170 – Going from Emotion to Productivity When Tragedy Strikes with Bobbi Baehne of Think Big Go Local

Gift biz unwrapped episode 170.

One of the reasons I like sharing this story is I

really felt like I was very alone in that decision.

I had so many people around me supporting me,

but I also had people telling me I wasn't doing it

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Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue And thank you so much for taking part of

your day and joining us on the podcast.

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breeze.com. I have to admit that,

although I've wanted Bobby on this show for a long time,

I wanted her to talk about social media.

And when she decided she wanted to switch this up and

really direct the conversation in different way,

I wasn't so sure how I felt about it.

And now I am.

Oh, so glad we did.

What happens when tragedy strikes and you have a business to

run, how do you handle things?

How do you make it all work out?

That's what Bobby was so open and willing to share with

us today.

And I can't wait for you to hear from her.

So with that,

let me introduce you to Bobby Baney.

Bobby is the president of think big go local,

a digital marketing agency headquartered in the Chicago land area.

They focus on entrepreneurs and have worked with over 300 clients,

spanning dozens of different industries.

They specialize in small business messages to get in front of

their clients,

ideal customer growing their businesses.

And bottom line three years ago,

Bobby lost her 25 year old son in a motorcycle accident.

She is now passionate about turning emotion into productivity and sharing

a message of strength and resiliency.

And I have to tell you give business listeners.

She is the one who came to me and said,

you know what?

I think this is a message that can help a lot

of people.

And she is graciously going to be sharing that story with

us today.

But before we get into all of that,

Bobby, welcome to the show.

Thank you,

Sue. I'm so honored to be here.

So as you know,

I like to start off the show in a little bit

of a different way.

And that is by having you describe yourself through a motivational

candle. If you were to give me a color,

like I don't already know what it's going to be,

right, Bobby,

if you are going to give me a color and a

quote that is a motivational candle that represents you.

Describe to us what it will look like.

My motivational candle would obviously be bright.

Yay, Surprise,

surprise. And my quote,

that would be on my candle,

which is a quote that I look at almost every day

is be strong when you are weak,

be brave when you are scared,

be humble when you are victorious and be bad every day.

There you go.

Fabulous. Who wrote that quote?

Do you know what?

I actually don't know who wrote that quote?

I've seen it all over the place and I'm not sure

who wrote it.

Oh, that's funny.

Well, it's unknown,

but it totally works with you.

That's for sure.

Love it.

So take us back in time.

First of all,

I love the name.

Think big,

go local.

Thank you.

Perfect name for social media for sure.

But I know there was a history before that.

So give us a little bit of a feel of how

you've gotten to where you are today.

Absolutely. So I came from a corporate background and was working

in that arena at the time that social media started to

really become a thing.

I was an executive marketing director and a pretty large nonprofit

in the Chicago area.

And they,

as many other corporations did thought it was kind of a

fad that this wasn't a place they wanted to invest time,

invest money,

even just to kind of see what it was going to

all turn out to be,

which was really frustrating to me because I just saw very

early on how powerful at that time it was really Facebook

and Twitter were what was out there.

My space was there,

but it was so different from what people were doing in

that corporate environment.

And so I just started to do some little side hustles.

I was raising three kids on my own at the time,

really needed that corporate income.

That was pretty important to get them to where they needed

to be.

But I started doing social media for friends and for a

family business that we had just trying to learn a little

bit about it and I'm not going to lie.

I was stalking my daughter.

She had just gone off to college.

So that was kinda made it interesting.

And I learned pretty quickly that that was a really bad

idea, but I was kind of all in,

at an early stage.

So Was it that you understood that this could be something

big? What was it that you were about social media at

that time that perked your eyes open and said,

okay, well,

I'm going to pay attention to this and then do some

testing and figure it out.

But nonprofit that I was working in actually served children and

adolescents. And at that particular time,

the larger group that was in Facebook was really that adolescent

age kids in high school kids in college.

So I was really fortunate to be in a market where

we were serving adolescents and we had group homes for teenagers

and boys that were transitioning from living in a group home

environment to living independently.

So this space and Facebook really,

really spoke to this particular audience.

