Krista Fabrick - Instagram Marketing Expert
Audio Podcast
Steven Burkhart: Hi, this is Steven with Burkhart creative agency with the digital hustle show and I'm super excited to bring it to you. It was really cool person. A marketer deals with content does a great job, a phenomenal job of actually doing exactly what you say you should do cause you're posting videos constantly. So this is Krista and I love for you to just share a little bit about what you do and just kind of like a little intro.
Krista Fabrick: Yes. Hi, I'm Krista Fabrick. I did previously have an agency but now it's just me and myself and I, so I don't have a business name. Everything's in my name. I have been in marketing since 2003 so long before social media was really a thing. But I've evolved and grown with social media and I had been an avid user from almost day one. I have worked with small businesses on my own for about seven years now. And I'm also a marketing professor who is working on my doctorate in business administration and I'm currently working on my dissertation in social media. So, yeah. So that's a quick thing about who I am.
Steven : That's awesome. That's super awesome to have you on the show because that's obviously like super amazing. I think that one thing that I hear, first of all, we're going to go down a totally different road than some of the questions cause I didn't know you had an agency, so that's really cool. One thing that I hear a little bit when like other people, let's just say who it is, Gary V will complain about people who are like terrible at like basically continuing to pivot as the landscape and the platforms change for social media. So since you've been there since the beginning, since 2003 take us through like how, like what for you has been the experience of evolving as social media has changed. Right, because like I remember when like Facebook you had to be invited to be on it and I was like, Oh my gosh, like I don't know if I'll ever get invited. And then it opened up and like, so it was like, even for me, it was like a weird transition cause like I'm just old enough to be around like before computers and social media and phones were a thing and a little bit after. So I, I've experienced some of that, but you've been like more proactively like doing business things on it. So I'd love to hear a little bit about how all of that experience has been for you.
Krista: Absolutely. So you know, LinkedIn is actually the first social media platform. A lot of people don't know that. It started in 2003. I think I started my account maybe in 2006, so not quite an early adopter there, but nobody really knew what it was or had heard of it back then. The first social media platform that I really became aware of and got to use for marketing purposes, which Twitter back in 2007 I worked for the ad agency of record for Verizon wireless and Verizon being the big huge company that they were and wanting to, they had huge, you know, marketing departments, they called Mark Hall marketing communications. They were always on top of it. They were like, okay, what's this Twitter thing? We're doing this VIP music tour we're sponsoring for being a black eyed peas it blah blah. We need to be on Twitter.
Krista: We needed to talk to the young people on Twitter like, and so I got to work with the very first social media agency that ever existed in the U S because somebody had figured out what Twitter was and how to use it. And so we were, cause I was in, I oversaw all of the music and the youth sponsorship for the Western U S for horizon wireless way back then. And so I got to work with them and figure out how to, how to do Twitter. It's a riser was one of the first big brands to jump on Twitter in 2007. And so I think that was a great example for me early on and learning that, Hey, you know, as soon as something pops, if you want to be on the cutting edge, if you want to reach, you know, the, the younger people, which is something like the music tour, they wanted to, you have to figure out what the social media thing is.
Krista: So that was my first experience with using it for business purposes. And they, they, they try to use it for the tour. Did it have a lot of success because obviously a lot of people didn't really know what Twitter was yet, but they at least were there. And then they did start using it for customer service, which is what now all the big brands do. Of course. So they did that. And then back in 2008 when I started working for a boutique agency, some of our small business clients were getting business accounts on my space. Right. So I actually took the modeled after that and when I had my event planning side business, I had in my space account for that and people were learning about each other's businesses on my space from their business accounts. So so when I say I've been using it from the beginning, I really have, but Facebook, yeah, you're right.
Krista: It started as college only. You had to have a.edu email address had to be invite only. So I was past college age when that happened, but my brother-in-law was in college at the time and so he's the first one that told me about Facebook. And so I got on it pretty much shortly after it went available to the mainstream. But I didn't start using Facebook for business for all a long time because it really did start as truly a friend, a friend, friend, a family family to family type thing. But I, as soon as it started getting into more business stuff and personal branding stuff, I was all in on that too. So really? Yeah, pivoting as you, you can't do it well and you can't help others. Do it. And you can't teach others about it if you're not using it. And so that's a, you know, my kids even know like mommy's doing work on her phone. Like they know, like me being on social media is part of my job. Like I can't teach it to college students or to entrepreneurs and I can't expect entrepreneurs or businesses to hire me to give her advice on how to use social media for their business if I'm not using it. Right. and so I guess that's,
Steven : Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, I think that like, how should I ask this? I mean, why do you think you have been so like proactive with it and you feel like when I hear stories about other businesses, they seem kind of like resistant to that constant change. Like why do you, why do you think you've been so gung ho and like continued to like roll with the changes?
Krista: Yeah. So that's one reason why a lot of people don't necessarily like trying to use social media either for themselves or their businesses. Yeah. Because of the constant change. I think for me is I said, okay, my doctorate, I do, I love learning. And so I actually enjoy the challenge of, you know, keeping up with the trends. Like literally sitting, I thought I was reading my, I get all the email newsletter and I was just reading an article about, you know, a coronavirus and corona actually that, you know, how Corona's losing sales because people actually think they're related. But, but I'm always, every day I have, you know, I'm reading either on social media or in my email newsletters, what's going on. Right. So I think that's just part of my personality, but I know it can get really overwhelming for people to try and keep up with the change, which is why people hiring me because I, I simplify it for them. I should say, forget all the noise, this, just do this, you know, and things like that. Cause there's certain things that no matter what the platform is, no matter what the algorithm is doing, no matter what is going on, or there are certain principles that stay true.
Steven : Sure. So, so I guess more of like a functional question for you then is since you've been on the cutting edge of these different platforms, how have you, or have you even had questions about how to justify the ROI of investing time, even if it's not a bunch of money, like let's say you're just investing a lot of time posting on Instagram or you're not spending money on Instagram ads per se, right? So you're still an in doing an investment but it's worth your time, which for small business owners, people like that time is super valuable. So before you know now we have all these tools to like do metrics for these different things. That wasn't always the case. Certainly for new platforms, that isn't the case. How did you like communicate that value to people when like a platform was new? I was like tick tops new and I don't know, like I don't know if there is even metrics for that other than just like, Oh, I got a lot of likes.
Krista: Yeah, no, there's retros particularly walk as well. And Dick talk, I wish I could spend more time being on tick-tock right now because that's their organic reach right there is right now. It's insane, but it's not for the right person. Like for me, I could use my college professor persona and I could potentially get these college students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs because that's so popular now, who could eventually become a client of mine? Right? So that's for me it would be, there would be a positive reason to do it, but it's not for everybody. But where I bring it to back to the business owner said, okay, how are you getting leads now? How are you getting clients now remember when you had to knock on go door to door as a realtor or I remember if you were, you know, you're a lawyer and you maybe had to make cold calls or whatever, whatever your business is, think about without social media, how do you get leads?
Krista: Did you spend time going to networking events? Did you, you know, did you pay for ads? Did you do the door knocking the phone? Cause the cold cost, cause I started my career in sales. So I used to do a hundred a hundred cold calls a day, you know sales. I used to, I sold both real estate software first America and then I sold cell phones for Nextel. You know, 50 to a hundred lines. And so, but think about that. So now the new version of that and built building brand awareness and generating leads can be social media. Not saying it works for everybody, every industry, and I think it's the same, but there was there an ROI on, you know, on networking events? Not necessarily unless you signed one client, right? And then an ROI on cold calls. Yeah, you made a hundred calls, you got three appointments and you close one deal out of those three appointments. Well maybe you spend that same amount of time on generating, you know, your content and sharing it and building community on Instagram and you get one climb, right? So it might not be a, you know, an exact equation, but you have to think about how are you getting clients now? How are you getting leads now? How are you building brand awareness now and then compare it to the time and the money you spend on social media.
