There’s no denying that social media is here to stay, and billions of people are now active on socials, which is why businesses are stepping up their social media game. The growing number of people using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and other social platforms is why business owners invest in content marketing. Moneeka Sawyer is joined by Lyndsay Phillips, a content marketing expert and the Founder and Owner of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, to share how a business can attract and convert customers faster through social media. Lyndsay shares how she got into content marketing and talks about the importance of having an avatar, the difference between using a post, a story, or a live, and how to utilize those. She also explains how socials can be used to build better relationships.
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I am excited to welcome to the show Lyndsay Phillips, Founder and Owner of Smooth Sailing Business Growth and Real Estate Investors Marketing. Lyndsay is the go-to content marketing expert who helps clients attract and convert customers faster. Lyndsay is featured on MSN, NBC, Fox, published in Home Service MAX Magazine, and has guested on a ton of podcasts including JLD’s Entrepreneurs On Fire, which I have been on also and Joe Fairless’s Best Ever Show.
She’s a serial podcaster with shows like Smooth Business Growth Podcast and now co-hosts the REI Marketing show. Speaking at events such as Dream Business Academy, Podfest and Service Business Edge. She has shared the stage with Mike Michalowicz and Jay Abraham. She’s working with successful real estate investors. She’s increased her product audience, extended their reach and built their authority status through content marketing.
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Lyndsay, how are you?
I’m glad to see your beautiful face again.
Welcome back to the show. Could you tell us a little bit about your story and how you’ve got involved in this? I know that you help real estate investors, too. There aren’t a lot of content marketers that help investors. Tell me a little bit about how you’ve got into that.
I started as a VA and then niche down into content marketing. I found that it was working well for my clients. I love the creativity and the psychology behind attracting, building relationships and converting. I was working with a friend of mine, Aaron, who’s a real estate investor copywriter. He introduced me to some investors that were struggling with their marketing. I started doing work for them and helping them out. It grew. I have been on podcasts. I’m establishing a name for myself and realize that there aren’t a lot of services out there, whether it’s online marketing, digital content or whatever that are geared towards real estate investors because it is a unique industry and there are much to understand. I love it.
Talk to us about why it’s important to have an avatar? I want to give a little perspective on ladies on why we are asking this question. If you are not in marketing, one of the things that we do in marketing is pick an avatar of our ideal client, listener, tenant or home seller. There are a lot of different avatars. An avatar simply means the person that would be perfect to do business with. For me, you ladies know that when I buy a house, the very first thing that I’m thinking about is my tenant avatar. That tenant avatar is my business partner. This is the person that I want to do business with.
I picked the tenant avatar, which is executives and then I started to look for houses that the avatar would like to live in. I find the house, and then I go and advertise to that avatar. First of all, the property attracts them but also my understanding of who they are attracts them and what their needs are. An executive, for instance, does not want a landlord that’s breathing down their throat. They do not want a landlord that defers all maintenance and telling them what to do. They are executives. They are used to being the boss, not be bossed around. I understand who they are. For them to do business with me is easy. I provide a house that they will love.
Avatar is a marketing term that we use and it sounds a little bit like markety. It sounds a little bit voodooey but it’s relevant in everything that we do. Ladies, if you are single and you are looking for a guy, you should have an avatar of that man or whatever it is. VA or whoever it is that you are trying to attract, whatever the customer looks like, you want to have an avatar. Talk to me a little bit more about your perspective on that.
Customers don’t want nonsense. They want to get to the point and get things done so they can move on with their busy lives. Click To Tweet
It’s great to create blogs, podcasts, videos, lead magnets and information on your website but if you are not talking about the right topics, the right places or their language, then you are not going to attract anybody. As you said, you are attracting executives. If you were attracting elderly people, they don’t probably watch videos, listen to podcasts or wouldn’t necessarily be on Instagram, let’s say. What appeals to them, their lifestyle, pain points and what they want in life is different. When you are thinking about what content, there are many options out there. It can be overwhelming. We are talking about Clubhouse and that’s like, “Another thing.”
