3 top tips from Shaily Hakimian.
1. Bring the juice to the top.
2. Consistency.
3. Bridge your brain to your marketers brain.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, social media, post, clients, business, linkedin, love, world, talk, years, watching, bit, content, person, started, writing, tips, week, giving, life
Shaily Hakimian 00:00
You know, day by day more people started hiring me for the same service. And that has been probably the majority of my income for the last bunch of years. So your social media Sherpa was born. Now I help people get clarity and accountability, doing their own marketing, I help them marketing be productive, and help them understand how their business brain and knowledge connects to what they’re going to do on the internet, how it’s actually going to help them get more referrals and beyond. So that’s me here. And most people that are probably listening to this are probably not going to be famous tick talkers for posting really silly dance videos, they’re probably real people with real brains, they can be helpful to someone. And it needs to be what you say to people on a regular basis that needs to be communicated in some way. And if they can’t get on the phone with everyone and spend three hours explaining their business, and that’s a missed opportunity. But if your website can do all that education for you, that’s gonna make that phone call so much easier to get because people will already know what your deal is. And that’s what I love to bridge for my clients.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 00:56
So good morning, and welcome to another edition of Better Business, Better Life. Today, I am joined by Shaily Hakimian, who is from Chicago over in the US. And she is the founder or she likes to call herself the cheerleader at your social mediasherpa.com. And we just had a bit of a chat, as I always do before we come on the show. And this lady is just so full of energy and a lot of knowledge about how we can actually use social media to our advantage. So welcome to the show, Shaylee.
Shaily Hakimian 01:21
Thank you so much for having me. It’s cool to be down under a little bit, virtually here today.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 01:27
And you get your day ahead of you. So you’re actually in the future right here right now. Now, we were just talking about social media. And obviously, your your story’s a little bit different because you were a teacher when you first started out of college, is that right?
Shaily Hakimian 01:41
Yeah, I studied Education.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 01:44
So tell us a little bit about your journey to where you have got to today. Because my understanding as you started in education, then you got into doing social media, but now you actually teach social media. Is that right?
Shaily Hakimian 01:54
Exactly. You nailed it. So yeah, what were you gonna say?
Debra Chantry-Taylor 02:00
No I want you to tell the story. In your own words. How did you get to where you are now?
Shaily Hakimian 02:03
So unofficially, I started on MySpace doing social media for an online community that I founded for a bunch of nerds who love the shows Big Brother and survivor. So I don’t know if you bliss Do you like this?
Debra Chantry-Taylor 02:14
I like the vibe Sunday. No often that huge. Okay, I’ll
Shaily Hakimian 02:17
Take it. I’ll take it. So yeah, sir, managing that it didn’t think much of it. I applied for a job after college or internship job, whatever it was to manage social media, and I’m Jewish, and the Jewish community. So I was like, oh, Jewish social media doing good. I was like, it was Ted Talk related. I was like, This is amazing. I love all of these things. And I don’t know my job. They were like, Have you ever manage online communities and I remembered, oh, my space, what I was doing was managing an online community of nerds. I’m gonna vaguely add that to my cover letter and explain that I have done this before. And I got the position. And that job led to other jobs doing more social media. But all of that while I was also subbing and teaching and doing all sorts of stuff, this is my early career was a little messy, right as it should. So I was trying to get more people to pay me for social media. And I was like, hey, hire me to do your social media hire me to do what I want to like post for you and all that stuff. Let me tweet, let me poke on Facebook, whatever. And so I was, I was promoting myself at a BNI meeting where all the business networking people are in Chicago. And I said, I want to do social media. And people were not really bite on that. And maybe they weren’t the right size clientele for the services I wanted to offer. But one lady came up to me, she was like, hey, shyly, I don’t want to pay you to do my social media. And I was like, No. And then she was like, but I do want to pay and I was like, oh, one, can you teach me how to do Instagram and teach me how to do my own social media. And it was a light bulb moment, because I had studied education in college, and I love, love motivating people and cheering them on and encouraging them to be their best selves, and all that kind of stuff. And I love working one on one. So I was like, Yeah, of course, I’ll offer that service. And I charge her a little bit of cash for it. She loved the service, I love doing it. And I was like, Okay, I might want to do more of this. And you know, day by day, more people started hiring me for the same service. And that has been probably the majority of my income for the last bunch of years. So your social media Sherpa was born. Now I help people get clarity and accountability, doing their own marketing, I help their marketing be productive, and help them understand how their business brain and knowledge connects to what they’re going to do on the internet and how it’s actually going to help them get more referrals and beyond. So that’s me, here I am.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 04:21
And I always ask my guests What are you most proud of? So you know, in your life so far, what are you proud of?