Steven : True. Yeah. I always think it's funny like people, some people I think want to make social media sound easier than it is where it's like, Oh, like, Oh he like you just post a couple of times or whatever else. And it's like, it's like because of the noise level you like, you have to try that much harder to stand out, which means the quality of what you do, the frequency of what you do has to be that much more. And it's like, it's no, people think like, like you said with like door knocking. It's not like now it's like, Oh man, good thing we don't have to door knock anymore. It's like, no, you're still like sitting down and sending out like a thousand DMS. Cause like if you door knock, chances are someone was home. But like there's a lot of times I've sent messages and DMS and like people don't even see them because maybe right.
Steven : Yeah. And so then it's like, okay, so then you send out 200 and the same amount of time you can knock on a hundred doors, but then still the only half amount of people saw it. So like you're still spending the same amount of effort, you're still putting yourself out there and you know, kind of we talked about earlier, like I'm introverted, like me putting myself out there as horrifying. And so whereas for you it's, it's kind of second nature. And so, you know, for me, doing a hundred cold calls sounds like the worst time in the world.
Krista: He likes cold calling. If anybody tells you they like cold calls, I found ways to make it fun or I don't like to laugh at the different ways I could get rejected or hung up on, you know, but nobody actually likes it, especially when I do a hundred a day. But but yeah, you're right. Social media is not easy and it's not, Oh, I'm just, you know, gonna post a few times. It's, it is a longterm game. And you know, you're a big fan of Gary V as am I. I use the spokes in one of my social media classes and he, you know, he will tell you that it's, if you're not in it for the right reasons and if you're not in it for the long term. Yeah. Yeah. Which book is it that you use? I actually use jab, jab, jab, right hook for like the old school, like showing how even though so much has changed so much stay the same.
Krista: And then right. The Oh my God, crap. What's in the yellow covers the newest one? I can't, why can't crushing or crushing it? Crushing. Crushing. I've said I've read all the books online. Right. But so yeah, it's a thick, actually the class coming up and I'm about to teach uses those. So I'm going to have to update those cause even crushing it is now a little outdated. And once again, a lot of the principles in there are great. And then for the outdated information, there's great conversations around what, how quickly social media changes and what we need to do about that.
Steven : 100%. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's still the idea is like connection is still important. Being, being seen and remembered is still important. Having quality with what you do is still important and like none of those things changes. I guess you realize that, which is why you've been able to transition to the different platforms. Well, because at the end of the day, like if those things are being hit, then you're good and maybe it's like done a different way. Like, you know you can't, you know, you can't really do BMS as easily as you can on Facebook as you do on Instagram. And like some platforms that's not even an option. Like, so there's a different strategy for each one
Krista: And the big thing there is no matter which platform you're trying to be on and how new it is or what has changed, the best way to figure it out is just to get on there and try it. Even if you just get on there and you know, consume content but just, you know, just, just to actually be on the platform and use it, there's no, no better way to figure it out then just use it.
Steven : So you mentioned earlier that you had an agency at one point that was yours? Yeah. Okay, cool. So
Krista: Not like a full blown to, cause when I started to go full blown with it, I was just building it up that I actually accidentally fell into a full time position at a university that I'd been an adjunct at. But so then it kind of went to the side, but it's, it was, yeah.
Steven : What kind of led you to like even have the opportunity to build an agency?
Krista: So I worked in a small marketing firm. I was my first marketing job in 2003. Started there, went to the big time ad agency working with Verizon wireless. They lost Verizon wireless and then I transitioned over to a boutique ad agency where I worked for five years and went back to work there part time. Even after I have my first kid cause I didn't want to do the agency life and never see my baby. And then, yeah, I didn't even want to go to the office anymore. I was in the office, you know, still at 20 to 30 hours a week. Part time is hard in the agency where else when clients need something, clients need something. And so I finally got an opportunity to take a contract to work from home for another marketing company. And then we moved, there was not enough for my husband's job and he built an office and he wanted people in house.
Krista: And so I was, had, I got, I got the call from him saying you have 60 days left on your contract. And I was five weeks pregnant with my son. I was like, okay, I'm going to go job hunting when I'm pregnant. This is going to be fun. And because I've worked at so many small agencies, you know, not so many, but three small companies, two of which I was in the office from the ground up. I was the first full time hire at one. And I think I was a second full time hire in another Oh wow. Where I basically got to help grow the agency and manage and like go on all the new business development, everything. I knew how to run an agency and my husband has been for years. I'm like, why are you not doing this yourself? He's like, you know how to work with clients.
Krista: You know how to find all the people to do the, you know, the, the design and the SEO and the whatever. He's like, why don't you do it? He's like, you obviously, you know how to sell. You've been selling your whole career. Like that's true. You know? And so I was like, so when that happened and I got the car, I was praying, I was like, well yes, it's time to do this on my own because I wasn't going to go interview for jobs and lie and say, I now tell them I'm pregnant at the same time.
Steven : Can you hire me? I need eight weeks off for three months. Yeah.
Krista: And so that was kind of the, what made me, so I just started consulting and it was literally almost to this day I almost all of my clients had been either a word, somebody I met or a referral or that in the last two years because of my intentional growing my brand on social media through social media. And so anyway, so that's, so I started like that, but then eventually I was like, okay, I was doing everything I was, they would hire me and I would do their social media strategy, their social media content, their social media day to day, like responding to comments, messages, you know, and that gets overwhelming. And then I was like, well, Hey, wait, I'm a college professor and I have all these amazing students
Steven : For like just thirsting to do something cool.
Krista: I hired them, I paid them. I mean, so I gave them an internship so they could get credit for school and get it on their resume or whatever. But I paid them a good wage and I picked up, you know, the good ones that I knew for my classes. And they would get introduced to the client just like a regular employee would and everything. And so I had at 1.3 different interns managing the a some writing and some writing content like blog content, email content, and then managing the Twitter, the Facebook, the Instagram for my clients. So that was when the closest I got to like an agency, but it was all contract work, you know, I'm not like I had an office or anything, but
Steven : Well I do think that's like, Oh yeah. And I think yeah, because there's just like clients are constantly switching who they're doing, having run their stuff. And so it's like for an agency it doesn't make sense to have a staff of 100% full time people because like they could lose a contract tomorrow and then all of a sudden it's like, how are we going to pay everyone? So that's super sketchy.
Krista: Yeah. And so that was, that was kind of how you and I actually loved it, but I have two young kids. I started my, started my P my doctoral program in 2017 and I was working full time at the university at the time and it just got to be too much. And so I was like, you know, I love working with the, I'm never going to give that up because even though I want to keep teaching, the what makes me a good professor is that I, I actually do what I teach. I'm not just reading out of a book and back, this is what you do, you know? And so that, that's why I decided I'm going to, I'm going to keep getting clients, but I will no longer be the one responsible for all of the day to day stuff. I will happily refer them to some of the same students.
Krista: Like I've gotten several of my students either internships contracts or you know, full time jobs with clients or former clients. And I will happily, I have my network of web designers and content creators and all that that I can refer them all out to, but I'm no longer the one, you know, not holding the hand overshooting every little thing. So they will hire me for a marketing plan for, you know, weekly coaching where they just need somebody to help check in and hold them accountable and bounce their ideas off. I'll do their social media plan. Like I'll even do like the whole month, like, here's, you know, here's your outline for the month, but I don't do the day to day.
Steven : That's gotta be a huge relief. Yeah. Well and it's like totally fits within like your, your strength. Like, like you don't have all those skills and all those experiences you could like post for someone, you have all the skills and experiences. You could give someone a killer strategy to move their business forward. Right.
