The marketing foundations every entrepreneur needs to know | Ep. 27 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

In this episode of Content Magic, I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend Laura Sinclair. She is a kick-ass business and marketing mentor and has a wealth of experience and practical advice to share.

She specializes in helping early-stage female entrepreneurs and moms through the complexities of social media, business and marketing.

We also chat about the ever-changing social media rules and trends, the importance of an email list and the power in repurposing content.

Laura also tells us about the unglamorous business and marketing foundations she teaches. Without these,  we can't expect to build a sustainable business.

If you have an online business, you don't want to miss this one!

00:00 Empowering female entrepreneurs in online business growth.
05:48 Consumer behaviour shifting; sustainable business strategy crucial.
09:24 Fell in love with fitness, started online coaching.
12:56 Recognizing community building and understanding audience needs.
14:52 Intentions for mentorship and business visibility.
17:48 Balancing motherhood and business as primary parent.
19:57 My work setup and schedule are flexible.
25:09 Staying neutral and resilient in challenging moments.
26:08 Long-term success involves outlasting challenges and adapting.
29:15 TikTok may stay due to company acquisition.
33:41 Focus on specific content types for efficiency.
36:49 Consider rerunning it, not immediately, important.

 

CONNECT WITH LAURA!
Instagram: @itslaurasinclair
Website: thismothermeansbusiness..com
Podcast: This Mother Means Business 
Free networking call: Community Connection

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Laura [00:00:00]:
Repetition and marketing is important.

Lindsay [00:00:02]:
Yes. And I think people forget that. I think people forget. They think that they have to constantly reinvent. If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there, and learning to stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsey, and I'm the host of the Content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business.

Lindsay [00:00:30]:
I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing, and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space. I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity, and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So, tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions. Probably mine. Ready to dive in? Let's go. Hi, gang. Welcome back to the podcast.

Lindsay [00:01:08]:
And I have another friend to introduce you to. Hi, Laura.

Laura [00:01:13]:
Hi, friend. How are you?

Lindsay [00:01:14]:
I'm good. How are you? Good.

Laura [00:01:16]:
I like when everyone calls me their friend. I'm like, yep, I'm here.

Lindsay [00:01:21]:
And I just had Leslie on the podcast, and this is what I said to Leslie also. I was like, I feel like it's very rare in online business to meet somebody in person first and then connect later online.

Laura [00:01:33]:
I know. We are. We are unicorns, I think.

Lindsay [00:01:35]:
Yes, I concur. So, could you. I'm gonna get you to introduce yourself. Tell the people who you are and where you are and what you do and who you help.

Laura [00:01:45]:
I would love that. My name is Laura Sinclair. I am based out of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, which is. I actually usually just say Toronto, but I feel like because you're canadian, I can't say Toronto because you will call me out. That's my favorite thing. When I go places in the US, people say, I'm from Toronto. I'm like, but where are you, really? I'm in Berry. I'm a business and marketing mentor.

Laura [00:02:03]:
I help early stage female entrepreneurs grow their business online with an extra heart for moms because I've got two little kids myself, and so we do a lot of things in the mom space. I tried to avoid it for a long time, but I'm having to just lean in and accept the fact that everyone that comes into my world is a mom. And so we do a lot of work around getting your business seen, being visible, and breaking through some of the stories that show up around that, because it's very easy for me as a marketer to say, just go do XYZ, and it'll be fine. And a whole different kind of worms to actually do that. So that is what I do. I do that through my podcast. It's called this mother means business. My masterminds, my retreats, my events.

Laura [00:02:43]:
I also own a social media marketing agency because why not have so many things on the go? And I just really am passionate about helping women make more money, truly, because I think the statistic of women that are making six figures or more in their business is abysmal. I think it's like 12%, which is not a high enough number. And so for me, it is really about that.

Lindsay [00:03:09]:
Yeah, let's make that percentage higher.

Laura [00:03:12]:
Way higher. And I think that we can. It's just there's a knowledge gap, and so I'm trying to break that.

Lindsay [00:03:21]:
Yeah. And I find, so we know about bro marketing, right? And then I have a friend who calls marketing to women bra marketing. I was like, whoa. So. And I feel like, you know, as women, especially on the heels of the pandemic, like, I feel like so many of us were sold this, like, oh, it's so easy to start this online business, and so many of us just jumped into it. I know you and I have not, we have a backstory, but so many people have jumped into it or have taken some kind of expertise or something that they did in the real, real world. Like, this is not the real world. This is fake world, and have brought it to the online space, and they thought it would just be easy, and it's not that easy.

Lindsay [00:04:11]:
And I think so many people are missing some of those foundational pieces to actually creating and growing a business.