Shaily Hakimian 04:27
I just love when people realize that they’re capable of what they didn’t think they were capable of. Like, I love my clients who’ve been in their 60s and who are just killing it, and not scared to try new things. And I just love watching them go from like, I don’t know how this thing works to like, I’m actually excited about social media and I know that my energy is worth something and that makes me feel really really, really proud. The other fun thing like I love the book profit first and I got to go on profit first podcast recently and I was like, Oh, that’s cool. Very fun, professional when that was a cool thing. The other fun thing I know sometimes you’d like to No prob personal stuff. I love hosting people. And I got real tired the last few years of hosting people in my home. And the last, I don’t know, six months, I’ve had a few parties. And I’m like, Yay, I love bringing people together in person. And, you know, the world is coming back. So those are a few things I’m proud of.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 05:14
I think we share some very, very common interests. Yes, a very, very big Yeah. So I love bringing people together. I love sort of looking for opportunities to go, hey, you need to talk to this person who was pretty cool. Yeah. But anyway, we’re just about social media today. Because I think a lot of people think But social media is just a place where you go out there and you kind of brag about what you’re up to your post lots of sales stuff, and, and then they they want, they wonder why they’re not getting any results. Or on the converse side, they’re not even sure what to post. And so they just sit back and go, I don’t know what I’m going to post. So how do you see social media overall?
Shaily Hakimian 05:45
Oh, so the dumb simple answer to this is that social media is a conversation at scale with people, ideally, people you already know, or have a relationship with answering questions they didn’t know they needed answers to? Where do you get that information of what to post? What do people ask you on sales calls? What questions are constantly coming up? What things do people constantly not understand about what you do in your business, if you can make that information available to them, through the information that you put out through your website, or your emails, maybe text messages, whatever your medium is, that’s gonna make it easier for people to build that relationship and trust with you before they’re ready to say, hey, Deborah, take all my money. So that’s a little snippet of how it all connects. And I think a lot of social media out there is like, Oh, if you post really interesting stuff, people will find you. Most people that are probably listening to this are probably not going to be famous tick talkers for posting really silly dance videos, they’re probably real people with real brains, that can be helpful to someone. And it needs to be what you say to people on a regular basis, that needs to be communicated in some way. And if they can’t get on the phone with everyone and spend three hours explaining their business, and that’s a missed opportunity. But if your website can do all that education for you, that’s gonna make that phone call so much easier to get because people will already know what your deal is. And that’s what I love to bridge for my clients.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 07:03
It’s actually quite interesting. I remember a number of years ago, actually, probably 1015 years ago now, I actually had somebody do a video of me and and who I was and why I existed and what and what I loved about helping businesses, and the world and the way that it was kind of sold was that actually, if somebody actually watches that video, when they eventually do decide to connect with you, they feel like they already know Yeah, because they even though they’ve never met you, they’ve got a sense of I know who Debra is. So it wasn’t about me going out there want to talk about myself, but it was just, they would give people the sense of this isn’t a cold call. This isn’t a I’m approaching a complete stranger. But there’s somebody I already know. And I think it was also designed to kind of get rid of the people who aren’t your people, because let’s face it, we do not appeal to everybody. And that’s perfectly okay. So it’s actually a way to kind of filter through people and scare off the ones you don’t want and attract the ones that you do. And I think that has that was 1015 years ago. Now social media plays a huge part in building that relationship with people would you say
Shaily Hakimian 07:59
yes, 100%. It’s look like I you know, for me to see you and bump into you on the streets and just say, Oh, hey, Debra, it’s been a while is impossible, because we live on different sides of the world. But now I can bump into you all the time when I see your stuff pop up on LinkedIn, because we’re connected, right? And that makes more touch points. And you can have, I remember, I always use the example of like, you go to the grocery store, and you bump into a friend and you’re like, oh, friend, like I haven’t seen you in so long, I was just thinking about you. And then you catch up. And then you think of oh, you should go meet so and so. And then I have that moment. But like, obviously COVID Didn’t help with having more of those moments. But you can do that on the internet. Because when people add you or they follow you or they like your whatever the pages that are connected to, whenever you put stuff out, they might see it. And now they get to know you and have more conversations with you without you having to show up one on one on one on one on one with everybody. And that’s what what’s worked for business over bajillions of years. But now how are you going to stay in touch with Joe Schmo that you met two years ago that you haven’t seen it so long, you’re not going to bump into them randomly. But if like me, you add them after a networking event to your LinkedIn, they will see your stuff potentially forever. And that’s a great way to build context beyond that one meeting. Point, right? Like you said, it’s building that relationship with them over time, just like it works in real life.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 09:11
Yes. Right. Is that because that’s the thing I mean, social media is just another form of engaging interacting with other human beings. It’s just like you would do at a networking event or any other any other life event, I suppose. Yeah. So a lot of our kind of listeners are probably a little bit more established, they might actually have a marketing person or marketing which is cool. But there is more to social media than just the company doing posting and doing things isn’t there? I mean, what what would you say to them who are maybe the owner of the business who’s not actually necessarily doing much themselves but just giving it to a team to to do it for them?
