Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm so excited and inspired to welcome you to this
five day mini class where we will be talking a little bit more about your brand and going in depth and how to make your brand
more appealing, more beautiful, more
visually aligned, and how to communicate your
why into very authentic way. We will start with the
meditation about your why because people don't buy what you do, they
buy why you do it. In this meditation, I will
guide you through a lot of different questions and
you will just have to take notes and answer it for yourself on
your little note. I will also explain how to
read these notes later. Sometimes it might be that you will find
some new hash tags, you will find some
new ideas because all this guided practice, it will be about your why, why you do what you do, what's
special about what you do? How you are different
from other people that do the same
thing that you do. So we will start on day one with the meditation or guided
practice about your y. The second day it will
be with Laura and she will be guiding you on
how to audit your brand. You will basically
have to double check if everything is aligning, if your highlights are intact, if your buyer is intact, and basically just
a little checklist on how to audit your brand and how to make sure that everything is aligning for the best
visibility and the best result. On a day three, we will talk about how to tell visual story. This will be my part.
Basically, I will just explain how I'm telling
visual stories because I'm working as a brand
photographer for over seven years now and as a
photographer over 15 years. I started telling visual
stories when working for various magazines as
editorial photographer. Then I went into
having my own studio, and then after COVID, I rebranded and I
started telling visual stories. For
personal brands. Even very recently,
I started telling visual stories also remotely by offering remote photoshoots. Visual stories is a really
big part in your brand life. Usually, it's always
best to choose 123 visual stories and tell
it over and over again. But you will learn on a day
three or a lesson three. It depends how fast you will decide to go
through all of that. Then on a day four, lesson four, Laura will tell about
the copywriting. She's really talented creative
and talented copywriter, talented brand strategist. She's amazing in this
and so she will be giving the whole
lecture on how to make your messaging more
aligned on how to make your voice more
authentic and on how to make yourself heard. Then on a day five
or a lesson five, we will talk about how
to plan your grid. We decided to do this a little bit more practical task so that it's not that you are finishing this
course and then you are ending up lot
with a big to do list. We decided to give you
a little assignment. So then you finish
this mini course, you will leave not only
knowing what to do, but also implementing it
into your daily life, into your business, and
into your Instagram most likely. Let's get started.
2. Lecture 1: Discovering Your WHY meditation: I'm very excited to be guiding you through
this practice today. It will help you to go
deeper into your Y because people don't buy what you sell, they buy why you do it. Why is always very important. Get a glass of water, pen, and a paper, and sit
comfortably and warmly. Take me with a blanket, whatever you need to
make a space clean and clear and just make sure that you're able
to take some notes. So let's begin. Close
your eyes and imagine this golden light coming
through your feet. It comes from the middle
of the Earth and it fills in your feet, it goes up, fills in your
knees, your thighs, your belly, your chest, your neck, your head. Then you're in this
little ball of light on the top of your head. You can imagine a
little ball of light, whichever color you prefer. You're feeling safe and cozy
and you start going upwards. Now you see the chair you're sitting on or the space
you're sitting on. Now you're seeing from
above the house you are in. You're in this little ball
of light, feeling safe. And sound, feeling
cozy and warm. Imagine whichever
color you prefer. You breathe in and breathe out and keep going up in this
little ball of light. Keep going up and up and up. You see already the
country you're in, the continent you're in, you keep going up and up and up. You see the planets, you see the Milky Way galaxy, and you keep going up and up and up as far as
you can imagine, breathing in and out. Now you see the darker
lights, the brighter lights, you keep going up and up and up in this
little bowl of light. We were feeling safe? Keep going up as far
as you can imagine. Now you see the bright
lights, the darker lights, you see the pink mist
to keep going up up up up until you see
those bright lights. It's so bright, but it
doesn't hurt your eyes. Then you see the window or door and you can choose whichever
you prefer and you enter. When you enter, you inhale and exhale and the little ball
of light disappears and you are in the safe
space where I'll be asking you questions and the secret to it is to
answer as fast as you can. You don't think
too much. There is no right or wrong
answers. Just the truth. Usually, whatever
first comes to mind, this is the right
answer. So let's begin. Again, if you need more time, you can always pause
and come back to it. The first question,
what would you like? What was your dream when you was a kid? What did you want to do? Just one word. You
wanted to be astronaut, you wanted to be a teacher, artist, painter,
photographer, mother. Now, write the things that you
really, really love doing. Things that it doesn't have
to be related to your work. It can be cooking, it can be creating, it can be communicating. It can be helping your friends. It can be fixing things. It can be traveling,
things you love, love, love, love and you
couldn't live without. Whatever first comes to mind. You love spending
time with your kids, you love family time. You love watching movies, reading books,
walking in nature. What do you really, really love? Whenever you think you can't
come up with anything else. Think of something
more, go deeper. Now, write things that
you're really good at. Doesn't have to be
something you love. It just comes easily to you. You just everybody
say, you're just so good at this or
you're just so good at listening or you're just so
good in being so resourceful. You're just so good
in taking pictures or you're just so good
in organizing things. You're just so good
at it, effortlessly. Think of what people
are complimenting you on or what takes
less time for you, even if you're planning your holiday and it just
come so naturally to you. If you need more
time, just pause. Now we're going to
what can you do? Something you learn,
you have education. You have diplomas. Is it
being a flight attendant or being waiter or waitress
or salesperson. You don't have to love it or you don't have to be good at it. You just have to
be able to do it. It usually is your education
or your previous jobs. Doesn't have to be
something you really, really love or
you're very good at, it's just what you can do. Let's say, I can't be a nurse. I mean, I could if I
would do education on it. If you need more time, pause. Now, if you close
your eyes and inhale and exhale and think
about one thing, whatever first comes to mind. What do people need most at the moment? What do you think? Now, look at all your
answers what you wrote. Just observe. Maybe you
want to add something more. Just don't delete anything. Don't remove anything. Mm hm. Now, in one word, who are you when you are
with your family? One word. Now, what are you
when you were with your friends? One word. Now, what were you when you
were with your partner? And who are you when you
were with your customers? What do you stand for and
what do you stand against? It can be women rights,
children rights, something that just
tickles you from inside when you think about it or it inspires you so much. I feel like for me, it's
probably equality, indeed. If you need more time, pause. What are your core values? Is it family? Is it friendships? What is very, very
important to you at work and personally? Now, who are you when
you're not at work, when you are not
a business owner or personal brand owner? What inspires you? Something that I just
recharges your battery. Remember, the last time you
laughed a lot, what was it? Why? Or you felt
really, really happy. Why? What was the situation? But What do you like to do when you are alone? Just with yourself.
Reading, writing, walking, doing nothing, watching TV, painting,
singing, cleaning. What do you do when
you are alone? What do you do when you are
with your family and friends? Are you spiritual in any way? And what does it mean to you? What is your mission? If you know I can come
from your values. It can come from things you love and what the world needs. What books do you read? What is your favorite
favorite book of all times that you can read
it again and again and again. The quotes you post
or you share or you remember come from a book, from a writer, What's
the style of the book? Is it fiction? Is it biography? What TV shows or movies
are you watching? Is there a movie
that you can watch over and over and over again, like I seen it six times
and you still watch it every Christmas.
Why do you love it? What's the lesson in that movie? What's the takeaway
from that movie? What's the style of the movie? Why do you love it so much? Is it beautiful? Is it very cinematic? Maybe it's black and white. Maybe the message
is very strong, maybe the actors
are very beautiful. Maybe it resembles something
with your own life. If you would have to describe your business in four words, what it would be, can be
also for future business. If you don't have one yet. How would you describe
it? Four words. What are the things that
you've done in the past? If you look back to it, how does it make you different
into what you do now? The jobs you had, the
education you took, the experiences that shaped your life in a particular way. How does it make you more
unique in what you do? And how does it make
you stand out more? If you need more time, pause it. What is your story? The story, that
turning point that changed changed your life and you started doing
what you're doing now. What problem are you
solving with your business? Are you a vitamin or a
painkiller as a business? Do people need your services as nice extra or is it something
they can't do without? What are the three things
I don't know about you? What are the things that
even your friends don't know about you? The closest people. If you would see why you
started your business and where you are now? Why did you start it and
why you staying in it? What keeps you in it? What keeps you going? Now in one word. Who are you when you're
speaking to your customers? Like, how do people
perceive you? How would you describe
it in one word? Are you friendly? Are you kind? Are you professional? Are you a leader authority? With that thought in mind, about what the world needs. Where do you see your business? Where do you see it?
I like five years. Who do you need to
become to get there? Which qualities you
need to obtain, if any? What can you do today? One little thing.
Towards the growth. If you need more
time, just pause. Why are you seeing as currently? Leader, mother,
starting business, established business, how
do you want to be seen? How do you want
to be remembered? You want to be remembered
as the woman that changed the way
photography works? Do you want to be
remembered as someone who discovered medicine to
cure a very special disease. Do you want to be remembered? Somebody that started this amazing sustainable
fashion line? How do you want
to be remembered? Do you want to be
different and stand out? If you would describe your perfect home, how
would it look like? Would it be modern building? Would it be cozy forest
house with a fireplace? Which colors are there if
you close your eyes and just imagine this perfect home where you feel home?