Krista: And then, you know, when they are doing that, you know, I go back and I will review what's going and I will help them discuss what's working and what's not. So, even though I'm not the one actually posting, I'm still learning and seeing what works and what doesn't. So
Steven : Totally. Yeah. Well yeah cause you got your own stuff that you're, you know, practicing on. So it kind of seems like your transition into doing just work by yourself was kind of by need as opposed by being, you know, being a mom and and certainly the schooling and the teaching. Walk me through a little bit of that cause like for me, like I think one of the harder things as a creative person, which you definitely are is saying no to stuff. I think that's very difficult. You know, cause you're always, I'm sure you're always coming me with crazy ideas, like good ideas, well founded ideas where like, you know, how do, how do you say no to three good things to say yes to one great thing. You know what I mean? Like so walk me through like what has been like, what kind of things maybe you've had to say no to and like, like just walk us through that experience.
Krista: So that's, that's a cost and struggle for sure. As a person who likes to do a lot of things and yeah. Yeah. It's hard to say. No, I'm very nice person too. I will give you the best example is my very first and still client of seven years. It took me two years to get out of doing all of this day to day stuff. Like I had to slowly, okay Mike, can we, you know, cause those will take over this next month and like just one piece at a time had to like give it away and I'll reduce the retainer. Like, let's do this. I would like to reduce retainer because of this. And, and he was, I mean, literally dream client, like he's a, he'll randomly call me. Bugger. I'm just upping your retainer because you're so awesome. You're such an integral part of my team and I want to make sure you're taken care of like that, right?
Krista: Who gets a client like that? Right. But it's also because I've worked with him for seven years and I obviously helped him have a lot of success in growing his business. But I, I've had to really intentionally do that. And one thing he won't let me get up and give up is I actually still write all of his content for his weekly blog articles. For anytime he has a new brand new email, like he'll have people that will edit, but anything brand new, like for an email campaign, any, if he has brand new section of his website or whatever, it's still me and he won't, like, he won't let me give it up because I know his brand voice so well. And every time somebody else tries to write it, he hates. And so he got, if I've got a PR person who does like PR PR releases and like things like that, and she's, I think maybe getting to the point where he might be like, okay, she can do it, which, you know but that, so that's, yeah, but that's how hard it is for me to say no, especially when it's somebody that you have a good relationship with.
Krista: Sure. But what I try to focus on is yeah, you know, and I tell my clients openly, Hey, you know what, my kids come first and right now I just don't have any extra time to devote. So I'd be happy to put you in touch with so and so. Or I would happy to be find somebody for you or whatever is what I've tried to do. Now the battle of myself chasing the shiny objects, that's another, another battle. Right? And so that one I have to have the conversation with my head in my own head of like, what am I giving up to pursue this? Am I giving up sleep? Am I giving up, you know, telling my kids, am I going to give less quality in my dissertation work that I'm working on right now? Like what? And so I try to have that pep talk. I also have a husband who is my absolute biggest fan and cheerleader believes in me more than I do probably, but he also would be like, Krista, did you really? Do you need, do you have time for that? Are you sure you have time and when do you like, he doesn't ever put his foot down and say no. Like, you know, he's not like that, but it was, he knows how to call me on it and be like, do you really
Steven : Well cause you know, in your heart, you know, you just need someone to like help you, like be comfortable with that because who doesn't feel bad about like feeling like they dropped the ball at somebody even though that's totally not what it is.
Krista: Right, right. And so, yeah, I sometimes if I'm really struggling, I imagine me explaining myself to my husband. I said, why did I pursue this, this project or this client or whatever. Yeah. And how is he, yeah.
Steven : That's awesome. Shoot, there was something I was going to ask you when you were talking there that I was like, had to bring up. Oh, I was just gonna say, it's so funny that you talk about like how invaluable your brand voice is for him. Because there's a guy that we did a video podcast for and he he runs a brewery in Phoenix and super nice guy. And he like enjoys playing with cameras and doing a good job. And he's like, man, every time I post it does really good. And every time anyone else posts is not that great. And the only thing I could think of, even though he didn't say this specifically is like, I think it's just no one else has had the brand voice and they want to hear from him and or whatever else. And you know, just as much as anything, it's like you could probably sound like Mike because you know, you've been around him long enough. You know what he sounds like you, nobody cares about, you know, how he says things and so you can communicate for him in a way that's still like authentic where it's like some people, it's like, it's a real struggle. It's that makes you so valuable because it's such a big struggle to find someone who can represent their brand well, the people actually connect with. Otherwise people were doing posts. Yeah. And then there's like they're not connecting well and then what's, what's the point?
Krista: And it's definitely, you said that like when he does the post it's because my, I have a, another business with a partner who is actually a student from the first class I ever taught in college. And she's a little bit of an Instagram influencer and she's, she knows me really well now. We, I mentored her for years and now we've been working together a year and a half and she'll be like, Krista, you don't show your sassy side enough onto the street. She's like that. She's like, when you're in class teaching, like we get to see like your sassier when I'm with you, we're talking and you have like, you have opinion, you have strong opinions and you, she's like, show. I'm like, I don't know, I'm not trying to hide it. And she's like, no, but it's mostly like, especially in your Instagram captions.
Krista: So every time like I'll have like a picture, like where it's me like sticking my tongue out and like I'll have something kind of sassy and the caption, those are always the highest engagement posts I'm like, but it's also authentically me. Like the other ones where I'm trying to teach and like give an edge, you know, educate on a specific thing. But she's like, yeah, but that's not how you teach it in class. Like if you were in class talk, think try to write your capture, like you were talking to like one of your workshops or to one of your classes. She's like, because you have a certain like just sass and like strong opinion that doesn't necessarily come through when you're trying to be all formal on you, like your teaching posts. And so it is, it's funny, I just haven't figured out how to make change that balance, you know? So it's, we're all always learning and growing. Right. But it is, it's funny that when you hit your brand voice of like what your audience resonates with, like this brewery guy apparently now, right? It's magical.
Steven : Yeah. He a hundred percent knows that. Like when someone else posts is just not the same, which is fine. And I do hope you find someone eventually that can like ma, you know, maximize match that. But it's funny and I definitely like struggle with that whole thing too because like, I'm kind of like sarcastic and laid back, which to me is like neither one of those are super great, great qualities to have online. Cause like sarcasm is kind of like negative and like that kind of can attack the wrong people and laid back is not very engaging and like, like all the people I love to watch are people who are like fun and spunky and like having a great time like, like anyone. And so it's hard to be like, okay, well how much of that gets into like my professional image without like tarnishing it in the wrong way. And
Krista: I think sarcasm can be really hard in like row written stuff, but like in your videos showing off the sarcasm, I think that's great. That's, I mean that's part of who you are. Right? So like that's people who are going to be drawn to working with you are going to have to be able to appreciate your sarcasm. Cause I'm guessing it doesn't just magically disappear. And when you got to, hold back pretty well. Obviously everybody can hold back.
Krista: That's something that people will connect with. Like my husband is super sarcastic and he's, he thinks Gary V is annoying as all be
Steven: Really knowing how my post, he's like, you're too energetic. I'm like, I don't want to watch that on a video. Interesting. And so not everybody likes the energetic, well that's good to know them because those are my people.