Shaily Hakimian 09:46
My understanding and I’m pretty sure people who are listening to this are in this boat, where they’re not actually giving their team the information they need to be as successful as possible. And maybe they’re okay with just mass social media. There’s plenty of people will do mass social media that will check The bottom is good enough. But really great social media is getting the brain of that owner who knows everything about that company, everything about the product, everything about everything down on paper, think like FAQs, orange, Oh, easy hat, this is one of my tips I want to share is have they told their story about why they started the business, how the business started, why they care what they want to different in their industry, right? That information is not going to come out of, you know, a creative person who’s doing your social media. But if you give them that they can make it more interesting. And they can package it in a way that’s going to resonate. So that’s one of the biggest things that I’m seeing is that they don’t know how to communicate that. And so what I love to do is I love coming in to a company where they have a social media person, or they’re having an assistant or maybe an agency too. And I bridge those worlds together. Because every single one of these types of service providers has an agenda. They’re like, dead focused on it. But if you don’t know how to communicate what you need out of them, you don’t always get what you want, or you don’t get as much as you want out of it. So the more you can tell that story of the leadership, or the person that people usually often connect with, the easier it is for other people who haven’t had that opportunity to get you and your company and why it’s so special.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 11:05
Love it. Okay, that’s really cool. So what do you think, is the biggest mistake that people make around social media?
Shaily Hakimian 11:11
Oh, well, I’m gonna pull something you said earlier, right? Like that people don’t know what to post. And a lot of my clients will start posting like kind of salesy, like, Hey, I’m taking bookings for this year, or, you know, hire me for this or like, oh, you know, here’s my new package offering. And it’s like, Wait, people don’t care. They don’t care what you’re offering. They don’t know what your deal is. And they’re posting information that’s like, oh, I want an award. I’m like, I don’t even know what that award is, do I care? And like, Yes, it’ll pop up, and you’ll see their face and it’s fine. But that’s not helpful. Yep. So I think that’s one of the big mistakes I see. And a lot of people don’t get that. It’s just like, what smart things do you say on a regular basis? Can you just like write them down and put them out there? Because, like we said, they don’t get to see you in person. If there’s a tip or there’s a story, is there a past client, that you can tell a story about how you transform them that can give an idea to someone who’s watching you that may not be ready to buy from you this year? Right? There’s all of this stuff that you were probably naturally putting out this content in person that you could be just putting out online for more people to say, and I think people don’t realize how much they already know what they need to be saying. They just don’t know, to validate that as social media content. Yeah.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 12:17
And I think you’re right, I also, I used I actually still do, I work at the University over here in Auckland, and I actually teach the students about networking. And I say to them, you know, when you go networking, you don’t just walk up to somebody and go, Hi, my name is Debra, I’m a business coach, I do love a lot, you wouldn’t do that to a complete stranger you shouldn’t do on networking you shouldn’t do on social media, either. You know, you actually have to build some rapport. First, you actually have to get to know the person, and you have to add value to them. And the question you should be asking all the time, is what can I do to help them and what value can I add to them? And when I sort of, say this to the to the students, they’re always like, Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that. Because they’re, they’ve got it in their mind that they’re just meet people collect cards, get their details. And that’s really not what networking in my mind is about.
Shaily Hakimian 12:57
No, but here’s a hack to that, right? Because I love networking. I’ve always like I’m a network queen, like people know, I’m a connector like you, right. And so what I will do is I’ll add somebody on LinkedIn while I’m at the event, because I’m a nerd, like that could be weird might not be for everybody. And I’ll look at their profile. First of all, look where mutual connections and sometimes it’s like real smart people. And I was like, Oh, you must be really important. If you know, these five people in my network. I don’t know, sometimes I’m weird like that. And then I also find out what we have in common really quick, and I know what their deal is. But also, when they look at my profile, my profile explains exactly what I do, right. So if I can’t get everything out in my little conversation, they have a chance to look at what I do online. And same for your students, right. Like it’s a free interview, essentially, for either a job or for business project or for gig or anything. Excuse me, Mike cough is like killing me. Everyone’s getting sick winter over here. So enjoy your beautiful summer. I know you’re experiencing.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 13:53
So bit with a miserable everywhere at the moment, we’re not going to tell you about just talking about tips and hacks and things. One of the things that I actually think is really handy, too. When you do connect with somebody, you know how you get the chance to actually add a note, I always put in that note where we met. So it was really great today at this place, or through this person, because of course with LinkedIn, that’s there forever. So if I ever go back and go, Where on earth did I meet this person? First message with who we met at this networking event. And that saved my butt a million times? Because I forget things very quickly. Yeah.