Laura [00:04:21]:
Yeah, it is pretty wild. I used to own a gym, and so I have a corporate marketing background. I skipped that part of my intro, but I have a corporate marketing background. I started my career in pr. So I was actually on the other side of the table from you, my friend, and started there, ended up doing a lot of social media, digital media, event marketing. And so it's been really interesting. Having owned a gym, I tend to attract a lot of people that are in the wellness space just because I know it well, very well, having run that business for the better part of five years. And so one thing that I'm seeing a lot right now are people that are coming to me and they're saying, business was so easy for me in 2020, 2021, right? Like, I just showed up online.

Laura [00:05:00]:
I showed up on social media, I posted my things and people bought, and now I'm having this. 2023 was down and 2024 is even worse. And help me. And I'm saying to them, okay, like, what are we doing to get your business visible right now? I'm posting on instagram. Okay, what are you doing to nurture your audience while I dm people? Okay, do you have an email list? No. Do you have any way of capturing anyone's information or nurturing them over time at all? No. And so what's happening is like twofold, right? It's that people got in the online space and didn't set up their business based on any real marketing foundations. And consumers are really skeptical now.

Laura [00:05:48]:
It is not. People aren't buying in the same way, and anyone that says consumers are buying in the same way that they were in 2020 is not paying attention because 2020, 2021, we were all at home, bored, looking for something to do, whether it was fitness related or business related or life coaching, wellness, like, any of it. Right? People are super skeptical because people have been burned. They've, or they've returned to, you know, how they kind of existed before, and they're just not buying in the same way. And so if you have a business where you just decided, you know, what, I'm going to post on Instagram, it's not a sustainable business model for you moving forward. And it's so interesting for me as a person that, like, teaches this stuff. It's not the sexy stuff, but it's the stuff that works over time. And I'm probably never going to go viral telling you how to create a lead magnet and build your email list, but it's the stuff that is going to actually be sustainable for you and help you build your business and help it keep stay in business long term.

Lindsay [00:06:49]:
Okay. A few things that you said there. So one, I want you to tell us sort of your journey to entrepreneurship.

Laura [00:06:56]:
Yeah, I will do that. You touched on it myself. I get so excited. I know I have a corporate marketing background, but I was always uncomfortable in corporate. I never really stayed anywhere for more than like two and a half years. I was always looking for the next thing. But I was checking the boxes in life that I was told I was supposed to check. You know, go to school, you go to, you get into university, you go and you work for someone else until you retire.

Laura [00:07:20]:
But the whole time I was just really miserable. And I was exposed to a lot of things really early. Like, very grateful for being in an agency environment really early, because being in an agency environment taught me to be really scrappy and really resourceful and to just figure it out, because most agencies, even the big ones, don't have the best process. And so you're kind of just thrown into it and you're like, go. Go and give us results tomorrow. And this was also in a time where this was 2008, so there was no Instagram. I'm aging myself, but that's fine. I'm going to own it.

Laura [00:07:56]:
And brands were just discovering this whole social media thing, and they were letting the interns run the Twitter account. Well, I was the intern, and so I held the keys to the Twitter accounts of some very large brand social media at the age of 24. So, you know, it's very, very fast upbringing. But for me, in 2015, I was running all the digital marketing for one of the biggest luxury automotive brands in the world, in Canada, and still was like, I just want to run a gym. Like, forget this. You know, I had everything. I was going everything that I was told I was supposed to want, right? Like, the six figure salary. I got to go to the parties.

Laura [00:08:35]:
I drove. I just drove with a luxury car. Like, had access to everything. And I was just like, this sucks. I'm not. I'm not here for this. And so I bought a crossfit gym with my. He was my fiance.

Laura [00:08:49]:
We were a month out from getting married, and we bought a gym. He had owned another gym with his brother. And so I found myself owning a crossfit gym for five years. And in March of 2020, when the world shut down for two weeks, out of an abundance of caution, I was eight weeks pregnant with my almost four year old son. And he. We would run. We tried everything we could to sort of keep our gym running. I would run fitness classes from my garage and turn off the zoom and throw up on the floor, because when you're pregnant and nobody knows and you're trying to run fitness classes, it's, uh, it's different.

Laura [00:09:24]:
And so I kind of fell in love with fitness in that journey. And we ended up closing the gym at the end of 2020. And, um, to make a very long winded story short, I had a three month old baby and was not about to go back to work for somebody else after, at that point, almost six years of entrepreneurship. And so I did what was easy for me, and I knew the online space because of my background, and I knew social media really well, and I knew building what building a small business was like. And I knew that most small business owners are great at what they do, and absolutely terrible at filling the funnel in their business. And so I started teaching people how to use social media in their business better. And that is how I found myself pivoting and kind of twisting and turning into what it is that I do today.

Lindsay [00:10:09]:
I love those stories. I was a yoga teacher when I was pregnant with my oldest, and there was a time where I was so sick, I taught everybody Shavasana because I just was like, I can't do anything.

Laura [00:10:23]:
We're gonna lie here for the next.

