You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 177.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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 Hi My Strong Friends.

 

Hey, I know that you don't want to get burnt out in business, none of us do. That's not why we became entrepreneurs. In fact, many of us got a little burnt out in corporate and we were like, no, we want more work life balance. And then we get into being an entrepreneur and we realize, oh, there are a lot of moving pieces to being an entrepreneur, especially if you're a solopreneur. 

 

And one of those pieces is marketing. I know that when a lot of people start off, they start straight with marketing. And when they don't have any clients yet, or any business coming in, they have plenty of time to spend on marketing. And so all of a sudden marketing becomes almost like a full time job. 

 

Then when your marketing starts working, and all of a sudden, you have lots of clients, you try to figure out how on earth am I going to fit all of this in. Right? Because if you spent 30 plus hours a week, now all of a sudden that's taken up with clients. So how are you going to do it? 

 

I invited one of my former clients, and also social media expert, Dawn Ferguson from Sneakers+Kale to come and tell you how you can do social media marketing, the easy way. 

 

Quick little spoiler alert, it involves some processes and systems. If you love listening to my podcast, because I like to talk about processes and systems, this is definitely going to be a great fit for you. 

 

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Dawn. 

 

Hi, Dawn, it's so great to have you on here. I love spending time with you.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, absolutely. I know that my guests are going to absolutely love hearing all about social media from one of the experts in the industry. So I'm so so grateful that you're here. 

 

Can you please introduce yourself? Tell us all about you.

 

MEET DAWN FERGUSON

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yeah, hi, guys. I'm Dawn Ferguson. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Gosh, I've spent over seventeen years now working in social media marketing, which is pretty crazy. My career is like, as old as social media itself. I spent about fifteen years working in corporate running social media for a lot of big brands, specifically in the fashion space. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

So I launched this little brand that a lot of people know called Forever21. I launched them first on social media. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

So yeah, over seventeen years ago now. And from there, I went to manage a lot of other large brands like, you know, Century 21 Department Store in New York City, Fabletics, Vital Proteins, a lot of brands that a lot of people know. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

And yeah, I did that for a long time and burnt me the F-out. I had my son when I was 33. And I was living in New York City. And you know, before that, and working around the clock, and it burnt me out. And so I always knew I wanted to work for myself. And I was really excited to make that jump. And finally did and the rest is history and life is a dream.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Nice. And so you have Sneakers+Kale.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yeah, Sneakers+Kale is my Social Media Marketing Agency. We help good-for-the-world brands and purpose-driven professionals who run online businesses primarily to leverage social media to grow their business, grow their reach and impact on the world. So yeah, we love it. It's amazing.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, my gosh, I have so many questions about that. But before we jump into that, I want to ask you about what was that decision like to leave corporate and to start your own agency?

 

CREATING A BUSINESS…BY ACCIDENT

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yeah, well, first of all, it kind of happened as an accident. I left my career thinking that I wanted to quit social media forever. So I thought social media was the problem. Like a lot of my clients now who are burnt out who are overwhelmed and frustrated with it. I was the same way I was working around the clock. It wasn't sustainable. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

I had a kid and then I'm like, wait, I can't work around the clock anymore. Work life balance became non-negotiable. And so I literally tried to leave. I got certified as a Holistic Health Coach. I went to IGN Institute for Integrative Nutrition, just out of fun and kind of on the side. I thought Yeah, I could be at Health Coach, and I also had a certification as a meditation teacher. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

I'm really passionate about meditation, health and wellness and tried to really start a wellness business. And it ran for about six months, when I left corporate, but I kept having people come to me for help with social media on the side. And so I ended up kind of accidentally building this agency and Sneakers+Kale was actually the name of my wellness business. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Then we had this agency going, I had a full time employee and like, six contractors, something like that, a large contractors, pretty healthy monthly revenue. And I was like, okay, maybe I should probably go all in on this. And that was when I started working with you, Gretchen, when I sort of finally left got rid of all the like, toxic, you know, freelance social media clients, and, and went all in on helping these smaller and more purpose driven businesses, and helped me set my business up.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

It was such an honor getting to work with you, you were the first one that I had that had an agency. And so an agency model is very different than just a straight up solopreneur agency. So what are some of the things about having an agency model that you love? And what are some of the challenges?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Hmm, that's such a great question. It's so ironic, because I always worked in-house at brands, I never worked on the agency side. But I always worked with a lot of agencies, and I would be a liaison with them. So I didn't really know the agency business model before I started one. Again, it was kind of an accident. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

But the biggest thing that I've learned that really sets the model apart is that you're a contractor based business, like you have to hire people to do the work. So as opposed to like being a solopreneur, where you're a coach, and maybe you hire a VA, or a social media person, or you know, people to help you here and there with little stuff, you execute the majority of the business, right? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Like you're the one that shows up and coaches, the agency business is very different, because you're really involved as the founder, CEO, in securing business, in bringing on new clients in the sales process, and all of that, in onboarding new clients and creating an amazing experience for them. But then ideally, you're getting client services, all the day to day work and management, all of that onto your team. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So from a business model perspective, you have a significantly higher costs, right? Like your contractor. So my biggest costs are in my business, and expenses are contractors and hiring people and having talent. And so yeah, I think that's something I love, because I personally am a big idea, strategic, visionary type of person. So I would rather work on the business than it. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