Shaily Hakimian 14:27
Yes. And I do that for my social life, too on Facebook all the time. All right. Yeah. So you can use that as the best hack because like, especially if you don’t have a CRM, well, I’m sure your people already have a CRM, but it’s like almost unnecessarily. Great. Use that as a CRM, like, Hey, here’s when we met. Here’s what we talked about. And this is great because now if you ever want to reach out to them, or if they ever reach out to you, you’re no longer a stranger. You’re somebody who has context and history with them. Thinking of hacks and trip tips and stuff, one of the other mistakes I see that isn’t really the most intuitive and it took me a long time to understand. I’m call it like it’s the shot elitism, the quote that I say is bring the juice to the top. So make the first thing that shows up like the juiciest thing. I think what is it? like? people in writing or people used to work in newspapers? They don’t bury the lede? Like it works here, too. So I always say like, like, you know, you’re watching a TV show, they always have like, a preview of like, come after the commercials, we’ll find out. Are they going to fall in love? And is it gonna be great who’s gonna get murdered? Right? You want to hook you to come back. And the first the first few lines of your, you know, show, or your tweet or whatever, not interesting. I don’t want to keep reading, right. And especially like on LinkedIn, if they don’t click that See More button, they’re not going to see that the most amazing thing that maybe you had later in the content, so it doesn’t with video, it works with audio, everything, like tell people what’s inside. Don’t hide it.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 15:48
No, it’s absolutely streaming, we actually use snippets to promote this podcast, right? It’s a little hooks that go, Hey, this sounds really interesting going into it. But for some people, it’s not natural to write. So and so you know, we’re already happy talking to people. If you’re not a natural writer, that could be a fear of going on a site well, like, what am I going to say? How am I going to win? Or what am I going to do on social media? What would you say to that?
Shaily Hakimian 16:12
So this is what I also I think is really fun about how I operate is that there’s not like one way that every one of my clients does social media, I find a combination of what they’re good at. So like, for example, I love doing podcasts. So this is why I do more podcasts. And I do writing because I hate writing, you find the thing that they like, they’re more capable of doing, whether it’s short form, long form writing, tweets, audio rooms, whatever. And then in combination to where their people are, and ideally something that they can do consistently. So if they can pick one video over two weeks deal, if they can make one email, every week deal, whatever that is, when we find that killer combination, it becomes less work than they realized the contents much better quality, and it’s consistent. And it’s in a format that they don’t hate. Because I always was like editing my LinkedIn posts that were tech space for so long. And I absolutely again, I hate writing so much. I’m like, now I have a virtual assistant in the UK, actually, who was helping me with writing and I’m like, miracles.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 17:07
And that’s another tip isn’t it? Like you don’t if you don’t enjoy writing, get somebody to interview you get them to ask your questions. And then you can just get them to sort of transcribe it. And they can use that to start doing your posts for you.
Shaily Hakimian 17:20
I love that. But it right, it’s exactly it like, you know, do do the things that work for you, right when I figured out how to not take 15 hours to edit my old LinkedIn content, and instead take me an hour to do a whole video post. Like it saves so much time I got rid of all my perfectionism, which also a big issue, I think, especially for women, but I got it, I made it a lot easier. Now I like I have an easier way of producing content that I don’t hate that’s giving people the information. It’s not about how perfect every edit is. It’s about giving people insights they didn’t know they had access to from your information. And content doesn’t have to be perfect.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 17:54
But I just interesting. I mean, I was an early adopter of social media if I’m honest. So it’s, it’s always been something I’m quite passionate about. But it is interesting that some of the rule kind of just off the cuff videos that you put out there that you look at it. And and as a woman, you’re looking something up, oh my goodness, look at my double chin. Look how terrible I look. And I’m talking to the best because they’re just you. And at the end of the day, people are going to do business with you. They don’t want the published version. They don’t want the they want to actually know who you really are. Yeah, which is why we also don’t edit our podcast. So we literally just record them live and they go out there what we might take your coughs out, whatever. But But apart from that, we just let it go. Because sometimes you kind of get a bit tongue tied. But nevertheless, it’s a natural, flowing conversation. It’s who we are.