How does it look like? Is it New York? Is it a Pang house
in New York or is it a little house
in the forest? Is the farm How does it serve the
world, what you do? How do you serve people
with what you do now? If you need to
pause, just pause. I know it's a lot of questions. Now, inhale and exhale again. You're again in this
little ball of light, whichever color you prefer. You're feeling safe and cozy
and you start going down. Through the white
light, the pink mist, the planet, going down down down in this
little ball of light. You see the Earth
going down down down, you see your continent. You see your country,
the city you're in, the house, and this
little ball of light, again, you're going
down down down, you see the chair or
wherever you're sitting, and then you just release
it onto the earth, exhale, and then slowly
you're inhaling again. And this energy
from the middle of the earth starts filling up your feet again with
this golden dense light, your knees, your thighs, your belly, your
chest, your neck. It's like a little zip.
It meets on the top of your head and you zip it all up. Chale exhale, can
have a sip of water. Look into all your notes. Especially what's
important, look into what the world needs at the moment
and if you're serving that. Try to also craft a mission of what you do and why
you do what you do because this will become a fuel that will be
guiding you through when the times are difficult when you maybe experiencing
some setbacks. You value is very important. It has to also be integrated
in your business. Then you believe in what you do, then you charge what
you believe is right. I don't believe in any template
that can be copy pasted. It has to come inside of you, from who you are, from
what you believe in. What is also very important is look at the visuals that you described at that perfect
space where you're at. Would it be also something
for your branding? Do you like the clean colors? Do you like this more
wooden cozy looks? Integrate that as well. Now, also look into your
notes and check what you wrote when you was talking
about the movies you are watching or the books that
are your favorite ones. Can you share that too? Can you maybe integrate
that style as well? Can it be one of
your first posts? Because it's so personal,
something that you really love, and the people that
also really love that, they will connect
with that messaging. Or even that style if
it really inspires you, you can adapt it to
your brand as well. Mm hmm. Maybe some words are repeating. Look at all the words that you wrote on that
big piece of paper. A just repeating and what
does it mean to you? Analyze. Make your
mission statement so that it's inspiring
for yourself so that you can also communicate
it to your audience. Make some posts as well about
why, about your vision, about your mission,
about your values, and then more people will
resonate with what you do. About these things that nobody know about you or that your
friends don't know about you. This can also grow into this beautiful post,
find it very personal. I wrote that I'm
left handed and some other things and I actually got comments that
people really up. So good luck. If you want, you can also
do the meditation again. Go at your own pace,
find your own find your own inspiration
from what you wrote. I'm wishing you good luck and would love to see your mission written
somewhere online as well. You can share it with me
on Instagram. Thank you.
3. LECTURE 2: The power of your social media profile: Hello. Today we will talk about the power of your
social media profile, and yes, it has a magic power. It can attract your
dream customers. I can sell your
products and services. It can create community around
your mission and beliefs, and it can do so many more
things for you as long as it is optimized and people understand what
are you trying to show, what are you trying to tell, and what kind of services you are trying to
sell to them because sometimes it's also
not very clear. Let's dive in and by the
end of this session, we'll have a checklist and we
will know all the points in our bias and in our social media profiles to make them standing
out from the crowd. Wow, that's a poetry, isn't it? Attention is becoming
the new oil. In the past, billionaires were
those in the oil industry. Now, it's those who have the most views and
likes on social media. Don't you agree? I totally do. Although it's a bit sad truth and here are a bit
of statistics. We check our phones
50, eight times a day, 70% of those sessions last up
to 2 minutes and in total, we use them for 3 hours
and 15 minutes every day. Well, some people use more, some people use less, but
that's the average statistics. That sounds like
a lot, isn't it? Here are some numbers
around the world of top six social media networks and you just see how many people and how much of the
population are using them. Basically, if the population
of the world is 7 billion, it's one third a bit less than one third
are using Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn and
Facebook Messenger, a bit less, just 1 billion, so one seventh of the
population of the world. Well, that's incredible. That's incredible numbers. Having in mind how many
people on social platforms. I want to dive a little bit into threads and
mention them separately because it's a new
platform that launched in July 2023 and reached 100
million users within a week. And it was named one of the most fastest
growing platforms. However, unfortunately, interest later decline and
the average time spent by users on this
platform dropped from 21 minutes to 4 minutes per day, which sounds like
a dramatic drop, but it's still popular, some people still using them and some people still have
lots of followers. It's definitely worth a try
except that no one still knows what they are
doing there and how things should happen there. I personally love interest, so I just want briefly mention a little bit about
it as of 2024, Pinterest has around 518
million active users worldwide, which is 12% more
than last year. Its popularity and usage for business purposes are
continuously growing. While it's mainly
aimed for women. Almost 80% are women and the biggest majority of people
using it in United States. But it's a great platform
if you are a designer, if you're doing
something creative, if you have some
pictures to upload, it doesn't really matter
in what area you are. Even if you are a
coach, a mentor, you still can use
interest in so many ways, and I definitely recommend
to give it a try. Experts often advise creating as much content as possible
and sharing it every day. I wouldn't really
agree with that because I would
say we need to be efficient and calculate
how much time we want to spend for creating a content because at the end, maybe it's a few
people going to see it and very few pieces of
content might go viral. So it's better to calculate and it's
posting less than more. It's more chance that it will be more quality content and
people will engage more with this instead of posting more things which
are not so engaging unless you have a lot
of time to create engaging content
and quality quanta. If you have help,
then yeah, of course, go ahead and post it
even two times a day, but most of the people don't
have that amount of time, so they need to make the
best use of the time. Why we are spending our
time on social media, who would give me this answer? And also not only why we are spending so much
time on social media, what does profile
success means to us? Because not only
aimlessly scrolling, not looking at
beautiful pictures, we need to make the best use of our time spent on social media, not only creating content, but also all the time
spent on social media. Do we want to
receive more orders? Do we want to grow more
followers and monetize later? Do we want more
brand recognition? How many clients you want to
get? And things like that. We need to ask
these questions and create goals for ourselves
and then our time on social media will
have more meaning and we will be more focused on the things which are
important for us. If we approach social
media randomly, then as a result, we will
also get random outcomes. How do people decide
whether to follow you? Well, there are
different factors. Authenticity is one of them. 86% of users say they are more likely to
follow profiles that demonstrate authenticity
and genuine and users want to feel the connection with the
brand or the person. Transparency, 67% of
users are more likely to follow brands that openly share their values and vision.
Valuable information. 69% of users say they follow profiles that provide
valuable information. Aesthetics, 80% of users say that the first impression
of the profiles appearance, color scheme, quality photos, professional designs
is very important for them before they decide to
follow and consistency. Profiles that have
a consistent style and visual identity tend to gain more followers because they are organized and they are
more recognizable. And why authenticity
is so important. Research shows that we are more likely to follow
profiles that appear authentic and real
and personal stories and sincere narratives create
a stronger connection. We choose what to follow
based on our interest and how close and helpful
someone's content seems to us. As you know, Algorith recommends different accounts to
different people and everyone lives in their own little bubble according to our interest and according to other choices
we make on social media. We're getting recommended
more choices like that and we create this beautiful
bubble around us. There are two chances
to win your followers. First impression is profiles
picture, by a description, your Instagram feed
and whether it appears valuable, highlights
and emotion. How should a good buyer look? 80% of users decide whether to follow a profile based
on its description. I'm a little bit
covering it here, but you can have a
bitter view now. Here's an example of the buyer. This is the line which
is found in searches, so it needs to have
relevant keywords. The photo needs to
be really clear. Also highlights are
quite important. So people are not sure
if they are important, but yes, they are important and this should
say, who are you? What do you offer?