Krista: See now like I've seen people who have been successful and they're not necessarily like in your face or every energetic or you know, in fact, I mean Alison is my partner. She's she's not necessarily star cast. She can be very sarcastic too actually. But she, she's a mother. She does motivational. She's a fitness influence. But she's specialized in like doing like motivational talks. Okay. But it's like she'll be like, Hey, like you are not doing this today. Like, she's like pretty like, you know, like in your face. So, but it's not like in a high energy like bubbly or anything like that. Right. It's kind of like a get your crap together. So, and she's, you know, she's going to falling from that. So
Steven: Kick in the pants. Everyone needs to try it. Try it. Just test it out a little bit. It was funny
Steven : Because I made Sam shoot me the other day who's doing a video for us today but we, we, we we're, we're shooting it sounds to go Scottsdale quarter and there was a rolls Royce parked in the Parking lot. And so I actually took it out of my room Blog cause I was, or my blog cause I was like, I don't want to be too much of a jerk. But like we went over to, and I did some poses. I'm like, Hey look, I'm an Instagram influencer
Steven: Sir. I'm posing my car. I don't own,
Krista: Does that sound like millions and millions of followers that are all about making it like influencers in the wild? Have you seen that accounts is literally an account doing nothing but making fun of people like posing in the wa in the wild as influencers, like taking their pictures or their video,
Steven: Right? Like where they like pose on a private jet that they rented and it's like not even getting a taxi off the runway. Wilder I think is the biggest one. But maybe I'll post that video and then tagged you in to see if they pick it up. Maybe I'll, maybe I'll throw it in this video. Just be like, Oh Hey, totally might pick it up. Yeah, that'd be fine. I just felt like I was like, maybe that's just like too much bad energy. I don't know. It's just, I don't know. You gotta you gotta watch yourself sometimes. I don't want to invite trolls into my life. Well there's plenty of those.
Steven : So let's see here. So we'll skip the hiring ones. Let's explore a bit. You cause you, you said that like part of your business is like the referrals and the, the connections you make, but you said also part of it is you're the, you know, because of the brand that you've built on Instagram or just social media in general. Yeah. So can you give us like like give us some like somewhat real numbers on what like that's done for you. Does that make sense? Like if you feel comfortable with that and it's like you don't have to tell me like exactly how much you money you made off of your own thing, but like how many clients like have you landed because of that? Like how long did it take? Like give it some like real like facts about like what building your personal brand has done for you if you could. Yeah.
Krista: Yeah. So, well, let me start with an example that goes way back actually to the end of 2016 when I got asked to interview, I had been an adjunct professor at the university here locally for a couple of years and I had been asked to interview for the department chair of the business department. And so I made all the way through the interview process. And the final thing is an interview with the president of the university cause he does a quick interview with anybody that's going to come on as full time, especially as an administrator. So I had a half an hour interview with the president of the university. Right. And he could see everybody else's green flag. We love her, we want her. Yes, perfect, great fit. And I had met him before because I tried to, as an adjunct, I tried to be very active, intentionally shoring to athletic events.
Krista: And every time I saw him on campus for any reason, I would always go over, shake his hand, whatever at the time was super active on Twitter. I'm trying to get back into it again. And so I, I would retweet all the, you know, athletic victories and I would, you know, share things of the university's Twitter. And I would reply and you know, share students' successes. And it was very, very, you know, authentically. But I mean I was, I had a strategy of like, I want to know, I want the administration to know why I'm a fan, that I am a supporter, that I fit in with this.
Steven : Did they see how much of a fan you are?
Krista: And that they see that, you know, that they know who I am. And so when I sat down in front of, across from the president, he goes, you know, he's like, I know we've met a few times before. He's like, but I really, I really know who you are because he's like, he, cause he was very active on Twitter as well. He's like, yeah, I always see you on Twitter. And he's like, you're so promotional of our university and of our students and of our successes. And he's like, and you're always sharing just great content that really shows your practitioner and your field. He's like, I really appreciate that. And he's like that. I don't even feel like I have to interview you because I already know who you are. And, and so we, I mean we of course did go on and have a discussion and I got the job right, but I mean this is a president of a co of a university saying, I don't remember how to interview you because I already know, I know how you feel about the school.
Krista: I know that you know your stuff for your industry, you know, whatever. So that was one of my cool like great, you know, that that got me, you know, a full time job, which I always, I had wanted to be a full time professor and that's, that was a big deal. But then moving into more practicals for today now for clients for example. So I have grown my following. I've actually intentionally shrunk at recent cause I've been removing like bot accounts and inactive accounts. But on Instagram for example, I have not even a thousand followers. I think I'm on like 830 something right now. But it's proof positive. It's not about how many followers you have, it's about the quality of the followers you have and how engaged they are. And so I have people who I'll either meet once at a conference, a networking event, I'll teach a workshop and they will then connect with me on Instagram, follow me, watch my content.
Krista: And without me ever having to like, you know, I always say, Hey, if you're going to talk with her, but you know, course always do that, I'll reply to their things, I'll, but without me ever having to do anything, if they either ask me a question and I answer it or they'll just reach out, be like I need, we need to talk, I'd like to hire you. And so I'm trying to think of how many I've had that have been that situation where it's ice met somebody once, at least in person for some reason. And then connected on Instagram. But I want to say I've gotten in the last six months, I believe I've gotten seven or eight clients like that. Wow. So not a, not high ticket. These are small businesses are not high ticket. Some of them go one time, some of them have been continual.
Krista: Sure. But then not only has it been that, but then they still continue to engage with my stuff. They continue to share out my stuff. Two of them have referred me, another client. Awesome. So that's, you know, that's, that's some hard numbers right there that I also have in the last, I think year I've gotten one new client from my Facebook which is crazy. And then I'm, because my I, my Facebook page, I don't, I have it there to have a presence, but it's not something that I've chosen to focus on. I focus more on LinkedIn and Instagram. And then I've gotten two people who completely found me through Instagram and like I've never met in real life that I've done work for. So I mean that, what did that add up to? I think if you add it all together, it's about 14 clients in the last six months to a year. Just, you know.
Steven : Right. And, and I would say have having done some digging but not a ton that a lot of the accomplishments that you've just shared with me today about having an agency and working for Verizon, all those other things are things I haven't seen yet on your Instagram. So like, it's literally like, even though you have like obviously an impressive resume leading up to this, like they're pretty much just finding and being sold about you from just what they see on Instagram is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Which is amazing. I mean, you have, you have the, you have the, you got the the resume to back it up certainly. But what I'm saying is that like, literally because of you just like consistently getting on there like you're making money.
Krista: Well then, because when you, and when you show up, like I show up and you're educating and people listen to that or read your captions or I watch my stories when I've done, you know, like little, you know, tutorials and my stories. Sure. It's not, I mean, if you hear me say it like you're hearing that I actually know what I'm talking about. I think that helps. But, and then until recently I actually had a link tree and I did have my LinkedIn profile as the first like link. And so I was getting, you know, several clicks a week on that link. So I think people would maybe come across my content, maybe go check out my profile and then look, Oh they did, let's go see what she's done before. And then if you go on my LinkedIn, then you get my whole, my whole resume, you know? So, which has been interesting with LinkedIn. I'm going to switch there a lot people, if people are not on LinkedIn, they should be right. Because whether you're a business owner, a salesperson, just trying to get an internship, a job, whatever the connections, there are insane. Majority of recruiters are only going there now looking for people. Some jobs are only getting listed there now. The fact that you,
Steven: Sorry, monster.com and you can make a connection there with somebody who might work at the company that you want to work with,
Krista: Much more likely to get an interview. You know, people who know somebody, the company are 15 times more likely to get hired. All that. But where I've had success, most small business owners that I'm targeting are not on LinkedIn because they're, they're just, you know, I, I worked a lot like mom and pop shops, right? Like, you know, the, the flower shop down the street or the photographer or, you know, I dunno, I can't think of example, but you know, the, they're not necessarily gonna find their clients on LinkedIn. Right. but what I have gotten on LinkedIn is I've been interviewed in three published books. I've know this, I have an interview with a podcast tomorrow. It's a follow up from an interview I did last year who found me on LinkedIn. I have a podcast interview in a couple of weeks because of LinkedIn. I'm going to do a live Facebook video in a Facebook group for a huge audience. At the end of March because somebody who found me on LinkedIn. And so I'm getting to connect with these awesome people who are letting me go in front of their audiences and I'm growing my following either on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, different places by, by getting exposed on those things. So, right.
