(upbeat music) Whoa, what's up, work advisors? My name is Brad and I'm your loyal host to the greatest podcast on iTunes and Spotify. Thank you, Hope Cast, for making this podcast possible. Today, we have a very special episode. This episode was recorded many months ago, but it's still relevant today because Anna McFarland is always relevant. She is a friend of the show. When she said she would come on, I was so excited because she has an Instagram page. Kids are the worst, Anna is the worst. They're hilarious. Please follow them. They'll be in the show notes, a link to them. Please follow them. She is great and I am actually apologizing on air for this episode not being delivered in a timely fashion. So, Anna, please forgive me. But I'm truly sorry because we have robbed, we have robbed our loyal listeners of greatness. And when I say great, I don't mean myself 'cause I'm far from great, but Anna is perfect. She is incredible and I just love the fact that she came on here and now you get a chance to hear it. But before we get to Anna, we have a question. And this question is from Edith. Wow, Edith in Cedar Rapids. We've had Cedar Rapids before. I've been to Cedar Rapids. It's a great place, not very big, but great. Edith writes, "Brad, love listening to your podcast." Well, thank you, Edith. I truly appreciate that. You always say how excited you are and you have been dying to talk to the guests. Are there guests that you have had where you aren't that excited? Wow, or you just want me to name drop? Is that what you're trying to get me to do on this podcast? I gotta be honest, there's sometimes I have people coming on. I'm genuinely excited, not excited, excited to talk, but sometimes I'll sit on my couch before we hit record and I go up to my studio. And I think to myself, what am I gonna talk about? But let me tell you something, the ones where I worry, am I gonna have anything to talk about? Are usually my favorite conversations. We tend to have a blast just as much as I had a blast talking to Anna. I cannot wait for you to hear this. Thank you, Edith, for your question. It was great. I was not gonna dime a guest out because here at Work Advice, we love August. All guests are welcome. If you're listening to this now and you want to be a guest, email the show, Work Advice For Me at gmail.com and we'll try to fit you in. You can come on and chat about what you like. As you know, we like to shoot the breeze around here with the old Work Advice studios. Yeah, if you want to come on, please, come on. But enough from me. Let's get to Anna. Okay, so what did your childhood look like? Okay, I don't know why I wasn't expecting that. My childhood was great. I am fifth of six children and I grew up in Arizona and had a lot of swimming, had a lot of outdoor time and a lot of, I remember vividly waking up at 5/30 every Saturday for a yard chore. So I hate yard work for this day because of that. But otherwise, it's a great family and good childhood. Say it, complain. So you were the fifth of six. How was that dynamic for you? 'Cause you were near the bottom which probably you got a lot which you wanted, right? You know, it was, I was so close to being the baby and my mom had the baby of the family five years after me, almost. And it was just like a catee that favorite spot until my little brother came. So yeah, I did get away with a lot. I definitely feel like my teen years were a little bit easier than my older sibling had because my parents were a little more tired by the end. It was, yeah, it was fun. It was fun to have older siblings too to kind of show you how to do things and how to try other things in life. And it was nice to have that. - I think that's a tough spot because for me, I would be so discouraged if I go from the baby to now I'm right at the baby. But not quite the baby. I'd almost rather do number two or number three. And they keep popping out, kids. So, you know, I'm just gonna-- - I know. - I'm fine with that, you know, so. - Yeah, I mean, I never got an allowance but he got a great allowance. You know, I just got to see how just lovely his childhood was compared to mine. No, but I loved, I'm glad I wasn't the youngest after all is that and done. 'Cause I have a youngest who's about four years younger than my third, we have four kids and our fourth is four years younger and we're just planning on how he's gonna be alone with us for years. And that just actually sounds not ideal for both of you kids who are used to having people around and other kids around to just be stuck with a parent for a few years but sounds miserable for him. So, I don't know what we'll do. - What's the age range? - So, our youngest is 13 and the one just above him is 17 senior in high school, his last year. And then the 13 year old will have all high school left just alone. - There's so many things to do. Are you in Arizona now? - No, we're actually in Utah right now. So, we live here. Uh-huh, yeah. - That's so much too far from Arizona but a little more close to mountains and weather having seasons. - So, nice. - So, what did you do before social media? - Before social media, I've been in marketing for over 20 years. I started as an editor for a marketing company and doing mostly direct mail. And at the time when nobody gave out their email address but we just spent a lot of letters via the snail mail and then worked my way through all kinds of marketing whether that was magazine ad, brochures, blog posts, did a lot of SEO for awhile for a company and a lot of search engine optimization which I loved like a puzzle. But I did a lot of writing, a lot of marketing and then I loved social media helping brands and I loved using it myself but it wasn't until Instagram that it was like the light bulb went off and I thought, okay, I totally see how everything I've already done and everything that's available kind of converges and comes together and it just feels like this is gonna be it. This is gonna be so big for businesses and for brands and for people and for consumers and for communities. It just was like golden. So, that's kind of when social media became more of what I ended up doing for business. - Why do you think, first let me ask you, do you think direct mailers are good today and why do you think companies still stick on? 