There are many options and it can be like, “What do I do? Where do I do it? What am I going to talk about?” The first thing that you need to do is think about who you are attracting? Ask questions. Think about the three best deals that you have put together or your three best tenants. Think about it like, “Why did they come to you? What were their concerns? What kind of questions did they ask? Where did they find you? Where do they hang out? What do they even do in a day? What are they like as an executive?” They don’t want nonsense. They want to get to the point and get it done so they can move on with their busy lives. Where like seniors, they were a little slower, they take their time and there are more thought processes. The whole way of digesting information, accessing it and making that decision is different. It will affect everything that you do.
Also, how you do business with them. With executives, they were excited to get a text from me. With an older and elderly person, she wants me to come by, say hello, hang out with her for an hour and have tea because that’s how they have always done business. We’ve got all these great new tools but that doesn’t excite them. There are a lot of different kinds of people. I have some people that are all in the construction industry, which is great right now with COVID-19. The conversation is different with them. The way that I meet with them, they want me to have a relationship with their kids so that I understand the way the family works for them and those things. The way that each of us does business is a little different but we can be included in a grouping and the way that we show up in the world.
When you think about the marketing, you can’t look at it from your perspective like, “I want to rent out my property, I want to sell this multifamily home, I want a deal and I need a partner.” They are not going to give a crap about what you want. You should think about what they want like losing sleepovers or what kind of decisions they are making. That’s what you need to base all of your decisions on. If you are worried about like, “Should I be on Clubhouse? Should I be on Instagram?” Just think, “Are they?”
I remember one of my clients was like, “We’ve got to be on Snapchat. It’s the new greatest thing.” I’m like, “Your peeps don’t even know what Snapchat is.” Why waste your time, effort and money putting marketing in that avenue when you can’t even survey people and find out. They were on YouTube and watching videos all the time. He spent more time and effort doing videos, which by the way, is good because it helps you connect with someone faster because they are looking in your eyes and they can see your personality if you are like them. You get to read for people.
You can build relationships faster by podcasting and by doing videos because you are going to cut to the chase and front of the line much faster. You need to think about where they are hanging out. Do they listen to podcasts? Do they watch videos? Do they love to read? Like my one client, his peeps don’t read. We don’t do a lot of blogs because they don’t care, they don’t have time and they couldn’t care less. For me, like entrepreneurs, I love blogs, picking out tips and stuff like that. I do a lot of blogs. You need to think about, “Where are you going to hang out? What kind of content are you going to put out?” That’s going to help you drive what topics you are going to talk about and what kind of language you are going to use. All those things will help you drive and create that content marketing that is going to attract much faster.
I had a place that came empty during COVID-19. This is an interesting thing, ladies, to think about is when you are reading this, you are out there looking at things on YouTube or you are in these communities, which I encourage you to network, find out what that avatar is going to look like. I found out that a lot of my peers are finding their new tenants through the Facebook Marketplace. I will be the first to admit that I am not doing the whole Facebook thing since the pandemic started.
There has been a lot of negativity. Part of my defense for my immune system is to make sure that there’s little negativity comes in as possible because we do have to pay attention to what’s going on and it’s scary. In my spare time, I want to feed myself yummy stuff. It was not showing up on Facebook and the news. It was not showing up in those places and also in other places. The point is, even though I was not on Facebook, I heard this thing that everybody is getting their stuff on the Facebook Marketplace. I looked at the avatar of the Facebook Marketplace and I didn’t have an idea of who was there because I hadn’t been there. What was fascinating about this thing is I go to Realtor.com, Zillow and Craigslist. Those are the places that I normally advertise and of course, I did those things and then I threw an ad up on the Facebook Marketplace. The response on the Facebook Marketplace was 10 to 1 on the other ones.
I would get one on Zillow, one on Craigslist, zero on Realtor.com and then I would get twenty on Facebook. The quality of the ones on Facebook was not necessarily good but within three days, I have three applications from the Facebook Marketplace. It’s true that as the times are changing, people are also changing. Where I may not have thought that an executive and an executive’s wife are on the Facebook Marketplace, that’s not true. What I’m trying to say is that finding out who your avatar now is great and that person is going to evolve the same way that you are evolving. You have to be aware that an avatar is a person. It is a person, it is not a stick figure, people, and technology changes and all of that stuff too.
That’s a great point. Even being connected with people like you, me or Facebook groups, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You don’t have to know everything like, “Where’s everyone getting the most action on this?” Feel free to test. If you were like, “I don’t know, I’m on the fence.” You can test something for a while. If it works, great, you are going to run with it. If it doesn’t, good to know. It’s okay to test. It’s not like you are spending $1 million and you are jumping in. If it fails, that’s okay, too.