But that's been a big challenge for me, because I'm also a doer. So I've worked a lot in it. So I know, like, so many of us as small business owners we struggle with, like working in it versus on it. And I think that's definitely something that the agency model will help you push away from is that you do have to hire the people to help like he just can't physically do all that work.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, that's, that is very true. And one of the things that we worked on that helped with that was coming up with a lot of your processes, because even when you hire someone, there's still some training involved. They might come with skills, but you need to have them know what your process is.

 

YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE–PROCESSES ARE IMPORTANT!

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes, Gretchen, you literally taught me about process. I didn't have the words for it, really. And it changed my life, literally changed my life, and my business and the way that we work because you cannot run a business without process. You can't. It's the foundation of anything you do. So that was the biggest thing. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

When I worked with you, we really laid out my processes for onboarding for building out a strategy, you know, which enabled me to write SOPs, which enabled me to hire people to do the work instead of me, right? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah, that was all super critical and also processes a huge part of what I do, and what I teach, and what I help my clients with, is that so many people who are struggling with social media don't have a process for their social media. And that's part of the problem, drowning in it. And so a huge critical component that I always talk about, teach, and build for people is incorporating process and workflow into your social media strategy. It has to be a cornerstone of your social strategy for you to be set up for success. So yeah, huge.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Absolutely. And I love that you incorporate processes in there because when you have a process, it's repeatable, you know what you're supposed to be doing? And you can also start to evaluate and see how can I streamline this even further, so that I can still get the results that this process gives? Or maybe I can tweak it a little bit to get even better results. But how can I also make this easier, more profitable? Take less time, all of that sounds like you get more bang for your buck for all of your resources. Because you started with a process first.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

One hundred percent.I think my favorite thing about it is that you save time, right? Like I always use the example––It's like going into the kitchen and looking in the fridge and being like, What am I going to make my family for dinner tonight? And we can't find anything you know. And forty-five minutes go by you've been on Pinterest, you're looking at all these things, you end up just throwing something together on the table, it's boring, it's taken an hour of your time. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Versus having a recipe ahead of time having already grocery shopped, everything's in the fridge for you, you know, exactly step by step, what you need to do, you can have dinner on the table and twenty minutes. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So it's like it saves your time, it saves your stress, it saves your brainpower. But then to your point, it also gets you more results. So you can be more effective. Because I'm really passionate about this idea that, you know, there's so many studies that have shown, and you probably have better words for this than me, but they say twenty percent of our efforts and the things that we do yield eighty percent of our results. ,

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yep, that's the Pareto Principle. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Thank you. Yes. So love this principle. Yes, literally. And then, process helps you do just that. It helps you focus on the twenty percent versus being so busy all the time. So you get better results, you do what works better, what has more impact, what's more effective. So yeah.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And I love that you start people off with a strategy too, because you need to have that strategy, that vision, all of it before you can start to even execute that process. Because it's one thing to have the expert steps of “do one-two-three”. It's like, what's your vision? What are you trying to have as an outcome? And what's your brand all about that? 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Can you tell people about the strategy that you take people through? 

 

THE BASICS OF A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Oh, my gosh, yes, I'm so glad you bring it up. Because strategy is where we start. So we won't work with anyone who doesn't have it, if they think they've built out a strategy in the past. I'm always like, that's awesome, I'm going to redo it for you. Right, because strategy is so critical. So it's the number one place that we always start. And it's really easy, it doesn't have to be difficult.

 

Dawn Ferguson 

I would say, if you are struggling right now, in your business, doing social media in any way, what I encounter most often is you're probably feeling like you're throwing spaghetti at the wall. Because you have no idea what to do, you have no idea what to post. So you kind of are working off of inspiration. When you get in the zone, you come up with some ideas. And you're probably pretty inconsistent on social media, because you never know what to do. So you only do it when you're inspired. So it never happens.

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And then I also encounter a lot like it'll take us like five million hours to create one reel, right? And then it'll get like fifty views, or mom is the only one commenting on it. Right? It's brutal, it's so painful, it's like it kills our ego. It's stressful, it doesn't feel good. And so I encounter so much of this. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

I really think if you're struggling with any of that, if you're struggling with social media at all, it is probably like ninety-nine percent chance you need a strategy. And if you feel like you're operating off of the strategy, but you're still feeling those ways and having those problems, it's because you don't have an effective strategy. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

What I like to tell people is I always think of it like the gym. If you're trying to lose weight, and you're going to the gym, and you're working out by yourself. And you're just kind of making up your workout, you don't really know what you're doing. But you're showing up, you're going. And then months and months later, you're still the same way you've not gained any muscle, you know, nothing's happening, nothing's changing. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