'Cause I think I know what you're gonna say and why do companies stick with direct mailers? 'Cause they're not cheap. And when I get them in my box, I immediately trash them. - Right. And you just think about the waste, just not even how much it cost the businesses but just the physical waste in a time when we're so much more aware of waste, and we were 20 years ago. And it's so expensive, like you're saying, it has such a low return and it's really hard to track. You know, it's hard to see how where people are coming from. Was it because of a mailer? Was it because they thought our ad on a billboard? Was it because we sponsored the Little League team and put our name on their water bottles? You know, like, how did we get this new client or new customers, whereas when we're working with digital content, we are becoming spoiled because we can see exactly where people come from. So I don't know why businesses still do it other than it feels comfortable. It feels familiar, someone told them that it works. Someone had a stat that convinced them or they just don't wanna be online. And I understand that too. Some people just don't feel comfortable being accessed online so easily. - It's still mind boggling to me because you wanna grow your business and there's so many more optimal ways but I meet people all the time that wanna hold papers in their hand instead of looking on the phone. In their excuses, I'm gonna use my phone. - Or even, like I even had a meeting yesterday with this really, really amazing gentleman who's been just in all kinds of media and he's done so much and he wanted to say so many times I don't live my life online. And when he said that so many times I thought, okay, this has become like a personality thing for people. It's like, I'm not online or I am or those people are or whatever that thing is. And I think it's them partly from the unknown or the sphere of like, I don't know how to use it on my phone. But I think it's also because it's the badge, you know, of like, oh, we don't do that or we are old school and we kind of wear those things as badges so they become part of our personality. And I understand it, it's just, I don't ascribe to it. I just think there's always gonna be something, why not try it, you know? - You and I were probably not far and age. We didn't grow up, we weren't born with iPhones in our hand and we had to adjust and that sounds, it's no different than Android guy, right? Who says I refuse to ever own an Apple phone, an iPhone. And I don't understand that. There's so much more, hopefully you're not an Android. I don't know if you are, I'm sorry. - Not sending every Android user, but they're just easier. They're easier for me and to use, but I've had to learn. And I think that's what people are scared of. You're right, to learn something new and... - Yeah. - And we should all end up learning new stuff. - Hey, totally. But I also think, you know, with tech and also we are close enough and your birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday. - Yesterday, right? - Yep, yep, so... - You knew that, yeah. - Yeah, 44. - 44, yeah. And I'm turning 45 next week. So, super close, but, you know, I'm still much wiser. I mean, older. So, pretty close there. But, you know, I do think that this, it becomes, again, it's the story people tell. I mean, this is what we do a lot in marketing is we try to help people tell their story. So, what's the story you want people to tell about you? And what are you telling other people is your story? So, that's like, oh, I like Nike. I'm an Apple person, I like Apple. So, that becomes part of your story and who you are and what you want other people to see you at. That's why we buy brands. That's why we ascribe to certain ideologies or politics or whatever that is, right? That becomes our story. And I think people have that in their story that they don't like tech for whatever reason or they don't want to learn it or they're too old for it or it's just scary to them or whatever that story is. I think we kind of dig deep into our story. We just, even if we want to change, it's like, well, no, this is who I am. I'm a person who doesn't like tech. So, I'm not gonna learn it, you know? - Yeah, I meet those people all the time. 100% agree with you on that. Now, were you ever a MySpace user? - You know what, I wasn't. So, I think I just missed it. I think there were, I mean, were you on my face? - I was at one point. I really didn't do much on there, but it was where you were like, I think you ranked your friends about it. It was the status thing, right? - Right. - Imagine that today, you're ranking friends. So, dumb, if you think about it. And people get mad about it. - It was there, it was also blog roles. So, I kind of was more in that time of life when people were doing MySpace. I was, you know, a young mom. And so, I was on the blog and you would create your own blog and then you'd have your blog role on the right side, usually. And it would lift the blog you like to follow. And then you would definitely put the ones at top that were either more credible or you wanted people to know that you knew them or liked them or followed them. And then you would just, I would open up my blog and just go down my blog role and watch, look at everyone, you know, post of what they've created or what they made that day. I mean, almost a similar thing. It's like, can you imagine if you showed the people you followed on any