Shaily Hakimian 18:39
I love that, right? I love that permission, though you gave yourself right? Like if you were like some massive super celebrity with 300 million followers or something, maybe then you need all the edits, and all the perfection, all the BS. But it’s like I think what also is happening is I think a lot of people get knowledge about social media and marketing for kinds of companies that aren’t the level that they’re at, if you have somebody who works at Coca Cola giving tips to your 200 person, company clients, right, that’s not going to be relevant for them. But there’s plenty of people who will do that I’m gonna work for Google cool to have me for your marketing. They don’t know what that day to day like life is like for those people. And I think that’s the other thing I want your people to be really cognizant about, is it? Who’s giving this information? Is it for your demographic, because that’s it’s right for somebody else, but they’re not there yet. And they shouldn’t spend their time and energy worrying about every little detail.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 19:27
Okay, so, obviously, you know, I love LinkedIn. But there’s a lot more social media out there now. And I think, I mean, I used to teach digital marketing way, way back Marketing Association here in New Zealand. And I would always say that actually, the first thing you need to do is establish who your target market is. You don’t need to be on every single social media. You don’t need to be doing everything but actually who is your audience and where are they most likely to want to consume this kind of information? And I don’t think that has changed but we still get this pressure you know, you need to be on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok LinkedIn. What do you think?
Shaily Hakimian 19:59
So I think if you’re starting from zero, I can see how finding the target audience to kind of researching where they are is a good move. Yeah, I skip all of that in my work with people. I know we’re, yeah. So my people like you and me are connectors. They’re people that have a network that loves and trust them. A lot of times, if you started from zero, that’s really it’s hard to like, say, Do this and get followers, right, the best starting point for them before they’re trying to find random people from the sky to fall and become their clients. Is I asked this to my leads all the time, like, how are you currently staying in touch with your referral network, and they look at me and they’re like, oh, I can be better. Because a lot of times, that’s how they get their business word of mouth. And they’re not staying in touch with it. So my whole strategy, and this is literally anybody can do this, from listening to the show, is you get to see where those people are. Maybe you have their emails already. Maybe they have their phone numbers, maybe they’re already a lot of my clients, they already have these people on their LinkedIn profile already. Like they’re already followers, right? And then you need to put stuff out consistently in front of their faces, because they’re the ones who’ve given you past clients are the ones who can illuminate and realize, oh, I need Debra, again, she needs to do more training for us. Yeah, that’s really the secret. Cuz once you already have that audience, you already are an influencer, just not as obvious on social media, that you’re an influencer. You’re an influencer in real life. But people don’t bridge those two worlds, they don’t realize that it’s one in the same. And that’s why I kind of skipped that step, because they know their people already. And sometimes it’s just clearly articulating to the people that already know and love you and reminding them what you do, because they might have forgotten if they haven’t seen you in six months. And that’s the magic of social media is that you pop up in front of their faces on a regular basis. So when Joe Schmoe is like, oh, I need an EOS trainer. Oh, yeah. Jeff was great, because she popped up on my LinkedIn this week.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 21:38
Yeah, top of mind is actually one of the key things. I’m a traditional marketer from way back. And so like, we always talk about how do you stay top of mind, particularly for purchases, where it’s not an every day on every week purchase? It’s when they’re ready for it. And so actually, and I remember, I’ll never forget, I actually had a person just recently who I sent out a book to back in March 2020. And I never heard anything from her. But we were connected on LinkedIn, two years, two and a bit years on the track, probably almost two and a half years, I suddenly get a phone call out of the blue sort of saying, Hey, I know that you sent me a book, you know, back in March 2020. We’re ready to do EOS. Now, could we have a chat, and I sat there and I went in two and a half years, I’ve heard nothing from you. You’ve never commented, you’ve never done any of my staff. But she’s there watching. And I think that’s what we forget. Because we get, we get caught up in the hole, how many likes that I have, how many posts, it doesn’t actually really matter. In some respects. It’s like, it’s just been like top of mind. And consistency. I think that is the other thing is that a lot of people they start it, they don’t have the results that they can expect from it. And so then they stop, and they stop and they start in this hopper, they start the one thing I’ve been really good at is consistency.
Shaily Hakimian 22:47
I mean, that’s huge. That’s literally it. Like, the best example, oh my gosh, my face. The best example I have of this is think of like any TV show out there. I think I even made a post about this, like Game of Thrones, like you’re crazy about this game of thrones shenanigans. I didn’t watch it, or whatever. They were like, obsessed. But if Game of Thrones, like, oh, there’s 10 episodes in every season, we’re gonna make the first four. And then we just got busy. And we just like, don’t feel like releasing the next eight episodes or six episodes. Yeah. And like, people would be really mad. And like, you know, maybe we’re normal people. And maybe there aren’t that many people obsessed with us. But like, people are looking forward to seeing your stuff. And when you don’t pop up. It’s like the relationship is kind of broken a little bit. So yeah, I think a lot of people.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 23:22
And they’ll replace you with somebody else, right? And it’s like a game of thrones didn’t have another episode come out, we’d go and find something else to watch.