It is the same way with your social media, it's time to bring in an expert right? At that point, with your body you would get in a personal trainer, you would start taking classes, you'd be like someone who knows how this works. Can you help me please, to build muscles. Right? Because otherwise you're just wasting your time. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Same thing with social media. If you can bring somebody in and have them, look at your socials, have them optimize your strategy and help you build it out is going to change your life, it will change the way that you do everything. And it will really really help. So yes, strategies like the number one thing that we do and where we start, and then I highly recommend.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, I completely agree with that. Because I work with a lot of new entrepreneurs and social media can be really intimidating. And there's also that wishing that hope that you can just put out one or two posts and then automatically you have a client. Yeah, it doesn't quite work like that. So then their next thought after Well, that didn't work. Okay, maybe I shouldn't do this at all. Meaning throw out the whole business. No, no, that's not it. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

But then they start to think, Oh my gosh, well then I'm going to spend one hundred percent of my time doing all social media. What is reality? Like businesses that are sustainable, that marketing is part of their everyday, day-to-day, weekend week in, week out kind of thing, and their business is doing well. How much time do people actually put into it once they have the strategy and the process in place?

 

SO, HOW MUCH TIME DO I ACTUALLY NEED TO SPEND ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

That's a great question. It's different for everybody. But I can tell you with some of my clients as an example, so I had Melanie, a business coach that I worked with. She's incredible. She puts so much love and time and attention into her social media. And she's done it for years. It burned her completely out, right? And so I asked her, like, How much time do you really spend a day? And it was like ninety minutes a day. Because she would come up with her posts on the spot every single day, and then go post them. And it would take about an hour and a half a day, which I believe averages out to like thirty hours a month, right?  

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And so she was spending 30 hours a month on social media. By the end of the time that I worked with her, built out a strategy for her, and we can, by the way, talk about what you need in your strategy to make the video so much easier. But we built out the strategy for her, her process and her workflow as a part of that and got her going on executing it. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Literally, I have tons of hacks. I love to share too for time saving things and ways to do social media. But having the strategy in place is the first thing that just changes everything. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

And so once she put all of those systems into place, she literally cut that thirty hours a month, down to less than two hours a week. So she went from

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Thirty down to eight? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow, that is significant. Wow.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

So, instead of doing it ninety minutes a day, a huge part of that is content batching. And that's one of my biggest things that I talked about and recommend is you got to batch create your content, and plan ahead, right. As opposed to doing this every single day, you're wasting your time, you're exhausting yourself, you're burning yourself out, if you're doing it every single day. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Having a strategy and a system in place. I hop on a call with my clients, we will plan out an entire month of posts in detail, including shot lists, and like prompts of what they should write for captions in one hour. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

So you do that in one hour, you plan out your month, one hour. When you have the strategy, it's easy. When you have content pillars like this happens easy. So you can do that in an hour. And then from there, the remaining eight hours. So she'd spend one day a month on her social media, basically. Right? Now, build out the calendar, and then can batch out, you know, create all the copy, shoot any video needed, create any Canva graphics, schedule everything. And then it's like the rest is history. So yeah, the time you put into it varies. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And then the other thing I'll add is that so many people are spending when we talk about the principle, the twenty percent versus the eighty percent of your time, so many people spend their time on content creation. And that's the biggest problem is like, yes, you need to have awesome content, like that's what's going to drive it. That's what the algorithm is gonna pick up. That's what's gonna get you more reach, more followers, more engagement, all the things, you have to have good quality content. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And you have to know what works on social media to be able to make good quality content. But that's just one element of social media, like so many people forget. They go to social media thinking it's like email, like, Oh, I'm just gonna go send my email, stand on my soapbox, do this monologue, talk to people, and then hope that they sign up to work with me. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah.

 

Dawn Ferguson 

In reality, social media, you got to be social on social media. So if you're not getting in there and proactively engaging with other people, and commenting and starting conversations, you're missing out. Like that is one of the biggest purposes. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So that's a big shift that I take with all my clients is, you know, make sure that you're spending less time like how can we create the strategy, this process, teach you what is most effective and what works best on social media. So that you can create your content in way less time, spend less time creating content. So you can spend more time engaging, taking people through the DM sales funnel, that is when you start client signing clients. That's when, like, kind of the power really happens.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is such a great, great tip to bring up. And I think that's even more than a tip. I don't know what word I would call it instead of a tip. But it's amazing. I almost want to say strategy. But we're going to talk about the overall strategy of social media strategy. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

And I know one of the things that you'll start people with is talking about who their ideal clients are. And I love that you have you're so specific. So tell us again, who are the specific kind of businesses that you work with?