social platform and you drank them? Like, if it was normal. - And it would be sad if you're, you know, my wife ranked me way below other people. I'd be like, what's going on here? I'm coming home and I'm like number 10 and you're ranking. - You know what's similar though, if you're on an Apple, on an iPhone is your most frequently contacted, what's that called on your, when you're calling someone and you're at the top? - That tells a lot about you, right? - It does. When I grab my kid's phones and I'm not in the top two, like it's okay if my husband's the number one, but if I'm beyond their, behind their friends, I'm like, uh-uh, nope, this is my phone then, I'm taking this. - They know mom's gonna have precedence there. - What's a good age for a kid to have a phone? - Arsh. - I'm curious of what you're saying. - You know, it's changes and I do think this is, and this is not gonna be a cop out, but I'm just throwing this out there. It really depends on the kid. It depends on the situation. And I try not to get like a big number because I've talked to so many parents who have interesting circumstances that aren't mine. You know, my kids, my oldest daughter, she didn't get a smartphone until she was 16, and that to me was like, oh, in my mind at the time, a hard and fast rule, you know, 16, 16. And she would tell me, oh, my friends have this, okay, you know, that's not a thing that I ever, the average ways me, that ever changes my mind, but it was now my 13-year-old has a phone, and he'd have one for a year because he was the only one without a phone. And so there was no way to contact him if he was anywhere else or he was home and we were all gone or whatever that situation was. And it's changed because of how our family worked. And I have friends who are divorced, and their kid is, you know, under 13, and they need a phone because they need to be able to contact their phone and not have to go through their ex or whatever. And so it's like, I can't say what is right or wrong. All I know is, like, when it comes to functionalities, you know, what are you giving your kid? It's not gonna be carte blanche. That's where you start trying to chew the little more and create more of the experience that is appropriate for them, you know, whether that social media, whether that camera, whether whatever those things are, to your point, we didn't have these, and we learned them one step at a time. You know, it was phone, then it had a smartphone, had a game on it, and then it had a camera on it. You know, and it was one piece at a time. It wasn't like, just now that you're like, here's access to the world. There you go, good luck, you know. - It's gotta be overwhelming. And my 10-year-old told me yesterday, he said, I'm getting a phone when I'm next year in middle school, and I said, whoa, and my wife said, yeah, I told him, he could, I'm like, ah, we need to talk about this, so you're helping. You're helping mediate my wife when I was disagreement about phones. 'Cause he'll put his nose in there, and next thing you know, he's playing fall guys on there, and I'm trying to have a conversation with him, and he's not listening. It gets frustrating. - Right. - Yeah, it does. - It does. And fall guy's really fun, so every my break up matters, but the key-- - Yes, son. - Yeah, I mean, setting up those guidelines, and then like, how do we talk to people, and when we put things down, but then we have to model that as parents. You know, a lot of times we're like, oh no, this is important. They don't see that as like, oh, she's not playing a game. He's on an important email, or he's doing something for work, all they see is that you're on your phone. So it's really modeling that for them, and letting them know, you know, these times they're appropriate, these times they're not appropriate, and you know, even sometimes I'll say, hey, I'm working for just a minute on my phone, so you know, and then they're like, okay, just that open communication and modeling, the way we want them to be. - I like that, and that brings me to something I wanted to ask you, do you, first I want to know, take me and the list, take myself and the listeners, inside what a day looks like for you, because I'm fascinated at what you do when you're working, and how you do that. - Well, you know, I read, and here's the worst part, I've used this example so many times, and I have no idea where I got this information. It was from a book for entrepreneurs, and I don't remember anything else from the book, I don't remember even liking the book, other than this one piece, and so I've kept it, and I wish I could give proper credit. They said, if you're an entrepreneur, and you decide what your day looks like, 'cause it can be so busy, it can be non-stop, it can be, you know, there are definitely days where I feel like I'm working from the minute I wake up until the minute I, you know, put my head down, and even still dreaming about working. He says you have to, if you want some day to have a different life, if you want to be someone who exercises, who does service, who, you know, spend time with family and friends, you have to start creating that life now, and having work go where you need it to go. So if you just think someday, I'm gonna work only eight hours, or four hours, or whatever hour, you have to start seeking out how to model your day to look like that now. And why was that so revolutionary to me? But it was like, I'm not doing that. I am sometimes burning the, you know, candle at both ends, whatever that phrase is, the wick. And I'm just exhausted, and I'm thinking, I can't give up all the things that I want to do. I have to start modeling them now. So I wake up, my kids go out to school, and then I just, I go for a walk. I go for a long walk, sometimes with my husband, or with someone else. But most of the time, it's just by myself, so I can