Shaily Hakimian 23:32
And it happened to one of my shows that I was watching. It was a web series like 10 years ago, and I was so sad. And they came up with episodes A while later, and I was like really bummed about it. So I was like, Oh, I thought this is coming out in a month. And it’s like, nope, and it lost my enthusiasm and it lost my engagement. Yeah, they don’t have my email address. I’m never gonna see that show again. So what I tell people to do, and this is, I think, different than what other social media like social media coach, and like all those people say, yep, they used to say, like, you have to post, you know, three tiktoks a day and you have to post, you know, three pictures on Instagram every week, or whatever it was, it changes all the type of magic, right? And then they tell you to do that. I’m like, that might not be wrong for the platform. But if the people were listening to this or doing it themselves, or maybe they have a team member, that might not actually be in the capacity of the team to execute on. It sounds so gross, but it’s like, here we are entrepreneurs who work hard through the cost. Okay. So that’s really what I tell my folks is find something that you can stick with because a lot of times they will not be consistent because they’re taking on too much too soon. Yeah, I had one client, that same thing twice. She’s 23 years old. 24 She’s 23 When I start working with her, I was like, Oh, she’s Gen Z she should know this stuff. Her she has a friend who’s a Tiktok influencer, got her convinced to go on Tik Tok and do stuff, right? She’s like everyday she’s posting on TikTok a new video so I’m watching her and I’m like, Yeah, good job, keep going even great. But I told her, you’re gonna hate this in a few weeks, because you’re not gonna be able to Without like a crash diet, and as much as I believe in her, and I know she’s going to be rocking it for the rest of her career, I was right, because you don’t want to crash diet, social media, so you’ll find something you can stick with. And for her, it was actually her network was on LinkedIn. For her writing a nice, beautiful LinkedIn post every other week or so that’s written was actually jackpot for her. And that was much more of her, her vibe, because she liked writing, and she’s less of a video person. So it’s about finding what works for them.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 25:26
And it’s kind of like, do what you love, you know, if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’re gonna be less likely to do it. And like you said, that I can set yourself up for failure. Because if you really, you know, if you can’t, I mean, I do a newsletter every week, and I do one or two podcasts every single day without fail. But I love doing it. So for me, it’s actually it’s something I really, really enjoy. And so I it’s easy for me to do, but it’s still quite a bit of work. And for some people, that might be too much. And that’s okay, like, it’s like, how many hours? Do you like to work in a week? I always have this conversation with people. There’s no right or wrong answer. I personally love doing 55 hour weeks that works for me, but 70 No, thank you. And if I was doing 20, I’d be bored. So it’s like, you know, there’s, that’s my right number, but for other people’s 20 might be perfect. And for other people. They don’t mind working 80 hours. They’re crazy, but you know. Yeah, yeah. But it’s, it’s about, it’s about what actually works for you. Do you enjoy doing it? And is it the right side, as you said, I love that analogy, don’t binge diet.
Shaily Hakimian 26:21
No, because it’s that doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work for anything in life. But that’s why like, you know, for me, like I didn’t have a newsletter when I started. But like I slowly started building it up a few years ago. And now it’s kind of almost automated, that kind of runs on its own. But it’s still very personalized, and lovely if you want to display the weights on there. But it took me a long time to build up to it took me like six months to build it. And now it’s in motion, right? But the benefit, I get the benefit of the work that I set up years ago, right. And I don’t have to create brand new content for every single email. I think a lot of that content already exists in my world and just needs a little bit of tweaking. And it’s still valuable to whoever’s on my list now. So there’s a lot of ways to loosen the pain of social media.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 27:01
And you don’t need to you don’t have to do it all yourself. And it’s like, oh, so let’s say if you’re not posting yourself, it’s not authentic. What depends on how it’s done. I mean, the people who post for me, they’ve spent a lot of time talking to me interviewing, getting to know me, I’ve told them what’s important for me to share and what I want to cover with my VA over in the Philippines. Every week, I say to her, these are the things and I feed her stuff as I come across it and go, we want to talk about this. So I give her direction, so that she can then be like me in terms of you know, giving us that taking out the content. So you don’t have to do everything yourself. I do newsletters and I do actually do my own podcast obviously you
Shaily Hakimian 27:36
Get it you don’t you don’t show on your own right. Like for me, I make the videos and I give it to my VA and she writes me a little blurb and I hate writing the blurbs and I’m like she can write the blurbs for me. That means my brain could like, relax, like you laugh. Yeah, right. I’m like, Oh, this is this is 2023 We’re getting rid of writing for my life. It’s funny now they’re all people that say like she hates right. I’m like, You know what, I love doing this right one on one talking to people like you who lovingly hosting on your show or my clients. It’s fun. This is my strength. I think that’s the best thing about having my own business is that I’m building where I spend my time around the things that I’m good at. And, you know, even I have to do some you know, we all have to do stuff. That’s annoying to us too. But I think that’s what’s so great about it, I can only get better and better at the things that I rock. And I think that just makes us all shine better, right? We’re exactly where we need to be.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 28:24
So tell us I always ask our guests to give us the at the top three tips. What are the top three things that you’ve learned, either professionally or personally in your world? Really think of that you changed your life or change the way you do something?