 

I.C.A = IDEAL CLIENT AVATAR

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes, so I have two sides of my business. Our agency, we work with bigger brands who are predominantly e-commerce stores and people selling product online. But they're very purpose driven stores, people who are trying to elevate the lives of their customers and make the world a better place, right? That's on the agency side of the business. And we do full service, run their social media for them. We sort of act like a social media department for their companies. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

And then where my heart and soul lives in the business is to help solopreneurs, and women specifically, so female based entrepreneurs who are busy, but are very purpose driven. And who just want to reach and help more people. So these are coaches, healers, and other service providers, whether they're working online.I have some like postpartum doulas, and you know, all kinds of different service providers and offerings. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

But these are, yeah women who are doing incredible things for the world just want to help elevate people's lives and change the world, but are struggling to do that, with technology. You know, the power of social media for building their brand awareness and their thought leadership, expanding their reach and their impact. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

You know, helping them get the book deals like I have a lot of clients are like, I want a book deal. And I've talked to publishers that are like, you need more social media followers. They're literally like. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Oh Wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah, because publishers are looking for people who have built in audiences to sell to, they want the books to be a success. So that's a huge thing, if that's your ten-times goal, if that's where you're headed, and you're really looking to grow and expand your thought leadership, and write a book one day, you know, it all starts on social media, right? We're all cultural movements. Anything that really happens, that’s where it begins.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. So not only do you have the clarity on two specific ICA, so one being like those medium sized businesses and others as solopreneurs. But you decided to go even further in the niching. So that you're getting a subset of those medium sized businesses or solopreneurs, where it's more value aligned. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Can you share what that value alignment is? And why it helps you to be of better service to them? And why is that a good choice for you too? How does that make you more engaged in what you do?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Oh, my gosh, yes, I think what's so important about the value in alignment is that one, it makes doing what you do so much easier, more exciting, and it's aligned with you. So it makes it more sustainable over time too. And that's really key with social media, like bringing it back to social. So many of my clients are just struggling because, you know, they don't feel good about social media, it's not an alignment with them. It doesn't feel good. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

And I always remind them, we always go back to what's your purpose? Why do you exist? Who are these people you're trying to help? Because so often, the people we're trying to help, is really, it's us. It's like, you know, ten-years-ago-Dawn, who I'm ultimately trying to help. It's me who was burnt out, and who didn't know how to bring a process to the social media that I was doing. So I was working around the clock as a result. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

And this was before I became a mom. And now that I'm a mom, it's like, that's not doable anymore, right? So I'm really passionate about helping other busy business women and moms specifically, to help create those systems that make social media more sustainable for them. And so, because I have that value alignment with her that I can understand her so well, because I used to be her

 

Dawn Ferguson

One, it fuels me in my business. And it makes the work that I do so much more fulfilling and enjoyable. And two it helps me like I can really speak to her. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

I think what you were getting out earlier too, is like when you build out your ICA it's not just demographics, right? It's not just she's thirty-something, she lives in a place, she identifies as female. No, it's not just demographics. It's psychographics. It's, How does she feel? It's, What does she want? It's you know, what I like to talk about. We get into social media and marketing in general. We're building a brand.

 

Dawn Ferguson

So when you talk about brands building a huge component to that is, aspirational lifestyle. So this is a huge component to my strategy process and that I think every business should be thinking about when you're looking at your niche and your ideal client avatar is, What is their aspirational lifestyle? What is their dream? What do they want to be when you think about aspirational lifestyle brands? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So let's think of like, Nike or Patagonia or GymShark, is one of my favorite examples. Not everybody knows GymShark. They're a British activewear brand but they're huge. And they appeal to people who are gym sharks, gym rats, like people who love to spend hours at the gym. Who have insane bodies like muscles, six-pack, you know the whole nine. And they make activewear for this of crew people, right? But they target like, you don't see these like skinny Yogi's on their channel. You see these built bulky, muscular, dude sharks. And so that’s why. Because that's their client's aspirational lifestyle. That's what they want. That's what they aspire to. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

We all go on Instagram, we all go on social media to be inspired to become better versions of ourselves. We invest in other brands and businesses, because we believe that they embody a better version of ourselves. Like Apple, why don't we all walk around wearing AirPods? Are they the best bluetooth headphone on the market? Absolutely not. Apple does not make the best tech on the market. But I will only buy everything Apple, because to me, they represent creative people who are not status quo. I align with that brand. So I buy into them. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So anyway, all this to say like, that's all these deeper psychographics. It's these deeper values of your ICA. It's getting to know what's their dream, what's their aspirational lifestyle? How can we speak to those results that they're craving? Because when you can do that they see you as this, powerful guide. That you get them from their problem to their solution. And that's ultimately why people work with and pay service providers. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yeah.

 

Dawn Ferguson

You get on from A to B. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That's a really, really good point. And going back into strategy again. So there was something that you had mentioned earlier about the goal of some of your clients, is they want to write a book. But the publishers are saying, Oh, well, you need to have a larger social media following. And so I think that's interesting. Because as we're coming up with strategy, we have to think about what's our end goal for this experiment that we're doing. Because you know, I always see everything as an experiment. And you experiment until you find the solution that you want, that's going to get you the result that you're looking for. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

And there are some people that want to use social media to sign a client today. And then there's other people that you gave a great example, they want to write a book, but the publishers are saying you need to have a larger audience before you can get a book deal. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

What are some of those different end goals that your clients have had that people might not have even thought about?