Steven : Oh yeah. So he was just talking to me the other day about like how less formal LinkedIn's getting the people sharing more like personal stuff on there too, that is becoming more of a social media platform. And I was like, Oh, that's kind of interesting. And then I would say going, okay. Like I feel like more of my clientele will be on there, but maybe
Krista : That's not true though. It would be, cause you're looking for other businesses, right. Tall, small businesses. I think for now. Yeah.
Steven : Yeah. And yeah, I'm thinking like probably people with like at least a couple employees, you know, maybe like five to 10 or more. You know, where they can afford to have a little bit of a marketing budget and stuff like that. So I was figuring, you know, I'll go in there. So you know, lots of people are on Instagram and it's a great visual platform, which is what I make. And then LinkedIn for those kinds of connections. So that's literally the two places I've been spending the most time. Like Facebook barely at all. Yeah, it's, it's pretty much just those students, which has been really fun and I've enjoyed it and it's been funny, even people that I know like in real life that are on LinkedIn that actually get to see some of my stuff now that like probably never saw it on any of those other platforms because they're in people in businesses and they're active on there and then all of a sudden they're seeing
Krista: It's the organic reach on LinkedIn is still, it's still there. Cause I just saw, I was sharing this in class. I taught a class on LinkedIn like a week and a half ago. Okay. I'm not gonna remember the statistic, but something like, I think it's like maybe 10% of the users on LinkedIn are only currently creating content like more than once a week or once a week or more. So like, I mean, think about that, right? That's, I mean it's such a small percentage of that's why the organic reach on there and when you actually put any posts, anything, it's still so good because hardly anybody's posting anything,
Steven : Right? So they don't need an advanced algorithm to like slow it.
Krista: Right. And I'm connected with, I think I have like 1400 connections on LinkedIn and I go on my feed and I feel like it's the same 25 people that I are always in my like not that many people are, are posting. So that's, it's, it's a really great place to be active if you can find value in being there. Wow. I'm going to transition back to Facebook because I've recently actually hired myself a business coach because I at changing my business into wanting to shift a little bit more to scaling it with online info services, like courses, membership clubs, things like that. And what he's been preaching and which I'm seeing in some of my clients and several of my students, cause I teach at the community college. So I have a lot of friends who come in and take my social media classes cause they're have their own business and they want to learn how to do it. It's Facebook groups.
Steven: Okay, I see that, your honor. That's your link. Yeah.
Krista: Verbal ad, right. Facebook. That's super wide for Facebook groups. That's how hard they're pushing groups. And so I just recently started mine. I've tried to start one line two years ago, but you know how that goes and you can't, you can't be everywhere at once. Right. That's my biggest advice is social media is for the 99% of people. You can't be everywhere at once, but yeah. But Facebook groups I've now pulled in people from Instagram and Facebook, I'm about 50 members, so it just, you know, but I only open it three weeks ago. And it's a place where you can do a lot of the content that you're doing other places or you're getting reclusive content there and then take clips of it and share other places. But the engagement is so much higher because they're getting a notification every time
Steven : Because Facebook wants them to, which let's be honest, that's like the deal.
Krista: And even if they turn off notifications for your group, like there's that, there's that groups tab in the app where it's, you know, you can just click there, it's going to start showing in your feed. Like the groups post shows in your feed all the time and basically prioritizing that.
Steven : I dunno if I like that, but I mean if you're trying to use it then that's great.
Krista: Right? And so, so far, I mean, I'm not selling anything in my group so far, like literally just providing so much value. I'm doing marketing audits every Monday for anybody who's in the group. SEO tips on Friday. You know, I just did a live master class yesterday on content creation, answering, answering questions to anybody, you know, either somebody else added question about should they get on Groupon or not. Popped on there with a three minute video response. Just providing value to those people. And then, you know, of course when I wrote eventually put my course out there again cause I actually did it last year. I didn't really do a good, I did a beta test and that's all fine. And then I dropped it. I was too busy. You know, then if somebody buys grant, if they don't, maybe they'll refer somebody else who will buy.
Krista: But it's right now the engagement that I'm getting in there is awesome and it's people, most people that group are still consuming my content on other platforms too. In fact, some of them would become more engaged on my Instagram now that they've become part of my Facebook group because it's like they want to go see, well, what else is she sharing? She's sharing different stuff on Instagram, which I am. Yeah. So I would encourage you to, it might be something for you to check out as well because as, as an introvert you might feel more comfortable in a smaller group setting as well. And then even better as some of the members are already answering each other's questions and making connections cause they're all small businesses. So I'm actually providing a valuable kind of networking opportunity for them as well.
Steven : Yeah, I've definitely heard you know, not that I'm like searching around for who's doing groups great, but I've definitely like seen realtors really leverage that really well because all they have to basically do is meet different business owners and talk about the businesses and promote them and then all of a sudden they have like all these great connections, which is great because like the companies and the places to visit and the places to eat and go to are part of why someone would move to a state or a city or an area. And as it just makes so much sense. Like, Oh, like is there anything cool on the West side? Well, let me show you. Yes there is.
Krista: And that's the, I actually am in a very active local Facebook group that was started by a realtor. It started a while ago, but he didn't start growing it until maybe about six months ago. And when I joined, I think it was maybe 500 members. Now it's over 5,000 and it's super active. Like people are just sitting there. And so I don't know how much business he's getting from a, I'm assuming he's got to get something because everybody knows he started it and he's like weekly Facebook interviews and he's done a really great job with it. But yeah.
Steven : But yeah, you're right. It's like, that's just another, another case in point. Social media is not easy
Krista: Really, is, it really is. But so you have to be intentional about where can you provide the most value and where can you, you know, get the most benefit from spending your time on there. So if Instagram, LinkedIn, LinkedIn are working well for you right now, then maybe you just focus on that and keep on that. That's what I always tell people. Simplify. Right. And so I knew like Facebook page wasn't going to do me anything but my Facebook group, I'm willing to give it a shot because I'm following a proven model that you know, my coach has used and his clients have used and things like that. And, and so far, you know, I'm seeing that I can see why it will work. And I mean I, my coaches group, I've been in the group since he started it, I hired him. So it works. It took me a long time, be years, but I wasn't ready and back in the day. Yeah. So to
Steven : Get into, continue to like, do you get into like a little bit more practical stuff. So obviously Facebook groups is something you highly recommend. What are some other things that you would suggest a small business owners do that are kind of like getting the ball rolling with that?
Krista: Yeah, so really, I mean the biggest thing that I think a lot of people, small businesses do wrong is they think, okay, I got, I have to have a Facebook page, I have an Instagram account, I have to have a Twitter. And then they have seven accounts and then they don't ever post on them. Right. So don't do that. Try to pick one or two platforms where you feel you can talk to your audience, to your potential or current customers and where you will actually be able to consistently post and share. So that's really one or two. Two is two is ideal. If you could do it just cause there are different audit. Almost every business has audiences on either Instagram or Facebook for example, or maybe LinkedIn if you do a little bit more B to B on like bigger businesses, medium sized or star tech startups are all on LinkedIn of course.