And because I was watching this younger generation interacting and watching

the things that were going on in college,

it was just really ideal at the time for the audience

that I was trying to attract really interesting,

how it's changed so much over time,

but when you're witnessing those conversations in real time and seeing

how connected people were becoming,

it was really hard to not pay attention and not to

see the potential.

Heck if I could connect with a boyfriend from kindergarten in

this space who couldn't I connect with,

if I was really trying to reach out and target an

audience. So that was interesting to me.

Yeah. And I just want to stop here for one second.

And lot of us,

this is a perfect demonstration of how smaller businesses.

Now you didn't have a business yet,

but you saw an opportunity there.

And the bigger organizations just don't jump on things like this.

And that's one of the benefits of smaller businesses is we

can be so nimble and so quick to adapt to situations

that we're seeing that can be really beneficial.

And this is one of the ways that small business can

get ahead of big business just by being able to move

much quicker.

So you didn't have your business yet,

but you saw the opportunity.

So continue on Bobby.

Yeah. So I saw that opportunity and you're so right.

And so I started incorporating it into small businesses for friends,

for our family business and just was seeing those results.

And of course Facebook was so different back then starting up

a page per se was genuinely personal.

They didn't have business pages at the time.

And so the interaction was just so stimulating and motivating.

So were you seeing Results in just new connections,

so new prospects for people,

or were you actually seeing new sales for these businesses as

you were getting going Prospects leads and sales because it was

so much easier back then to get good organic reach.

Like everybody was a community in that space and to mirror

what you said,

why this really is so important is can you imagine having

started your business page back then versus starting it right now,

how challenging it is and for business owners to understand that

ability they have to get in on something early and really

kind of bring their TRIBE with them and create that audience.

And sometimes it's probably not going to work.

There's going to be platforms that come and go,

but we don't have to wait through the corporate red tape

and for someone else to be convinced that it might be

worthy of the investment.

And that was interesting to me too,

that here's this young opportunity.

I don't know if it's a fad,

maybe Facebook would have gone away.

I really had no way to know,

but I did know when I was in that space,

that people were connecting and having conversations and making recommendations for

other people to come and see what you were doing or

sharing your content with someone that might need your services.

So it was just a really amazing opportunity,

especially in that time.

Yeah. And the only investment really was time because it doesn't

cost anything.

So I had been Working in the social media space for

a couple of years,

starting to really see some results and seeing things start to

change and become a little bit more business focused.

And I really knew this is what I wanted to do.

I was kinda tired of the corporate environment.

It really never was me.

It just was my way to provide for my family.

So as they grew and when my youngest went off to

college, I decided at that point in my life,

I thought,

you know what?

This is what I want to do.

I know I have value to give,

I know that small businesses need to learn how to leverage

these platforms in order to grow,

because it was becoming increasingly obvious that they were not going

to be going anywhere soon.

And that this was going to become a really important part

of any business's marketing mix.

So I just made this crazy decision when my youngest was

supporting herself at college.

And I thought,

you know,

what? If I fall on my face,

now nobody suffers.

But me,

this is the time to go all in because at the

time I was working full time and doing this on the

side, and I knew that I really couldn't grow it to

what I wanted it to be.

If I didn't give it my full attention.

So I went into work,

I quit my job.

And I just started sitting in coffee shops,

talking to people,

bringing on new clients,

managing their social media.

And that was really where things started to just start to

pick up What learnings do you have from that?

That's pretty bold move.

Bobby. Is there any advice you'd have for somebody here and

just listening to your story at first while you're talking,

I'm thinking to myself,

all right.

Well, you proved the idea because you were starting to see,

and it sounds like you might've had some clients somewhat lined

up already.

So you kind of knew what the potential could be.

You didn't just jump and start fresh.

You had research,

you'd proven already that there was interest in what you were

doing, but what advice would you have for someone who is

maybe in your spot today,

they see something that they really want to get going.

They are looking at cutting the cord with corporate,

but they haven't it yet.

Yeah. That's such a great question because boy was,

I lucky it could have really gone badly for me,

but one of the pieces of advice I would say is

I learned within probably the first two weeks,

how important it was for me to avoid distractions.