 

BUILDING FROM “LIKE, KNOW, & TRUST”

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yeah, that's a great question. I think the biggest one, at the end of the day for everybody, is we all want to sign clients. Even the one that wants a book deal. They're looking for the buck right now, too, right? And so, you know, ultimately, I think everyone's ultimate goal is to grow the business. And so one thing that I always level set from the beginning when I work with new people is, you know, we're talking about organic social media.

 

Dawn Ferguson

We're not talking about running ads, or paid advertising that are funneling directly to something or we're not telling someone, buy this. Right? This is we're talking about building a brand, we're talking about building thought leadership, building a presence, and that is so much different. 

 

Dawn Ferguson
So what I always coach people is yes, yes, yes. At the end of the day, the number one goal is to grow the business to bring in more leads and clients. Always that's number one. However, before we can do that, from organic social media, we have to build like, know, and trust. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yes.

 

Dawn Ferguson

We have to reach more people, like so many of us are reaching you. We've got five hundred followers, and we're reaching this group and that's okay. You don't need followers nowadays to like, literally. Because of the TikTok application of social media is what people do, TikTok. Basically, all the algorithms have changed. So were you used to need to have a large following to reach a large amount people, it is absolutely not the case anymore, because the algorithm with the right piece of content you can reach. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So I had a brand for example, they were hovering at around two thousand followers, with between one and two thousand followers for a long time. When we started working with them, creating content for them. Posting eighty percent, maybe seventy-five percent reels, we started expanding the reach exponentially. They've since grown from two thousand followers, up to twelve thousand followers. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Wow. That's significant. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And then when we were hovering around two thousand, we had this one reel, it took off. It had over one hundred seventy thousand views. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

With two thousand followers, right? 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Wow, yeah.

 

An insane exponential reach, all from just leveraging a type of technology that has the ability to go viral. So like that's the power of creating great content, knowing your audience and what is valuable to them and what they want to see. And then knowing how to create effective social media content that works in the algorithm. And then we literally at one point, you know, one in every five reels that we would create for them again, still at around two thousand followers, we get over eleven thousand views. And then one in every eight reels we would create would get over fifty thousand views. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Oh, wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So there's huge potential there.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. Okay. So you obviously have some secret sauce and magic that our average solopreneur wouldn't know. And so that's why we turned to an expert like you. Does this come back to the strategy? Like, how do you? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Always. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Okay, tell us about the next thing? I'm thinking it might be content pillars, is that the next thing? That would be important?

 

I BELIEVE YOU, I NEED A STRATEGY. WHERE DO I START?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes, sort of. So let me back up. If you are at this place where you've been struggling with social media, you don't know how to use it effectively. You're like, Okay, Dawn, I'm bought in, I need a strategy. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Yeah. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Where do I start? Here's what I would tell you. four key components to building out a successful social media strategy. Number one is purpose. You got to get to know yourself first. So I always, always start with purpose. First, what is your purpose? What is your why? If you're a solopreneur, and you're a service provider to that's, you know, a coach or a healer or someone that's providing services to other people? What is your origin story? What is your why? Why do you do what you do? 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Why do you do what you do, beyond financial gain? Like so many coaches, and all my clients, anyone who is purpose driven, typically, you would probably be doing what you were doing, even if you didn't get paid to do it. You're just so driven to do it, and you feel the calling. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Typically, it's always because you have an origin story, where you started, you struggled with the same thing. Nothing else worked for you, you figured out something that worked, you conquered, you found the result you wanted, and now you're helping people do the exact same thing. You need to tell that story more often. Because that is the most powerful thing that your potential client can hear from you, in order to make that step and want to work with you, right? Because they're like, Oh, she did it. I could do it, too. She can help me like she can walk me through this. Yes, that's kind of number one is you got to get to know yourself. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

First, you have to get clear on your purpose, your mission, your vision, what is your purpose, and then you need to translate that purpose to how you show up on social media. So this, in my course, I talk all about this, I teach you exactly how to do this yourself. I do this for my clients as well. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

But basically, we take your purpose, and we translate it to Okay, the reason we're showing up on social media, the reason we're using social media is because, let's see, let me give an example. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

If you're a business coach, like you, Gretchen, I have a business coach client where her thing was, it's all about action plans. With you, it's all about process. You figure out like, what is your method, what is your secret method, magic formula that you use to take people from A to B. And that becomes your purpose with leveraging social media is to convince the world that this is the thing they need. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Your business is crumbling, you need a process and it's going to change your life. You create that process if you want. If you're a postpartum doula, or a sleep consultant. And your thing is, sleep training is the thing that is gonna change your life. Right? Whatever form it takes, doesn't have to be cry-it-out, you can do something more gentle. But if you don't sleep for your kid, you're never going to sleep and you're going to.

