
Speaker:that. So and I didn't really have a guide. Mhmm.
Speaker:So I would, you know, find someone, oh, you do websites.
Speaker:And The person was trying to tell me as I reflect back on
Speaker:it that it really wasn't a website. It's a landing page, and they were trying
Speaker:to tell me the difference. And I wasn't
Speaker:really listening because I had other things in my mind maybe. But then
Speaker:after we spent some money on these on this landing page, I said,
Speaker:so how do I blog? And the person laughing says,
Speaker:well, you know exactly blog with landing pages. I'm
Speaker:like, oh my goodness. And then it was really frustrating and blah
Speaker:blah blah. But I was getting that. I was spending
Speaker:all kinds of money on, you know, trying to edit
Speaker:videos, You know, just little just major
Speaker:time wasters, stuff that was just costing money
Speaker:that I don't even know the names of the apps. I think I stopped
Speaker:payments on these things. I know there's other things I
Speaker:was doing as well, throwing money at things, and
Speaker:it's just I find out now, now having this
Speaker:conversation that really if I started out with 3 very basic things,
Speaker:Life would have been a little bit easier. So do I sound
Speaker:like a lot of people out there or no? You do sound like a lot
Speaker:of people out there. I one of the things I hear most is I'm
Speaker:being spread too thin. There are too many things I have to be everywhere.
Speaker:And then it's the, well, this person says I have to do this, and this
Speaker:person says I have to do this, and this person is saying Why? And this
Speaker:person's saying z, and I don't know what to prioritize, and I don't know how
Speaker:to do any of this. And everybody has their own
Speaker:system and tool and Piece that I they recommend, and
Speaker:I don't know how to choose. And so what I often bring
Speaker:people back to is, What are you trying to do? So,
Speaker:like, in this case for you, you're trying to sell a book, and you
Speaker:wanted to build a blog. So a landing page can still be a part of
Speaker:a bigger website where you have a blog, but you can also just have a
Speaker:landing page if you're not ready to do a blog. Mhmm. And You
Speaker:can do this without also buying into a platform where you're gonna be
Speaker:paying 100 or 1,000 of dollars a year in some cases. Mhmm.
Speaker:And you can do it in a way that requires that you never have to
Speaker:write code, that you don't have to do any of those Super
Speaker:technical things that everybody, you know, makes their brains feel like they're going to
Speaker:explode. And you start with
Speaker:Really the simple pieces. The beauty of the foundational piece of your
Speaker:minimum viable tech stack is that it is meant to be the foundation. It's
Speaker:not the be all, end all. As you grow, as your needs change, you add
Speaker:on. So you can say, hey. I
Speaker:know that I need a website, But what you really need in
Speaker:the beginning is maybe an about page so that people have some place to know,
Speaker:like, get to know you, so know, like, and trust, and a way to build
Speaker:a sales page that gives people a clear action
Speaker:to buy a product, book a call, buy a book.
Speaker:And when you're ready, we wanna make sure that you have a
Speaker:platform that will let you add things like the ability to write a
Speaker:blog post. And I'm a big fan of choosing a
Speaker:medium that you like to communicate in, whether that's blogging
Speaker:or video or podcasting. Because
Speaker:when you communicate the way you like to communicate, the way that's easy for
Speaker:you, then it's easier to grow your audience because you're doing
Speaker:something that is easy and Fun for you, not something that,
Speaker:like, you feel you have to do. Because as soon as it's a should and
Speaker:a have to, you dread Opening your email inbox.
Speaker:You dread having to craft that weekly newsletter or
Speaker:to sit down and write that blog post if blogging isn't your forte
Speaker:or Being on a podcast if you don't like talking.
Speaker:I, for instance, would much rather write and talk than
Speaker:be on a than do Video straight to camera. Like, I
Speaker:would so much rather show you how something works or have a dialogue
Speaker:than talk to a camera without any other people involved.
Speaker:And so when I say pick a pick the version of that that makes
Speaker:you feel good, use that to create content.