That was one of the toughest things was to come from

sitting in an environment where you knew you had to be

there. People expected you to be there to all of a

sudden, have so much freedom to do things the way that

you wanted to.

And I learned very quickly that people felt like that meant

I wasn't working.

And maybe sometimes I felt like,

Oh, I'm home today.

And to really block that time,

I had to learn to set daily goals and just to

do everything I could to avoid the distractions so that I

was giving as much focus to this business.

As I would give,

when I knew someone was kind of watching you in that

corporate environment,

I don't know that you could be successful without really giving

just as much as you gave in that environment.

And that was a tough shift to make.

I think it's really tough going from corporate to having all

that freedom to work when you want,

where you want.

I thought it was going to be a lot easier than

it actually was.

And so that would be my advice,

Setting those goals and just making sure that you are,

you're kind of your own watchdog at that point,

making sure that you're not saying,

Oh, you know,

I'll start tomorrow because I want to take a day off.

I deserve it getting down to business right away,

Exactly. Getting to business right away,

like knowing how many clients do I need to attract this

month? How many do I need to attract this week?

And what do I need to do to make that happen?

Because at the end of the month,

I still had bills to pay.

Like we all do.

So we've gotta be kind to yourself and,

and you've got to schedule time to be away from your

desk and all of those things,

but you really had to structure it like a business from

the get-go in order to reach those goals and make it

happen. Another thought comes to mind based on the conversation and

the comments that you had that people thought,

well, maybe you're not really working because now you're out of

the house.

Right. Right.

What type of adjustments did you make to actually set up

your business so that it was professional out of the house?

I had worked in the house for awhile and I found

that to be distracting.

So I started working immediately just set up shop in a

local coffee shop where I kind of had my own little

space and would just put my headphones on and just grind

at it all day long.

For me,

that was what I needed to do to avoid those distractions

was to just not be in the home environment.

I didn't start this because I wanted to have a home

office. I started it because I wanted to have a successful

business. So for me,

that meant getting out of the house,

avoiding the cute little dogs,

wanting to come over and play in the laundry.

And all of the other things that are waiting for you

in the house,

I had to separate those two things that helped me stay

business focused and avoid all the other distractions that were screaming

at me all day.

The other thing I really liked that you said is you

already had a vision for something more than that.

Your coffee shop seat,

if you will,

was kind of an interim to where you are today.

So you already had the vision of,

it was going to be out of the house.

It was going to be an office space or whatever.

And you started working yourself there right from day one.

Yes, absolutely.

Where Are you today to give everybody the whole picture here?

Well, today we have a beautiful office out in McHenry County.

We have a training facility here in our office,

as we had talked about before.

I'm incredibly passionate about small business so much.

So we made a decision in our business that we would

only serve small business owners almost three years ago.

Now I brought on a business partner.

I really couldn't sustain the growth on my own.

And I also started to see that there were other services

I needed to make sure my clients had set up properly

in order to make the social media management count like really

great websites and excellent landing pages in places where they could

convert this audience and these relationships into paying customers.

So when I brought on a partner,

we opened an office so that we could work together,

that we had conference space to meet with clients.

And we made the decision at that point that we knew

not everybody could afford our services.

And so we opened a training facility so that we could

teach small business owners how to leverage these platforms.

And in turn,

as they became more successful,

it actually became a really great source of new clients for

us because when people realize how to do it well,

and they attracted their tribe and they got too busy,

a lot of them came back and said,

now we really need you to manage this for us.

So it really turned out to be a great addition to

the services that we offered.

And my partner is absolutely fantastic.

And that's really helped us to be able to go out

and sell more,

to have more credibility,

more authority.

And we're pretty happy with where we're at right now.

All of this happened because you kept your eye on the

needs of the customer.

Absolutely. You didn't even know that training was going to be

in the mix or building websites or landing pages or anything

Had no clue,

But you found it because you were watching what your customers

experience and then what they needed next.

Exactly. And I will say,

you know,

we had mentioned this earlier that I did have a very

life-changing events take place through the midst of all of this.

That really made me dive into this even deeper than I

had been in the beginning.

So in the intro you had mentioned,

my son passed away almost four years ago.

And at that time I was working in the coffee shop.

Still didn't have the office yet.

