EP 29 // Being Authentic On Social Media with Social Media Expert Jenna Warriner

NOTE: Please excuse any errors in this transcript; it was created using an AI tool. Akua Nyame-Mensah 0:07 Welcome to the open door podcast. My name is Akua Nyame-Mensah. I also respond to Aqua and I'm a certified executive and leadership coach recognised facilitator and former sort of leader that loves supporting reluctant buyer fighting and overwhelmed leaders. I've worked with them to help them clarify where they should focus their time, and energy each and every day so that they can love themselves, love their work, and ultimately love their life. If you're looking to learn leadership information and hear different perspectives, you are in the right place. My aim in this podcast is to help you see that one of the most productive and profitable things you can do is deeply understand yourself. Understand how you show up, understand how you thrive, and allow yourself to align everything in your work in your life, and in your business to support that, think of this podcast as your weekly opportunity to receive leadership support. And remember, there is no one right way to lead yourself or others. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome to this episode of the open door conversations podcast. As always, I am so excited to share this content with you. If you have ever said to yourself, I am not wired for social media or social media scary. I'm not sure how to show up authentically. I don't know what to post. How do I get people to buy from me? Or how can I sell on social media? Then this is the podcast episode for you. I am going to be sharing in today's podcast, a repurposed interview with an amazing social media expert. I don't want to say anything else. So let's get straight into the episode. Hello, everyone, I am so excited to actually jump back on LinkedIn today. This is my second time on LinkedIn. But I am so excited because I have someone who is, in my opinion, one of the most authentic human beings on social media. And she honestly has taught me so very much about how to show up on social media in general. So she is an Instagram Expert. I believe that she used to work in PR, right, Jenna, work in VR. And so I'm going to let her actually introduce herself because I think what she has to share can be so helpful for so many of you on this platform who are feeling like a bit reluctant, really to put yourself out there. So Jenna, please tell us a little bit more about yourself. Speaker 1 2:47 That was a really kind intro. Thank you. My name is Jenna. I'm up in Canada. I am a social media manager, I used to be a publicist, I've seen the good, the Bad and the Ugly sides of PR. And now I have a boutique social media management firm. And I teach small business owners how to run their own social media in a way that one converts to sales. Right? To feels good. And three doesn't take all damn Akua Nyame-Mensah 3:15 day. Yes, we are so aligned, right in terms of thinking about how to really show up and making the most of our time and energy. Can you maybe tell us a little bit about how you've become really comfortable leveraging social media, and some of the things that you keep in mind to really attract the right clients? Speaker 1 3:35 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I've had those moments where I go to post something. And I'm really stretching for it. Like I'm only posting because I know that I haven't posted in a while, which I hear all the time, right? People sort of go in waves and then when they don't post for a while. And let me know in the comments. If this is you, we feel guilty because we haven't like been active on a platform, whatever platform it is I'm typically moreover on Instagram. And I think that that is when things really start to feel like this grind of being inauthentic. It's when you're forcing yourself to create content for the sake of creating content or because you like feel bad inside because you haven't created anything. So I've got a few solutions to like, and a few ways of looking at all of this and all of this like in authentic feeling. But this is the one this is the trigger and the solution being having a consistent strategy and coming up with content that gives back to people so that when you post it doesn't, it's not about you. It's about who's reading it, right. Because anytime we're going to be if you walked into a party and you only talked about yourself, that wouldn't feel good either. So I'm having a strategy so that you have you know where your content is coming from and you don't have these big lapses in time. And then when you actually post it's not it's not about you and it's not even about Are you getting sales or getting clients or building your business? It's about giving back to the people that are watching and reading. Akua Nyame-Mensah 5:08 I love that. And that's definitely one of the biggest things that I learned when I had the opportunity to work with you and your programme, right? Really focusing on making it about them. Right. And I think it's so funny because I actually teach that in my leadership work, right. So you know, the first step is really like recognising they aren't you, right? So cultivating your self awareness. My second step is like around simplifying engagement. And yet, that's not something I really was doing, I think really well, within my social media until I had the opportunity to work with you. Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the things, tips, tricks and strategies that you leverage to make sure that you're able to show up and feel good about what you're putting out there, Speaker 1 5:47 right. So also, you're not alone. Like, there's so many things that I teach that I am not doing. But furthermore, I do it for all of my clients all day, and then don't do it for myself. So like, maybe we all need to just take the note to prioritise ourselves and our own image and not just take these things that we know that we're supposed to be doing. But actually set up whatever needs to be in place to make it easy for you to do it so that you actually do it, right. So that's a big thing, figuring out ways to make it easy. So like the way that I teach, and you you've seen this, the way that I teach a content strategy is basically you have all these different buckets that your content will go into, and not to, like, throw too much shade. But there are marketing companies out there where you can pay a few $1,000 to have someone create these content, buckets, content, pillars, content strategy for you. And then you take it home, and you have absolutely no idea how to implement it. Yeah. So what we do is we create that strategy. And then I want step by step instructions on how you're going to create the content that's going to go online, right? So are you going to have a photoshoot and get a have a mass photo shoot and get like, you know, 30 photos at once so that they're ready? Do you have Canva templates ready that you can have 10 to your VA, so they can input all the information. But the template and the graphic design is basically pre made like things to make it easy. So that coming up with content. While you know that you need to come up with content, you come up with it, and then you create it. And that all happens very smoothly. Instead of just feeling like a slob. Brianna says oh my gosh, I planned the first quarter and it felt so good to not be stressed out about it still brings me tonnes of anxiety. Yes. And you're so not alone. There are so many people anxiety and planning the first quarter. That's great. I want to ask you grant, did you then plan the steps on how you're going to implement it? And furthermore, build it into your schedule to have time to take action on those steps, right? That's a huge thing. Akua and I have the same business coach. And that was one of the things that I learned from her and that I drive home with everybody over and over and over again, is actually well, what Courtney says is make your marketing time sacred. Because we backburner ourselves, right? We don't prioritise our own content. And then and we don't book time into our schedule, because it's just this extra thing we're going to throw on top because it's just social media. Well, just social media can make you hundreds of 1000s of dollars, right. So building my next tip is building time into your schedule when you're actually going to take action. Akua Nyame-Mensah 8:24 Massive, right? That is a massive thing, right? A lot of my work. And we talked about this before Jenna is really just around productivity in the fact that we think we tell ourselves, oh, I want to do these things. But are we creating time and space in our calendar? And are we honouring the time and space that we put in our calendar as well? Right. So that's another thing, like you said, make it sacred, actually honour it, really try to use that time that you've set aside Speaker 1 8:47 granted says no, that's where I'm at now planning my content days? Absolutely. We will break it down. You know, I'll even tell my students like when you have a clean hair day, like when you know that your your schedule your like your hair wash schedule, like I definitely have fun, right? The days that you know, are going to be like clean hair days, or maybe makeup days or like get dressed days. Those are good days for photography, right? Just little things like that can really help. I'm not prioritising marketing days, and then it's not converting as much as I'd like, because I'm still setting up my system. Thanks for keeping it real. It sounds like you're thinking of all the right things Brianna, and right now is a perfect time to like get into these healthy habits at the beginning of the year, mapping out your year and like having a strategic action plan on how to like, make all those things happen. Akua Nyame-Mensah 9:35 I love this. Thank you so much, Brianna. And I think that this really just also relates to everything that we do in our businesses and our careers. Just taking an hour a day to set up your day can make you so much more productive, right? spending one week planning out a quarter can make that quarter go from being you know, maybe a $5,000 quarter to a $10,000 Quarter right. So some of that pre work getting done now can really help to eliminate a lot of issues later on. on it make it so much easier for us to scale. Speaker 1 10:02 So what so the main focus today I have other points on our main focus. So I know that I can like get off on tangents of like all the things you can do online, but we're talking about how to not feel inauthentic, how to feel good about what you're posting, and good about your presence in general. So this is kind of a good segue to one of my other points, which is to plan, two prong plan when you're going to be growing online plan when you're going to be nurturing and plan when you're going to be selling. So Brianna, maybe you know that you always sell a tonne of Christmas time sell a tonne of back to school, sell a tonne at the beginning of summer break, like whatever your periods are. Or maybe you you want to decide the last week of every month is when you're in your like sales, energy. Because what can happen. And this is another thing that makes us feel all kinds of yucky inside is we don't plan a sales sales time. So then we realise that we need money. And then we run to social media where we haven't posted in three weeks and try and like shove our pitch down people's throats in a way that we think sounds chill, but it's very not chill, because the energy like these maybe will, but the energy shows. So you don't want to go to Instagram, when your or whatever social media platform you're on when you're feeling desperate, because it is going to show you want to be on there giving back to your followers all the time nurturing your community all the time, so that when it's time to give your pitch, it's from this like good place of good energy and giving back to them so that your pitch still serves the audience instead of being about you. Akua Nyame-Mensah 11:43 Oh my gosh. And you know, Jenna, this is one of the things that I learned from you. And I think I even remember on one of the calls. I was like, I don't know when my times are. But I think the fact that you teach this has really helped me shift my perspective around selling because for me, that was one of the hardest things to really wrap my head around making the ask, right? So taking that call to action to the next level where you're like, Hey, will you invest in me. And so I love this perspective of having these distinct times and really just recognising at the end of the day you are serving them, even through your content and asking them or inviting them to work with you. So for me, I