clear my mind, if I look like a reset, just to kind of think about what do I really have to do? What do I want? What am I gonna create today? Who do I need to work with? Or even planning if I have classes I'm teaching, or alive that I'm doing? Just kind of like that, clearing my mind, because if I don't do it in the morning, then I don't do it. And I wanna be someone who goes for walks. That's what I want to be. When I'm 60, when I'm 80, you know? So I do that, and then I come home, I eat, I start planning my day, and then I go into my office, and I try for three hours in my office, writing, creating content, doing lives, or doing recording videos, or whatever that is. And usually do not disturb is on for those hours, because otherwise I can get so sidetracked. I have major ADHD, so if like someone called me, or pinged me, like squirrel, major squirrel, you know? I want to just stop feeling it. And then I will do more of my posts. So when I start sharing things, I start doing things on different accounts, checking in on different accounts, responding to people, and going to my DM. But I kind of put those things up too. Like when I'm online, how many minutes am I spending? Creating content, how many am I responding to people? How many am I viewing all those different things? And then sometimes it depends on the day, I'll make time to talk to someone, like talk to a family member, or friends, or connect with people, 'cause I am working from home. I have to create that time to be social. And then usually, then my kids come home, and then we do all that, and we have dinner, and then I usually go back to work for about an hour or two at night, depending on what projects we're working on. And then I watch TV, just like everyone else. (laughs) - Then I go to bed. - What's your go-to TV watching show? - What's a go-to? It's really, I don't know if you're like this, but I like to, I both want to see what everyone else is watching, and I don't wanna see whatever I'm watching. - I'm like that. - I don't like that. Like wait, why does everyone care about succession, or right now it's, what is it, beef? No, not beef, a bear, the bear, have you heard of that one? - I love that show, I watched it last year, and haven't got into season two yet, but it was really good, the chef, right? - Yeah, yeah. - Great show. - Yeah, so people have been talking about it, we didn't have Hulu, and so I was like, oh, and then my daughter comes from summer from her college, and she happens to have Hulu, 'cause isn't this fun, that they give Hulu to college students for free, which I think is the weirdest bonus for being a full-time student, that have Hulu. Like, what, that feels like the opposite of what you should be doing, Hulu, so. - Yes, you're here to say it, like, we want you to watch TV and not study. You gotta watch the bear, and you gotta watch Kardashians, we're gonna distract you, right? - Yeah, and you watch Kim Kardashian, while you're not studying. - Exactly, yup. - It is-- - Do I figure? I know, I figure I help her with her college, so since she's home and living there, so I'm like, can we use your Hulu? So, we've been watching it while she's here, and she's not watching it with us, but she's on too, so. - I like that, that's what I started. - I like that, because my mother-in-law was like, my Netflix is not working, 'cause we let them use our Netflix login, and I said, I think they've cracked down on that. I don't think-- - They did. - I said, you're gonna have to actually buy your own Netflix now, if you want it. She didn't like that. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's a-- - I know, and my husband said, when you leave, we'll take it off the TV, because it's only one household. I'm like, okay, you're not wrong, he's very honest, and which is great. And I was like, she's our daughter, and she's still, we're paying for her life still, like at what point, and are we still the same house? - Yeah, but I did it, I did it. - 100% agree with you, and I've got to the point now, where I don't even like commercials, so I pay for the Hulu that gets rid of the commercials, and I'm the old man who sits there and goes, we're so glad we don't have commercials, and my wife's like, oh, I really didn't care. And I'm like, oh, but I love it. I'd never watch commercial in anything anymore. - It's so harsh, like last night, we were watching the fair, a few episodes, and I seriously, it was about turning us off, 'cause they're not short commercials. - They're just-- - And you can't back for them, but they're just long, they're short enough that you can't really go do anything like you did as a child, you know, like, oh, her and you can go do something, you know, like go brush your teeth. No, they're like, just short enough, you can't do anything, but so long that you're like, come on, yeah, that would be nice. - And it's heaven not having commercials. It's so-- - Yeah. - And I just like bragging about that all the time at home, I probably love my family crazy, but I live a commercial-free life, and I love it. Now-- - That's good. - Talk about sprint a little bit, 'cause that's fascinating for listeners that are listening on your website. Tell me a little bit about that. - So our sprint, what we do is it's been five days for a long time, and now we just are networking in three days. What it does is it helps small brands, small businesses, media services as well. It's not really your tour enterprise businesses, but it's when you're feeling a lull in your social media. We focus on Instagram, but you can use it for any social media. So, at the end of the time, you're like posting and creating content, and then it just feels like everything's flowing down, and you don't know what could you differently. You can go and watch all these different videos or just try different trends. But what we focus on is boosting your