And you get that phone call that there'd been an accident.

I hope nobody can actually relate.

It really was a terrible time.

However, I knew very quickly after that,

I gave myself about four days and thought,

okay, I have a decision to make right now because it

would be so easy to fall apart.

I didn't have a partner yet.

I was doing this on my own.

I had clients.

I was responsible to,

even though I know every one of them would have said

take all the time that you need,

that. Wasn't who I was.

And I had to make that decision.

Do you go all in,

can you keep on doing this?

Can you get up and focus and keep making this happen?

Or are you not going to be able to follow the

structure by yourself anymore?

And I really thought hard about it and thought,

you know what?

This is my opportunity to take this emotion and to continue

to nurture something.

And literally I walk into my office every day and I

think about my son and think,

I don't think I'd be here in this particular space.

Having seen this level of success without having realized that I

could take something really terrible that happened in life and turn

it into an opportunity to grow something else and give credit

to that terrible time in my life.

And to say,

Billy, we did this together.

You were a part of giving me an opportunity to nurture

something else and to put my energy into something that could

help other people that could help me,

that could make a difference in my community.

And that was the choice that I allowed myself to make.

And it was actually kind of tough to do that.

There was almost as you're still going to work and people

are kind of looking at you,

like, what are you doing?

Like, shouldn't you be at home crying?

Shouldn't this have devastated you.

It was kind of tough to just go back out there

and say,

you know what,

no, this is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to work harder and I'm going to share this

success. And I'm going to just take all of this sad

emotion and say,

it's okay.

I can internalize that and turn it into something else.

And that was really big turning point.

And it brought my partner into my world.

We'd started working on projects together and I worked too hard.

There was no doubt.

I poured everything into this business for awhile.

It's incredible.

What happens when you put everything into a business that you

have? Not that I would say I recommend going all in

for everybody because it does also get pretty exhausting at some

point. But yeah,

that was really a pivotal time and really kind of led

us to where we're at today.

Just as much as all the other business decisions that we

had made.

So listening to your story,

there's so much strength behind your voice.

And I love that.

And you and I know Bobby,

and I'm now sharing it with GIF as listeners,

we talked about this and you were saying,

yes, I want to share my story about Billy,

because I think it can help so many people.

And my response to you was I know that a lot

of people who are listening right now have gone through,

or are going through very difficult times,

whether it's a child or a parent or themselves with illnesses,

that stuff comes out of left field and you're not expecting

it. And then you're at a point it's like,

what do you do?

And you with your story first,

thank you so much for sharing.

And on behalf,

all of us,

we're very sorry about Billy.

Of course,

of course.

But I'm curious if there's any other information by way of

just thinking back of how you could make that decision to

help our listeners.

You were at a crossroads and you knew that,

how did you make the decision to go right?

Instead of left?

I think that it maybe was just in my DNA.

I don't know why I made that decision.

It was just literally saying to me,

this is the right thing for you to do.

One of the reasons I like sharing this story is I

really felt like I was very alone in that decision.

I had so many people around me supporting me,

but I also had people telling me I wasn't doing it

right. That I was putting too much into work that I

needed to grieve in a different way.

And in all honesty,

I went and I talked with a counselor and I talked

through how I was feeling and what I wanted to do,

because I kind of felt like I needed a little validation

that there isn't a right or a wrong way to do

this and that I get to own that and make my

own decisions.

So I did seek out some help in talking through it

because there was a lot of conflicts.

I mean,

there's a lot of conflicts in general,

between family and friends,

when there's tragedy,

that strikes right in between marriages and things like that.

And I want to share this story because I do feel

like people sometimes feel really alone,

especially when you own a business.

And if you're an entrepreneur,

you don't have a large staff and it's really you making

this happen day after day,

is that feeling of nobody gets that.

I don't get to stay home and take a grievance,

leave for a couple of weeks or get my benefits while

I'm sitting home and grieving in this corporation will allow me

to do that.

It's really hard as a small business owner to take that

time, because it's just not a luxury that most small business

owners are afforded in my situation.

I didn't have a spouse to help subsidize,

and my goodness he would have been just as in the

same terrible state of grieving as well.