know that was another very transformative Yeah, very transformable part of the content that you shared in your programme as well. Speaker 1 12:23 Thank you. Yeah, I mean, this is another thing, like we have that entire, I didn't intend on putting this in the programme. But then I realised I had to because this was so where so many who are hung up, just reminding yourself that your business wouldn't exist if it didn't provide value to other people on your right. So how are you? How is your product or service or business? Helping other people? How is it changing their life, then we sort of get into the dynamics of copywriting, the dynamics of like, the language to be using in your captions and in your sales page and all of that, but how are you helping other people because you obviously are or you wouldn't have a business. And when you can approach your marketing from a place of, hey, I'm here when you need me. And here are the reasons that you probably need me and here are the reasons your life will be better after you work with me, right? It's about you, I'm not desperate, I'm just waiting for when you like decide it's right. There's also this like, sort of dynamic of masculine versus feminine marketing. So the masculine is, is such things as like the pushing this the repeated call to action, the feminine is more like, here's, here's everything that you need to know. And when you're ready, you're ready. Like sometimes very feminine marketing won't even include a call to action. In a post, it'll just be like, here's somebody that I worked with in the great results that they had. That's it, and then they believe people with the I try and split a balance, but that type of believes that that person will reach out when they're ready, they're gonna message you because they know that you're there, they know what you offer. Akua Nyame-Mensah 13:54 I love that. And I love that distinction of like, you don't have to do one thing having a nice mixture of the two. Do you have any recommendations on how people should think about it especially from that perspective of masculine and feminine? And I love that yeah, I love using those labels because that's actually how I think about my content quite a bit like pushy a little pushy and then a little bit more open. Any any thoughts on on the Yeah, a good mix? Speaker 1 14:20 Well, I'll tell you this. For me, I work with a lot of women like my programmes are usually 90% women men are welcome non binary people are welcome it's just typically women and a lot of like very sensitive types. I can be very sensitive a lot of artists so I'm teach I teach them masculine because I know they're not going to go full tilt. The people type of people that I attract are like having a hard time selling themselves at all don't like they feel bad even just putting a call to action. So typically, I'm teaching them how to go full tilt masculine knowing they're gonna meet me about halfway. Akua Nyame-Mensah 14:58 I love that any any like examples of some, you know, maybe more softball, or more feminine calls to action that people could maybe keep in mind to make this really tangible. Speaker 1 15:08 Yeah, sure. So I would and I'm still kind of learning about the differentiation. I know what what I think. But I'm a masculine call to action would be like, anything that's very time sensitive. So time is running out, click the link in my bio to book your discovery call with me ASAP, there are only five spots available. And this calendar expires at midnight. So you're telling them do it, and you're putting a bunch of sales psychology took sort of like pressure tactics, and feminine would be do you experience X? Do you bad thing? Do you want to experience y? Good thing? My door is always open, click the link in my bio, and let's chat about how your life couldn't be better. Thanks for having me on the station. Akua Nyame-Mensah 15:57 You know, awesome. I really Yeah, that was incredibly fabulous. And I know those of you are watching this. I hope that that was incredibly like, yeah, just really tangible. So you can sort of see the difference between the two, what are the ways should you know leaders be thinking about leveraging social media, especially from that perspective of, you know, showing the behind the scenes because I know, that's also something that I very much struggle with, I think that you do an amazing job of it, within your content on LinkedIn, how much of yourself, should you show? How much of behind the scenes Do you suggest you show? And you know, another thing I get from, from some of my, you know, leadership clients that really want to be thought leaders is like, should I go on without makeup? How you know, dressed up? Should I look how much of a regular human should I come across with on my feet? And I know you're the perfect person. Speaker 1 16:49 Okay, so you know what, let me tell you, let me just depart from this question a little bit in order to answer it, which I think is my step. Um, when I first got into social media, and marketing and PR, I was a bartender and an actor. And those are two jobs where you're notoriously not getting any respect, right. So I mean, a good actor does, but like someone who was working at the level, I was working, not a lot of respect. And so when I just when I started, like, managing social media started taking on work as a publicist, this sort of thing. I was like, I went out and I bought lasers, but I made but they were pink, you know, so I was like, I still want to be me. But I want to get respect. So I want to dress a certain way that people are going to respect but it was still me underneath them, and they were still, you know, $30 blazers. But I felt like that costume helped me get to where I needed to be. It helped me show up like who I wanted to be. It helped me convince myself people were going to respect me when I walked into the room. So in that sense, I totally get it like, do your hair, put on your makeup, put on your outfit and and show what and now, as my business has grown, and as my confidence has grown, and as I started to realise that I'm the biggest selling factor for my entire business, right? It's, it's my personality. It's the way that I make metaphors out of everything, like, just straight up. That's what people are hiring. There's a million Instagram experts out there, there's a million marketing experts. That's the one thing that