That’s a little bit about the avatar. Now, what do you post?
Everyone gets stumped like, “What do I write every day?” That’s why many people are not consistent with their society because they have no idea what to write. For me, I love recycling, reusing and leveraging a piece of content. If you have a podcast episode, a blog or a video because you can just transcribe the video, you are going to share that and share more than once. Also, you can splinter little bits and pieces out of it. I call these snackable bites. Let’s say, for instance, you have a blog. It’s like the five limiting beliefs of real estate investors or whatever it may be. There are five points right there so you can take one piece and make a social media post and pretty meme, quote or graphic. Just stands alone and doesn’t link anywhere that’s shareable. You can ask questions like, “What do you think about this? Do you prefer this or this? Are you this kind of person? Do you find that this holds you back?” People love to state their opinion and people want to share more about themselves. You want engagement. You want interaction. That’s one of the easiest. Ask a wacko question.
You have taken your blog, you have splintered it and take out little snackable bites. You can also do a video on that topic. People aren’t going to remember, “Didn’t she do a blog on that topic that she’s talking about?” This is like extra content and then you can even share other people’s content. You are a wealth of information, Moneeka, and other sources, BiggerPockets or whoever. Whatever articles that you find or tidbits of information, it is okay to share. To me, you are not lowering your authority by doing so. You are serving your audience, you are showing that you are learning more, reading what’s trending, what’s going on, you are showing that you care, you want them to be informed and it’s super easy to do. You don’t even have to think about it.
Many people don’t do this but the last point I want to share is to share what’s going on in your life. You did an ad in the marketplace that you weren’t sure and you were like, “Look at the results I’ve got.” You can share that, “I have my doubts. I gave it a try. Here’s what my results were.” Share what’s going on in your daily life. It’s okay if it doesn’t work. You can be vulnerable. That’s fine. People want to know what’s working for you, how you are doing your thing, how you are rocking it, what’s going on behind the scenes and they want to know your personality. They want to know about you. If that doesn’t fill up your week with social, I don’t know what will.
You can plan it. You can say, “I don’t like doing videos so maybe I will just do that once a week. I will write a blog once a week. I will break it up.” We have little bites episodes. You can do that in one minute or you can do it in Stories or whatever. You can plan that out like, “This day, I’m going to ask a question. This day, I’m going to do this right.” You don’t have to think through it every single day, every single week. You can let that go.
It gets old fast does. For us, we do it for our clients as well but even for me and whoever. It’s like a batch task. The first week of a given month, maybe you dedicate that to creating content, your podcast, your blog and your video. The following week, you can take little bits out, splinter and make some pretty graphics. The next week, you pre-schedule it, then you’ve got a week off, and then you do it all over again. As long as you are in a routine and you have a system. If you have a system, you can farm some of it off to a team member, VA or content marketer. It just does itself.
Sometimes, it’s geographic-specific and sometimes, for me, it’s national or international. My reach is quite large for my show but when I’m renting a home, it’s more specific. How do you decide what to post for each of those to extend your reach for that if we want to be geographic specific or we want to be broader and more widespread?
You are right, some investors work in a specific geographic location or other entrepreneurs too. They were more bricks and mortar or what have you. It’s important to be an integral part of your community like liking the Better Business Bureau or the downtown core Chamber of Commerce. I don’t know what you have in the States compared to Canada but those associations and charities, finding out what is even going on in the news in your area and the current events of like, “It’s a Peach Festival next weekend.” It shows that you are a part and a leader in the community, which is huge.
Following all of those, liking, commenting and sharing those posts, DM them and ask them what’s going on, the more you communicate and network within your community and you are sharing what’s going on, people will see that and it will be reciprocal. The other great tip is if you are mentioning someone and tagging them if you are talking about commercial buildings or what’s going on, you can tag them, and then same with hashtags. Hashtag your city or your region. A lot of times people will search houses in Detroit or whatever that may be. That helps target and get you in front of that audience as well.
Why would you use a story instead of a post? What’s the difference? I’m always posting and I don’t even know what stories are. That’s true on Instagram as well as on Facebook. How do you use them?