Speaker:So Yeah. Do that, and then
Speaker:that helps attract people. You share it. You engage with people
Speaker:about it. They find you through your content, and then you're also
Speaker:not sinking down the the ever winding,
Speaker:Deeper, darker rabbit hole of paid media in the beginning when
Speaker:you absolutely don't need to be spending money to get
Speaker:eyeballs on your content and engage with you.
Speaker:Alright. So how does somebody thank you for that. How does
Speaker:somebody than get eyeballs if they're
Speaker:they don't have an email list, so they're a new business.
Speaker:I mean, I learned something about opting in, when
Speaker:I started. And so if they don't have an email list, they
Speaker:don't have someplace for people to opt in.
Speaker:How are they getting eyeballs, in your world?
Speaker:So what I always say is start with your network. Start with your community.
Speaker:Show them what you're doing. Ask them to share. So if it's
Speaker:If that's by posting on your favorite
Speaker:social platform, do that. If it's by
Speaker:Showing up and being a part of being an expert in someone else's community because
Speaker:you can do that. Find the version that makes you feel comfortable
Speaker:And but also push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit because, otherwise,
Speaker:you won't grow. And that's part of why when I
Speaker:talk about that minimum viable tech stack, The true number 1 thing
Speaker:you start with is your email list because email platforms let
Speaker:you build landing pages with opt in forms immediately. So
Speaker:you can immediately start telling people, sharing,
Speaker:adding people to your email list. They can invite other people. It
Speaker:spreads in that extended halo of people who know other people
Speaker:and people who trust you are introducing you and creating that warm
Speaker:handshake Without the
Speaker:sleazy sales. Like, all all of the bro
Speaker:marketing that's happening on the Internet these days with us.
Speaker:Okay. Yes. You're definitely speaking my language.
Speaker:So you said This could work out for the
Speaker:1st up to 18 months, really. Mhmm. Right?
Speaker:Depending on what you're selling. Absolutely. We have Clients
Speaker:who build an email list, have a simple website, and we use a
Speaker:payment processor to and all they do is sell a service like co a coaching
Speaker:package. Mhmm. Or even a subscription to a coaching
Speaker:package or something of that sort. If
Speaker:You're gonna grow faster or you wanna do something like create a group program
Speaker:or a community or a course, then there's, you know, an
Speaker:added tech piece that goes with that. How are you gonna host that community?
Speaker:Realistically, you don't wanna host any of those kinds of spaces and communities on
Speaker:Facebook anymore because it's getting more and more complicated.
Speaker:And you wanna take people off of those platforms so they pay attention to you,
Speaker:and they don't get lost in the You don't get lost in the shuffle of
Speaker:millions of notifications that don't mean anything to anyone. Yeah. There are a few
Speaker:of those. Yes. From what I'm
Speaker:hearing then, a person could use their email list
Speaker:Mhmm. And a community hosting platform
Speaker:Mhmm. And really just send out the
Speaker:emails and get people invited without necessarily
Speaker:going through that 1st step, which I thought was the 1st step, which was
Speaker:to start a Facebook community. Yes. And in some
Speaker:cases, Starting a Facebook community is not a bad place to start
Speaker:because it's free. Mhmm. But Facebook, while it is free,
Speaker:comes with lots of and realities around you are still beholden
Speaker:to the algorithm of Facebook and the reality that the people who still are
Speaker:on Facebook are inundated with information and news,
Speaker:And their feeds are very much skewed to what Facebook
Speaker:wants them to see, not necessarily your content. So you are not
Speaker:guaranteeing that if you have a Facebook group, that Everybody that is in your group
Speaker:is going to see that content. So community platform,
Speaker:while it is takes a little bit more effort because someone has to sign up
Speaker:to it, And it's different from, say, just being on Facebook
Speaker:and in the suck of content. Mhmm. Or on Instagram, for
Speaker:instance. You They know that when there are
Speaker:notifications, when there are things going on, it's something they need to pay attention to.