I just think it's really hard on small businesses and that

I want people to know that really they're not alone and

there's not a right or a wrong way to do it.

And if you can find that strength and find the ability

to say all the love I had for this particular person

or this particular situation,

I can take into loving myself and loving what I'm building

and realizing a goal because you get to actually give credit

to that situation for that happening.

If that's what you want to do.

And I don't feel like enough people really know what do

I do now in that situation,

how do I move forward?

People are watching at the same time and is terrible as

it is.

They're often judging and telling you what's the right way to

do this.

And I would hope that maybe through hearing this podcast,

that people can kind of break that if they ever get

in that situation and say,

I get to make these decisions.

And I get to nurture the,

that matter to me and move forward,

Right? And nobody can judge the way you do it to

your point.

I mean,

no one can tell you there's a right way or a

wrong way to grieve.

Exactly. And it's tough because people wanted me to be there

for them through that time.

And I was really just being in my business in that

moment. That was where I needed to be.

And it was tough for a while until I really saw

what I was building and started to see the benefits of

having done all of that nurturing in the business and working

so hard on it and staying really focused.

And I literally had to say to friends in the coffee

shop, I switched coffee shops actually.

So that I didn't know anybody new coffee shop to be

able to say,

I need to focus.

And I don't want everybody to come and say,

they're sorry,

even though I know they are.

And I know that comes from such a genuine place of

love. I needed to take those distractions out.

So once again,

I was making a shift to be able to stay focused.

So from the coffee shop,

I'd spent time in,

I had to move literally over to another town where I

didn't know as many people and go in and say,

this is what I'm going to do.

And I'm going to focus on it and I'm going to

do it without distractions to the best of my ability,

which was a little bit of a struggle for a little

bit too,

but you just kept at it and kept looking at the

changes and the impact that it was making on the business.

And that became my motivation.

Do you have any advice for like we were just talking

about, you never know when something like this is going to

strike and you certainly weren't expecting what happened.

Is there any advice,

is there anything you can think we could do for our

businesses that if something like that happens,

things can carry on for a little while without you,

if you did,

if you were feeling Bobby,

like I need to take a few days off,

but my customer's social media posts still need to go out.

Like you have contracts with people on they're expecting things.

And of course they would understand I get that.

But is there anything hindsight you could have prepared for,

to give yourself some space?

Yeah. You know,

actually, that's such a great question because as I train our

new social media managers,

when they come into our business,

now, one of the things we talk about in the early

stages of our training is that things do happen.

They happen to all of us.

They might be little things.

They might be bad days.

They might be big things.

So that was a really good lesson in staying ahead of

the curve,

in having things done,

things that needed to be done tomorrow.

I wanted to have done.

I now have done a week in advance so that you

do give yourself that time.

So even if it's just having it drawn out and having

a roadmap that maybe makes it easier to follow for us,

it could be actual creating content and having it scheduled a

week ahead of time so that we know,

but something does come up that we've got that little bit

of buffer space tough for small businesses.

Sometimes it really is tough and everybody's model is so different,

but just keeping in mind that boy,

what happens if I get sick tomorrow and I just can't

make it in.

Am I prepared for that?

Is there a roadmap that I could hand to someone else?

Is there someone else I trust are you bringing people into

your business that could help you and pick up and go

on? Are you cross training people that might be working alongside

of you?

So if something happens to one of you,

the other one can pick up where you left off.

It is important to not always easy for entrepreneurs,

but definitely something to always keep in mind,

because in all honesty,

it's just a way to be kind to yourself when you

need it and not have that pressure Even could be something

as wonderful as a huge opportunity with a new client comes

in that you have to 100% focus on.

So you need to hand off some of your other things

to someone else.

So you can focus and not have an opportunity just fall

to the wayside because you just couldn't give it the attention

it needed.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean your whole discussion here about having backup systems or

bench strength cross-training I think is what you were calling.

It is something that you can pre structure in your business.

So that's something I would encourage everybody to think about is

do you have other people who could jump in,

think about it now when things are calmer,

there's nothing going on about what would you do in a

situation? Because after you have something come up,

it's too late,

you're not going to be able to get something put together

to be able to accommodate a situation.