 

Dawn Ferguson 

So it's translating that purpose, and into, you know, helping share with people the value of this thing, and being committed to teaching them how to do it and the basic principles of how to do it. Okay, so that's the first part of your social media strategy is getting connected with your purpose, your why, why you're here to do what you do, and what your method is that magic formula that you help people with. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Number two, is you have to get to know your ICA, inside and out. So we like to deep dive on all this psychographics. Who are they? What do they want, above all? Right? I highly recommend the book Story Brand. If you haven't read it, Donald Miller

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Donald Miller. Yep. Love him. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Yeah, highly recommend that for kind of getting to know your audience and thinking about their pain points. But ultimately, at the end of the day, they're the hero of the story, is what Story Brand always talks about. Not you. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

So many people show up on social media thinking it's about us, right? Like it's about us telling the story and it's about us talking about ourselves. People don’t care about you. They care about how you can help them get from A to B. When you talk about yourself, you talk about yourself in a way that's helpful for your ICA to get A to B. So you got to know where they want to go. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

So this is where you define their aspirational lifestyle, and you get to know them really deeply. So number one, you got to know yourself, your purpose. Number two, you get to know your client. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Number three, you build out content pillars, you build out a content pillar system, I have a proven framework that I teach and use and it's all based on your ICAs aspirational lifestyle. What is that goal-life that they're striving for? How can I teach them how to get there? How can I teach them how I teach people how to get there? What are the steps? What are the tips? 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

You make it all about that kind of lifestyle, and then you know exactly what to post, right? You have these buckets, where you know exactly what to post, it becomes so much easier when you're planning out your content, when you have an actual content strategy. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And then lastly, you need that process in the workflow. It's really that list of four components of a social media strategy, your purpose, getting to know yourself, your audience, deep diving on who they are and what they want, having content pillars and a system to create a content strategy based on your audience. And then lastly, a process in a workflow to execute at all. Those are really like the core components? And there's a lot of intricacies within them, but that's it.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That is so good. And you mentioned a course. Tell me more about the course.

 

SUPPORT INSIDE THE SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS ACADEMY

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes. So I have a course called Social Media Success Academy. In this course, I literally walk you through step-by-step how to build out your strategy and your process. So everything I'm talking about now. I have these, you know, short, simple videos that help you walk you through, like, here's how to translate your purpose. Here's how to build out content pillars. Follow this unique formula. Like, you know my clients build out their content pillars. It makes creating content so much easier, right? 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

And so yeah, I walk you through every step, I give you all my templates, I think it's a hundred plus page, social media strategy playbook template that you get as a part of the course and you update it throughout to serve your business forever. It's literally something that will last you forever. It's, you know, it's not going to expire, even though the technology changes because it's based on your purpose, your mission. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah. And then I give you all kinds of other templates, like, I have camp with Canva templates in there, I teach you all the things on analytics, and how to report and understand what's working and what's not about social media. And then also how to hire people to help you no matter what budget level you're at. Whether you've got zero dollars to spend on it.

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yeah.

 

Dawn Ferguson

Or you’ve got thousands of dollars a month to spend on it. But inevitably, at some point, you're going to need support. And so he talks like how to hire and find the right VA to help you with your social media. And all of that. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, I remember one of the things I learned from you, when we were working together, is the concept of interns. That there are colleges where their students are trying to learn these different skill sets. And one of the things that they might want is an internship where they're earning college credit, and they're getting real world experience. And internships typically are not paid because they're getting the college credit. And they're getting all of that experience. And as a business owner, including solopreneurs, we can offer those internships where it's a win-win for both of us. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah. Huge value

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Brilliant. Brilliant.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes. That's something I've talked about in the course, too, that you can totally do. You know, what I recommend when hiring interns is looking for people who want to do what you do. So if you are a life coach, and they want to be a life coach one day, oh my gosh, how invaluable is it for them to be able to come work for you. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

For me, people who want to work in social media, marketing, and think that's an interesting field, right? They want to come work for me because I can teach them everything I know. I can show them the process. And now I was literally just talking about this this morning with one of my friends. The job market, I think, is more competitive than ever before. Because people in college now are getting like, over my entire career, I've hired the best interns. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So we used to, you know, hire paid interns that a lot of the big, bigger businesses that I was at, but in New York and LA, which is where I live, you know, so in the city with this great pools of talent, you know, interns we'd hire that had more experience in entry level employees, wow, in college, because they're getting that experience and they're going out there. So I was telling people I think the entry level job market is more competitive now than ever before, because these interns are coming immediately out of college with already two to three years of experience. You know, so yeah, it's pretty incredible and there's a huge value exchange.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Because a lot of us that now have businesses, especially in our thirties, and our forties and fifties, over here, we have had decades of experiences in all of these different industries. And oftentimes, they want to learn from people that have been in those industries, especially the ones that have had amazing success, like both of us. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

And they wouldn't normally have access to have a mentor like us. And they get to learn all of that, they get to develop their skills. And they also get some actual life coaching from us, too, because we're helping with mindset too, that is a huge value. That's a huge value. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Totally.