views, your reach, and your engagement for those three days. So it really kind of starts propelling you. It's really a sprint that just keeps your account moving for a while, and really it's our way of showing you that there are ways to keep connecting with your audience in ways that they want to respond to. We show some tips and some truths that happen regardless of trends that you can be using all the time on social media, but really also just re-energizing brands or owners of accounts or communities who are feeling tired, who are feeling worn out. It's a big topic for people, and I get it. It's just like, you know, anything that I don't do for a business that I don't love, I can get really exhausted with, and I need a cheerleader. I need some excitement. I need a couple tips, I need to kind of like re-energize the purpose of why I'm eating healthy or why I'm researching or doing whatever else that you do in your life with things that you kind of start getting bored with. So that's what we do with this three days, so you can commit to it. You can try it out. Actually, it's also cool because there are hundreds of other small businesses, and you start engaging with each other. And the point is to see what other people are doing with the same comp. And so you get ideas that you can be using in the future as well, so it's not just one and done. You're like, oh, I could do that next time, and that would be fun. But also it's cool because we find so many brands that are using the sprint become collaborators with each other. They are networking together. They're finding how they can do other things. It's a huge bonus that we didn't expect, but I think it's one of the things people love the most. - I really like that. And it's something even, it's easy to get discouraged when you're doing something that you like to do. Like for me, this is definitely something I do on the side. I enjoy doing it. I get to talk to cool people like you that I would never get to speak to in my life if I didn't do this, right? And we would never cross pass. And I have my buddy, Jonathan, who when he found out that I was chatting with you, couldn't believe it, big fan, he was like, I cannot believe you got her. And I said, yeah, she's gonna come watch out with me. And he was so excited, but he's a big cheerleader 'cause you know, you go, well, I'm gonna wear the listeners are gonna come in. Where do you get listeners and all about algorithms, right? I hear algorithm, the word algorithm all the time. - I know. - It's about hitting that algorithm. And I'm sure a lot of business entrepreneurs that you deal with are looking for that in their job. And trying to figure that out, right? - Yeah. - Yeah, sorry, I know very little about what you know a lot about. So we got like, you know, but yeah, it's something that we look for and we wanna try to figure out how do you get your business in front? And I think that's great what you're doing. - Yeah, and I love it because I want small businesses. You know, I've worked with enterprise for years and I've done all kinds of businesses, but there's just something so exciting for me to be able to put those tools in the hands of small businesses because they're the ones that are really driving so much of creation, of content, of relationship. They're the ones that if you struggle with a product, they're gonna respond back. They're gonna help you out. Like they're just, there's so much. And they're the ones that are paying for their kids to take piano lessons and get into sports and to, you know, celebrate birthdays and just, it's fun for me to see that small businesses succeed by connecting to the right audiences using social media platforms that are pretty free. Like, you know, yeah, you can spend money on things. Yeah, you can pay for Booth, you can pay for ads. There's a lot of things you can do, but like where else in the world you get access to potentially millions of eyeballs for your dollars. It's just about what you create. How amazing is that? I mean, everyone has these phones in their hands and they are just ready for something that is entertaining, that is helpful, that is education and all we have to do is just show them, create it for them and connect to them. It's just ready for it. And it's never been easier. What's more advantageous for someone listening? Instagram live or an Instagram real? No, great. Interesting question. I would say advantageous would be a real because your reels are shared to anyone, not just to your audience, just anyone can access your reel if the algorithms, you know, decide that it is worth spreading and sharing with more people. But technically, if you do a live and then you save it to your feed, it serves as a reel. Generally, reels or lives aren't gonna be shown to new audiences because they're so long and they take the long people to get started and, you know, most of the time they're not just cutting to the chase and getting to the point, but, you know, when we look at something like a reel or like a shake talk or like a YouTube short or any of those types of short-form video, when we see that people have access to so much content, we just, we have this limitless access to content. And we need two, what is it? 2.7 seconds to get people detention. To make them say like, oh, is this interesting? Is this important to me? And if you can get someone's attention in 2.7 seconds that they wanna see more, you could potentially have a customer, a fan for life, a listener, you know, a client, a patient. Like, where else do you get that opportunity? Oh, it's so phenomenal to just think of the access we have and the ability we have to find people who would never have known, just like you and I are talking, who would never have found each other, would never have crossed paths, but yet we have these abilities to inspire, to connect, to enlighten, to entertain people just with getting their attention so quickly with 2 seconds in a reel, you know, the first 2 seconds in a reel. That's really what I would say is admin pages. If you use it to your advantage, if you use it to the audience's advantage, if it's something that they go, basically this sounds from fun, or I want to watch it. - I scroll all the time at home. I'll just be sitting there scrolling reels and laughing. My buddy John, he sends them to me all the time. We just go back and forth watching funny, I mean, it's fun stuff, right? And well, sometimes I'll follow those people that really catch my, you're totally right. 