Everyone is getting off on that kick. Stories, when you open up it’s easier to see it in your mobile app than it is on desktop. You will see right at the top almost like a slider of these long posts, normally Instagram or square posts. They will only be up for a day. They are up and they go, however, you can save them to your Highlights on Instagram to store them and people can go in there, keep them and look at them. It’s where everyone goes automatically. It’s right at the top and it’s eye-catching. You are going to grab their attention first with the Stories than you are in the News Feed.
We all know Facebook, its algorithms, the News Feed and they pick and choose for you. I don’t know too much about the algorithms when it comes to Stories and that, but I do know from my own experience that I’m more apt to see something throughout the Stories. They are cute, some of them have moving images and they are like little clips. If you do a bunch of Stories in a day, they stockpile. It almost reads like a little movie because they show a whole bunch of them together. You can see someone’s day in action if they are on there a lot and doing a bunch of Stories but you are going to grab people’s attention quicker. It’s more work.
When it comes to social, if you think about how you can help people and create a conversation, you will naturally make that next step. Click To Tweet
I wonder, “With all of this stuff, how am I going to get my work done? How do I do all this without completely consuming my life?”
That’s where systems are so key. I use Canva. Say you are creating images for social, you can just resize it to Instagram Stories and then you can add layers on top, tweak it and stuff like that. They do have a lot of fancy templates and you can go full-on all out. The app itself like Instagram on your phone, it’s quicker to do it on the fly that way. As long as you have a system or you are in a routine like, “Every morning, I’m going to take one of my pictures, do my little thing, and then fire it off on Instagram.” You can also connect Instagram to Facebook so that whatever story you put on Instagram automatically goes to Facebook Stories. There are a little few automation tricks that will at least save you a bit of time.
There are Stories and then there are Lives. Talk to me a little bit about the difference between those and how to utilize those.
Lives are like a video but it’s not prerecorded. You pick up the phone, hit the little Go Live button and you are instantly talking or you are showing up on video. The great thing about lives, especially on Facebook, is it notifies anyone that you are following to say, “Lyndsay is Live.” You can grab their attention versus if you upload a video directly to Facebook, they are not going to get that notification. The beauty of a live is that you can communicate with people in live time. If they are commenting, they like heart and a little heart goes up and you are like, “Joanna, how’s it going?” You can respond, and then it will stay up after that. If people aren’t on Facebook right then in there, they are still going to consume it. It’s still evergreen. You can also use an app called Repurpose.io, any live that you do, it can automatically strip the audio for a podcast, format it for IGTV, and flip it over to YouTube so you can feed your YouTube channel. There are automation tools so that you can take a Live Facebook, use it and leverage it in different ways. That way, you can save a ton of time.
With live, it still pops up like, “Moneeka is Live right now,” but the Story stays up for a whole day. Is that true?
It’s 24 hours.
How do you use social to build better relationships? I know that we are going to talk a lot more deeply about this in EXTRA but give us a high level of what we should be considering around that.
To me, I’m like, “You want to showcase your expertise in social media through the content that you are sharing. You want to show that you are professional, that you are branded, that you’ve got that credibility and you want to talk about stuff that’s going to attract the right prospects.” It’s great to attract but then if nothing happens after that, it’s all a moot point. If you think of it as a way to connect with people, have conversations, show your personality and care, then you are good.
That’s why I like some of those posts that you do. They are like engagement questions. You are asking them. Think of it like how can I make it a two-way thing versus me pushing info on pushing promo out. When someone comments, comment back. You can even DM them and take the conversation off there and like, “How is it going?” You can ask them more questions. It even strengthens that relationship even further. “I’ve got a great resource that maybe was helpful, I know someone that knows how to do that. Let me connect you with that person.” Think about how you can help them and create a conversation. If those two things are always in the back of your mind when it comes to social, then you will naturally make that next step. Does that help?
It does help. I know this is a much larger topic than what you can say in one little paragraph. That’s why ladies, I asked Lyndsay to go into more depth about what that will look like and how to structure that. We are going to be talking about that on EXTRA. That’s going to be an EXTRA. Before we close this part of the show, Lyndsay, could you tell people how they can get in touch with you?
They can go to SmoothBusinessGrowth.com and if they go to SmoothBusinessGrowth.com/moneeka, they can get free content.