Lindsay [00:10:25]:
40 minutes, and you're welcome 100%. Yeah. Just was like, everybody lie down. Yeah, a couple things. So this, okay, so sometimes I feel like this idea of digital marketing, not everybody, it's like this broad term that some people, it can apply to so many different things. So what does that mean in terms of your business and what you do?

Laura [00:10:53]:
Yeah. For me, I mean, my core competency is really around getting your business seen right, growing your audience, getting you connected to the right people using digital means. That could be social media, it could be email, it could be podcasting. It could be just, like, getting and connecting you to the right person that owns the keys to some other digital community that you can be a part of. But a lot of it is around just helping improve reach, improve, nurture. It's so funny, though, to hear you say through digital marketing, because I feel like if you spend a lot of time in the online space, like, that phrase just gets so convoluted. It's like, what are we doing? Is it affiliate marketing? Is it mrr? Is it.

Lindsay [00:11:38]:
Oh, God. Yep.

Laura [00:11:40]:
Baseless digital marketing.

Lindsay [00:11:41]:
I can't stand that neutrality.

Laura [00:11:43]:
It is really confusing. But when I'm talking about digital marketing, I'm talking about, like, actual real marketing strategies that are intended to get more eyeballs on your business and nurture those people, those eyeballs into customers.

Lindsay [00:11:59]:
Yeah. And I agree. Right? Like, when you're in the space, you're just like, I can't stand that word anymore because it doesn't mean anything anymore. Right? Like, and I want to talk about, like, this idea of community, and I'm like, I don't that even that word, I'm like, what does that mean anymore? And I have such a, I don't know. And I, like, I always talk about my sister, who's a wedding photographer, and she's like, you know, her busy season is obviously, like, may to, like, September, and she's like, if I see one more mason jar full of baby's breath, I'm gonna, like, scream. So I feel like it's like, the same for us. Like, we have these words that are these terms, and you're just like, what does it mean anymore?

Laura [00:12:38]:
If I say one more reel, that's like, how to write a social media caption. Hook story description call to action. The end. That's how you go viral. I will melt. Yeah.

Lindsay [00:12:51]:
Yes. And to be fair, like, that could be novel to somebody else.

Laura [00:12:56]:
I know.

Lindsay [00:12:56]:
It's just the things that we see all the time. And I also want to take a minute for your content, because speaking of community, and I also said this to Leslie, I was like, I feel like there are people who are just really great community builders, and I feel like. Who are just naturally good at it. And I feel like you're one of those people. And what I love about your content, I mean, aside from the fact that I'm also a mom, like, I feel like anything you put out there, you're making people feel seen and understood. And, like. And like you said, I know you, and I want to touch on this in a minute that I know you didn't set out to work with moms. It just sort of happened.

Lindsay [00:13:39]:
And so that now you embrace it. Like, so two things there. One, as a mom. Cause everything, especially hanging out on threads with you, and I'm like, oh, my God, everything she says, right? Like, when you're speaking. Me too. I'm like, anything goes. You're just like, this random thing popped in my head. I'm gonna send it out there.

Lindsay [00:14:01]:
So I think the moms who are running a business, it's a different game. For whatever reason we like, if you're a mom and you're running a business and you're the primary parent, I can talk about, like, the equal division of labor in my home till I'm blue in the face, but it's just not there. So I feel like moms in business is a whole different thing. And second, your content of helping people feel seen, is that intentional?

Laura [00:14:33]:
Yes. And it's working. I'll just give it. Yes, it is intentional. It's also who I am as a person. So it's not, you know, like, it's so interesting because the online space is very performative. It is. If you're running a business online, it's calculated, and anyone that tells me otherwise is doing it wrong.

Lindsay [00:14:52]:
Right.

Laura [00:14:52]:
Like, it's there. It has to be an intention. And who I am as a person, like, my core belief is that you and your business deserve to be seen. But I know that in order to do the work that I do as a mentor. Like, you're putting a lot of faith and trust in me, and nobody is going to hire me if they don't feel like I understand them, right? Because I think there is a piece of vulnerability that's required when someone comes to a complete stranger on the Internet and says, hey, I'm really struggling in my business. And with this whole motherhood thing, can you help me? Right. If I showed up online and was just like, you know, the typical, what's called the bra bro marketing, I'm not safe, and I'm also not really attracting the right type of people. And frankly, like, I want to feel like I'm seen, you know? And so I think, for me, it's like a bit of a trickle down from my own desires and also who I am, but also knowing that the person that I really want to work with is a person that wants to be seen to.

Lindsay [00:15:58]:
Yeah, well, I love that. And, okay, so let's talk about the motherhood part, right? Like, that was not your intention when you started out.