2.7 seconds. So that brings me to a couple of fun questions I wanna ask you before we close. You know, I've learned today that you were number five of six. And I liked one of your posts, it was hilarious. Why is, it's hard for me to imagine you had six siblings and the F word was not allowed in your house. And I don't mean the really vulgar one. I mean fart, I loved your post on that. You're out, looks like it's snowing, you're walking. I don't know how you thought it was poop. It's just hilarious to me. I don't understand why fart gets such a bad label. - Yeah, yes, like my kids, I allow them to say it and I just, I can see my mom blanch just every time my kids say any word or I say it, they're oh, Anna. Why are you saying that? - But I thought poop, so we were told poop was fart. So we would always say who poop, meaning who pass gas. And I said it to my friends and they thought I meant who defecated who had, who went number two. And yeah, how funny, my mom commented on that one too. So I'm like, I didn't know I was causing so much trauma. I was like, mom is funny, it's fine. Like it's a funny part of the story. But yeah, we weren't allowed to say shut up. So we would say shut up and then that got mixed. So then we had to say shut down, which that got shut down. Like all the things we weren't allowed to say, it was fun. - It is, it's hilarious when you think as a kid and it's, and I think I'm more lax now with mine 'cause my son says fart all the time. I mean, that's one of his favorite words. Now, and I say it too, and growing up I wasn't, they really didn't like it in my house. Either as a child, we'd say like poot or toot. As a grown man, I cannot say toot. I just can't. I can't say, not happening. I'm gonna have to drop the F word, it's gonna come. But it was a funny, I loved your story. It made me laugh. It was really great. And another one I like is the one, two buckle my shoe because my son sings that and it gets in my height. What an annoying song. - I know, I know, I love like, and then when you see the video of where it came from, you think, wait, this, this is it? This is the viral video that kids all over the country are mimicking. Isn't that fascinating that this juicy kid with fake buckles on his Nike makes some stupid song and then all these kids, like elementary kids who don't have access to the internet or not internet, but to kick talk where it started from. They're saying it, isn't that just insane when you think of how quickly things proliferate, how quickly things like become just trends and sad? It's just hilarious. - What's your biggest success for you personally on a video? - Gosh, I don't know. - What's your favorite? What's your favorite? - I have a look, but. - Yeah, there was, I love ones that just make me mile laugh. I mean, there's always the ones that get a lot of reaction. So to me, this is something I also talked to a lot of my students about is like, sometimes the most successful things for you aren't what you get the most engagement on because you could get major engagement. I have a few reals that the engagement is just astronomical, but it's people fighting. And I don't want to go in and see all the fighting that people are having over something that I thought was just white or cute. It's like energy I don't really want to accept into my time and my brain. But so those would be themed as, will be deemed as acceptable to people who be the number. But I'm like, that's not my favorite. My favorite are the ones that are just so fun or cute or real or just life. Like there's this one girl where she, her mom's been into me just years ago and I've seen it just go all over the place. People using it where she's eating something her mom made for her. And she's like smiling and naughty, but then she's like gagging. And she can't help it, but ooh, this is a big gag. And she's trying to swallow the food. It's just like, that's so funny to me. Those types of things, you know, or a girl dancing with her corn dog, with a fan on to be on, say, on, you know, standing on a table. Like, and I love the accidental mistakes of kids. You know, when they accidentally swear, that makes me laugh. Or when they accidentally, you know, draw things that look like the, or male anatomy. I don't know why that makes me laugh so hard. If it's not intended, it's hilarious. If it's intended, no thanks, I'm back, you know? No, we're not interested. But those are some of my favorite. The two kids are so innocent and funny and cute and it's just fun to see how they all interact. And I don't know, those are my favorites. - What is the most, I don't like to say the most because there's so many, I'm sure. What's the success story you have that's come through a brand? You know, you helping them grow through, like, sprint? - Yeah, there's a lot of the good ones. I mean, my favorite are just hearing people. Like, you know, there are plenty of them that go from 10,000 followers to 150,000 followers. That's cool. Like, that's cool. But when they also are, like, selling out of their program or they're able to help people, there's this one student who she just had this product. She worked years and years on brand news, she created it. You know, and if you've ever made a product, you know, how