Krista: Sure. so that's the first thing you figure out where your audience is and really try to focus on just one or two platforms where they're going to be okay. And then the other one is don't post and ghost. That's what a lot of small businesses do because they just don't feel like they have time. So they'll get their content up there and they'll do a good job, even do it consistently, but then they don't respond to comments. They don't respond to DMS, you know, things like that. So put it in your calendar, set a reminder or whatever you need to do, even if it's only five minutes, once a day, take those five minutes and just check real quick and just responding to the comments. DM something you check your other folder and both Facebook and Instagram, that other folder could be, you know, a lot can get missed a lot, but people think, Oh my gosh, I can't keep up. We'll just just set aside one time a day. Don't do it all day long. Don't get bogged down and you know, and
Steven : Right because then you just get lost in it and all of a sudden you're browsing hashtags and,
Krista: But you know, if you're an early morning person, maybe just do it first thing in the morning while you're doing, you're having your cup of coffee or your tea in the morning. Do that before to respond to the day before. Or if you have more of an I person or you just like to sit down and pop in front of the TV, why are you in front of the TV? Just pull out your phone and your computer and, and spend a few minutes, you know, 10 minutes, whatever it is, just responding. Cause it'd be better if you could respond more, you know, more quickly. But at least if you're responding at all, that's better than not. So that's my two biggest tips that small, I say small budgeted to do wrong all the time is being too many places and getting overwhelmed by that and just so then they don't do anything. So pick one or two platforms and then the other one is actually be a part of your community. Right. So respond to the comments and [inaudible].
Steven : Yeah, that's super good. I mean, I definitely think I've seen some of those things for sure. And when I haven't experienced them, it's very off-putting. Like even super popular people that are posting, you know, people that have like hundreds of thousands, if not, you know, a million followers. They'll usually post and then they'll stay on for like a half an hour and like respond to like the first a hundred people or something. Even if it's not like some Epic response, it's like, thanks for sharing or that's cool or whatever else. Right. And so they're engaging with like the people who really engage with them because otherwise they wouldn't be responding immediately cause that probably means like posts, notifications are turned on, so on and so forth. But I've definitely gotten like really like offended if that makes sense. Like, like especially brick and mortar businesses. Like there was like a, a men's suiting place in Scottsdale and they'll post something. Everyone saw, they posted it about an event and I DM them questions about the event and I didn't even see it. They never checked their other phone. And it's like, why are you even bothering? Like now? Like why would I even want to give you business? Because like all you want to do is post so that people can go to something. But then when people actually have questions for you, you just ignore them.
Krista: Yeah. That happened to me. So 89% of direct messages to brands go unanswered. Kidding me. That's a statistic from 2019 wow. So it's, I mean that's why I'm saying it's a problem. Like it's legitimately a problem
Steven : And you're in, in probably in your opinion, would you actually say that that actually does more damage had they not posted at all?
Krista: Yeah. Yeah. Cause I've actually had businesses that I will not like a restaurant or whatever I who I say thing, I put a question on one of their posts or something, not even 10 I put a legitimate like question on the post, never got a response. And I'm like, okay, not doing business with you. Which is, and it's funny, this is actually what my social, my dissertation is on is the use of Facebook and Instagram for customer service by small businesses. That's what I'm focusing on because it's such a problem and there's very little research out there on it. And so I want to come up with a system of helping small businesses figure out how can they do this better. Whenever he answers every day, 10 minutes every day, check your DMS, check your comments, reply
Steven : Right or yeah, or just like every time you sit down and give yourself like a block of time to like respond or whatever. I don't know.
Krista: Well, because if you got, if your phone rang or your business, you answer it or something that to voicemail, you generally reply, right? Yeah. Why would you not reply to my message and your Instagram, right? Yeah.
Steven : Yeah. I think that, I think that kind of gets back maybe a little bit. If I had to guess why people do this is I feel like it. Maybe that gets back to the whole thing of like if your frame of mind is this is an easy way for me to advertise my business, well then maybe you would do something like that. But when you look at it is like this is building my business. Just like knocking doors, just like making cold calls, just like sending cold emails. Then at that point maybe then you view it differently as like a functioning part of building your business rather than just like somewhere you just like throw something at like there's not just like taping, like your ad to like a light post. It's like something that
Krista: It's, it's a two way conversation. Right? It is. Yep. And especially when you're small business and you're following a small, you really have to work hard to respond to all the comments and questions that you get because you don't have, you don't really have an excuse. Right. And if you can get those people to be engaged fans early on, they could end up being your biggest advocates. And even if they never buy from you, they might be the reason somebody else or many somebody else's buy from you. Right. So it's more important when you're starting out and you have a smaller following to be engaged.
Steven : Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, cause I don't know who I got it from was right either. But since you're very much involved in integrating, like understanding it I was told that like as far as metrics go, like Instagram will ding you if you don't respond to comments that that's like part of the algorithm of like whether or not you're an engaged profile. Is that actually true?
Krista: I don't know if they ding you, but so if you don't follow the Instagram creators account I recommended they actually like go over all kinds of stuff like this. And about two weeks ago they did a whole post on an IGT video on the four things that matter most about your ranking in the Instagram feed and algorithms. And comments was I believe, number one or number two
Steven : Guess as far as leaving them or responding to them
Krista: The, just the, the number of comments on a post. Yeah. And so that includes if you reply to every single comment that's increasing that comment count. So comments, shares something else likes was number four. So number of likes is number four. I can't,
Steven : Well, cause I've heard they're even possibly taking that out all together. So it's like
Krista: Tested it in 11 countries now. And so yeah, it's probably coming. But anyway, so common shares because they want people sharing the content that means it's valuable. And then I think it was just like time on post or something like that, like viewing time. So comments are very important and then, but yeah, I haven't, I don't know if there's anything like proof that if you don't respond to comments and things, but Instagram does want you to be long on the platform longer. So if you're posting and never coming back and engaging, then you're not on the con on the platform very long. Sure. So the more time you spend on the platform, they reward that as well, especially if you're sending in DMS and comments and leaving comments, things like that. So yeah,
Steven : Well that makes sense because you had, I had read a post of yours when you were like, you'd written a post about engaging on line and one of the things is always respond with a question, which makes sense because then that then not only is it good and kind and what normal human beings do anyways, right? No, you don't talk to someone and then they just say like thanks or cool. Like you know what I mean? Like that's never like a real conversation. Real life. So it's like it would be natural to ask a question except people don't do that. And then like as well, like now one comment turns in to comment, which turns into three or four comments from just one person, which is genius.
Krista: And that's, you know, the love that you brought into your life, you wouldn't do that. That's what I always try to bring it back to social media. Just because you're online, don't, don't use your manners. Right. Don't act like a weirdo. Like you would not be like, hi, I'm Christian. You'd be like, hi, I'm Steven. Okay, bye. No, you wouldn't, you wouldn't do that like you would, you would, even if you're busy or somebody is in passing, like do at least answer with something reasonable. Right, right. So yeah, I always try to bring it back to like, imagine if you were walking into a party or a networking event or a conference. Like what would you say? How would you be? You know, that be like that I'm online.
Steven: Right. That's, that's pretty good idea.
Steven : Immediately my brain goes, Oh, where are the drinks?
Krista: That's what I would say when I go to network. Well that's what you have one of your questions would be about like what are some of the unexpected things from [inaudible] person brand that's been, one of them is coming back to drinks. I promise.
Krista: Friends. Awesome. Like that I literally would never have met if it wasn't for social media. Like people who I call personal friends now. Including somebody who was just here for a conference last week in town. Brian fans though, if you don't follow him, I social fans is his handle. He was like literally one of my favorite people in the media.
Steven : I know why that sounds familiar. I saw your post about him and he seemed like cool, but then he was like at a state, so I was like,
Krista: Yeah, but he's originally from here. We have family here and he comes out here all the time and he's really the social media club of Phoenix. Like he's the, he's the founder of that. He, they're good friends. He used to work together anyway, but like he, he's guest lecture to my class. Q is on my podcast. He's there, you know, I went and saw me when he walked up. Lots of, got me, he hugged me and like I shrieked and like he like picked me up. Like, I mean we're friends and I would never have met him because it's social media. But that's just one big example. But I have several examples and so, and I have another friend who she and I met through mutual friends. We've actually had like scheduled calls so we could just catch up and talk. We'd be voice shots.