Who is it for? What makes you stand out? An engaging interesting
or funny phrase and a call to action. And also should highlight
the categories. Also, pinning three posts on the top is
always a good idea. You can always pin your three most important posts on the top. Also should be something like how people can
get in touch with you, email or website, so people
can easily find you. Let's move on. And here are three pose pinned at the top and the best if they
could answer the questions, why, and for whom? And what she say about you, about your work and
about your services. Why why they should
be interested. What you offer, what is
valuable, and for whom, it's the most popular post or it's something what could be relevant to the audience
you want to attract. You also can create
cohensive banner from three posts and if you have some big announcement
or some big lounge, so you can put it on the top and make it like this advertising. One bag. And here are more
ideas for ten post. It could be frequently
asked questions. It could be your
schedule, weekly plan, success story, latest blog, post to article, personal
message omission. If you have an active community, you can always share the
achievements of the members. The highlight section,
these little guys here, they can say something about me. Services, client testimonials,
portfolio, helpful tips, behind the scene moments, events, frequently asked
questions and special offer. Grid image is quite
important and it doesn't necessarily have to be perfectly polished and organized
like here in the picture, but it needs to reflect who you are and needs to have some
kind of aesthetic sealed. It can be completely
mismatched photos or reels as long as the
message is very clear. Or for example, you can
add some covered texts which from the first glance
could give some idea, what is this profile about and what people
can fight in here. Second impression. Once you
made that first impression, now you have a chance to
make a second impression. If a person is still there and still not sure if to follow you, they might think if the
profile is relevant, and they might
read your post and dive deeper and see what's in
your post and the content. Also if you appear relatable
and resonate them, also your stories and I
see a ti point there, but I hope it's okay. So let's move on
from this typo and hopefully I will not see more typos on this
presentation. Positioning. You also need to think who
you are and what do you do? What is the additional team? What is your focus
or uniqueness? What do you want people
to associate you with, and what is your
personality and character? And Instagram statistics. It's also very important to monitor your
Instagram statistics. Which number should you monitor? Followers engagement,
reach, saves, shares, follows profile
visits, clicks on your link. How story views fluctuate,
things like that. Why is this important? Because you can see which
content is performing the best and you can use it in different angles and
make new content, see what's performing,
What people reacting to? Are they clicking on your link. It's really important to
look at the statistics at least once a week or
once in two weeks. People remember
visual information more than text based one, but they remember
emotions the most. So people want to
feel something. They want to feel entertained, they want to feel happy or maybe some things might make them
feel sensitive or even sad, but if they feel something, they will remember
your profile for sure. Here I want to give some
profile examples which I personally like and just
brief overview on them. Sales try where
values created and communities build rather than
just noise spread around. Now there are so many
constant ads and advertisements and influencers
trying to sell things, something unique and
authentic and different is the key needed to stand
out from this noise. One of the figures I really
like is Marie Forleo and she built her personal brand on solid foundation
of authenticity. She's not only sharing her
professional knowledge, but also her personal
experiences, and she creates genuine
connection and she's mixing professional posts
and you can see they still look professional
and the design. But in the stories and
also in the reals, she also is not afraid to
appear very simple and show her casual things and show her daily life and
her day to day problems. I think it's quite a nice mix. This profile, I'm following and reading almost everything what she posts and as you can see, it doesn't have any pictures. Now she started posting reels, but the whole profile idea
but just these quotes and carusels made of the quotes
and beautiful sayings. And member later wrote a book and she's a
published author, she grew her Instagram
a lot just by posting her writings
and her quotes. That also proves that
it doesn't need not everyone needs to
have lots of reels and lots of videos and to
jump on all the trends. As long as someone consistent, as long as someone has their style and really stick to it, the profile can grow. Paige is the quantum
energy healer and she grew her profile
by acting reels. She acts like different
characters in some funny role plays and
situations about her topic, which is manifestation and
energy and things like that. They are very
entertaining. They are a little movies and at the end, there is always call to action to her courses
or something like that. But it's not annoying and it's
not too pushy and it's not sales but it's very entertaining
to watch, check it out. And Lola Watkins is a
Tantra and Tantra teacher. He profile is also has an vibe and emotion
and it's very open and very brave and also
sexual and immediately, when you look at it,
you can see that it's about Tantra
and about sexuality. Also, I want to mention a
few non personal brands. They publish high
quality articles, interviews with health
experts, and wellness tips. Their content is not only
aesthetically pleasing, but also engaging and
inspiring and they also build a community and tag many people
from the community. Airbnb. What I like
about them that they also put humans,
not only houses, not only beautiful
locations, and of course, people like to see
beautiful locations, but they also want to
have that human feeling. They have the show the owners of the houses and tell the stories or they tell
the stories of the guests, they create this
wonderful storytelling x with beautiful locations. Majori is a jewelry brand, which also involve the
community and UGC content a lot and the share behind the
scenes content as how to create the design from
sketch to final product. They also have a
segment called to Di Star where customers share the experiences and
photos with the jewelry. And Le Petit Alice
shop is unique, Who and vintage emotion. It also has their vibe and a bit old fashioned
look and a bit fairy tale or some old tale. They have this one
reel which received millions of us
featuring a cute girl jumping in puddles with
the little chicken in her cans. No wonder. It's super cute and matched
with beautiful aesthetics. So I also want to mention one thing that it's not about
the number of followers, but rather who follows you. There are many examples
of accounts fewer than 1,000 followers and they
still make good sales. It doesn't matter
if you will have a viral wheel but then at the end, no one
will buy from you. But you can have less followers, but they would actually be engaged in your niche and
they will be buying from you. I think that should
be the main goal. Thank you so much
for your attention. I hope you enjoy this lecture
and the task for today is to check your profile and to use the
Instagram checklist, which you can get as a file, a PDF file using this checklist, you just go through your
profile and check it and see what points are there
and what can be improved. Thank you very much and
we'll see you next time.
4. LECTURE 3: Content that connects: Hello. Today's topic is
content that connects. In this lecture, you will
learn how to create, engaging content that connects you and your dream customer. Also, how to sell without
being salesy or pushy, how to create many different
pieces of content with very short amount of time and also how to use our
best friends GPT, but to make it sound more
personal and authentic. Let's go. Let's start this lecture. A
little bit about me. I was writing basically all
my life and authentic content is something that
I really always advocating for and I find it so important
because first of all, authentic content
helps to find clients, helps to show who you truly are, helps to deliver your message to the people who need to hear it and only by being authentic, we can really achieve
what we truly want because otherwise
it will be just deceiving ourselves and
deceiving other people. The way we put content on social media is the way we represent ourselves
in the world, and there are so many ways
and techniques how we can represent ourselves in the most authentic,
true, natural way. I'm going to share
them today with you. I was writing for almost all
my life and 15 years ago, I started my blog, Dl Civita Balara where I was telling about my travels,
about my stories, about my life in London, because I was living in
London at that time, and at that time, blogs
were very popular. That was my first public
writing platform. Then in my work, I was writing
a lot because all my life, I was working in sales,
marketing, branding, so I had to deliver
thousands and thousands of sales pitches for the books
publishing houses in London, where I worked as a
sales representative. I wrote tons of newsletters
for my clients. I also wrote some articles and publications in TV and media. Also, I worked as a
communications director at Healthy Lifestyle and fitness
app and I also was managing a team of people and we
also had to make a plan, make a strategy, and deliver the messages which
representing the brand. I made all this beautiful
grids for them. I also worked with
individual clients. For example, this one is the psychotherapist and also was making grids for
them, writing text, doing copywriting
to be more precise, writing texts for them
and helping them to clarify their message and helping them to
communicate better. I helped a lot of people to communicate better
in social media. Here is an example of my own
introductionary post which I share sometimes when I
speak about myself and I tell who I am and it usually
gets a lot of good feedback. I get inquiries, people ask
how they can work with me. The structure is very simple. I clearly identify who I
am and who is my client. I know whom I'm talking to and I'm telling what
I can do for them. Also what I offer, what are my services and what are the
benefits for the client. It's very important to list
those and also social proof. What are my qualifications,
what results, what achievements, maybe some customer feedback,
things like that. These three key pillars makes a really good introductionary
post or letter or email and people usually respond
very positively to that. The purpose of writing is not
only to convey information, advise it would be doomed to
disappear pretty quickly. I think it really
allows ideas to be born and it's really
stimulating our thinking process. We become more creative
and write however, there is sad truth that only 20% of your content will receive
a lot of engagement. 20% will have a poor engagement
and 60 will be average. But in order to create those 20% of content that will receive a
lot of engagement, you still need to create the other 80% that will
not be as successful. That's why you need some
playground to experiment, make mistakes, test it until you get to the point
when your content goes viral. And since childhood, we
are surrounded by stories, they teach us, inspire us and help us understand
ourselves better. Psychological studies show
that people naturally see connection with others
and want to see content that reflects
their own experiences. For example, when
we see a story of some woman entrepreneur who
despite all the challenges, found the courage and she changed the careers and
she started something new, now she's appearing as this thought leader,
a successful woman. A lot of women I believe want to be her and identify with her. These stories inspire us and we feel connection and
resonate to that person. But it's only one of the
examples. It can be anything. It can be a gardener, it can be salesman, it can be basically
artist, musician, anyone. It depends who is your role
model, who is your idol. Interesting stories attract,
connect, persuade, and sell. And keywords are very important. They help structure thoughts, attract the audience's attention and reinforce the message. What keywords defining
your business? Which words would
you like people to use when they talk about you? So have a minute to
think about that because these words you will use
a lot in your content. Here are some categories
which I made working with my clients and also during social media challenge
we recently been doing. These kind words and
keywords people were listing the most authenticity,
sensitivity, charisma, creativity, self expression, handcrafted, sustainability, mentorship,
innovation, speed, hospitality, friendship, and they all can be
categorized into different topics and used for
creating our copywriting. We all want
conversions and sales, but it is essential to
remember that we are creating meaningful
changes in people's lives. If we think about content solely for the purpose
of making sales, we'll quickly get tired
and lose motivation. The message will come across as superficial, standard,
and artificial. So how to sell without selling. Here you can see five different ways to
sell without selling. First one is free,
valuable information. Don't be stingy, give
away as much as you can, make your post look useful, give advice, share
your knowledge, share your experience,
and people will start trusting you and they
will be buying from you. Share your story,
share your failures, mistakes, achievements,
be authentic. People will connect to you. And they will be willing to buy from you, build a community. Now it's becoming
a trend and lots of marketing people telling how important communities are, how important is to
have your own community and have a bubble of
people who will be interested in your
services instead of trying to talk to
anyone and having thousands and thousands of