long products take to actually come to fruition actually 'til you can sell them. It's just the lonely, long process. And she has this really cool, there's silicone mold for making what's called cake pucks. So it's like, instead of a cupcake, it's kind of like a bean dong, but you can do anything with them. It's just, it's really fun creation she had. It's super cool and she does such a great job. She made this huge order, 'cause you have to make huge orders when you create something brand new and she just sold out within two days. And, like, to me, that is like, some. And maybe it was not too good. But whatever it was, it was like unexpected. She had to go reorder way. Like, she was hoping those lasted her months and they did not last her. And so she's having to reorder and she had back orders and it's just like creating this whole business for her family. Like, I love those things. I love when people are finding the right client. So with someone on the last branch that they said, they weren't expecting anything they were just wanting to learn. And on the day two of the sprint, they had a someone from the MDM that said, I would love to hire you. I just saw you're real about this. And, like, how do I hire you to be my coach for whatever they were doing? And they said, I wasn't expecting anything yet. I already have people messaging me, like, ready to hire me. Like, this is so awesome. Like, those are my favorite type of stories. You know, just finding those one, two right people or selling your product or filling your course or getting people into an event that you have or being able to speak on stage or selling your book, like those are just so many cool things like that. - So if people can use sprint to sell their book? - Yeah. - Wow. - For sure. And for your podcast, like to just get people aware that this is coming or that I have a book coming like here's our launch or, you know, we had one person who pulled out in her pre-sale of her book on Amazon, pulled out. And was the first time author? Like, just getting people want what you have. They want it. They just don't know you have it. We're so afraid to tell people about it because we don't want to be, quote, annoying. You know, we don't want to be overbearing. But how are we not helping people if they don't know they have the opportunities to buy it or to subscribe or to listen? If we're not willing to talk about it, we can't assume that people will hear about it 'cause there's so many people sharing, so many things going out there. If we have something that people can benefit from and can you, it kind of are not just our rights, our need, what, our duty to let them know that it exists. - So if you're trying to promote stories, are the stories good to promote like Instagram stories? Is that where you get a lot of traction or are we still going back to Reels again? - Well, when you're looking for new people, stories don't go to new people. Stories go to people who have already said, "Yeah, I'm going to follow you." And like I tell people in the service industry, like let's say dentists, for example, I don't follow my dentists, right? But they still need to have an Instagram account, a social media presence, because if I were to tell my friend about them, before Google, most people go to Instagram before they search on Google a lot of times. They go to Instagram or wherever else they are to say, like are they still alive? Are they still a good thing? I kind of give that to 2020, when everyone was unsure of if people were still in business, if people were still viable, if they were still the restaurants and the places that people didn't know if you were still in business and existing, we went to social media to see if there were recent posts. And that's how we know if people are still showing up, if they're still around. We go to Google, could be seven years old, nine years old. It could say, yep, we're open, and then you go show up and it's like out of business, right? So we go to Instagram to see if people exist, if people are around. I might not follow you, but I am going, so I'm not gonna be able to see your story, but if I go check you out later, I'm gonna look at your highlight, which is where your story comes from. You have to come from your story to your highlight, to see what you usually share on your story. And I'm gonna go to your feed and look at your post, and if your post or your reel, they're suggested to me, then I am going to want to see more of you or more of what you're sharing. So if we're looking for new people, yes, Reels is the number one place. If you're looking for brand new people, posts are great because that's what your audience will probably share most likely to their stories about you. That's the thing that's easier for us to share. We might share Reels with our buddies, you're sharing one with Jonathan and his VM, but you're probably posting a motivational quote or a really cool picture of something that people are sharing to your stories. We also share Reels to our story, but that's just an example. But if you want new people, yeah, you're going to Reels and post first if you want to keep your existing audience around or excited or remind them of to buy, to check in, to listen to whatever that's where you want to really go into your story. - So fascinating, it's a whole new world. I love it. - It's fun. - It's so hard for me to figure out, but so fascinating to learn and yeah. - And Brad, it's like, I get it. It's like, what can you do now though? Like what's one thing that you can, instead of trying to do all the things, because that is exhausting, right? To try to go like, oh, now I gotta figure out how to boost it, no, you don't. Like now I gotta figure out this part of Reels, no. Like what is the simplest thing you can do and that you can feel like you can maintain for at least, you know, the next two weeks