Krista: She lives in Ohio. But you bet the second I have a chance to be anywhere she's going to be your vice versa. We're going to meet in person and have drinks and it's just, I would never met her because of social media, you know, so that when I started building my personal brand and building my community, like I didn't expect to like make real life friends out of it. And I've made several, some of whom had big impact on my business trajectory as well. Just what I've done in my business and what I've learned and what I'm doing. Right. And also in along that lines, I've helped several of my students and former students get internships and jobs because of my connections on social media. So,
Steven : Well, and I mean in let's be honest, I mean like, money's great and certainly like you got to pay mortgages, you know, I love, I love going on vacations, so money's great. But I mean like shoot, like getting to meet like really cool people is like really awesome. Like, even, even with like the half a dozen people that I've had on this show, like everyone I met, I was like, wow, this person is so awesome. So nice.
Steven: So you found me because of his ….And I'm like, yeah, in, in, in you included. I definitely not leaving out of this like so nice, so kind, so good. Just like good people people who are like achieving things and caring about the people around them. And that's like, you can't, you know, you can't put a price tag on that. That's, that's just really neat. And so I'm glad that's been a good experience. Like I guess the other thing I was curious too, like, so friendships was definitely one of them. There was the unexpected benefits. What other, like cool things have happened because of just like you growing your presence online.
Krista: Yeah. well a couple of years ago I got to go as guest of one of the keynote speakers at digital summit here in Phoenix because,
Steven: Oh, no way. I met him. I keep seeing ads for that
Krista: So much, but it's, I, it's one of the days is a day I teach and I'm like, ah, I dunno if I should like miss like half the day and still pay for the yeah,
Steven : Cause theirs is three days. Okay. It's a great conference. Yeah. You recommend it. Cause it's like, I know they're like, Oh, it's really cheap compared to other things. It's still a lot of money. You still drop in like a couple hundred dollars, but it seems cool.
Krista: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So somebody who I met on Twitter, he and he, I ended up, you know, correcting, he gets a big, I spoke to him, two of my classes whenever he was coming out to Phoenix as one of the keynote speakers for digital summit. And he was like, Hey Chris. He's like, I don't really think I know anybody else in Phoenix. He's the guy, I know you were wanting to come to digital summit. He's like, would you like to be my guest? And I got to be like the VIP CR. I got to meet Steve Wosniak. He was the closing speaker from, for, from Apple, if he wasn't here.
Steven: Yes. Back. Because I got to be the VIP. So insane. I like don't wash your hands for a week. Steve took from his hand an experience that I would not have had
Krista: If I hadn't made that connection on social media. I think being like, I don't know that I'd call him a friend, but he and I have, we're acquaintances have a relationship. Like I'm his wife and I follow each other on Twitter and Instagram. Like, you know, I mean that's part of the circle, like, yeah, totally. So yeah, so that's another kind of a cool thing that happened out of it.
Steven : That's awesome. Well, and, and it's just cool to like, you know, I don't want anyone to like misunderstand what's happening. Like you've earned it a hundred times.
Krista: Yeah. Oh yeah. I engaged with the content. I share it as content. I build that. Yeah.
Steven : Well, just even in general, like, you know popularity is like a real thing. You know, let's be honest, like, like people joke about Instagram famous, it's like it's a thing and it is you know, it was a big part of like whether or not you're successful on it, you know what I mean? And so in famous little fickle but you have, you know, you've earned that fame. It's not like a one hit wonder thing. It's like you've earned it. You've, you know, like I said, you have the resume, you've put in the time, you've engaged, you did all that, like you've, you've earned what cool things do you think happened? It wasn't an accident, you know, I mean they may have felt accidental but cause you put in the blood, sweat and tears.
Krista: But that's the benefits of building a personal brand. That's something I've been preaching for probably almost five years now. Building a personal brand. So that's cool. Yeah.
Steven : So tell me a little bit about, cause like, like if I think through like your, your your Instagram bio, you know, to try to hit some of the things that you're heavily involved in. So you talked about the Facebook group and then the name escapes me, but the other company that you, the, not company but like group that you have with that, the girl from your yes. Creating you. Okay. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that.
Krista: Yeah, so that was so Alison was, I said first student from the first class I've ever taught. She forced me to become her mentor. Basically. She was like, we're having coffee and I'm wanting you to like, you know, help me out or whatever. Right. And so she and I would meet every couple months and we would, you know, text in DM on Instagram and she did the work herself. But I definitely helped guide her in the right direction to blog to kind of blow up her Instagram. When Instagram stories first started, I made her like, get on there and I was like, you have good message, get, get. And that was what finally grew her accountant's stories. But so we'd have all these meetings and then one day we were just talking and we both like really want to do workshops. We really want to help like entrepreneurs build their personal brands.
Krista: And we're like, okay, there's all this about personal brand, there's all of this stuff about entrepreneurship. We're not really seeing like the two together. What can we do? Like, well let's just to host the workshop and see what happens. And so that was where we started in August of 2018 we came up with a name tag line, like started, you know, a website, things like that. And we just hosted our first workshop and we hosted monthly workshops for a few months. Then we're like, we should start a podcast. Like people have all, you know, not, we're not reaching enough people. Right. And people are coming and like they're coming back every month and they're saying that it's valuable and they're bringing friends and, and so we're like, so we started a podcast. Yeah. So that was January of 2019 and we launched it and we haven't missed it.
Krista: We took off two weeks at the end of December on purpose. Other than that, we haven't missed a week. And so we did that. And then we started, we launched online course last year as well. Cause same thing, like we have all this great content from our podcasts or on workshops, but people, I kind of want it all in one place where they can go and do that. So we did that and we haven't done, we'd promoted it well initially and now we've kind of, we, she's an entrepreneur, she's about to open her own gym. She's a volleyball coach and she has the fitness, like she actually designed themselves, fitness trainers training plants. So that's how she became a fitness influencer kind of. Cause she actually has done the research, knows what she's doing. Yeah. so she's, she, so we're both very busy and so we kind of were like step back a little bit from adding anything more to our plate.
Krista: But we love the podcast continuing to grow the podcast. And in fact I just interviewed Brian fans and that was our two weeks ago. We really said episode. But we're, so we're doing only one interview a month and then three kind of on other topic, like we were kind of shamed topics that we're doing. And so yeah, we're just, we're gonna people keep asking us now what could we take a break from the workshops? What do you do your workshops again? I'm like, Oh, so we're trying to figure out, you know, maybe we could do like a bigger event like this. You know, cause I've worked after only about an hour and a half, so maybe we do like a bigger, like four hour event or something once a quarter or things like that. We're trying to reassess that. But right now really our main focus is the online course and the podcast that we do. And so we just, we have a lot of fun together and we really just want to help those like solo preneurs, you know, they can use their face, their, their personality, their brand and grow their business. And a lot of them just don't know how to do it. Right.
Steven : Well in a lot of people, like for me, like I feel like with you, you've intentionally chosen to do a solo thing. I think for a lot of people they've kind of hit that ceiling and they don't know how to get around it where it's like, okay, I want to do more work but I need to have enough work to hire someone. But if I hire someone, I know it can do the work, but then I have to justify it. It's like, it's like the vicious circle of life and it's like, man, it's like, that's like a real threshold to break through. And I, I do feel like that's a challenge that a lot of solopreneurs have just in my perspective, even especially like in trades, like I know a guy who's a plumber and it was always like, man, like I'm so busy, I want to like just pass out. But at the same time, like, am I that busy to have another plumber like part-timer? And then of course then you're hiring people, you're like processing more paperwork and like the whole nine yards. It's just not, it's a whole thing. But that's cool that you help them out. Cause you know, everyone needs help, but they're there on their own figuring it all out on their own. Like website stuff, design promotion, actually doing the work. It's so much.