The other thing,

I'm sure Bobby,

you have systems,

you have something set up within your business.

So there's some type of structure that someone could follow.

If you weren't around to be able to direct somebody how

to do something.

Oh yes,

absolutely. Yeah.

We have systems for each one of our clients.

They all might differ a little bit,

but all drawn out.

It's all in writing what their content looks like is all

in writing.

So that absolutely somebody could come in and pick up the

pieces and make those things happen on any given day.

Wonderful. Any final comments on this portion,

in terms of any other advice,

suggestions, anything else that you experienced that you weren't expecting?

I didn't know what to expect.

It was also unexpected,

right? I would say to anyone that would be going through

tragedy is really to be kind to yourself.

There will be so many people around you being kind to

you. There truly are people genuinely care and want to be

there. And I guess was surprising to me is how much

I actually wanted that to go away kind of quickly isn't

that sounds terrible.

But I mean,

I literally had to say to people,

thank you,

please. Not here.

Like when I'm sitting in this space,

when I'm working,

I need to focus.

And I had to literally ask people,

could we not talk about it?

Could you not approach me about that?

Or literally say,

thank you,

but I'm here today because I need to work.

And I appreciate it.

And just to give yourself that power to say,

I appreciate those sentiments,

but I'm going to focus on this.

I feel like even in those moments,

we all feel like we have to take care of other

people. And so remember you get to take care of yourself

and ask for the things that you need to get to

that place.

You are trying to go and to find that inner strength

as you get to ask for that and make that happen.

Yeah. I think it's also good for that person.

Cause I think if someone hadn't seen you and they walked

up, they can't just say hi and not acknowledge that they

know that something happened,

but for you then to be able to say back to

them, you're kind of directing them how you would like things

handled. Cause most people don't know.

Right. Thanks.

No, it's a terrible position to be in.

They really don't know.

Yeah. And so you just helping direct them,

I think puts them at ease too.

So they know that you've acknowledged.

Right. And then they know that that for the time being

anyway, Exactly.

Like just being honest,

like really,

it's just kind of an exercise and honesty is to be

able to say,

thank you.

And then this is how I'm feeling right now.

Or this is my strategy to get through this and putting

it out there a lot of times,

I don't think we feel like we can do that.

And Yeah.

And I think also knowing how you manage through things like

that, we also had a tragedy in our family this year

and I know the way I handle things is I draw

inwards. Most of my friends already know that I'm going to

be silent for awhile.

I'm okay.

But that's my way.

And I think sometimes you need to communicate that to people

too. Look,

I'm fine.

You're just not going to hear from me for a little

while. Explain the situation and how you handle things and people

respect that.

Yeah, absolutely.

You're right.

That's exactly it.

Exactly. Yeah.

All right.

So now I want to move on a little bit because

you're such a specialist.

I can not take this opportunity and hear from you a

little bit more about social media today and suggestions or advice

you have on how to manage social media accounts because,

Oh my gosh,

Bobby, over this last month,

things have changed drastically Facebook yet again,

new changes on the way and some challenges for that platform

too. Obviously,

what are your suggestions on how you manage social media today?

Bobby's going to give us her expert advice right after a

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Yeah, it is Really been a whirlwind couple of months for

sure. And as I've looked around and looked at what's working,

but I'm also really looking at what these platforms are doing

and what they're saying.

And I think that what's happening now more than has happened

in social media before is that they are creating opportunities for

us to really deepen the relationships that we've been talking about,

creating in social media for years.

I think everybody at this point hopefully understands that social media

isn't necessarily the selling tool.

It's the relationship building tool and to build relationships,

we have to be our authentic selves and we need to

be that so that we attract the people that want to

work with us.

And when I see platforms like Instagram,

when they launched stories so cool,

you can take people along with you on your journey.

You didn't have to have that picture.

Perfect polished photo to go on your timeline all the time.

You had the opportunity to just be in that moment,

crazy hair,

makeup, no makeup,

whatever it might be.

The people who are watching you,

they feel that authentic real you.

Now I've looked now Facebook has stories on business pages.

Facebook has personal stories.

You can now do stories in groups and everyone in the

group can contribute to the group stories.