Speaker:Whereas if you get a notification on Facebook half the time, your brain is
Speaker:like, That probably doesn't mean anything or someone on something, or I don't
Speaker:even know because someone else tagged and at everyone in a group, and suddenly
Speaker:you're getting tagged with all those things you don't give Shit.
Speaker:Exactly. And so I
Speaker:really advocate for staying off of Facebook as a community platform. But you can also
Speaker:create communities on LinkedIn, which still work, but still have a lot of the
Speaker:restrictions that you deal with with Facebook and that you are still
Speaker:beholden to their algorithm. And their goal is to keep people
Speaker:on their platform, not to help you grow your business.
Speaker:Mhmm. I have not really heard much of anyone doing
Speaker:in community. But, I mean, I see LinkedIn groups. I'd be
Speaker:belonging to another one. Is that the same? It's the same thing. So it's their
Speaker:so LinkedIn groups is LinkedIn's version of Facebook groups, which is the
Speaker:social media version of a community platform. Yeah.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah. Yes. Okay.
Speaker:Groups are great in that LinkedIn has become cool, or
Speaker:is the cool social media platform now, which I find it to be a very
Speaker:funny statement. But Is that
Speaker:new? It is new, I think. And I think it has to do with the
Speaker:fact that we have, As a society
Speaker:have come to the idea that siloing
Speaker:business inside this very cold and emotionless
Speaker:Space where humanity is sort of missing and the
Speaker:people first aspect of business is missing has
Speaker:changed. And so Most people are probably noticing their LinkedIn
Speaker:feeds having more personal updates, people sharing about their families, about things
Speaker:that have your whole life. It's not as Cut and
Speaker:dried of you go here because I'm searching for a job and you have a
Speaker:copy of my resume. It's Right. Let me share content I've written,
Speaker:Podcast I've been on. Let me share my resource knowledge expertise,
Speaker:and let me let you let let me share who I am as a person,
Speaker:not just as An employee or a business owner.
Speaker:And so it's becoming more of a place where
Speaker:people are choosing to engage, and they're going there 1st versus going
Speaker:to Facebook or going to Twitter or x, depending on whatever you call
Speaker:it now. Mhmm. Or if you even use it.
Speaker:And so it's it's also allows for
Speaker:engagement at a few different levels. You can be connected to
Speaker:somebody. You can follow somebody. You can see a post from
Speaker:someone else that is connected to that person because they're connected to
Speaker:you in your feed, and it expands your network visibility and
Speaker:interesting content. Their algorithm is,
Speaker:less structured than platforms like Facebook
Speaker:and Twitter. Okay. Yeah. I really enjoyed
Speaker:LinkedIn myself. I've been using it for
Speaker:the Majority of my
Speaker:branding and marketing Mhmm. And building
Speaker:my tribe or community, if you will.
Speaker:Is is that important? Would you say, am I doing the right
Speaker:thing there? Yes. I absolutely would say you're doing the right
Speaker:thing. I Your your network is going to be
Speaker:invaluable to you as you grow your business. So using platforms
Speaker:LinkedIn like LinkedIn to do that really well
Speaker:is a great LinkedIn is a great platform to grow
Speaker:your community, connect with new people, and to
Speaker:Share your knowledge and expertise, which also brings business your
Speaker:way. I have been saying this for years, and it's still true. LinkedIn
Speaker:is the most underrated platform, but brings one of the highest
Speaker:return on time invested or content posted
Speaker:Platforms across the board for most small businesses. If you are
Speaker:selling from a b to b or you're selling within the,
Speaker:professional space and you're interacting with other professionals. Even
Speaker:from a b to c standpoint, it still works really well. But in the
Speaker:beginning, especially if you were talking to other small business owners, for instance, and
Speaker:they were your audience, LinkedIn provides one of the Highest
Speaker:returns on time invested on the platform
Speaker:to traffic driven to, say, a website or a landing page or
Speaker:podcast And even to a book.