followers who probably will never buy from you and will
never be your community. It's much better to concentrate
on maybe less people, but who are more in your niche and who are more likely
to become your customers. Ask questions, communicate,
try to know your community, try to understand what they
need and offer it to them, and also share
client feedback and success stories,
your social proof, your reviews which
also builds trust and makes people more
willing to buy from you. Your message must be genuine, clear, and convey authority. You might have an amazing offer, but if you don't know
how to talk about it, a gap will arise between
you and your audience. Express yourself as a unique
personality you embody, bring forth your personality, your authentic parts,
and your gifts. Ask yourself, what have
I created, experienced, and learned in my life that allows me to speak
with conviction? The foundation of storytelling
is show, not tell. The reader should feel as if they are on a
journey with you. At the moment, lo fi
content is trending, it's very popular and more and more people getting tired of the polished looks and perfect visuals and everything
being super perfect. Everything looks
natural, realistic, like a daily log, it's really popular right now. I recommend to try it
and it's a content created in home conditions
without expensive equipment, without editing,
much of editing, but as natural as possible. So basically everything, what doesn't resemble va designs, which also might be useful for your brand
image and canva designs, I'm not saying don't do any
canva designs and throw them away and just do really
poor quality content. That's not what I'm trying to say. You can balance them out. But if your feed will be only Canva and very
template like, it will have no spark, no soul and people will not know how to
connect with your account. Low fi content receives an
average of 34% more likes and 18.5 more comments
18.5% more comments. These are the examples of what
the lo fi content can be. Unedited natural selfies of photos why it works
because we show real moments of life rather than perfectly staged shots because
we all are humans, right? Another example of lo fi content is behind the
scenes, for example, a simple video showing of your workspace setup or how you're preparing for
some important event. This kind of content
makes others feel that they are peeking
through the keyhole, I guess, at least once or twice, we always want to pick through someone's
keyhole, isn't it? Block style stories or reels. You can film your day from your morning coffee
to meditation, walking to work
till the evening. People feel that they are on a journey view and they
get to know you better. Also now becoming more
popular just to tell a story while you're cooking
or tiding your desk or you're doing something
very casual at home, but at the same
time, for example, you speak about
marketing or about your ideas or you give
some productivity tips. So to combine these two things, professional story
and something very casual can also create
interesting and engaging content. Also product reviews,
tutorials, advice, showing what do you
have in your handbag, sharing what wonderful
books you read recently, giving some useful tips. This kind of content is
also working very good. There are two directions to go. It's either a good
long engaging text. Yes, people still do
read or a strong video, very quick and flashy
few seconds video. These kind of two things which are still
working at the moment. You could try one or the
other one and you can try the same piece of content and to format it in
two different ways. And you can use this piece of
content for your blog post, for newsletters, for stories, for shorter posts,
for longer posts, for reels, experiment with it and see what's
working best for you. There are three
key ingredients in this formula for the
engaging content. It's a hook, emotion
and the benefit. So how to create a short
personal text and stories. I feel that it's
very important to start with the emotions,
with the feelings, but not so much with
the sequence of events, but to make a reader
feel something, to make them recognize
something in themselves. So, for example, I
sat in the kitchen, wrapped in a wool sweater and I realized that I can't go
on like this anymore. I had to change something
and I can bet that people will be very curious to know what did you
decided to change. Here's a storytelling
structure strong start, hook middle to meeting the
interest by using visuals, emotions, dialogues, and ending, strong ending call to action, asking people to do
something to command, share, to check
your other posts. How to capture interest
from the very first line? Here are some few examples. For example, the phone
fell on the floor with the crash and I realized I would remember this conversation
for the rest of my life. It's already a sudden action and event and people
already pulled into it. It can be provocative
question, for example, what if you woke up
tomorrow without any social standards and
could start your life over? It's some food for thought. Unexpected fact statement
or myth busting. For example, more content
equals more engagement. That's a complete
myth and explain why something is very
common to believe, people will definitely want
to know why it's not true. So strong opening hook is something that captures audience's attention in
the first few seconds. Imagine you are
scrolling through your feet and seeing the text. Have you ever felt like you
are doing everything right? But the results still
aren't what you expected. And probably very likely if you are in that situation,
you will stop and read. And if you are not
in that situation, I guess the author
of the post is not so concerned because
his target audience, his or her target audience is the people who are who are stuck and they don't know how to get the results and the author
wants them to come to him. Such hook works because
it touches on emotions, sparks curiosity
and resonates with many people's
experiences because most likely lots of
people felt like that. So each time you start a story, pose a question and mention a provocative fact or offer
a solution for the problem. What to tell in the middle. So once you get the
reader's attention, it's important to keep
it till the end because you obviously have
lots of things to say, lots of things to tell. So here are some example. For example, I recently shared a post how challenging
is to work while traveling and it's not just a dreamy pink picture,
and it's so great. Many people responded and that they feel the
same way or they disagree or they feel
that this lifestyle is overrated and why are people posting,
things like that? I sparked the discussion, and it also sparked
the algorithm, and that post became
really popular. So now we are moving to
conclusion, call to action. So the final part should be just as strong
as the beginning. While it might seem enough, just to use simple phrases
like comento share, but you need to think of
more strong call actions. Like for example, you might end your story
with the question, how do you cope with setbacks? What has helped you in
your toughest moments? This is also an opportunity to draw attention to
your product or service with the questions like, would you
like to learn more? Are you ready to
dive deeper and then ask people to do some
specific action? Profiles that encourage user engagement through
questions falls contests have 70% increase in shares and commands and also
there is increase in sales. Average engagement
rates range from a half percent to
1% depending on the section on the sector. But while those who can achieve 5% or more are considered to have a very,
very good engagement. You also can see how
many followers you have and how many likes or shares you get and see where you are
with your engagement. And if your engagement
is quite low, you probably need to think of
the ways how to improve it. One of my clients initially
really hesitated to share her story how
her business was, like, in the brink of
the failure because people don't really want
to share the failures. But after she did it, she obviously had to cross her barriers and cross
her limitations. Not sure how many of you would be so willing to
share your failures, but it's important to share your failures and especially
lessons from the failures. The best to share them when
they are over when you found a solution and you have
something wise to tell. So after she shared, she couldn't believe
the responses she got, the support she got, how many people related to her, and how popular that post was. So don't be afraid
to be vulnerable. Don't be afraid to share your lessons along the way
because we all have them. Now I'm going to speak about
different types of contents. For example, stories. Stories is a great
place to create small mini stories
or ask questions, build connections, show
you short moments, your daily moments, tell
the value of your offers. You can use stories for
so many different things. For example, this could be
the sequence of the stories. You start with a question about the problem for which you
have a solution, obviously. Then show the solution, client testimonials,
real results, transformational stories, and finish with the
call to action, invite them to send a
message or ask a question. Such structure helps
to organically maintain followers attention and engage them in the conversation. Here are a few tasks you
can do in your stories. So task number one, create a series of stories about how your client achieved a
significant breakthrough. Show the starting point,
for example, the client, started feeling stuck because
this and that happened, show the process, a few tips
and actions and the result. Now the client has a clear strategy and also
receives new orders every week, show the whole journey
the client went with you. Another task, leave a box for a question related to
your niche and answer it. People love that and maybe people don't
like asking questions, but they like reading
other questions. And probably it's not a secret. If people don't ask questions, you can ask questions yourself, and then you can answer
these questions. I'm not sure if every
one of you done it, but I know many people do it. Share what inspired you today, your rituals, your moments,
your productivity routines, your preparation
for the project, share these kind of
things. Another task. Share your to do
list for the day, for the week or for a
month. Another task. Create a poll with yes or no
answers or one more task. Share a video where you speak to the camera and explain
why you do what you do. This is a tough one, but
you can do it, I'm sure. Okay, now we move on to reels. Reels are the ideal place for short and quick videos that
quickly grab attention. It's important to
show that the videos about what the video is about
within the first seconds. And you can also use the short clips and
clear text overlay that immediately indicate the essential message
because as I said, people scroll a lot
through the feed, so it needs to be really something what
resonates to them or some practical advice
or something what they can do and implement and uh, see, Oh, wow, that's working. So sharing something really practical and valuable
can be an option. Here are more ideas for reels. It can be before
and after journey. For example, can
be a preparation for the photo shooter project, can be top three tips. Yep, still works. Also some captions
with dynamic visuals. For example, remind yourself
of this every morning, offer something for free or introduce your news and
invite people to comment, and watch other reels
for inspiration. Save some music, voice overs, which you like and
create a reels plan. Okay. Now let's go to
our best friend HGPT and how to create a strategy with HGPT without sacrificing
authenticity of your content. So JGPT can provide a wealth of ideas in
just a few seconds. For example, you can ask what stories could they tell
about the brand's origin. It will showcase
various directions from inspiring narratives to detail insights about
business beginnings. Oh, for example, you can ask, what myths could I debunk
about my industry. So, you know, you can ask
these simple questions. You can get lots of ideas, but there are drawbacks
and drawbacks of JGPT is its coldness and
sometimes really neutral tone. So we need to train it. We need to make it learn to speak
in our tone of voice, and we can give examples
of the way we write. We can tell hGPT look at this example and write something similar
in a similar tone. Then it will start copying
your natural tone. Artificial intelligence
won't do the work for you. You shouldn't expect the
perfect results from it. Instead, you can look
at what you can take away and it can be 20%
from the response. It can be 80% of the response. It depends what you're
going to feed it. The more clarity
it would get and the more precise
response you will get. Here's one example
of using HGPT. For example, here's the prompt. Write a text about
the benefits of natural cosmetics so that a beauty specialist can
create an Instagram post. Start with a general
statement about natural cosmetics and
then add elements for personal stories to make it sound more personal and sincere and with a call to action that encourages followers to
visit their services. HGPT original text. Natural cosmetics can be a great choice for
improving skin health. They are often
gentler and contain fewer he chemicals that
can irritate the skin. That sounds pretty
generic, isn't it? And you can enhance it
with a personal details. For example, I remember
a few years ago when I started looking for ways to
improve my skin condition, after years using products
with chemical ingredients, I stumbled upon
natural cosmetics and although I was
skeptical at first, I noticed significant
changes and so on and so on. So you always need to add some more personal details if JajPts answer sounds
quite neutral. Or you can try to ask him to personal details
and see how that goes. Because the stories
which make you feel like the most impactful
and, you know, artificial intelligence still doesn't really know how to feel, so we need to train it to make
it feel a little bit more. A bit mad. So when you're communicating
on social media, think of the people you
are communicating with and talk to them like they are your friends and always think, who is your message
intended for? I avoid absolutes.