I think it's pretty hard to ignore at this point that

this is what people want to consume that people want to

see. What are you actually doing in the moment?

Not what's all this polished stuff that you're putting up because

that's all really very easy to kind of hide behind in

a sense we need to give value.

And when we give value over and over again in that

space, people are attracted to that,

but they might be attracted to that piece of content or

that piece of value and not necessarily feeling like they're part

of your actual TRIBE.

And so at this stage,

in the game today,

we're putting a lot more focus on trying to understand and

test what's working in these story platforms.

How many people are watching them?

How do we get them to engage and give us feedback

in stories and that as well as live streaming,

same kind of concept Facebook still giving a lot of credibility

to live streams.

We're not seeing as many people jump on while you're live,

but so many people jumping on in that replay.

So it is still being pushed up in the algorithm and

getting a whole lot more attention than other content.

So my real focus right now,

and my advice to people right now is to really start

embracing those platforms.

Because if Facebook really sticks to what they're saying,

we're going to have a really hard time getting our content

seen. We need to start thinking in terms of creating groups

really attracting the right people and then finding out how do

we be that authentic self what's,

that gift we have that attracts people to us that we

can share in these story platforms,

because those are being placed at the top of the newsfeeds

in the middle of the newsfeeds on the side of your

Facebook. I mean,

really, if you just look at the platform,

you see,

wow, this is,

and they run from one into another.

So you have this opportunity for people to be watching this

whole series and to be in it.

So that's really what we're focusing on right now is really

understanding those.

Got it.

Okay. Two questions for you on all of this.

If somebody has not been using,

let's just go with Instagram for now.

Okay. So for Instagram you have the opportunity to post and

it go on your account,

right? And it stays,

or there's an opportunity to do stories,

which are in the moment,

just like you're saying some real raw and authentic.

They don't have to be picture perfect.

Right? If someone is strapped for time just getting on to

Instagram, is it okay if they don't post photos and just

start with stories and go there first?

I think they could.

I think that they should post at least nine photos only

because if someone goes from your story to follow you,

you want to at least be able to show them just

what you're about.

You want them to be able to take that glance and

understand what your business is about,

what you're about and what your brand looks like.

So you could certainly dive right into stories,

but I would make a focus to at least get enough

content in there that people would jump over.

See it feel a connection to you and then immediately become

a follower.

And you could do that over time.

You could do stories first,

get the feel.

If you haven't,

if you're brand new,

there may not be a ton of people watching your stories

yet because you're still building your tribe.

So it's a great time to get comfortable with the platform

and learn it while you don't have a huge audience.

So I think you could definitely do that,

but keep the focus still on,

just getting something up there to let people know what you're

about. So it's just not a blank account.

If someone goes and looks Exactly.

Cause our goal is to build a following,

right. To build an audience.

So we want to make sure that we're able to do

that when they do.

Right. Okay.

And another question,

I think a lot of people here are on Facebook.

I've tried to make sure that everyone understands you need a

business page.

If you're on Facebook,

if you're using Facebook don't and I have to say this

every time,

Bobby. So I just have to say it again is don't

make yourself a personal account with your business name.

It's going to get you in trouble,

but we're going to make the assumption that everyone is doing

on Facebook now.

So I think many people now are doing Facebook stories.

What do you say about the difference?

If someone felt time-wise they needed to choose between Facebook stories

or Instagram stories?

Well, here's the beautiful thing from a business perspective is you

don't really have to choose.

You can go into your Instagram settings and do your stories

and Instagram,

and they will actually go over to your business page.

So you really don't have to make a choice between the

two. Now a lot of it really kind of depends on

what audience do you have in each space and maybe what

you do in those different spaces.

And that might change your strategy a little bit.

If you really talk specific to a Facebook audience,

you might want to organically create those stories in Facebook.

But if you talk in generalities and you're not specifically talking

about an Instagram platform or a Facebook platform,

it would save a lot of time for most small business

owners to be able to maybe originate them in Instagram and

let them go over to Facebook where people can watch them

on your business page.

Perfect. And it doesn't go the other way,

Instagram to Facebook,

but not go the other way.

Okay. All right.

Great, excellent input there.