Speaker:Yeah. It's great. I'm thinking, like, this LinkedIn newsletter,
Speaker:situation now that's out there is that you now can get,
Speaker:you know, a good percentage of your connections will subscribe
Speaker:to your newsletter, which I think is pretty interesting. I think
Speaker:it's fantastic. And they can be the thing that I like about the LinkedIn newsletter
Speaker:format is if you let's say you have your regular email
Speaker:list and you have an audience that is broad, and you talk
Speaker:about, say, 3 or 4 different things on a regular basis.
Speaker:You could have a LinkedIn newsletter that's Specific to one of those
Speaker:topics that has a much more targeted audience, and you could run the whole thing
Speaker:through LinkedIn. And it's great for targeting and growing reach and engagement.
Speaker:Yeah. And yeah. So when
Speaker:people are I I'm just thinking through a bunch
Speaker:of different thoughts here I have on this. So the the
Speaker:way my mind works is I do something for a while, and I think
Speaker:this is pretty common. You don't see the results fast enough,
Speaker:and then you see some video on YouTube or
Speaker:somewhere, and someone gives you another idea.
Speaker:Mhmm. And then you said, well, I'm gonna go do that, and then you get
Speaker:Frustrated because that's not working fast enough, and then it says one
Speaker:thing after another where people like me may have tried, you
Speaker:know, 15 different things, and
Speaker:some will give up. I'm I'm determined. But the
Speaker:what what's the What do you do when, like, you feel
Speaker:like something is not going you're not making progress fast enough
Speaker:so that you're not changing course so rapidly?
Speaker:So the thing I like to remind my clients and my members of in
Speaker:my community of is Content
Speaker:and social media. Social media to a lesser extent, but content in
Speaker:general is a long game. It is not an overnight
Speaker:success. And especially when you look at other
Speaker:platforms besides email and LinkedIn, Platforms like
Speaker:Twitter and Facebook, the life life the life cycle of
Speaker:a social post on those platforms is less than 24 hours, Which is
Speaker:why you keep hearing from people who are social experts telling you that you need
Speaker:to be posting 35 to 70 times a week. And who
Speaker:Has that kind of content in their back pocket when you're just starting a business?
Speaker:That is an overwhelming level of visibility that
Speaker:Is not actually serving you in growing your business. So what
Speaker:I say is really the answer is consistency is b. You have
Speaker:to do whatever you pick to do first, you have to do for at least
Speaker:90 days before you start before you
Speaker:Turn it off or say it's not working. Mhmm. You can always
Speaker:get to a place where something is you're doing it, and it feels easier, and
Speaker:it's time to add something in without stopping the original
Speaker:version. And that's also where I find technology additional
Speaker:technology tools can be helpful. For instance, if you
Speaker:Choose a blog or you are a video person. These
Speaker:and I think even you can do this with podcast now. You I have this
Speaker:lovely tool that I like called letter. And missing
Speaker:letter plugs into your RSS feed. So your podcast feed, your
Speaker:blog feed, your video feed. And every time you
Speaker:post something new, like a new episode or a new video or a new blog,
Speaker:it automatically takes it automatically identifies this as new
Speaker:content. It creates a camp an
Speaker:evergreen campaign that is usually spanning over 12
Speaker:months, and then it auto posts the content
Speaker:to your social platforms of your choice. So you can connect all of the
Speaker:social platforms out there, I think, except TikTok right now
Speaker:and including YouTube shorts. Wow.
Speaker:And it so what it does is it
Speaker:pulls quotes, and it generates
Speaker:posts based on the content of that episode, video, or article.