Shaily Hakimian 28:36
Oh, well, you added the inlife of like, oh gosh, and life. Well, okay, random social media ones, right? Bring the juice to the top. That’s a good one consistency. Easy. Good one. Three is bridge your brain to your marketers brain. And if you need help doing that, hi, hello Shaily here to help. Conflict resolution for social media except for there usually isn’t conflict, but that’s how I got into it. Whatever. Um, those are some three interesting quick nuggets. The other ones I would say are about life. Oof. Oh, man. Here’s what I would say. Don’t my favorite thing to say to people. It’s totally left field but it’s don’t deprive the world of what makes you special. Because yeah, every one of us has a unique combination of skills that nobody else will have. And you know, there’s there’s nobody will have the same lens of the world that we do. Right? If someone I have never good at this, like how do we bridge these things? Right? If somebody knows about baking in cars, maybe there’s a hybrid there. I don’t know. Somebody knows about I’m just making up but there’s better examples of this right? Yep. Comedy, okay. Like, here’s one, like a drag queen who does magic, right? Like that’s super specific. Somebody who’s done magic in my life. I’m like, That’s cool, right? That’s very specific. And nobody will have that. I don’t I want more people to share. That wonderfulness with the world or with their people, because that’s what’s gonna fix the messes of our world as it nobody will. The more of these layers that we understand the better we can do for the world just like me with teaching on social media, right? So that’s something I’m really, really passionate about. Just something to make the world a little bit better. I remember happiness accents, a really random thing. I don’t know if you want to hear all those shenanigans there. But I have some hacks there. Oh, yeah, go on. So here’s another
Debra Chantry-Taylor 30:27
Sort of quickly share something as well. Gina Whitman, who actually wrote the EOS, the entrepreneur operating system, he actually always says, fly your freak flag, fly your freak flag do and I think that’s what you’re saying is that actually don’t don’t be ashamed of who you are. Just go out there and be absolutely 100% you otherwise it’s too exhausting trying to be somebody else.
Shaily Hakimian 30:49
I love that. And you know what, as you say that, like I have to keep telling myself that every day. Because I have my own fears, right? But people think oh, surely you’re so open, but there’s things I’ve hidden in my life. So I love I love how you phrase that. That’s amazing. The last thing was like, like, happiness hacking is especially like, I know, I’m proud of my generation millennials, we love talking about mental health and getting therapy and stuff, always a good thing. But one of the things that I do in between that kind of mental health support, is I collect anything nice that someone has said about me from like compliments on social media to like DMS about watching my videos and being like, Oh, you’ve helped me figure something out or whatever, like, sincerely thank you for introducing me to these friends invited me to a party, whatever. And I saved them in a folder. So whenever I’m having a rainy day, where I’m sad or upset, or don’t have anyone to cry to remember that often, very occasionally, I’ll open the slideshow and read it. And it’ll just be loving messages coming to me when I didn’t know I needed it the most. And there’s lots of ways to do it with postcards or letters, people written all that kind of stuff. And so that’s something that keeps me moving, and grooving because I know that what I’m doing is so important. And I need to keep going. Because for entrepreneurs, like there’s a lot of moments where we want to quit and like do something else. So that’s how he’s doing it.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 32:06
We had something similar in our office. So my assistant and I, we used to have a jar where every time something good happened, we can write on a post, into the jar. And then at the end, when we were having those down moments, we just pull something back out against that. That’s right. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re here to do.
Shaily Hakimian 32:20
Yeah, trick yourself with joy, I guess in a way with reminders of the possibilities, and I love that.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 32:27
I love it too. Cool. Hey, look, I’m sure we could talk forever and ever and conscious of your of your coffee as well. And so before we kind of wrap it up, just just let’s tell me, first of all, what is your ideal client look like? Who do you love working with?