Laura [00:16:10]:
No. And I still have some stickiness around, honestly, Lindsey, because I feel like when we talk about motherhood and entrepreneurship, it's immediately dismissed as fluffy. And I'm a person that takes myself, like, pretty seriously, you know? Like, yeah, we can have a good time, but, like, I am serious about my ambition and my knowledge and what I know and how I can help you. And, like, all of that is, like, big for me. It's a big part of who I am. Like, I take. I'm not a fluffy person. I'm not a fluffy giver of information.

Laura [00:16:42]:
Like, if you come into my world as a mentor, if you're hiring me as your mentor, like, you better be ready to get uncomfortable, because if you're not, you will not have a good time working with me. Like, I'm. I ask a lot of my people because I see what they're capable of. I see what their businesses can do. Like, I will ask a lot of you. And so when talking about motherhood and entrepreneurship, it's like, ugh. Like, I don't want to water that down. And so a lot of the messages out there around, like, you know, mama preneur, like, hey, mama, like, all that stuff is just.

Laura [00:17:12]:
I don't resonate with it. And so, for me, and this isn't something I've nailed yet. I'm still trying to figure out, how do I do motherhood and entrepreneurship, Laura's way? Um, and that's something that, you know, we. We just launched the community recently, and that's going to. It's going to take me a little bit of time to figure that out, and that's okay. Um, but I had a lot of resistance to it for a long time and still do, honestly, because it's like, yes, we're talking about motherhood and entrepreneurship, but in the context of, like, you have massive goals and I love that for you. Right. And you also have all these other things.

Laura [00:17:48]:
And I don't want your business to feel like it has to be this little side hustle cutie thing. If you don't want that, if you want that to be like, a huge part of who you are and you happen to have kids, like, right, let's do that. Um, you mentioned it being like a whole different game. It's a totally different game. And it's not just about being like, mom, primary parent, business owner that I'm seeing, like, certainly my mastermind. It's mom, primary parent, breadwinner holder. You know, like, it's so interesting to work with these women who are making more money than their partners, are also holding the role of primary parent, are also the ones getting 1700 snacks and, you know, navigating the emotional things. Everyone's anticipating everyone's emotional needs, making sure that everything is stocked and that even just before we were recording, I'm looking at, okay, we got soccer team assignments, what color jersey are we this year and where are we going and when, and, you know, like, all of that stuff.

Laura [00:18:50]:
It's not just about like, hey, mompreneur, it's like, no, you're going to hold most of this. And how do you navigate that and still show up for yourself, own and be a good partner, wife, you know, like all of those things and take care of yourself.

Lindsay [00:19:05]:
Yeah.

Laura [00:19:06]:
And, oh, yeah, somewhere in there you're supposed to take care of yourself, too.

Lindsay [00:19:09]:
Of course.

Laura [00:19:10]:
And so those are the kinds of conversations I want to have and are having. But it's a difficult thing for me to market and it's something I'm still working on, honestly. So if you're a person that follows me or you want to connect with me after, you're going to watch me talk about it in different ways as I figure it out, because I'm kind of doing this in real time.

Lindsay [00:19:29]:
Yeah. And I think most of us are. Right? Like, it's so funny. I was chatting with some parents at the best this morning, and I was like, as soon as you think you got one phase figured out, they like to change it up. And then there's another phase.

Laura [00:19:44]:
Yep.

Lindsay [00:19:45]:
And it's never going to look the same. Like, day to day, even, like, no.

Laura [00:19:54]:
It doesn't get easier. It's just different.

Lindsay [00:19:56]:
It's different. Yeah.

Laura [00:19:57]:
Yeah.

Lindsay [00:19:57]:
And, like, as I'm speaking to you, I don't have an office with a door. I have, like, a corner. So usually if I'm, like, on a call, like a group call or something, there's usually, like, a person right here, and it. And sometimes that's just what it looks like. And sometimes, you know, my bus. My kids get off the bus at 03:00 and sometimes I'm not finished stuff, so sometimes I get an hour of screen time so I can finish the thing right until my husband gets home. So it looks different. I find that it just looks different all the time.

Laura [00:20:31]:
Yeah, it totally does. And, like, I'm laughing. I got off. I got doors in my office last year. My office is actually what was, like, the formal dining room in our living room. Sorry. In my home. And so it was open concept.

Laura [00:20:44]:
I was like, we're gonna need some doors. Yes.

Lindsay [00:20:45]:
Oh, my gosh.

Laura [00:20:47]:
A glass inlay on them. And so, you know. Yeah, exactly. Every now and then at, you know, at 03:00 when my daughter comes home, I'm, like, a little. And I can just see her little face, and she knows, like, if the door's closed, is it okay for me to come in? She's a little older, and she gets it a little more. I have a three year old also, and he does not get it.

Lindsay [00:21:06]:
No.