Speaker:And then it either pulls the graphics that you are that are part of the
Speaker:original asset, or it Create some standard ones that you set up in your
Speaker:account, and then it drafts these 12 to 16 posts
Speaker:that go out over the course of a year or whatever time limit
Speaker:you choose to set, but it does all of the heavy lifting for you. And
Speaker:then from there, you just approve the you it tells you it's created a
Speaker:campaign. You go in and tweak anything you want to. If it's good to
Speaker:go, you click approve, and then it auto posts all of that content out over
Speaker:the next year, Which extends the reach and visibility of
Speaker:that 1 piece of content for way longer than it would have if you were
Speaker:doing it manually. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I
Speaker:just look at I think a lot of us have tons
Speaker:of content. If anyone's podcasting, They have tons of
Speaker:content potential. Mhmm. I mean, YouTube shorts, I've heard
Speaker:and, I've started playing with TikTok for the last couple of months
Speaker:and doing very short videos there, and
Speaker:then taking the same video and uploading it to
Speaker:Instagram Reels and that shares with Facebook.
Speaker:So for 1 tiny little
Speaker:video clip, I can get for post, and
Speaker:it literally takes less than 15 minutes to do it. Right.
Speaker:So If you took your podcast episode Yeah. And then
Speaker:that's where I was going. Missing letter, you would take it would then
Speaker:clip and create content
Speaker:over the course of a year. So instead of having 1 post in 15
Speaker:minutes, you would have Twelve posts or
Speaker:more depending on what you choose to set up. My goodness.
Speaker:Okay. Well, now I've got a It sounds like missing a letter is
Speaker:something I should look into. I'm a little concerned that I just saw
Speaker:a shiny object go across my office. But Here's Here's what I will
Speaker:tell you. It's worth testing for podcasts and for video. I love it.
Speaker:I swear by it for anybody who writes a blog. And the reason for that
Speaker:is it's a great way to to maintain a social presence
Speaker:that builds know, like, and trust on platforms like Facebook And to
Speaker:a certain extent, Instagram. And the reason I don't say Instagram completely is
Speaker:because blogs and podcasts and videos all have links,
Speaker:And Instagram doesn't like links. So Instagram has its
Speaker:own weird ecosystem. That being said, It's
Speaker:great, especially if you want to have a presence so people know you're real,
Speaker:know that you're current, know that you're still active, But where you
Speaker:don't wanna actually be sucked into being on social media all the time, but you
Speaker:need to have a presence for trust and, like,
Speaker:knowing. And that's what I love it for because I
Speaker:don't have enough I don't have time to spend on all of these social platforms
Speaker:every day. And the places that I do spend my time Or predominantly
Speaker:LinkedIn because and so I think of LinkedIn as my
Speaker:primary social platform because it's where I engage, expand my network, and
Speaker:share my knowledge. I think of TikTok as
Speaker:a content delivery platform, not social. Because while I do share with
Speaker:people and I engage with content, I'm really there to learn, and I get sucked
Speaker:into rabbit holes of knowledge or
Speaker:stupid things sometimes. Yeah. Well, I I agree. I'm not
Speaker:think of YouTube as a content platform. I don't think of YouTube as social. YouTube
Speaker:is a content delivery platform for business owners Yeah. As
Speaker:a way to Educate, engage,
Speaker:and get to know your audience, and drive them back to things
Speaker:like your website or your landing page or your email list.
Speaker:Yeah. It's really good. So, missing a letter.
Speaker:So these are, just to draw out some other things that I
Speaker:Thought I really needed to spend money on, which and it's not a ton of
Speaker:money. But it has to. Canva, I,
Speaker:got early on, and I I use that pretty reg I
Speaker:use that every week for my podcast. Then,
Speaker:I use, podcast editing tools
Speaker:like Descript, which is I find very helpful,
Speaker:because some of these tools are easy to learn. And if you don't wanna spend
Speaker:100 of dollars per episode, which is what some
Speaker:charge to edit, just to put a,
Speaker:an intro and an outro on and maybe clean it up a little bit. That
Speaker:can cost you, you know, somewhere around $800 a month if
Speaker:you're doing a podcast a week. And Yeah. You know, this
Speaker:stuff gets very expensive, and you really don't need to be
Speaker:spending that money early on, is what I'm thinking.