nobody else can rip off are those things about me. So as that happened, less makeup was being more worn more tie dye was being worn. I mean, I split the difference. Now, if I'm showing up on a Monday morning, I like this, if I'm going to a business meeting, I might look a little bit fancier. And then in terms of how much of my behind the scenes Am I showing, usually when something very truly big and major happens in my life, my instinct is to keep it to myself. So like it took me a long time to share my engagement. It took me a long time to share my new puppy. We waited a long time before we shared the house. So like when we go through things happen. I'm like, This is me, this is us. This is my family. It's like thing, and I don't want to share it. But other things that happen in my life on a day to day basis where I don't feel that sort of emotional way about it. I'll show it to the world. I have bad boundaries, I will show anything, you know. So when I recommend I actually just made a tick tock that is like taking off right now. It's got like, probably 20,000 views or something with this advice. Yeah, this advice, which is in order to if you're having a hard time creating content every day, or you want to like incorporate more of your life but in a sort of structured way and I know that you took this advice inside the programme is find something that you do regularly every day I call it a routine or a ritual, something that's repeated that tells a little bit about you that you can share that thing every day. So Akula drinks, fancy tea, so she started sharing this tea that she drinks every day and then what are you going to do People are like, Oh, cool. It's also a real human woman. And I like tea too. And there's so many people out there who also love tea, and they feel like you have something in common now, right? I put the little Canadian flag in my bio and more people go like, Hey, you're Canadian. I'm Canadian, too. Like, if you can choose that, just select the things in your life that you decided that you want to share. And then repeatedly share that thing, that hobby that you have that ritual you do in the morning, those plants that you're taking care of in your living room, whatever it is, then those things become a trigger in your mind so that you will easily remember to share them. And immediately people feel like they have a peek behind the curtain. They trust you more because you're a real person. And you have one more thing that is relatable about you. I love that. Akua Nyame-Mensah 20:43 Yes, yes. For any of you all watching even if you're watching the replay, please feel free to leave something in the comments. I will share it with Jenna to make sure that she has a chance to answer it or that at least put you in touch if you want to learn more. Jenna, is there anything else that you think is important to mention in terms of feeling authentic and being able to show up online that you think people would love to hear Speaker 1 21:07 I'm just reviewing my notes here. So in summary, we talked about these are like my main points, I wanted to share, creating content that gives back and also thinking about your product or service as something that gives back to other people, because it does otherwise it wouldn't exist. Um, putting your followers first and sort of embracing this attraction or content marketing, not the terms were used, but leaning into the feminine side of marketing, so that you're just putting out value and people will find you and trust that people know what it is that you do. And also tell them what it is you do but not feeling pressured to like force your product on them. Choose when you're going to sell when you're going to nurture and when you're going to grow, whether it's a few times a year, or once a month, choose when you're going to hard push whatever it is that you sell, so that you don't go to Instagram or LinkedIn in desperation. So because that will show and it's not going to get you any more sales if you go there when you need money. And in terms of showing up regularly and showing up like as yourself, decide like one or two things in your life that you repeatedly want to share that say a lot about you that you feel comfortable sharing and do that on repeat because people will start to recognise you buy those like characteristics. Akua Nyame-Mensah 22:27 I absolutely love it. Jenna, thank you so much for all this amazing, actionable advice. How can people find out more about you? Speaker 1 22:35 Oh, okay, so you can grab your free Instagram mastery manual at the link that a cool provide. It's got some tips on how to grow your following some tips on like content pillars that I recommend. I also teach a group programme and if you get that manual, you'll be on my list. So you'll hear about when I offer free master classes or paid products or whatever. And if you want to follow me I'm probably most active on Instagram and my was at Jenna's page, je n n a s p i g Akua Nyame-Mensah 23:05 amazing. Thank you so much, Jenna, for your time for your energy and for your support. I really do appreciate it. I've been a part of Jenna's programme and I can say firsthand that it's definitely shifted the way I think about showing up not just on Instagram, but just on social media in general. So I'm really excited that we had the chance to do this. I'm really excited that we're working together to put together a bonus for my LinkedIn focus programme. It's going to be amazing. And I hope all of you that have taken the time to join us have learned a thing or two let us know the favourite thing that you've learned in the comments. And once again, please get in touch with Jenna if you need any support with showing up on LinkedIn and feeling authentic. Thank you so much, Jenna, for your time and for your energy. Speaker 1 23:48 Thank you for having me. This is wonderful. All right, Akua Nyame-Mensah 23:51 bye. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please share it with your friends. We can continue this conversation on social media the links to my socials so that is LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. You can find them in the show notes. If you tagged me in a story and include the hashtag hashtag ask Akua I will share a special little gift with you. Thank you so much once again for your time and I cannot wait to share my next episode with you stay safe and sane.