Laura [00:21:07]:
So she'll, you know, stick her face in the window, like, hey, is it okay? And I'll be honest, too. Like, I used to get so stressed out about that. I used to be like, oh, my gosh. Now I just don't care. Like, I used to genuinely be like, I would get mad at my husband if I was recording on a podcast and he was, like, stomping around or, like, closed a door. I'd be like, he closed the door. Or, like, my daughter interrupted a meeting, I would be like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. Now I just genuinely don't care.

Laura [00:21:33]:
Like, this is just my life. And if you have to edit out or there's the sound of my toddler coming in and asking for a snack or for me to, you know, change the YouTube video that he's watching right now because we limit the selection. I just want to be clear about that because I actually hate you too, but. Me too.

Lindsay [00:21:50]:
Oh, my God. Me too.

Laura [00:21:50]:
Sometimes mom needs, like, just needs ten minutes. So I'm gonna need you to watch this trash for a couple of minutes, and we're just going to get through it together. But, yeah, I just don't. I don't know. I think a lot of it is, like, a lot of corporate conditioning for me that I had to undo around, like, oh, my gosh, I can't have my kids now. I do not care. My kids truly are. Even though, you know, I wear all those titles.

Laura [00:22:13]:
My breadwinner, mom, primary parent. My kids still come first, you know, like, they still come before my business. Myself, my partner, my kids, those all come for my business. There was a long time in my life where I got that backwards. But if my kids need me. Sorry. Gonna have to reschedule or push that deadline or let you, like, have a human moment. Like, anyone that's hiring me knows that I have two kids, whether it's in the agency or in mentorship, and I'm very upfront about that.

Laura [00:22:44]:
Like, I love you, and I'll be here for you 100%. But if something comes up with my family, I'm out.

Lindsay [00:22:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well. And it's like. And I say this to my clients all the time about content. I'm like, you're not a robot. Like, you can't. You know, we're not robots creating content and putting our stuff out into the world.

Lindsay [00:22:59]:
Like, we are human. And I talk, and I talk about this, like, this idea of being high vibe all the time. And I'm like, nobody is high vibe all the time.

Laura [00:23:07]:
No, I like big vibe. I don't like high vibe. High vibe says that means to me that I have to always be up.

Lindsay [00:23:14]:
Yes.

Laura [00:23:15]:
It's like, no, I want to be able to, like, hold the floor, too. Like, I'm recovering from a broken leg right now. And I will tell you that it has not been high vibe around here. It has been low vibe. The vibes have been low. Okay, there have been high moments. But I think about. I like to think of it as, like, a spectrum, right? Like, it's not just, like, there's.

Laura [00:23:35]:
And, you know, I know we're not using this video, but there's, like, the floor and the ceiling, and I have to be able to hold both. And that's a big space. Whereas if all I'm talking about is just being high vibe, like, that's not real and that's not creating space for those low moments, like, and motherhood and entrepreneurship. My friends, you're just gonna be some lows, and it's okay. And those are okay. Like, but you have to be able to hold both. So I'm with you. High vibe.

Laura [00:23:59]:
I struggle with.

Lindsay [00:24:00]:
Yeah, same. And I think. And I feel like it's giving people this, like, sense of, like, okay, so if I'm having a shitty day, I can't talk about anything, and I'm so. And this is the other thing, too, right? Like, there's no way, you know, and this, what, this is what bothers me about this idea of, like, just think positively. And I'm like, I feel like that slides into, like, toxic positivity a little bit because I'm like, you can have a shitty day and it doesn't. And everything's going to be fine because I feel like it just sets people up for failure because they're just like, well, I feel not great today, so what's wrong with me?

Laura [00:24:42]:
Nothing. And that's the whole point. And I think, you know, you sort of slide into some of that toxicity in the online space, right, where it's like, if you just, like, the reason your business isn't growing is because you aren't thinking positively. And I. I actually love woo stuff. I consider. I love it. I really believe that you need both because strategy is only going to get you so far, because eventually, like we talked at the beginning, eventually you're going to end up with these mindset blocks.

Laura [00:25:09]:
And the question is, how are you going to hold it when something's not going the way that you think that it's going to go? Or you follow up a horse and break your leg, or, you know, like, your kids are sick and you have a presentation tomorrow and you just got a message from the daycare saying, like, your child's just vomited everywhere. You know, like, all of those things are going to happen. And how do you react? How do you respond? Like, learning to be neutral in moments is one of my favorite skills that I've ever developed through, like, wooey stuff, right. Is, like, staying off the roller coaster, not being reactive to things, and, like, being able to have a really low moment. Like, I'll be honest, I've had some low moments over the last six weeks, but it's also, there's a part of me that can see that and be like, you know what, Laura? It's okay. And so you do need it. You need those skills. You need to do the personal development work to be able to stay in entrepreneurship.

Laura [00:26:02]:
Because it's an endurance game, friends. Yes.

Lindsay [00:26:05]:
Yes. It really is the long game.