Speaker:Arguably, I don't think you need to be studying Kind of funny ever. Yeah.
Speaker:Okay. Good. Explain. Because for that kind of money, you should be
Speaker:outsourcing this to an audio engineer who's putting all the pieces together and handing you
Speaker:a finalized That should not be a tech cost platform that
Speaker:still requires your time and effort. Right. Exactly. Yes.
Speaker:I think Canva is a phenomenal tool and is very versatile
Speaker:in what you can do with it. You can even build landing page websites in
Speaker:Canva now, which is great for people who are not ready for a full
Speaker:blown website, but need a landing page for an in between or a side
Speaker:hustle. It's a great Starting point. And you don't have to write code because
Speaker:it works just like Canva does. If you know what you're doing in Canva,
Speaker:building a website can take you less than 30 minutes. We're building
Speaker:a landing page fan. Yeah. The and I think
Speaker:depending on what you choose, if you are If video is the
Speaker:platform of your choice or meth, content
Speaker:delivery method of your choice or podcast is, there are going to be things that
Speaker:will help you like Descripts. I like using
Speaker:anchor f m for people at the very beginning because it is completely free
Speaker:and has Mhmm. All of those pieces in it.
Speaker:I like, but I think Descript is a phenomenal
Speaker:platform for that because it also helps you do clipping and segmenting
Speaker:and Other things with video content as well. In the same way that
Speaker:video AI does, in that it helps you smart clip
Speaker:content And gives you more bang for
Speaker:your buck in terms of how you multipurpose and
Speaker:create multiple pieces of content from 1 original source.
Speaker:So there are things that you're going to want to add, but my biggest
Speaker:goal is if we can if we can find an option that is
Speaker:that works, that is consistent, that does what it says it's gonna do.
Speaker:I always look for if there's a lifetime deal or if there's a free plan
Speaker:that will get you far enough until you're generating enough revenue that upgrading makes
Speaker:sense. Right. Yeah. What about I mean, here's
Speaker:one that I struggle with is putting
Speaker:photos, on social media that
Speaker:are you know, the Canva photos
Speaker:or ups Unsplash or there's free sites out there,
Speaker:but are those valuable for
Speaker:use? Those yeah. What's your thought on that? I guess it's a better
Speaker:question. Stock imagery is absolutely necessary in the
Speaker:greater ecosystem of Building websites, building social content. If you
Speaker:can if you have the capacity and wherewithal to create your own stock
Speaker:library that has You in it. That's images of you doing work,
Speaker:doing what you do, having more than just a headshot of yourself.
Speaker:Great. But that is an investment. And but it's an investment that will last you
Speaker:for a very long time. That being said,
Speaker:Good stock photography is very helpful. There are a lot of free resources
Speaker:available. They're huge, but you will find that there are certain assets that are
Speaker:used that are chosen to be used more and more
Speaker:consistently, which makes them ubiquitous. And you don't want to necessarily be
Speaker:using Really commonly found, stock
Speaker:assets. It's part of why there's also a fairly high price tag for
Speaker:the paid library Suck assets and Shutterstock.
Speaker:I like to rec I recommend a platform for stock photography
Speaker:called Deposit Photos. K? And the reason for that is they
Speaker:have subscriptions, but you can also just buy image packs so you're not locked into
Speaker:a contract the way you are with Shutterstock. Mhmm. The price points are really
Speaker:reasonable, and it once or twice a year, usually definitely
Speaker:around Black Friday, usually somewhere in the middle of the They
Speaker:also go on AppSumo, and they drop packets
Speaker:packages of images or, like, sets of images that you can buy for They're cheap.
Speaker:So, like, for $40, you can buy a 150 stock
Speaker:image credits that can be used. So on
Speaker:Deposit photos, you can use those credits for video. You can use them for
Speaker:vector illustrations. You can use them for stock imagery. You can use them
Speaker:for, illustrations. Anything on the platform those credits can be
Speaker:used towards. And that is what I recommend because
Speaker:it's a low price that you're not locked into on a contract.