Shaily Hakimian 32:42
Ooh. Who do I love working with? Well, I love working with people who are determined to make things happen, like my people are not sleepers that are just like, oh, somebody just go do help learn the social media thing on the side. It’s like people who are doers who get stuff done, who have built something amazing off of a really powerful network, they’re connectors, they’re people that have, they’re very, very confident that they know that there’s more money to be had in their network that they’re not tapping into. And they’re already trying social media, but just haven’t gotten it yet. There are people with the unique stories, like we said, the the freak blue freak flag, right? Like, I love that. Right now, I did some math. And it’s a lot of Jewish men over 35 who have their own companies of sorts, whether it’s their own nonprofit, their own passion project, or their own company that they’ve run for a long time they’re established. Sometimes they have a team, sometimes they don’t have a team, sometimes they are 17 people, sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more whatever. And sometimes it’s organizations that need help with their online event presence and stuff like that. So there’s a lot of bridging between events and social media that I love to do. So that’s a little taste of it. But also, the other taste too, and I don’t talk about this enough, is schools and institutions where there’s young women, especially who don’t know how to talk about what makes them special on LinkedIn, and beyond honestly, the same things I teach my business clients is how you talk about what you do, how do you put yourself out there and where the feels authentic, and nice and beautiful. So those there’s a little taste of my people, and they’re badass is can I say bad?
Debra Chantry-Taylor 34:13
Again? Absolutely. And I believe on your site. So your website is www.yoursocialmediasherpa.com. But you’ve also got online courses, right? Is that right? Is that what you said earlier on today? Ah, kind of videos. Yeah.
Shaily Hakimian 34:28
Oh, yeah. So okay, so I have a video series on little ones. But it wasn’t my I’m not, I’m not trying to be a volume business. I like my handful of clients that I get to really dive deep into. But I do have a video series that is totally public that helps you count on where your next client is coming from the efforts of the internet. And it’s not platform dependent. So it could really apply to so many different kinds of businesses, even businesses that don’t use the internet at all. They might not even have to, they can flick my strategies can be applied to postcards, and I think that’s so funny. So it’s five videos. It’s 25 minutes. It’s public on my YouTube channel. I think it is available as a course on my website, just, it’s a gift. It’s like a free thing. Yeah. And it’s adorable. And it’s, I put a lot of love into it. And somebody can take that any of your people listening can take that and like, hand it off to their team and have a new wave of inspiration for whatever it is they’re doing and that brings me joy. So
Debra Chantry-Taylor 35:16
That’s fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your love and your your, your passion. So if people want to get in contact with you or be so given the website, how else would you suggest they get in contact with
Shaily Hakimian 35:25
yoursocialmedia.com Yes, absolutely. Yep. And LinkedIn, you look up my name on LinkedIn. And you will see actually, that’s a really great place to be. That’s where I post all sorts of tips and tricks every week. super light, super easy. Nothing is crazy hard to understand. And I think that’s what people really love about it is it’s very accessible to all sorts of different people. And I love that so your social mediasherpa.com, Shaily Hakimian all over the web. And it’ll be a great time.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 35:51
Thank you. Thank you so much for giving us your time. I do hope to get a bit better soon that coffee is setting temperature over there at the moment.
Shaily Hakimian 36:02
It’s like 30s Maybe, but also, I just got back from Miami, like, like in the middle of the night last night. So very different was like 80 degrees there, which is nice. I don’t know what that is in solid celsius. Chicago is like how do I use my Apple watch to find the weather? I do app Apple Watch another hack. I love my Apple watch so much. It’s 31 degrees, which is I don’t know what that is celsius.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 36:28
But we’ll work it out. Anyway. That’s all good. Well, look, hey, thank you for coming on the show, especially given you’ve had a late night and you’re not feeling so great. Really appreciate because we are going to be obviously friends for a long, long time. So I should look forward to bumping into you on social media. Yes, yeah. And hopefully, sometime soon, we’ll actually get to meet in person as well.
Shaily Hakimian 36:46
Goals are you know, I don’t know if I meant I spent three months in Australia. So I didn’t get to see New Zealand but I did get to spend a lot of time down under and it was a joy. And so my Australian people are coming oh, my Australian host family is coming to Chicago in a few weeks. So I get to have a little taste of Downunder shortly. So maybe one day I’ll end up in New Zealand but who knows?
Debra Chantry-Taylor 37:04
Just Just Just for the record. I’ve lived in Australia for 10 years as well. And I’m actually an Australian citizen, a British citizen and in New Zealand so
Shaily Hakimian 37:10
That’s what I saw. I saw that it was like she’s been everywhere.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 37:14
New Zealand is the best.
Shaily Hakimian 37:15
Oh, it’s hardcore kiwi. I see moss.
Debra Chantry-Taylor 37:18
Come on. Have a look. Yeah, it’s amazing place. Absolutely amazing. I’ve heard they will look. Yeah, enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Thank you so much for your time to keep in contact.
Shaily Hakimian 37:27
Stay Fabulous! See you.
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Debra Chantry-Taylor
Professional EOS Implementer | Entrepreneurial Leadership & Business Coach | Business Owner
#betterbusinessbetterlife #entrepreneur #leadership #eosimplementer #professionaleosimplementer #entrepreneurialbusinesscoach
Professional EOS Implementer New Zealand
Professional EOS Implementer Australia
Professional EOS Implementer UK
Professional EOS Implementer NZ