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

And so, so if we're someone where we're like, oh, no, we can't allow someone to work with us for free. It's like, we forget that there's actually a huge value that we're giving as an employer to, that's going to make that person more marketable in the future.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

I love it. I have to say my sister-in-law worked for me over the last, she worked for almost a year when she was finishing. She's my husband's half sister, she's a lot younger than us. She was finishing up college. She's like, I want, I’m thinking about doing marketing. I'm like, Come intern for me. She worked, interned, for me for about eight months. I taught her everything I knew. I helped her update her resume at the end, I helped her create a little portfolio when she was applying for jobs. She got an insane, high paying job immediately out of college, like the week she graduated.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh my gosh, wow.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

I felt so good. Because it was like you said it was that reminder of like we're providing so much value. And I've done that for other interns as well that are not family that are not related. Yeah, you're teaching you're giving value, and you're helping them get the job they want. You know, so as long as you approach the relationship in that way, that's yeah, my biggest tip about it, is that you can literally help them start kick start their career.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, yeah. Okay. There was one last thing that I'm thinking, this would be really helpful to know. A lot of my clients will ask me, What do I do first? Do I work on my website presence? Or do I work on growing an audience on social media? It seems to be like, Well, it depends. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

So can I hear what you have to say?

 

TURNING ON THE OPEN SIGN

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yeah, oh, my gosh, it's so interesting. And I'm curious, your POV. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Okay, so in the very beginning, I'm actually one of the first people, you guys, you'll be surprised, probably, to hear this from me. But in the beginning of your business, number one thing is building revenue, you need to create revenue streams, like you're building a business, not a hobby, and you need to create income. So in my opinion, you don't need social media or a website to create income.

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And I didn't do either. I didn't start social media for the agency until two years later, literally you guys. And that was because, you know, I didn't have time in the business. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yeah

 

Dawn Ferguson 

We were doing everybody else’s social media. And we were, you know. I know my clients can relate to like, not having that time. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

But anyway, I built my business based on referrals and my network. That's how it worked for mel It's different for everybody. A website, in a lot of cases, you need a website to have a point for checkout, right? I didn't, because as an agency, I could onboard people via email and send invoices and you know, decks, proposals and all of that. I didn't need a website to be found. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

I had my LinkedIn. So technically, to that point, I did get a lot of business through LinkedIn in the beginning. So that's social media. But it wasn't because I actively like posting content on there. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

You know, so anyway, my thing, number one is, social media is not going to bring you income in the door in the immediate short term. Okay, so if you don't have income in your business, and you're spending forty hours a week doing your social media, this is not my recommendation to you. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

No, you need to go out and prove and get that income, create those revenue streams. And then social media becomes so much more powerful as a layer. Or also, while you're in that beginning point, it's okay to spend some time on social media, you want to build that brand presence. It's like, you know, I think nowadays, having an Instagram is literally like having an open sign in your window. You know, I'm open for business. If you're not posting, like regularly, on Instagram, or you don't have recent content on there, people will literally think you are out of business.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I've experienced that going and looking at people's Instagram going, Oh, the last thing they posted was a year and a half ago. And I'm like, what has this done for this person? This doesn't make any sense.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Same, but it's a loaded answer, I would say number one, above all, you figure out how to create income. However that works for you, if a website is required for that, if that's tapping your network, if that's networking, whatever that is for you create the income first. And as you're going, spend a little bit of time on social media, like put out a little bit, do kind of the bare minimum, because you'll start building a brand and presence and the biggest thing that I recommend over time. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

And I'll confess even, you know, in general, with content marketing, the best thing you can do for yourself is to start today, because the longer you put it off, the more time goes by that you have no content out there. And the thing with content marketing was having a blog, and I confess, I still haven't started my blog. And that's one of those things that I like, think about all the time, like, gosh, if I would have just started that years ago, it created a habit around it and had it, you know, publishing like I'd be getting so much more through SEO, so much more coming into my business from that. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

So the same thing with social media, if you can start small, keep it simple. Build a strategy, know what you're doing, start really small, that's really powerful to get going in the beginning. And that will support you in the end in the long term, because it's a long game. But once you start building it up, and getting more clear, and keep getting it out there, it'll benefit you, which is the same as having a website too.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Well, and I've seen some people will, or they'll create a website, and they've put so much effort into it. And it's almost like they think, okay, now I have the open sign. And nobody's coming to the website. 

 

Dawn Ferguson 

Exactly.

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

It's kind of like you built a brick and mortar business out in the middle of the desert, and nobody drives to that desert, like we'll put in all this effort. It's like, yes, but you have to actually have traffic coming. But then you also always be on like a busy traffic street. And you're just standing there, and you have no business behind you that it's like, Well, which one there? So there's the happy medium somewhere?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes, it's a great point. You know, you could do too, if you choose social media in that case. So that argument, my gosh, great point, build your social media first, before the website. There's so many different ones that I would promote specifically, there's so many different vendors that offer this. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

But Stan Store. Have you heard of Stan Store? You can build a Stan Store, which and there's a lot of these that exist. And if you look at your favorite creators and people who are big on social media and have these, you know, it's the link, you put in your bio, this brand, Stan, you can build out a store in your link in bio on Instagram, or Tiktok.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

So you can use this link on any of your social media. And people can literally purchase this like a mini-micro-website where they can purchase your offers from you. Super easy to set up and use. And that could be an alternative to launching a whole website dealing with all of that, because that's a lot. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

This could just be a simple way of doing it where you're actually you're putting stuff out there, you're reaching people. And you're getting traffic to that link by posting content. And yeah, that could be a good idea. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Great idea. Well done. Thank you so much for coming on today. What are all of the ways that people can connect with you? 