Don't use phrases, most people we all and
similar expressions because this general way of speaking also doesn't
give personal impression. I also don't particularly
like this mood of teacher tone like and
phrases do this and that. But for example, a good call
to action instead can be, would you like to join
to asking a question, but not this teacher tone voice. So how to find and develop
your writing style? Well, it's a continuous process. Start by exploring other
authors, different styles, read different books, write regularly about
what matters to you. Don't compare yourself to others and show your values because when we show our values, we attract people
who are similar. Your vibe attracts your tribe.
Have you heard the same. So thank you very much
for your attention, and you can download
my free HGPTGuide. I created a PDF of HGPTPmpts. So you will get lots of HGPTPmpts which you can
use for your social media. Also task for today for you is to think of the stories you want to tell about yourself
and your business, try to do some exercises
from the course, try to do some writing and
create some beautiful posts. So thank you very much for your attention and see
you in our last lecture.
5. LECTURE 4: PLAN YOUR GRID : Like the inner chair, d d d d d do Nova. No. Not. That's what Asia's okay. Not asada. Hela Npoincjcaba
Modi Cristin Davis. Is Wallace. Get it. Another sib in the background. You get, Madam matching. Apply visual effects. Apply visual effects, the filters appearance
backgrounds, backgrounds, blur blur slightly. Talk slightly blur, right? Yeah, I should slightly blurred. Vocal get a aquapl visual
effects? I filters. Appearance cache. My styles. Oh, wow. Hi, talking about ganan. Black and white moonshine. Okay, natural light. Bam. Look I was saying the light. Across the Lavin
the sunny place. But good to know, Hey. I'll be strange to
talk in English. Yes, but we can begin. So maybe we can
also just warm up a little bit and
maybe we can just connect with all the people and all the five days that
everybody was going through. So the first day was
about your wife. The second day was about about investigating your
Instagram profile, like in not investigating, but it was your guys will go
into the video or just up? No, we will crop it.
We will crop it. I'm just kind of going
through everything so we can just blend in a
little bit into what we, you know, because it
will be the last lesson. So I just think, yeah. And then now so
then it was about, you give prompt to
check your Instagram, so if everything is
kind of, you know, if everything's working
efficiently and you have all these highlights and
everything is aligned. And then it was my part about
how to televisual I agree. Yeah, and how to
tell a visual story. And then it was also with you about the copywriting, right? And then now it's more about the communication
and copywriting. So now that they
know also on how to create these visual stories
and how to communicate, now this is the lesson
about planning your grid and how we are
planning our grid. We can also share about that. Let's make a plan. Okay, let's make a
plan. Okay. I think I think I warmed up a little
bit. Okay, that's good. Mm. Okay. So now
the official start? Yeah, so let's do the
official start, wait. Let's do this. And one,
two, three, action. Hi, Laura. Hello. Wow, Day five. Last day five. Mm. What a journey it has been. I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you got
lots of new ideas, new knowledge, new practice. And now we can get the last part where we'll put all this knowledge
into the plan. And it will be very
practical as well. So then it's not that you
finished all the classes, and then we want you ideally
to walk out with also a little bit of a little
task that you can already apply and see visually
in your own Instagram. Yeah, and to help you
with that, Maria and I, we're going to share
how we plan our grids, and because we use
different styles, and we work a bit differently. I'm more strategic. She's
more like following the flow. And I guess you need both. So I hope it will be
interesting to hear both of our approaches and you can make your own mix and match. So let's then begin with you. How are you planning
your grid, Laura? Okay, how I'm planning my grid. Although I also to be
in the flow and I'm very creative person and
also following my intuition. But since it happens that I'm managing quite a few projects at the same time or sometimes I'm launching different products or I work with different people or I offer different services. I really need to be strategic because if I would
not be strategic, then I just would be overwhelmed and I wouldn't
know what I'm doing. I wouldn't know what to prepare. So I love Google Docs, and I love Excel, Excel files, and I like putting
things into the table. So usually before
planning my grid, I list all the things I
want to promote that month. I will talk in monthly terms, like I will take one month, for example, and I will think what I want to
promote that month. It can be one product. It might be several products, and I need to fit
all of them into kind of step by
steps, step by step. And, you know, and make a
plan to follow these steps. And it also depends on a
product can be different steps. So yeah, so let's say I
will have, for example, two products, not to make it too simple with one,
but two products, and I decide to launch one, at the beginning of the month, and then the second 1
second half of the month. I might relaunch some old ones, so not necessarily
two new products, but I might bring something from my archives
or new service or, like, something like that. But it depends a lot on what you do and in what kind
of business you are, you might have only one
product for the whole year. So don't panic that you need to do two
products every month, so even more, you can have
the same product like the whole year and
apply the same system. So once you know what
you're going to promote, then you need to take the
calendar or what I do, I take the calendar,
and I see a month like week by week and
overview of the months. And then I think what I want to do each week and what
kind of topics I want to talk about and what kind of content I will need to
create for that and how this content
will tie in with the service offering
with the loud offering. And how to tell a story,
a consistent story, so it would not be just one
post. Hey, here you go. It's the thing I'm offering, and here it is bite. No, it will not work like that. It was like that maybe
a few years ago when you just show up
on Instagram and say something like that,
and everyone buys. Now you kind of need
to keep warming up. And especially
actually marketing researches and
statistics shows that warming up and just
like prep stage already starting
hooking up people when they start seeing
something is brewing, something behind the scenes and well Maria and I
will like waiting list. So you can create
a waiting list. Like if you're preparing
something and start asking people to sign up for the waiting list like
little by little, saying something is coming, but not fully revealing what is coming or what's
going to happen. So just starting to put
people on the waiting list. So let's say like week one
would be this waiting list, and then Week two, I would like, reveal what is that? Like, for example, like, a challenge or,
like, I don't know, a depends what else
I was creating, like a course or
something like that. Mm hm. And then these people from the waiting
list, I can email them. I send them emails, so it's
another topic to talk, but maybe I will leave
it for a bit later because I'm talking quite
a long time right now. So I think we should
be taking turns so I could read Yeah, and then yeah, so those who were in
the waiting list, I would send like some special offer that you are the first, you can get on it, then
don't miss a chance. And then it will be another
offer for the people who are not on the waiting list and start promoting more like, here it is, it's lounge, and it's like, start
starting talking about it. And I can continuously keep talking about
the first thing. And if I'm introducing the
second thing the same months, I would just add on top of that, I probably would not do like two very strong products and
like, very big products. So one can be like my main one, and another one would be like
a something maybe smaller or some low value product
or something like that. So it would be just
parallel going one and the other one and I would
wat in content for that. But maybe now Maria has something to add from her
side how she's doing. So just to resume, how to plan your grid and how
we're doing it, right? So then, Laura, can you just like if you would
have to just from all what you was telling
if you would have to choose three
most important things. So then, just to kind of resume. And then I will most
important things. First, what you're
going to promote? How you're going to promote, which channels, which ways,
newsletters, social media? Well, basically, how you're going to reach the people maybe direct or ways what, how and what kind of content I need for that to
prepare because believe me, lots of people don't think
about it in advance. And then once they start
promoting something, they realize, Oh my God, I don't have time to keep
preparing all those posts and reels and stories
because it takes some time. So it's good to think in advance how much content you might need and try to plan it as
much as possible in advance. So for me, how I planned, when we were talking
also during the course and Laura was also asking
me, what is your strategy? What is your I feel like for me, my strategy is
probably continuous. Like my strategy is
continuous launching. So I believe that when you have something that's also what
Laura said, you know, that when you're brewing
something and people, you know, you kind of you're
warming your audience, and then they are
excited together with you and you're
sharing that excitement. So it's not like,
yeah, here, bite, or go there or
book or, you know, so I guess my strategy is like
this continuous launching. So then recently we
launched with Laura this five day challenge of
social media challenge. Now, then I'm also launching virtual
photography subscriptions. So for me, how I do it, same. I'll overview my calendar. I'm more I'm more aligned with my feminine cycles and sometimes with
the moon cycle. I kind I'm always
trying to launch on a new believe in this, you
know, like, new things. And just so for me, I'm always checking
the calendar, then the moon calendar and then, you know, my moon calendar. And then I kind of see because I know with myself that sometimes maybe I won't have I won't be
resourced enough to launch. So I want to make
sure that, you know, because sometimes maybe I'm so excited and it's
like a new moon. And I'm just, you
know, in my feminine, you know, ovulation,
and I'm like, excited. But then I know what if at
my louching I will be like, you know, in a different cycle, and I will be too tired, and then you will
be like, and you wouldn't have enough energy to to carry yourself
through the launch. For me, I always check
the calendar as well, and then I just
want to make sure that I will have enough energy to feed that launch
along the way. Then visually, of course, you know, the wait list, I really love it because I
feel like sometimes when you have a lot of people on a wait list, then
it motivates you. You're like, Oh, my