Laura [00:26:08]:
It's the long game. And it's truly, like, this is who's going to outlast each other, because I promise you, the person that outlasts Lindsey and I, you're going to be really successful if you can outlast us. I'll tell you that right now, because I'm not going anywhere, and Lindsey's not going anywhere. And so if you can just stay in it, it doesn't necessarily, it's not going to happen overnight, but if you can stay in it, you're going to be just fine and adapt accordingly. But, yeah, I struggle with some of the toxic positivity, and that's the last thing that I'll will ever do to a person or to my clients, and it's something that we see just way too much.

Lindsay [00:26:45]:
Agreed. Agreed. Okay, let's switch gears to threads, because I feel like you and I are having a lot of fun on there, so. Okay, so, as of this recording, they've just released that. Now, meta apparently is, like. Has this, like, tiered pricing system. Yeah. Do you feel like there's gonna be some sort of exiting of social media and or Instagram?

Laura [00:27:14]:
I personally don't think that that's gonna last. I think that that's like, really. I think that's really interesting, given that meta. I know they test a lot of things, they try a lot of things, and even when they came up with, like, that, I think it was like, $15 a month for the original to become verified. I actually didn't hate that offering. I didn't hate it. It was kind of like, you know what? There are some security protections that you want to have if you're a business. Yeah, you know what, people.

Laura [00:27:38]:
We talked about this earlier, how people are, like, more skeptical. Okay, cool. You want to pay $15 a month? I'm not sure that this whole tiered thing is going to last. I think there's so many. It's so interesting. Like, obviously, this is a big conglomerate, and they want to make a lot of money. They already make so much money off ad revenue that it's wild to, in my opinion, to jeopardize people like that. However, if $350 a month get to a million qualified views every month, that's not a terrible investment either.

Laura [00:28:12]:
So I don't know. I can kind of see it from both sides. I think that it's trash because they already make so much money off of people like us, but they're also a business. And I think social media is free. And, you know, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I've been able to make off of Instagram at $0, you know, like, just my time is. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be able to do that without that free tool. So it's something that I'm like, kind of processing.

Laura [00:28:44]:
Do I like it? No, of course I don't like it, but I can see it from other sides. You know, your question about, like, do I think there's going to be an exodus from social media? I think no, I think that the people that will choose to use it are going to have to get creative in other ways to figure out how they're going to grow audiences and how they're going to build their email lists. It might mean that you're posting a little bit less, but I think it's going to be a lot of returning to some of those core fundamentals we talked about at the beginning, because a social media account is not a business.

Lindsay [00:29:13]:
It's just not. No.

Laura [00:29:15]:
And if you're relying on TikTok, which could be banned, but again, I don't think that's going to happen. They'll either go back and argue with them. I'm canadian, not american, so don't come at me if I'm getting this wrong, but I don't think it'll happen because either an american company will buy it or they'll go back and they'll argue it and it'll end up staying. I just. I don't see that. I don't see it actually going away. And so I think, yeah, I think the broader message, though, that I think is important is, like, these are tools that are always changing. TikTok's changing, Instagram changing.

Laura [00:29:46]:
Right. And so how can you get your business to a place where it is algorithm proof, truly right. Where it's not really relying on these channels, these other companies, to be the thing that is building your business? If you're listening to this and you are like, Instagram is the only way that I get clients. I need you to change that because it's not sustainable.

Lindsay [00:30:13]:
No, no. And I think, you know, I don't use the word should lightly because I kind of feel like a lot of my clients are like, oh, someone told me I should da da da da. I'm like, who told you that? And why? So, however, an email list, I feel, is a very strong should. If you don't have an email list, get one or have a text list.

Laura [00:30:34]:
But they're more expensive.

Lindsay [00:30:35]:
Yes. Something outside of properties that other people own.

Laura [00:30:41]:
Yeah. Like, I mean, even just the number of times that Instagram's gone down, there's been maybe, like, three or four shortages in the last couple of years. Oh, and, like, if you're in the middle of a launch, yes. But if you're in the middle of. There was actually one day that I posted that morning. Like, uh, if Instagram goes away, like, here's what would you do? Kind of thing. And it went down that day. Whoa.

Laura [00:31:04]:
And people were like, whoa, did you have a crystal balls? Like, no, it was just like, I don't know. The universe was just like, hey, Laura, I see you. But it's true, right? Like, don't get me wrong. Instagram is a big part of my business, and I'm grateful for it. I don't want to spend that much time on my phone. I really love coming on podcasts and being able to borrow audiences. Like, hey, Lindsey's audience. Nice to meet you.

Laura [00:31:26]:
Right. And vice versa. It's a great strategy if you're a person that wants to get in front of other people. Um, but email is magic. Email nurture is magic. It takes time. Like, I have people that have followed follow me for a year before they even give me a dime. And there are people that have probably followed me for three years that never paid me, and they still benefit from the information that I put out there.