Krista: Yeah, it's small businesses, you know, that's, that's why I have such a soft spot for them because I know I've seen it and I've experienced it of like just trying to do it all. It's hard. So if they could just get a little bit of hand holding and guidance of like, just focus on this, like here's what you do over here. Like that it could help them a lot. So
Steven : Totally. So if so I guess like for the last two things is one I would say you're obviously like a motivated person. Are you gonna be able to accomplish as much as you, you have. What for you is like your motivation, if you had to point to a thing or a couple of things like for you, like what gets you excited to like get out of bed in the morning and like go do all of what you do?
Krista: Yeah. honestly is, I, I, I think it's funny, I don't often talk about my faith online just cause I'm not untouched. I just don't. But I feel like I'm doing like teaching for example, I, the first time I stepped in the college classroom, I had something I had felt on my heart that I was supposed to try for a long time. And like the first week after I was done teaching my first class, I was like, this is what God called me to do. Like, this is what I was made to do. Like I was just like so clear. And now it's evolved. I've learned like when I teach workshops to entrepreneurs all the time too, and in small business owners, I'm like, just no matter what it is that I feel the most me when I'm teaching which is also why I kind of pursued that all my courses cause that's, I just loved teaching. People tell me that I'm apparently a good good at it. You know, I make things sound like understandable. I make, I make them seem less complicated than they feel like it is.
Krista: So I'm able to take, Oh, here's all this, but no, really just do this, you know, and this is what you need. This is how you do it. Right. So that I think part of it is just like, I feel like this is what I was made to do. So that pushes me. I've always been driven. Like, I mean I used to, I dunno. I think it's just part of my personality. Like I would be the kid that would come out, be like, mom, did I make my bed good enough? Like, you know, things like that, like
Steven: Questions I've never said out loud ever
Krista: Bawling my head out, you know, and so afraid. My mom's like, it's fine, it's still Nate. And I'm like, Whoa. It's like, I think that's just part of who I am. But the other thing now is like, I have kids, you know, I have a daughter who's eight and she's such a mini me in a lot of ways, but she's actually a very introverted child, which has been fun, fun to navigate for me on my phone a lot from her, but, and a son who's six and I want them to see like, you ask them what their number one job is, is being their mom. They, in my mind, they know that. And so that's for me, they motivate me to be successful, what I do and to work hard because I want them to get that work ethic. I grew up with parents who had really good work ethic. You know, I want them to get that work ethic and see that I work hard. And that, that doesn't matter if you're man or woman or whatever that you, if you're fulfilling your purpose from God, that's what matters. Whether that be the best darn stay at home mom you can possibly be. If that's your calling. Great.
Steven: Which is a full time job.
Krista: Close to a full time stay home mom. And it's just not my like I'm, but I still, I, I w you know, my kids are in school now so I work while they're in school, I take them to school, I pick them up, they have early release. I picked them up if they have a field trip, I'm there. Last week I was at school four different times for read across America events and rodeo day and whatever. Yeah. I volunteer my son's kindergarten class every Thursday morning. So they are my number one priority and they know that. But they also know that mom has had school work and work and so like it's, it's motivating to me to like say no to some of those things, right? Because they come first. But it also motivated me to do really well because I want them to be proud of me and I want them to have a model to follow after. Totally.
Steven: Yeah. Cause you can't ask them to do something you're not willing to do. So I mean you could cancel them doing this
Krista: More likely to follow an example than they are to follow words.
Steven: Yes. 100% quiet people to employees. Everybody.
Krista: My students do that. That's why like they, they know get away with stuff like, cause you know, when it comes to falling, when I tell them to do, because they know like they know I'm a student too. They'd be like, Oh I was working okay, what was I doing? I got my assignment turned in. Right. Totally. And great embarrassed. She's well that's, that's certainly really cool. I mean I feel like
Steven : I lost my train of thought, but no that, that's, that's cool that you, you share that. I appreciate you sharing that. Everyone has like different motivations, you know? And yeah, I know for me it's, it's always been tough to like, to balance between cause like for me, I guess in my brain making the money is what helps like fuel the things I want to do that are like the, the faith-filled things. Like there's like ministries and missionaries and things that people are doing that I love to like sponsor and help out because I feel not to be like negative, but like I feel like a lot of people are just like, Oh, like I'll pray for you or all like, that's cool, I'll write you a letter. And it's like, okay, well like they need to pay bills. Like they need to dig a well and it costs money to dig a well.
Steven : Like, sorry, like praying is great and awesome and we're supposed to pray, but like at the end of the day someone has to write a check for digging a well. And so for me it's like, okay, like the money is like what's to happen to do the purpose, but sometimes too [inaudible] I forget that the people you meet along the way and the opportunities you have and the things that you do are also part of the ministry of your work as well. And it's, it's sometimes I can get so focused on what I'm doing and I like miss all that, you know what I mean?
Krista: Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, I know, but that's what the mind you're right. Cause you know, that's, we need money to fund all those things. And that's, yeah. I mean we, you know, we tie every month we give to a couple of Christian charities, you know, we you know, and the book, every time I went to publish got a bonus, you got a 20, 19 bonus. Finally. It's like, Oh, okay, here goes to the, you know, nothing. And so the money is important for those things. But yeah, you could also be doing your ministry all day, every day. Like, I mean, that's everybody knows, like I, all my students, even the community college, they all know I'm Christian and so when they see how I am with them and how I'm caring towards them, how I learned all, you know, 24 their names by the second class, you know, and that I call them by name and that I check on them when they haven't turned their assignment for a week. And when they see all of that, they're, you know, they're, that's ministering to them, that's sharing the gospel with them and in actions, you know?
Steven : Yes. As opposed to, yeah. As opposed to just like what's, what's the Bible verse be warm and be filled and you know, God bless you. And it's like, no, like if you have a coat, you give it to them. Like if you can feed them, you feed them. Because that's what like actually caring for someone is,
Krista: And like I just finished serving six months as a Sunday school teacher church and like, or like, but yeah, you're like the number one thing I hear from students about what makes a good professor is that they care about the students. The number one compliment and review I get from all my students is that I actually care about them. That's awesome. So it's like, because I, because they see that then they're willing to listen to me. Right. Totally. Without that,
Krista: They're kind of like, Oh whatever. Cool. She has, she worked at some koi agency, she just closed off. Right. But because I care about that, like I am cool. But I also care,
Steven : Well I mean like even Sam and I, we, we, we don't go to the same church, but we, you know, we've done so much work like video work for like churches cause they always need stuff like that. No like developing high school kids, junior high kids to like do all these technical things and like developing those them as people. And it's, it's super fun and super awesome. And it's awesome to have those ministry opportunities, or sometimes you get to do things that maybe you shouldn't,
Steven: But because no one else is there that they can pay to do it, then all of a sudden it's like, Hey, guess what you're doing? And it's like, all right, like, I guess I'm going to learn. You get to learn a lot. Yes. 100%
Steven : Ability you haven't earned yet per se, but then you get to learn a bunch of stuff. So that's awesome. Cool. Well, thank you so much for sharing. I'm so glad we were able to show, share some of your tips, show your story and just share like your whole process of how you've been
Krista: Through this social media journey. It's been really cool to hear you share, so thank you so much for being on. Thank you for having me. It's really fun.
Steven : Yeah, it's it's good to have you on, so you're, you're good people and it's just so awesome to make another great connection with someone who's doing cool things in Arizona, you know, so awesome. Well, thank you guys for watching. I hope you guys enjoyed it and it was helpful and definitely catch this episode and more episodes that we've had before to be able to check out more marketing tips and tricks. And thank you for watching.