God, or sometimes you have no people, and
then you're like, Oh, but maybe then I
should maybe I should talk about solving
the same problem from a different perspective
because maybe it's not the angle
that resonates with my audience or maybe or maybe that's not the product
that they need or they want, you know, I think for me, it's also motivating
because if you see LA codes 200 people already, and you're like, so you
already know that you're preparing something
for them, you know, and then you will be
sending them a newsletter, you will be sending them
an email and I always offer um special offers for the ones that
are on a wait list. So so they get rewarded for, you know, for participating,
for signing up. And for the visuals, yeah, of course, I always
do behind the scenes. I always share, you know, also have that period of, you know, until I
reveal the offer. So it's a little bit same. I guess it's a very strategic simple process where you plan, you plan, you know,
I plan my lunch, you know, I check check
it on a calendar. I also plan a little
bit of my visuals. And then I guess I just
stay aligned, you know, with my dates, yeah,
with the schedule. And yeah, so it's more about
how I'm planning my grid. And my grid planning is
very much about, I guess, it's a constant,
like, a new project, a new project, a new
project, you know? And in the stories, I can I can be maybe less
strategic in stories. I just tell my visual stories, which is usually I'm telling, you know, creativity and
freedom is one of my values. So I talk a lot about my values. I share my travels. I
share that I'm a mother. I sharing also like now lately about relationships,
about healthy lifestyle. Then I'm allowing people to get to know me
a little bit more. But sometimes I also
put it in a post, but it's not a part
of a strategy. I guess for me, yeah, if we're talking about strategic
grid planning, for me, it's always about,
you know, I guess, continuous launching would be my you know, that's how I plan. That's how I do it. And yeah. And how often do
you actively sell? Like, how you
combine the selling and just sharing
inspirational stories? What's the strategy on that? I feel like naturally,
I sell more, you know, like, let's say, sometimes, before I launch, let's say, with the virgo
photographer subscriptions, then I go on a
wait list and then I check for people who were on a waitlist I know
for a couple of months, and then I can actually sell it directly to them already
because they already, you know, hot leads and they
are already interested in the product and
they already left their email, I
don't know in June. I really like this
personal connection. I think it's really nice
because I also, you know, it's nice that they already
they need it, they want it, you know, then you firstly,
I approach these people. But of course, usually
I do it with my launch where before I was maybe less
insecure or I wanted to, you know, to kind of so I was a little bit
chaotic with that. And if somebody
would be like, Oh, I'm interested, and I would
just still, you know, take that person to the program, where now I say I will
be launching now, you know, for Christmas
again, you know? So then I put them
on a wait list, and I'm not afraid that they're not going to maybe
take it later, or want it later because
that's my strategy. And I know how
many people I can, you know, I can give
the full service to. So then they will wait until
I have this opening again. And then or if they want to, they can always buy it with
a full price, you know? That's also if they're
really so impatient. So I just want to mention
that you're using flow desk, which is quite helpful
in sorting people and it also helps if someone
clicks on your newsletter, it already can add
to certain list. You can choose where to add. So I guess it also helps to manage people who were interested in one thing
or the other thing. Maybe we can also since
you mentioned flow desk, maybe we can also
just share the apps or the programs
that we are using. Yeah, help in our content
creation and in our business, I guess, in general,
what would be top five? That's part of the plan. I don't know if I
have even five, but I can begin. I guess I will count now precisely what I'm
actually using. So I mentioned flow
desk because we were working on the
flow desk together with Maria when we were launching
the challenge together. I also used some other
emailing platforms. I worked with different
ones with, like, Clavio and Milchm and
Malerlt and Mil Jet, you name it. There
are all of them. Design wise, I like the
flow desk the best because, for my taste, they have
really nice already set up templates for
signing up page, for the newsletters,
they have really pretty templates which I'm working with designs and
I'm very visual person, so pretty templates
are important for me. I don't know about
many technical stuff since I'm not so
technical person, but I also like Miler light. It's very convenient also for managing contacts and for
creating newsletters, although the design is not
that trendous in flow desk, but it's quite good to you. For newsletters, I
probably would choose the Miler Light
or the flow desk. I think it's up to
7,000. I don't know. It's quite also,
they have a good 1,000.5 of free, and
then yeah, I have. But that's good if
you're starting. Quite good for the beginning. It's great. Mail jet
as well gives 1.5 of. Yeah. And then what else? Excel. Yes, of course. Excel grid for planning. Mm hm GBT, helping with writing text and like,
some strategic questions, not like from scratch, not like copy paste, everything, but it's more for ideas and generating ideas, and it helps. And I guess more and more
people now using it, so it's not like something
so new which no one knows. But I guess everyone who's watching us right now
probably using it, and if not, then you
definitely should try it out. Mm hmm. And since I'm also a designer, so I work with
design programs for designing things for logos, I use the illustrator or
photos like light room. I'm not such a big
fan of photoshop. I never liked it. I think it's
really complicated to use. But for social media, although lots of designers just still in big denial
and they think it's not cool to use Canva and Canva is not
for design people. It's I'm glad to see that more and more design
people finally started to accept Canva because it's just for simple things like posts or
something really quick to create for people
who don't want to understand all these
complicated design things and get too deep into it. So I was always pro Canva. Mmm. And it's really helpful for the social media for making
designs and using it. Mm hmm. And you can even get something like in
a creative market. Like, you can get these pre
made templates and basically, I find it also really nice. So then you just import
it into your Canva. In Canva, you can also
create brand kits. So basically, I have
several brands. So then, you know,
whenever I can take one post and I can redesign
it, and then, you know, you have all the fonts and
all the logos, and it's like, different brand kits
for each and every, you know, activity you have. So I love it. I like it. That's also my, I could not imagine
functioning without Canva. Yeah. So what you
would have that? I feel like, yeah, that's
exactly very much same ones. I used to use also Omnisend. But yeah, since I'm very visual person for flow
desk is definitely number one because omniscen
was really nice and efficient but it was
really, I don't know. I never liked the template. For me visually it was
less appealing and therefore it was not
inspiring for me to use. So for me, it's definitely
Florida's definitely Canva. For HAGPT, I use Sintra app, and it's actually where you have the five little helpers that are helping you with
the different things. Now they have this like this, um like this tool that they can also post
for you on Instagram, which I like, but then they can post Instagram
stories and things. It's a little limited, but I think whenever
it will pick up, it will be great. I use Asana and also
later Sintra will have integration with
Asana, which is amazing. Now Sintra is aligned
with my Google calendar, and then also it
can send emails. It's like imagine same
chat DPT a little bit, then you say, can you
send an email to Laura? This is her email,
email address. And then then it
can just send it. I find it really convenient. I also, let's see, sometimes, you know, I'm doing
this workshop now, and then it was on Facebook and they have all
these dates for the calls, and I'm like, you know, I
would have to manually open it and edit and blah blah,
copy paste the text. And then I say, Okay, take out the dates and schedule it
into my Google calendar, you know, it takes me, 20 seconds or 15 seconds. So I love it, you
know, because I'm really's like a little
virtual assistant for you. Yes, exactly. Then I have
a real virtual assistant, which, yeah, it's also
it's good to have. But then maybe in
the later stages when you really can't do, you know, everything
on your own. So then you have low desk, Cintra which is like a better version of hGPT
and has more functions. Canva. Of course, I use Photoshop and light
and all of that. Yeah, because you
have photographers. Yeah, because I definitely. And then I actually
use Plan D as well. But now a little bit less and Cintra can post it
for me, you know? So I think whenever Cintra can post the stories
for me, I'm like, done with, you know,
Cintas Pado it's paid. It's paid, but I really I mean, I was on the edge, but then they have also
the GPT four or something. I'm sure if people
are watching it maybe it's GPT six or eight,
you know, I don't know. But I like it, because it's really yeah. And, you know, I also noticed that I don't
know if GPD does that, too, but then, you know, started asking me
questions as well. So do you and I was, Oh, you know, it's getting
smarter, you know? So it's kind of I like it because I'm quite creative
person and actually, my VA just left
because she couldn't deal with my mind process, you know, I have a
lot of ideas and I'm very excited
about, you know, she was more like this
scam person and she said, I really love you as a person,
but I can't work with you. I was like, well,
that's amazing. Thank you for your honesty. But when I hired
her, I told her. And I think, you know, Cindra can get me, you know,
because I'm like, sometimes I'm just
like I have this work, I'm like we can get you. Yeah, I'm like, Di, d, d d do, and I'm like, Okay, but I never use AI to
write my post or anything. That's out of the
question for me. I feel like I don't, um, yeah, I mean, I just listen when I write something in this
flow, you know, I'm not native English so I
live with a lot of mistakes, and I can afford to do it now. And I just do due
and I'm like, Okay, correct, you know,
typos and grammar. And that's what it does for me. So for me, it saves
a lot of time, and it allows me to flow creatively without
too many restrictions because I can know
where for me to write like one post would
take like way longer, you know, to review it,
to check the grammar, I feel like I use, you know, I use grammarly
and all that stuff, you know, but it's very,
like, old fashioned by now. So I'm very grateful for these apps because
it's allowing me to, you know, to create more and
flow, like, really easier. And yeah. I guess that
was that for the apps. I mean, yeah, I don't,
you mentioned asana, and I also want to add that I discovered Asana