before you add in the next thing, then you just do that. When it becomes a habit, then it's easy. But when you start seeing the payoff for it, you're going to be like, oh, this is actually awesome. But if you're trying to like get to a certain level, like if your goal is to get more followers and more listeners and some promo, you know, with a collaborate with a brand and yeah, that's going to feel overwhelming and like you can't do all the things. But you just start with one thing. Like you want more listeners. - I have seen places that want to boost all the time and I don't know if even boosting is effective anymore. Is it effective to boost on Facebook or Instagram? I mean, or is it easier to do Reels like what you're talking about? And it's easier to do to subscribe to Sprint and learn, right? But if people aren't doing that, is it effective to pay Facebook to boost something? 'Cause I've seen that happening. And I'm always more excited about that. - You know, but to me, it's like a step 10 problem. You know, it's not a step one through nine. But once you're at the part where you already have an account that you are consistently posting, 'cause like if you were to boost right now and you don't feel like you have a consistent schedule or you haven't posted for a few weeks, then you're gonna be paying money for people to go to your account and go, "Oh, well now I don't know what to do. Now what do they want for me?" You know, so it's kind of like paying for an ad that says grand opening, but the grand opening is months away. You know, so it's not as helpful if the other pieces aren't in play. But we feel like, ooh, I want a quick win, right? I want more people to see this. I have one good post or I have something that I feel is really important or I have it launched or something. I want people to see it. And so we spend the money looking for that quick win, but we really need those other steps before if we want a long win, instead of just a quick win. - Yeah, that's the world we live in, right? The quick, we wanna live a microwave world. We don't wanna sit around and cook and-- - You're right. - Yeah, and do you watch Shark Tank, by the way? - Oh, I haven't thought a while, but yeah, I've seen it. - I was thinking about that when you're talking about that. That's such a cool thing that they were selling. I like the idea of like a ding dong cake. It's really fascinating. But yeah, we live in a ready bake world. We need it now. And it's a marathon not a sprint, right? - Exactly, but it's also a sprint sometimes too, for me, for my three days sprint if you join. - Yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm not comparing it to that. We do need, if you're listening to this, please, please go-- - Oh, you're good. - And subscribe to that. It's great, it's $35 right now, right? - I know, it is. - Yeah, I've checked it out. Well, thank you, honor, for spending a few minutes, man, the time. - Oh, no, fun. - It's great. - This is very good. - Yeah, well, I appreciate it, and thank you so much. - Hey, Brad, and thanks. I can't wait for, just so you know, I can't wait for your recap, because I did hear you say that. Like, does anyone listen to the recap after? I'm really excited. I hope I gave you some things to talk about. - Well, gosh, you listen to the recap. You've listened to her recap. - I sure did. - That's fun, I heard you say that. Like, do people even listen to the recap of like, I'm gonna be listening to the recap? I don't feel you know, I can't wait. - I like that, because B and I often wonder if people listen to the recap. I love that B comes on, 'cause she gives a woman's perspective. - You're fun. - Uh-huh. - We have a lot of fun. We're gonna have a lot of fun on this recap, I promise. - Good. - Thanks so much. - Well, thank you so much. And I'll wish you luck and real quick, what's next for you? - Yeah, what's next for me? What's next is, that's the cool thing about working in something like social media, is that it's constantly something, what's next? It's constantly iterating. And we have a couple of programs we're working on that usually we just share with people who like have already done this sprint, because it's usually like the type of thing that we're adding on to. So I'm excited to work with that. I'm gonna be working with different kinds of brands. We're gonna get really specific with brands. And I don't know, I just get excited. I love how much things change. And I lean into it, I embrace it. And I think that the change is keeps us interested, and not just interesting, it keeps us interested. So whatever comes, I'm excited to be part of it. - I love that, and I'm with you, I love change. Well, thank you so much, Anna, and we'll be seeing you soon, thank you. - All right, have a good day. - You too, bye. - Well, I hope you enjoyed the conversation. I just said, well, Anna, she was perfect. I didn't just have it. As I told you in the beginning, this one was delayed a little bit, but we got it released. And I'm so excited, because Anna is a blast. Anna, you're always welcome to come back, and I promise we won't have a turnaround of my gosh, months. It'll be a turnaround of weeks, because you're that cool, and we love you. That much here at Work Advice. Don't forget, like and subscribe. Follow us, iTunes, Spotify. This is the Hope Cast Network. Follow us on Instagram. Work Advice for me, please. We wanna get some followers. We have a great podcast to work with world to know about it. Continue to share it with your friend, your co-worker, your mommy, your daddy, your brother, your sister, your cousin, and it's uncles, anybody. Why, husband? Just share it. Say, hey, check this out. God is amazing. Please listen. With that being said, my name is Brad. I'm the host of Work Advice for me. I will catch you on the flip side. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