Laura [00:31:46]:
And that's great, too, but it is about the long game. It's not about, oh, somebody discovered me, and it's just these messages all the time. Somebody found me and gave me $25,000 within three minutes of discovering me.

Lindsay [00:31:56]:
Like, come on, who says this?

Laura [00:31:58]:
Nobody says that. It's happened to me. Somebody's, like, found me and bought and bought from me within that week. I think it's happened to me maybe three times in three years.

Lindsay [00:32:06]:
Yes. Yeah. I feel like that's happened to me once.

Laura [00:32:09]:
Yeah.

Lindsay [00:32:11]:
So, okay, podcasting, I feel like I had a blog when I was, like, 25. I'm now going to be 45. I feel like podcasting has replaced the blogging of, like, the early two thousands. Late nineties.

Laura [00:32:27]:
Yeah. So here's the thing, Lindsey. I have a podcast. You have a podcast. It feels like everyone in our space has a podcast.

Lindsay [00:32:34]:
Yes.

Laura [00:32:34]:
However, if you actually look at, like, the number of podcasts that are consistently posting, it's. They're actually. It's actually abysmal. And so most podcasts don't make it past episode five, so you're crushing it. So am I. Let's just give ourselves a second little pat on the back. Little. Little toot toot for us.

Laura [00:32:53]:
I do think that, like, podcasting is. Yeah, it's pretty close to the new blogging. But again, I think this is going to be, like, back to a earlier point. I think this is going to be a longevity game.

Lindsay [00:33:04]:
Yeah, I agree.

Laura [00:33:05]:
So who's gonna be in it longer? You and me? Let's challenge each other. I don't know.

Lindsay [00:33:09]:
This is only episode 20 something. I'm still new.

Laura [00:33:12]:
I think I'm episode 78 or something of my podcast. This week, we're rounding episode 80, which is crazy. Thank you. But, like, yeah, to me, it's super fun. I love it. I could talk. I mean, you've heard me on your talk to myself for hours at a time. Same other people.

Laura [00:33:32]:
I love to talk. I love to write, too. But for me, I use a lot of my podcast episodes and turn them into blogs.

Lindsay [00:33:38]:
That is very clever.

Laura [00:33:40]:
Yeah.

Lindsay [00:33:41]:
And that's the other thing, too, when I think it comes to content. And, you know, back in the day when I used to create content for people, it was always very platform specific. And now the way I teach people to create content, it's really like I'm really playing on my advertising background and I'm teaching people to come up with the idea first because the platforms change so quickly and so, and I'm really encouraging my clients to focus on one short form type of content and one long form type of content because I think a lot of people come to me and they're just like, oh, I'm on 19 million platforms. And I'm like, why, though? Why? Can we just pick two maybe, or like three? And also repurpose the amount of times that I've written an Instagram post and I'm like, oh, that's a really good caption. And I just legit copied and pasted and put into my email.

Laura [00:34:41]:
Yeah. The number of times that I have even. This is my favorite trick. I just did this yesterday. Opened up instagram on my desktop, opened up my own profile, scrolled down few months, taken an old one, and was like, ooh, that was a good post. Let's do that again. That was my host today was a straight repeat of like, ooh, Laura, Laura, back in October 2023. Great job.

Laura [00:35:07]:
We're going to post this again. Repetition and marketing is important.

Lindsay [00:35:11]:
Yes. And I think people forget that. I think people forget. They think that they have to constantly reinvent. And this is the, it's like a blessing and a curse. Nobody is watching as closely as you think, but also nobody is watching as closely as you think. So. And repetition of your message, which I feel like, you know, when it comes to those business foundations, I think it's so important to start with all that super nerdy stuff and the super unsexy stuff because, you know, so many people just want to jump into the sexy stuff and jump into the marketing without anything to back it up.

Lindsay [00:35:45]:
Right. And I think we forget that a huge part of it is, yeah. Repeating the same thing over and over and over again from, like, different angles or in different ways. And that's why clarity in your messaging is so important.

Laura [00:36:01]:
Yeah. I created a course at the end of last year called unbreakable foundations that literally teaches essential marketing foundations. And it was hilarious for me as I'm selling it, because I'm literally selling it being like, you are going to want to avoid this. Like, I know that, but you need it. And the women that came into the group, they were amazing. We ran it. I ran it as a live program. It's also an evergreen course, but most of them, you know, I said on our first calls, like, this is going to be boring to you.

Laura [00:36:25]:
You will find this boring. You will want to quit. You're not going to want to finish it. But, like, you made this commitment, you made this investment. Like, I'm here to hold you to it. And they were all at the end of it. We're so proud of themselves that they did this work, and we're like, future me is going to thank me. I'm so glad this is done.

Laura [00:36:42]:
And the number of people that I've had messages from saying my biggest regret is not signing up for your foundation. Score. Oh, that's.