not so long ago. And when I discovered it, I thought, Why I didn't
discover it earlier. So especially if you have several projects
going on at the same time, it's really great to put
them all in and, like, make tasks for each
of them and plan them and you can
see the timeline and you can see the calendar, and you get reminders what
you need to do on each day. And set up basically your tasks for the
week or the months, or you can also group
them per category. For example, you can make I'm making a category newsletters. And then I list all the tasks, what I need for the
newsletter, which newsletter, like how many newsletters
and I put newsletter one, it's Letter two,
newsletter three, landing page for
the subscriptions, like everything what I
need for the newsletters. Or the same A task you can
break in steps, for example, social media and you put post reels stories and you basically plan your content
and you just know all your. I really like. Well,
there are lots of different ways
videos on YouTube, offering different
managing systems, different ways to work with. I don't know even all of them. I discovering the way I go, but I really like it and
it's even the free version. It's still quite good,
of course, not free. It gives more options, more sorting options, more. Yeah, freeze a bit limited, but still, I think it's working. It's quite good. And also, if you work with
different people, let's say, for me, you know, I had this IT guide and I
had a virtual assistant, then we were working
with Laura as well. So you can assign
different people. You can add the deadlines. And then also if
you are absolutely, you're like, what
should I do today? And then you check, Okay, what's your
planning for today? What do you have any
deadlines? Your priorities and so I absolutely love it. I also Laura saw that
you started using this money chat, Many chat. Yeah, automatization. Yeah, automatization is
quite a big thing right now, creating funnels,
and it should be like totally another course
on how to create funnels. Here, we just talked more on social media and
content creation. But it is like another direction to dive in creating funnels, how you can get someone sign in on social
media and then, like, lead them through
the journey through different emails and kind
of build the connecting through the emails or
through the messaging in social media and like
automatically and Mm hmm. I can sound a bit
automatic and, like, a bit, you know, be
annoying. Great. I think it's quite
efficient, you know, especially now
when you have this a freebie Imagine for people who constantly
getting these messages, it could be a bit
annoying for them. So it's also very
important to think through how you can make these messages to
sound more authentic, more warm, more like a real
person, not so automato. Especially like something free, like magnet lid or
like a free product. Also, you know, you can put a post and people can
comment on the post, and they get automatically
linked to this product, and it's all automatic, you don't need to
reply one by one and, and check the messages
and correspond. It basically also
saves time instead of doing so much manual work. But I really like it, that it's also quite smart, you know, because let's say now with
your freebie, you say, Okay, so respond yes if you
want it, you know, then if people are sending you different
kind of messages, you're not going to get
this automatic message like just a bot kind of. You can set. You can set it up.
You can set that they can reply anything
and they will get a message or if you don't want everyone to get it only
those who want to get it, then you put the
political award. Very good, balancing
between this automation, because you want to
get it or you know, or somebody just sending
a message, like, Hey, you know, service I offer? Yeah. And the one more thing
that I forgot to mention, it's actually Sprout Studio, which is CRM Studio, which is also doing
all my invoice and now I have two brands, like for virtual photography and for personal
brand photography. So I really love it
because, you know, then I can just choose
which branding I want. And then it goes, it's like
two brands under one roof. And then all my
branding goes like, you know, with a
different, you know, different fonts,
different colors, and it's for two different
kind of types of clients. So I feel like, maybe it's
very specific for photography, although I think
it can also work for any business because for me, I don't always have time to send reminders or
to check who paid, who didn't pay, and
all of that, you know, I feel like it's quite
nice because it's sending automatic reminders,
automatic invoices, when people book online, then they're already
getting this invoice, they gets paid, it goes
directly to my account. And then I also have the email sequence to
nurture them, you know? So and of course, I try to keep it as personal
as possible, but, you know, I'm a one woman show, and I feel like I don't have this team that, you know, yeah. So I feel like as much as I can, I can try to automate
it, you know, because then you can also
hold more as a one person. And of course, you need help if I would have, like,
you know, I don't know, 15 different brands or I
don't know, yeah, of course, if you're growing
even more, then yes, but with my sort
I start scaling. You know, once you
start to scale, you need to delegate
more and more can't go without delegating.
Of course, of course. So for now, VA and
OBM is kind of, you know, that's just
enough. And then also. And then also, of
course, in the future, you know, But I guess everybody
who's probably watching, you know, or starting
their business, so they want to kind of make
their business language a little bit more efficient
and more authentic. I think it's mainly small, you know, small businesses,
I would say, you know? Small small businesses. So these are the apps and
things that we're using. Yeah. So these are the
tools we're using. Now we can probably
go back a little bit to our planning process. Mm hm. And also maybe to
share what do we do to engage customers like hot leads or how to
attract the customers? Because I think it's also
maybe important to share, how to if we are launching something
like we have a product, how we actually sell it. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Do you want
me to start? You can assist. Yeah, I mean, I guess yeah
yeah, yeah, you can start now. Okay, so for example,
in my field, I noticed that
personal messaging, it works a lot, and it's this very general because I'm a brand
strategist and a designer, and usually I either have
a call with the person or I need to have some kind of contact with the person because if they're going
to work with me, they feel they want
to know me and, you know, we need to have
some kind of contact. If I would just send
some cold emails, I probably would have
much less clients than I have. Mm hm. And so, yeah, so I have this free call people
can schedule with me. It's on my website, so
there is also a link and people can book it and also try to say on social media, if they want to schedule a call, from time to time, they can schedule a call and
we can book a call, and we talk about some potential project people
want to do with me. Also, if I'm launching a course, I also either get messages from people who
are interested and they want to know more or I see
I see which leads a hot and I try to get
in touch with them and just have some personal connection and to talk to them. But trying not to sound like SLS and I know probably lots of
people don't like to do that, and, you know, they say, Don't chase attract and your
energy attracts the people. And, yeah, I do believe in that that energy is the main thing which attracting the people. But I also believe in connection and a personal connection and investing time
in so it depends on how the sign ups going and how the course is going
to give the energy is attracting everyone and
you have more people than you can possibly fit
in, then that's great. You don't need the strategy. But if your ball is rolling
a little bit slower, I think it's really
nice to reach out to people and maybe ask for their Instagram handles on your sign up forms or
the waiting list forms, and, like, have some point
of touch with them and, like, just send some
friendly messages that, Hey, this is approaching. Have you seen that? Like or like starting some questions which could be relevant to them, what you've seen in
their social media. Or if you don't have
time to do it yourself, maybe a VA can do it
for you or someone, but personal personal contact and especially for the courses, for the retreats, for
the coaches, like, things like that, it's really, really works in my experience. Mm hmm. I totally agree. I totally agree because
I feel like, you know, if you're just coming
out of nowhere and because I am actually naturally interested in
my clients, you know? So for me, you know, it depends also which
culture you're coming from. Me and Laura, we are
coming from Lithuania and it's I guess I grew up
with this feeling like, Oh, the selling is wrong. Like, if you're
good, then people will see you will notice
you and will come to you, as if it's a shameful
thing to sell. And I feel like when you start
really getting goosebumps, when you're really
starting, you know, believing in what you do and believing in your
service, and I mean, you're not trying to just give something
that nobody needs, and you're just
trying to, you know, to push desperately trying. Because for me, I feel like I'm excited
about what I'm doing. And I see, like, let's
say, yesterday I photographed this mom,
you know, and she's, um, and she's
living in New York, and she just had,
you know, a baby. And so for her, going somewhere
to get a photo shoot, it would be way more effort than just doing it while the
baby's sleeping, you know? I feel like because I
remember I had my shoot, when my baby was a baby. She's still a baby
although she's seven. But I remember, you know, I was like, it was such a mission. And then, you know,
I had to change the diaper before
I left the house. And then I actually
left hold my bag with all my clothes
and all my makeup, and I just took her bag, and then I was already in an Uber, and I was, Oh, my God, you know, Anyway, it was nice. But I know the level of
exhaustion that you feel, you know, and cloud
you're living in, you're sleepless for
months, you know. So, anyway, I'm
just like for me, I know sometimes, you know, people are traveling and
they're like, Oh, my God, I will be in Istanbul
and I will be in Egypt, and I really want to
work with you because, you know, I want to have a shoot there and I
want to shoot there. So for me, I'm
kind of, you know, I feel like I'm more reminding about myself instead
of, you know, like in this modern terms, it's called Sacred Sales,
whatever you call it. How do people usually
reach out to you? What's your best channel? How do people find you? For me through
Instagram, actually, but it's a a It's
just on Instagram. Yes. And for me, it exactly
started after I you know, because before my Instagram
was more like my portfolio. I have a nice project. I boom, I put it on. I put all the behind the scenes, and then for a month,
like, Oh, maybe, I don't have anything exciting. I'm just doing some,
you know, shoots, but they are less,
you know, exciting. And then sometimes, oh,
I'm going to New York. Oh, boom, you know,
again. And so for me, I didn't have any reason. I don't know where I went.