Speaker:And it gives you access to a much broader library of content that's not as
Speaker:open to the public. Okay. So now I'm I'm
Speaker:getting, like, super selfish, and this is all about me. I know.
Speaker:But you're so helpful. So now I'm thinking, Okay. The other thing
Speaker:I wanted to get into are infographics,
Speaker:and I don't wanna spend the time figuring out
Speaker:how to create an infographic. I did a couple of these
Speaker:posts that have the document that swipes
Speaker:to the left. I can't remember. I probably should have taken notes as to how
Speaker:I did that. I did that a couple of times. It had good,
Speaker:interaction, but then I see infographics are
Speaker:really popular. And so I think this is the challenge that some of
Speaker:us have is that we get get distracted.
Speaker:We see, hey. This these types of posts do very well, and
Speaker:we spend way too much time
Speaker:learning how to do something that takes us away from what a
Speaker:real business is. And we feel like we're being productive
Speaker:because we spent a day trying to figure out how to do
Speaker:an infographic. And I know that's not what I wanna do, so I don't
Speaker:do those things. But I know Correct. People that do these things,
Speaker:and it's just like, you cannot be
Speaker:lost in learning how to do something
Speaker:that is not going to make I mean, infographics are not gonna make an impact
Speaker:on my business. Right? It's Based on what I heard from
Speaker:you, I need 3 things. Mhmm. Right? I need an
Speaker:email list. I need a website. And what was the third one?
Speaker:A payment browser. Way to take the money.
Speaker:Yep. So when you get caught up in these other little
Speaker:things, like, you know, I was trying to build a website through
Speaker:Wix because I got really frustrated. Then I was making progress,
Speaker:and I buy a subscription for Wix for the year. And
Speaker:then it's like, I don't wanna build websites. What am I doing? I'm spending
Speaker:more time watching YouTube videos. Mhmm.
Speaker:And that's just not a good use of time, folks. So you gotta focus really
Speaker:on what your core business is. And if you're not great at
Speaker:these types of things, You have choices to make. And
Speaker:what would be I'm I know I'm just throwing this out there, but how would
Speaker:people balance this out in your opinion? So
Speaker:my recommendation is templates are your friend. Templates and swipe files
Speaker:in the beginning, especially, those are invaluable. You're not
Speaker:always going to need them. You're going to find ways that work for you. But
Speaker:give yourself the leg up and the shortcut. Take all the
Speaker:shortcuts that someone puts in front of you. Use those templates. Ask for
Speaker:those buy those Canva templates. Help. I give them away on my
Speaker:email list on a regular basis. Nice. I when
Speaker:you want when you're looking for something like that, go find a template. Canva's
Speaker:template library is Freaking huge. You can search
Speaker:for everything in it. Minimize the time that you
Speaker:spend learning how to do something new And focus on what you're doing
Speaker:best and figure out what is working and focus on those pieces, and then add
Speaker:little things in to try. And if you're if it's taking you more
Speaker:than half an hour to figure something else out, figure out how something works,
Speaker:you need somebody in your back pocket to either help you answer those questions,
Speaker:Or you need to be able to say to yourself, I need to stop going
Speaker:down the rabbit hole, and you need to put it down and walk away. Yep.
Speaker:And go back to focusing on what's working Or go find
Speaker:someone who can help you address that without you going
Speaker:down a rabbit hole that takes you a day to figure out how to do
Speaker:something or even a half day. If it takes you more than 30 minutes to
Speaker:figure it out, you're wasting your time. Okay. That's a great rule
Speaker:of thumb. Can I get back the hours days
Speaker:weeks that I wasted? Well,
Speaker:this is because I hear the most from small business owners and solo
Speaker:burners is I'm completely stuck. And instead of walking away,
Speaker:we're trying something new. Oh. I have banged my head against the wall, and I've
Speaker:gone down the YouTube rabbit hole. And I still don't have answer, and I don't
Speaker:know how to stop myself from doing this, and I don't have somebody to ask.