So stories,

if you want both of your audiences to see on Instagram

and Facebook originated in Instagram stories and then connected up so

that it shows Facebook.

Absolutely. Yes.

Perfect. All right.

So I'm really hoping you have a really fun answer to

this. Bobby,

are you ready?

Okay. Do you Have some type of a fun,

special, exciting app or some source that you're using that maybe

we don't know about for our social media?

Well, so this isn't I can,

I do too.

Cause I found a new app.

I love well,

of course.

Okay, good.

First I think if you haven't been using Canva,

if you're creating social media content,

I am on there all the time,

just such a fantastic resource.

They now have a new feature where you can make animated

gifts, which is a great way to get your content to

pop out a little bit in the newsfeed.

So I think that's just like for me,

that's just one of those foundational programs that are going to

really level up your social media.

But I just recently found an app that I am enjoying

so much.

It's called w E R B L E.

And what it does is it allows you to bring in

a piece of content,

a photo or a video and add these really,

really cool elements like flames and glitter and snow and all

kinds of things to them.

Because again,

with the limited reach that we're getting in social media,

our content has got to get better in order to get

noticed. And this app really lets you put in just these

little bits of movement that just grab people's eyes and I've

had so many people reach out and go,

what app did you make that with?

So people are noticing it and knowing that there's a trick

to it.

So I wanted to mention that one because I'm getting a

lot of feedback on the post that I use it for.

So really great way to make things jumped right off of

that. Newsfeed Love that.

And you know,

my eyes opened wide when you said snow.

Oh yeah.

And I'll tell you it's I think it's free.

There are paid upgrades within the app,

but I bought them all.

They're also worth it because that movement just grabs people's attention,

which is why we're seeing gifs everywhere is we're getting tired

of the still photos and we're looking for something else that

excites us and stimulates our brain in a new way.

And this app really does Beautiful and give biz listeners.

This is also a way if you're not comfortable in front

of the camera to add some movement to your images,

just regular images,

whether they're still images,

whether it's something that you've made a picture of from the

office, whatever it is.

But to add a little bit of movement,

just like Bobby saying,

it grabs the attention.

So it could be a step closer to going live if

you're still nervous and concerned about that.

Absolutely wonderful.

Well, Bobby,

at this point,

I would like to invite you to dare to dream.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable Heights that

you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box Box?

When I opened my box,

there is a beautiful envelope in there.

And in the envelope when I opened it up is an

invitation to speak at a national or international social media conference.

That is a big goal of mine right now.

And if that gift was in that box,

I'd be doing the happy dance all over the place.

There you go.

And you're already training.

So it's just a natural for you to get on bigger

and bigger stages.

I sure hope so.

That's where we're heading.

Amen. Yay.

You're going to circle back and let us know.

Right? Absolutely wonderful.

Where can our listeners get in touch with you?

You can follow us on every social media platform we have

at think big go local in Twitter,

Instagram, Facebook,

just about everywhere.

I love direct messages from people and I encourage more people

to start connecting in those platforms,

using direct messages and don't be shy.

Use audio,

use some video,

take a picture.

I'd love to meet you that way.

And I'm always open to answering any questions people have.

You can always find me by email at Bobby it's B

O bbi@thinkbiggolocal.com.

And if social media is your thing,

and you're looking as a small business owner to just have

a place where you can grab some information as new things

arise, we've got a Facebook group on our think big go

local page called Bobby,

be social media clambake and I'd love to have anybody joined

in there.

That's just looking for some small business advice so you can

do what you're good at and have a place where people

can say,

Hey, by the way,

this changed and you should know about it.

Keep on working Beautiful.

And you're the one to provide that information to us.

For sure.

Thank you,

Bobby. Thank you so much.

I really,

really appreciate opening your heart,

telling us your story.

I think that's going to help.

So, so many people who are in a situation like this

and I encourage all of you give business and ours to

make preparations just so that although nothing is ever going to

happen, you're ready.

At least partially if something does.

So a very,

very valuable message.

Bobby. I super appreciate that.

And of course then all your tips and tricks with social

media. I hope people can put them into play.

We all need to help each other.

It's a tough game out there.

Yes it is.

Thanks again so much for coming on today.

Thank You.

So I appreciate the opportunity.

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