Lindsay [00:36:49]:
That's such a.

Laura [00:36:49]:
And I wasn't going to run it again live. I know. It was great, but I think I'll probably run it again, um, later in the back half of this year because it is so essential, but it's not sexy. Right? It's the stuff that we want to avoid. It's a reason why, you know, how I made 100k in three months or in 30 days is the stuff that goes viral, not, you know, by posting this reel. And, like, this shiny object is the thing that attracts people, rather than, like, me saying, hey, you want to sit down and make a welcome sequence?

Lindsay [00:37:16]:
Yes.

Laura [00:37:18]:
That doesn't feel exciting. Or, like, here, how. Here's how we grow our email list.

Lindsay [00:37:22]:
That sounds exciting to me.

Laura [00:37:23]:
It sounds exciting to you, but I love that stuff. Well, we do. That kind of stuff is the best, but for people that don't, that they just want a quick fix, it's not that. Right? Like, this is. I always like to say, like, you can't build a house from the roof. And, you know, you have to start with foundations. And so many people are trying to build their business from the roof and wondering why it's not working. Yeah.

Lindsay [00:37:45]:
And I agree. And I've been really leaning into the unsexy stuff since, like, the beginning of the year, and it's making a big difference and, like, doing all that work, like, sometimes, you know, and I always joke that sometimes, like, a copywriter needs their own copywriter because sometimes when, like, working with other people's stuff, and I'm like, oh, well, why don't you say this? Or this is a. This is. This is your messaging. And then when it comes to my own stuff, I'm like, what do I do again?

Laura [00:38:12]:
Yeah.

Lindsay [00:38:12]:
Can someone tell me? Yeah, those foundations, I feel like a lot of people skip over that. And it is, and it's not super sexy, and it's not making a real go viral or whatever, but it is necessary if you are going to build a sustainable business.

Laura [00:38:26]:
Yeah.

Lindsay [00:38:29]:
Thanks, Laura. You're lovely.

Laura [00:38:31]:
You're lovely.

Lindsay [00:38:33]:
Where can people find you and how can they work with you?

Laura [00:38:35]:
Yeah. So the easiest place to find me is on Instagram. I hang out. It's Laura Sinclair on Instagram. You can also check out my community. My podcast at it's mother means business. Wow. I should really note my own handle is I'm just.

Laura [00:38:48]:
Words are hard for me at this, at this stage. You can find me [email protected]. Or Laura Dash sinclair.com. And I host a bi weekly free networking call. So if you want to come and hang out with myself and some other really cool entrepreneurial moms, we host those every other Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.. Eastern. I will make sure that you get the link so we can put it in the show notes.

Lindsay [00:39:08]:
Awesome. I love that call. I feel like I keep meeting new people with that call.

Laura [00:39:11]:
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. We call it the hug. There are members there hug.

Lindsay [00:39:15]:
You call it the hug.

Laura [00:39:16]:
We call it the community hug. For those that are inside. Those that are inside know that it's the hug. I love it. But if I were to be like, hey, do you want to come hug it out on Thursday again, odd marketing, right?

Lindsay [00:39:26]:
Yes.

Laura [00:39:27]:
Hey, come hug us. Come have hugs. But no, we laugh, we get along. It's open to members of my community and also people that just want to come and get a feel for the vibe. And it's a free call, and I love it.

Lindsay [00:39:38]:
Yeah, my community call is also, like, my most favorite thing.

Laura [00:39:42]:
I was going to come to yours yesterday.

Lindsay [00:39:45]:
Well, I canceled it. I know you did, because I was ready. Because there was a little boy that was not feeling well.

Laura [00:39:52]:
See, that's what I mean.

Lindsay [00:39:53]:
Mom first.

Laura [00:39:54]:
Mom first. I'm not mad. I'm just telling you I was ready.

Lindsay [00:39:56]:
Yeah. Oh, dang it. Okay, we'll come to the next one. And that's, you know what? And it's funny because that took a long time to build even that. And sometimes when I forget to promote it, like, it's the same four people that come, and I'm like, oh, yeah, I got to talk about that also.

Laura [00:40:13]:
It took me a year. It took me a year.

Lindsay [00:40:15]:
It took me a year. Yeah.

Laura [00:40:17]:
There's usually, I would say anywhere between, like, nine to 15 women on that call, but it took me a year to get to that. The first call, there were three of us, and I was excited.

Lindsay [00:40:25]:
Yeah, same for the first. Like, yeah, for the first three months, it was the same three of us over and over. And we're like, well, see you later. We've said everything. Thank you for joining me. Always lovely to chit chat with you and also to see you in person sometimes.

Laura [00:40:41]:
I know we're gonna do it again soon.

Lindsay [00:40:42]:
Okay, sounds good. Bye, everybody. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved what you heard, don't forget, forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram at lindsaysmithcreative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.