Speaker:Yeah. Super frustrating. I mean, if and it's like
Speaker:we we've gotta let go of the ego. Mhmm. Because we
Speaker:say I know that I say it. It's like, this cannot be this
Speaker:hard. I I know I can figure this out. And then
Speaker:you just, you know, you look at the clock, and it's like, what did I
Speaker:just do for the day? Mhmm. I I've got nothing. Right?
Speaker:Because the end result is you still have nothing. You kill the day. You
Speaker:got super frustrated, and then that goes that works in your head as
Speaker:well for all kinds of things. You start saying things like, I'm not good at
Speaker:this. Not that I've ever said that, mind you.
Speaker:But, yes, you have been super helpful. You've got an incredible
Speaker:community. So why don't you talk to us a little bit about what your community
Speaker:is and how you're serving people? So I have a
Speaker:membership community called overcome the tech overwhelm, which
Speaker:is actually we call it auto for short, o t t o.
Speaker:And it is built for solopreneurs, for
Speaker:creatives, for entrepreneurs, for those small business owners who are
Speaker:Getting stuck in those rabbit holes, who don't know what to implement in their businesses,
Speaker:who don't have their foundations in place, or who have gone off to the
Speaker:races and are suddenly realizing they need some of those foundations or
Speaker:they're still getting overwhelmed with all of this new technology
Speaker:or they have this new thing they wanna implement in their businesses and they have
Speaker:No idea what to do with it. So my biggest goal
Speaker:is to make accept to make support
Speaker:because small business owners shouldn't be paying multi four figures
Speaker:and lots of money when you are trying to make it work and figure it
Speaker:out. So I created auto. It's $37 a
Speaker:month. In this in the community, you have access to the whole community
Speaker:on a Community specific platform called VARFE. We
Speaker:do, 2 live group coaching calls
Speaker:every month, And I do 1 on 1
Speaker:voice coaching via Voxer with anyone in the membership every
Speaker:week for a whole day. You get access to me for 13 Hours
Speaker:of time. So you can ask me anything and everything, and it's
Speaker:just a 1 on 1 conversation. And then in addition to that, We
Speaker:have a training vault where anything related to the
Speaker:tools that you use in your business or that you are figuring
Speaker:out what to put into your business, We have trainings for
Speaker:everything and as and the content is driven by the members. So
Speaker:anytime a new member joins and they're using a platform that no one else is
Speaker:using, We go in and add content and trainings and helpful
Speaker:pieces so that they get the support they need.
Speaker:Yeah. This is really Awesome. I am a member. I am a
Speaker:paying member, and, there is tons of
Speaker:value. I won't tell Anna that it's worth more than
Speaker:$37, but there's tons tons of value in it. And just
Speaker:having conversations like this, she's like, why would you do that? You know? I was
Speaker:like, because I saw a shiny object, someone else. Alex or
Speaker:Mosey's doing it. He's really smart, so I figured I should do it.
Speaker:So Anna helps me to be a little more
Speaker:balanced in life, which is great. So you're really special. Thank
Speaker:you so much for joining me on the Sales Made Easy podcast,
Speaker:Anna, and, we're looking forward to seeing more of you
Speaker:in the future. Folks, find Anna
Speaker:Adams with 2 d's. Okay? I had to struggle on how
Speaker:to say it because I got confused. Anna Adams of Wicked Marvelous.
Speaker:Find her and join her membership club because it is
Speaker:worth it there, and this is totally
Speaker:Thank you, Harry. This has been such a great conversation. And, yes, I
Speaker:would love for you to come find me, come talk to me. I'm always happy
Speaker:to a conversation, and my biggest goal is to
Speaker:make your business easy and fun for you so that it
Speaker:works for you the way you work. Beautiful.
Speaker:Alright. It's been a blast, and, thank you. The wicked marvelous
Speaker:from Boston. Thank you, Harry.