I didn't have any reason, you know, to, you know,
sorry my battery. I didn't have any reason
to actually to even do it. And now I feel like it's
changing, you know, because since I got, since I got this virtual
photography service, things changed quite a lot
because now, you know, my clients became the
rest of the world and anytime like 247, you know, so I feel
like it changed. And then I started
really since actually, it's been not even a year
since I have this, like, digital product, so it's
not even digital product, online service that I do because as a
photographer, it's very new. It's still quite unique. And so for me, then suddenly
I was like, Oh, wow, then suddenly
Instagram from this just this place where I
would just online portfolio, it became going, you
know, it's my job. You know, I feel like then I started going to
all the courses and checking all you know how to make my Instagram,
more efficient. But for me, it started
with that authenticity. And basically, these five
most important things, me and Laura we put
in this course, because for me, it
started from my Y, and my Y is a lot about
creativity and freedom. And that's where with
remote photography, I'm really living,
what I'm believing in. For me, it's a freedom for
me to work from anywhere, and it's a freedom for people to be photographed anywhere. And creativity for me is that I'm transcending
the borders. I'm traveling through
countries, you know, virtually. So for me, both of these things, I'm I'm constantly about
creativity and freedom. And then I started talking
about it, you know, more and also sharing my personal story,
personal journey. So that's the copywriting that's Laura was
teaching in the lesson, I think, two or three or four. We course, so that. And for me, like, it
just started when I really kind of
clarified what I'm about, when I started talking to
that one person that is my ideal client and I'm talking to that woman
in each and every post, there's this one
lady that I have in mind that I'm talking
to her, you know, that's, that's my
that's my key. No. Okay, I guess that's probably
all we wanted to share, or you have something
else to add for today. Just maybe we can move to the summarizing the steps for
making the plan, maybe. Mm hmm. So for making the plan,
6. The Bonus Lecture: Logic of Emotion - with Bea: Hi, guys. I'm super excited to talk about logic
of emotion this time. And about how the visuals are
perceived and how you can enchant your brand story by telling it in a visual way because our brain is processing, 90% of information that our brain is
processing is visual, and the visual
information is processed 60,000 times faster
than the text. So let's dive deeper. Today we will talk a
little bit about me, my story, the brands
I worked with, the projects I'm working
on now, my mission. Then we will talk
about what makes a great story and the
elements of a good story. I will go a little bit
into storytelling, and then I will introduce Bea. She's a beautiful
personal brand stylist that is helping to enchant your visual style to make your visual
presence even stronger. Let's go deeper. I am Maria Cavali virtual
photographer and creative lead. I am really passionate about the remote photography
and I specialize in creating personal photoshos that capture the essence and
authenticity of your brand. Basically, I started this remote photoshos
only after COVID, it became possible
to work remotely as a photographer and I'm
really excited about it. So basically, I worked
with the different brands. I was working actually
photographer was following me every
step of my life. And so when I became a mother, I started this photography
studio for pregnant women because they would come with the babies and I could also
take my daughter with. Then after COVID,
I rebranded and then I went into personal
brand photography. And then, time goes by and
I started also thinking, after COVID, how could I improve and what would I do if I
wouldn't be a photographer? Then this remote
photography service came up and I'm so excited working
as a remote photographer. It gives me so much fun
and joy and I can use all the experience
I learned over the years to photograph
people remotely. Just using their phone
camera as a tool, I can access their camera from whenever I am and
wherever they are. Basically, they just
need smartphone and the Internet connection. It's amazing. You
should check this out. I worked with brands like Leva, Nike, ecodentaTo magazine. I've done a lot
of editorial work and so it was all about
telling visual stories. All the magazine work was
about telling visual stories. Sometimes they would
give me the interview, they would give me the address, and I would just have to go there and tell a
visual story with, let's say, four to six
shots about that person. So it was a lot of fun. It was very dynamic, very beautiful. Yeah, I loved it and enjoyed it. And that's how I got involved
into visual storytelling. And that's why I love
doing it now as well. Now the art projects I'm
working on now remotely, this is really, really
inspiring one. Less is more. I'm basically
photographing women, nomads, not digital
nomads necessarily. But basically it's
women that live in RVs and it's big
communities in US, of course, and
also in Australia. I'm so excited that I can
tell their visual story, and now I'll be photographing this lady with her daughter. And basically, she's
homeschooling and I'm excited to
photograph and to share. For me, doing it in real time, it would be really,
really difficult because I would have
to fly somewhere. I'd have to leave
my daughter alone. I would have to have probably way higher budget to travel and to photograph
these ladies, and now I can just
do it remotely, and it's really opening new
doors for me also not only in a commercial way to photograph
influencers and brands, but also in this
very creative way to work on the projects
that I really love. So my mission is to empower women entrepreneurs to create captivating content that speaks volumes and inspires millions
by guiding them through a streamlined and efficient remote content creation process. Sounds very serious.
Basically, what I do, I go deeper into your
brand into your Y, and together we craft
this brand story. How it's expressed in my work is that I offer photoshoots, personal brand photoshoots
subscriptions. So then one month we
are going deeper into a brand and the next month
we are um, you know, creating the visuals or if you're having upcoming
launch or if you are dressing your website
or if you're going to really amazing location
and you need a photographer. So I'm there for you
and I'm creating that content together
with you remotely. So what makes a great story? It's essential to recognize that the human brain is naturally inclined to react to emotions
and before the logic. So if you even look
into these images, how does that make you feel? It's just you don't
even know it's freedom, it's the lightness,
it's the joy. So it's just nice to see what
it does to you if you would just have written joy
on a white color, you would just think,
well, that's nice. But this kind of giving you a little more feeling
the dynamics, the moving hair Um, so basically one image
tells 1,000 words, right? It's a really nice
saying. I love it. Look at these images.
Look at all of them. I mean, it's just like
I'm getting goosebums looking at it and it's
just all of them, can tell really 1,000 words. Really 1,000 words. Um, now, stories, of course, it's nice if they
inspire and they motivate and they cultivate
the brand loyalty. Because it's nice when
people can relate to you, when they feel, they can learn from you
or you inspire them. I really comes not from necessarily programming
posts and just writing GPT, but it's coming from your
really deep essence of yourself because I had a
lot of clients that came to me because they felt the
same or something I wrote, spoke to them and I don't
even know what that was, but I just, you know, usually when I when I write my post, it's never really GPT. I I use GPT to check the the the the the grammar because I'm not native English, but I never write
texts with GPT. It always comes from insight from just basically inspiration and I really love what I do. I don't need GPT to inspire me. Good stories keep the audience engaged and interested
in what's coming next. So when you have your
social media presence, especially maybe
before your launching, it's nice that they follow you because they they engage
with their content, right? Good stories convince the
audience of their version of reality and make it easy
to trust and engage. Basically, if they trust you as a person
and your stories, and I think they're most
likely to also trust your services and your products if you're selling
products, right? Good story, of course, has to be educational,
relatable, organized, and memorable. So so what elements are
essential for a good story? Like, of course, you
need to have characters. So then your audience can put themselves in their
shoes, right? It's nice when you have
really clear character, like, they might like
it or dislike it, but they can connect and relate to it. If you just
say, Oh, people. But if you say
that one lady with a red hat and a big
nose and a small eyes, she was looking a little bit, like, you know, she
had a secret to tell. And like somehow from all
the crowd, she stood up. You know, kind of, you
have that one character. Um, so basically, of course,
it has to have a conflict, and the lesson you overcome that connects the
audience, right? Let's say, for me, with photography journey,
I was in Canada. I was dating this rock star, and I basically ended up
where I didn't want it to be. We were traveling with a minivan and I was a bit
more conservative. I was young. I didn't
speak good English. Um, and I didn't
want it to be there. It was very open, very
free environment. And I didn't feel comfortable. Somehow that boyfriend of
mine he gave me a camera. It was cannon and I started
taking pictures and I realized that I'm separating
myself from the environment. But at the same time, it's helping me to go at my own pace and to see the beauty
of the moment, even if I don't feel like
I want to fully engage in situations or um yeah,
for me, photography, my learning lesson was that I am a creator and I can
choose what I want to see and I can just choose to see this beautiful
sunset and sunrises instead of somebody
acting in a way that is not acceptable
for me, right? Of course, it also has
to have a resolution. So we're closing and that's normal when you're
reading a book, of course, and when
you seeing a movie, it has a resolution, right? It has to have a
structure in the setting. If you would say, Oh,
I was just eating my pasta or my noodles and then the setting
matters because the setting describes
your environment and then it helps the viewer to understand where you are and understand the difficulties you might be having while
you're in that setting. Setting will help you to share the values and goals
of your characters. Of course, to shift the
tone of conversations and actions and make it easier
to show instead of feel. So that's where of course,
social media presence and authentic style comes in. That's where I wanted
to introduce the Bea. Basically, she's a
personal brand stylist and we will be working with her for VIP subscriptions for
personal brand shoes remotely. So she will be guiding and helping to select the
clothes remotely, and then I will be
photographing also remotely. That was that. Thank
you very much. If you have any questions, you can always reach me on social media on Instagram
or you can always send an email uk at contentmnsignquen
dot IO. Thank you.
Skillshare Member