We’ve got a couple of cool gifts. We’ve got free content for two weeks if you go to SmoothBusinessGrowth.com/moneeka. The second gift is at SmoothBusinessGrowth.com/bliss. Could you tell us about that one?
It’s our done for your services. We have monthly where we have content that you can take, go and post it. We have more high-end services where we will brand it, customize it and schedule it for you so that you don’t have to worry about it at all.
When you go to that link, do you get one month for free or do you get a discount? How does that work?
The prices are right there but with the Moneeka, you do get two weeks of free content like blogs, emails, video scripts and images.
Are you ready for our three rapid-fire questions?
Go for it.
Tell us one super tip for getting started in real estate investing.
To me, even if you are scared, do it anyway. I built my business on that premise. It’s like I was petrified by doing podcasts, videos and speaking on stage, and I’m like, “I’m just going to do it anyway.” It may not be perfect at first but you take that next step by taking action, it automatically propels your business forward.
What would you say is one strategy to be successful as a real estate investor?
I would say being consistent. If you are a podcaster, keep doing your podcast every week. If you are blogging, do your blog every week, if you are doing live videos, be consistent with those. You have to be in front of people’s faces and be in contact with them constantly. People are like, “You are everywhere and you are doing all these things.” It naturally builds your authority and reaches you as well. You can’t take six months off. You have to be consistent.
You can take six months off, you just have to plan for it.
You have your team do all this stuff.
That’s right. As for me, I’m often recorded four months out so at least I can take two months off anytime that I wanted. As we were talking about, when you are setting up your systems, you can plan this stuff out.
Absolutely.
What would you say is one daily practice that you do that contributes to your personal success?
I would love to say it’s meditation or yoga but it’s not.
A lot of people say that on this show.
It’s not gratitude. I’m a no-nonsense kind of girl. It is my calendar and my project management tool. If I don’t go to that every morning, figure out what my priorities are and what my to-do list is, I would be lost and I would be chaotic, not efficient, not productive and I would never get anything done.
What is the software you use?
I use Teamwork but Basecamp is great and there’s Podio. There are so many. Some of them are a little bit over the top but as long as it keeps you organized, especially if you’ve got team members in there, and then recurring tasks that you don’t have to think about it, your tasks will pop up and say, “I’ve got to work on that this week.” No one wants to drop a ball.
Thank you so much for everything you have offered on this portion of the show. I’m excited about what we are talking about on EXTRA. Ladies, if you are subscribed to EXTRA, stay tuned. We are going to be doing a deep dive on building strong relationships using social media and content marketing. If you are not subscribed to EXTRA but would like to be, just go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com and you can sign up there.
The first seven days are for free so check it out. If you love it, you love it and if you don’t, you don’t. You don’t have to stay. It is totally up to you. For those of you that are joining or leaving us, thank you. If you are leaving us now, it has been great hanging out with you. Thank you for being here and you know how much I appreciate you. I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams, so get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I will see you soon, bye.
I’m Lyndsay Phillips, CEO and Captain of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, your content marketing strategic partner, is a serial entrepreneur and also proud owner of Smooth Business Podcasting & also Real Estate Investors Marketing.
I’ve been featured on MSN, NBC, Fox and published in Home Service Max Magazine and has guested on a TON of podcasts including John Lee Dumas’s Entrepreneurs On Fire and Joe Fairless’ Best Podcast Ever. I’ve been a podcast host for years on Smooth Business Growth Podcast and have spoken at events such as Dream Business Academy, Podfest, and Service Business Edge (sharing the stage with Mike Michalowicz and Jay Abraham).
Through Smooth Business Podcasting we are a full service agency that launches podcasts, produces, promotes and leverages to help businesses like you gain more leads, increase visibility, boost authority and grow.
But yes, we are also a full service Content Marketing Agency so having us as a strategic partner gives you a FULL team at your fingertips. We plan, publish, optimize and promote your content through the web, social media and email so that you can have more leads, more clients with less stress and more freedom. Through my amazing team, we partner with entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, and speakers, who are seeking fast-paced business growth but have finally come to the realization that they can’t do it alone, do it all and do it well.
And for Real Estate Investors looking to build relationships, build their authority and grow, we offer FREE resources like our Real Estate Investor’s Marketing Group on Facebook, the REI Marketing Show and our done for you services for content and podcasting.
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Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet. She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market. Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.
While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.
She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”
Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod, and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.