 

CONNECT WITH DAWN

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes, well, first off, follow me and connect with me shoot me a DM anytime, @sneakersandkale on Instagram. That's where I spend the most time is Instagram. We're at sneakersandkale.com You know everything really through my website, and Instagram is where it's at right now. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

2024 We're launching a Podcast and YouTube channel as well. So look out there. But yeah, in the meantime, shoot me a DM I would love to connect.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And tell us again, the name of the course that you've created. 

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Social Media Success Academy

 

Gretchen Hernandez

All right. And do they go straight to your website to find that? 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yes. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yep, that is so good. That is so good. And then what would be one final piece of advice for let's say moms, since you are glowing with the arrival of your second child. What would you give as a piece of advice to moms that are trying to have a business going, and to still have time to be a mom and love the life with their kids?

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Yes. Oh my gosh, for moms and any women. I feel like when I became a mom, I was like, oh, yeah, now I have to pick up the kid from childcare. Right? So there's like a specific cut off. But even if you don't have kids, like you should still be creating this life of balance. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

But yeah, especially for us moms who are tasked you know full force. I think what's really important to me is you have to create time for yourself and that is like, you'll see me on Instagram stories. I try to walk, I live at the beach, I try to walk on the beach every morning, especially being so pregnant. It's, you know, that that grounds me before the day. I drop off my kid in kindergarten, go to the beach, I have alone time. I can just reconnect and ground in and set my day up for success. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Because I think, especially as a mom, our lives become really loud, you know. And there's a lot happening around us that we can't control. And that just becomes stressful and taxing. And that takes and drains our energy. So I think being a business owner, especially a service provider who serves other people, you're in the energy game, you have to have energy, if you want to serve your clients and give them great results. And so the only way to do that is to refuel your energy throughout the day. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So self care is my number one and, and really is like creating, you know, time in your schedule. And Gretchen, that's something you helped me do, and I worked with you, is already creating that dream schedule of yours and along with your processes and everything, just making sure you have time in your day to regenerate your energy to refuel. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Because we know that we know about high performers and anyone like you think of the best athletes, the highest performing CEOs in the world, you know, all these people, like, they know the power of regeneration, you can't constantly go one hundred percent of the time. You have to take rest days. You have to. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Like Steph Curry will go, you know, kill it on the court, but then he's going home and he's sleeping. I just heard this point as LeBron James sleeps like twelve hours a day. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Wow. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

Yeah, that's because you have to know how to maintain. So at the end of the day, you know, and that's what I really preach when it comes to social media marketing, is you have to create a strategy that is in alignment with you. And that is sustainable for you. Because if it's not something that feels aligned with you, you know, and you're excited about. And if it's not something that is doable, like it takes too much time, you're not going to do it, you're not going to stick to it over time, right. It's just like habits. 

 

Dawn Ferguson

So get your self-care in and create systems in your business that are sustainable and in alignment with you. And that I think is what creates success in the long term for sure.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That is excellent advice. Thank you. Thank you so much.

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Literally, thank you for having me.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

You are so welcome. And everybody go and get Dawn’s course you will not regret it. This is going to be one of the best things that you learn. Thank you so much done,

 

Dawn Ferguson  

Thank you.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

 

All right. 

 

So what did you think about what Dawn had to share with you? 

 

What nuggets did you pick up that you can start implementing right away? 

 

Now, I want to share with you that I also became one of Dawn's one-on-one clients at one point, because I wanted to figure out How do I do this better? And so she helped me to figure out my strategy, my content pillars. And she even helped me to figure out how to do my first reel in Instagram. 

 

Now I don’t know about you, but Instagram is not always the easiest thing for me to figure out, I'm more of a Facebook person. So trying to do reels and figure out how to upload things and captions and songs and all of the things. I got a whole lot of tech overwhelm. So Dawn was there to hold my hand, help me to figure it all out. 

 

So she helps you with more than just figuring out your processes in your systems. She's also taking care of you as a human being. So I would highly encourage you to go and check out her course. And if you want to have hands on help from Don, go ahead and sign up for one of her strategy sessions. They are amazing. They're going to help you get crystal clear on what you need to do. 

 

All of Dawn's links are located in the show notes at myfreedomgrove.com/podcast-177. And you can go and go directly to her website sneakersandkale.com. 

 

All right, my friends. Have a great week and I'll talk with you soon. 

 

Bye bye.

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