Hot Tips for Networking on Facebook with Ashleigh Chanél

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors. SUMMARY KEYWORDS Networking on Facebook, groups, business, facebook, facebook groups, ashley, post, picture, clients, life, friends, love, facebook page, conversation, talking, connect, person, coffee, question, share SPEAKERS Ashleigh Chanél, Erin Ollila Erin Ollila 00:04 Hey friends, welcome to the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Here we empower small business owners to step into the spotlight with their marketing and messaging. I’m your host, Erin Ollila. Let’s get started and talk coffee. Hello friends today I am here with Ashley Chanel. And you might know her as the expert marketer and marketing Genie. But one thing you do not know about her is that she’s actually been to 36 different countries. So Ashley, let’s just start here. Before we jump into Facebook at all, tell me what were some of your favorite countries that you’ve traveled to? Ashleigh Chanél 00:46 Oh, my goodness, I love this question. My favorite countries, I used to live in Italy and it will still forever and always be my favorite country. It is home it is the place that my soul just explodes in and I thought that Portugal was a beautiful surprise. Romania was also a beautiful surprise. And I also love Sweden. I think it is a beautiful country. It is cool. Yeah, those are those are the coolest places I’ve been. But I love them. Almost most of them. Erin Ollila 01:16 I am one I’m just jealous of pretty much anything you just said right there. I would love to have lived in Italy. That just sounds like oh my gosh, I would gain so much weight. I would just I would just like dedicate my life to eating if I lived in Italy. Ashleigh Chanél 01:30 I pizza and pasta. Almost three days a week. It’s you walk so much and true. Yeah, better habits. They’re like, you walk to dinner and you walk home, like your body’s digesting instead of the way that we eat. We just eat and we’re sitting, eat, go to sleep. Yes, exactly. Erin Ollila 01:47 Let’s just jump right into Facebook. Now I am so excited to have you on because I feel like you can cover such a like depth of the overall platform. What I’d love to know to kind of start our conversation is like what drew you to Facebook? And then how do you use Facebook for your own business? Ashleigh Chanél 02:03 Well, what drew me to Facebook was the fact that it was pretty new when I joined to be honest. I joined Facebook it like when you still needed your college email address. 02:17 Same Yeah. Very different time and place and time. Ashleigh Chanél 02:22 What kept drawing me to Facebook, when I started my business, we’re all of the freaking Facebook groups. Oh, my gosh, I love Facebook for the Facebook groups, because not only can you find your people, but you can get so much market research from them without even having to speak to anyone. I think it’s really, really cool. Erin Ollila 02:45 Yeah, I’d love to stay here for a second maybe like the direct question I should ask here is do you have any advice for finding groups or maybe using groups? Not market research, but just as a participant in the groups? Ashleigh Chanél 02:58 Heck, yes. All right. Okay, number one, finding groups, type in the key word of what you do just just do that. You can join other people’s groups who do things that are similar to you. And that should be okay. It’s not really, you know, it’s not a big deal. I was actually on a kickoff call with a new client. And we were just kind of talking about competition and how we don’t really believe that there is competition. If you’re a service based business. There are I think, 19,000 or so cities in America, if you only got one client per city, you still would not be able to service them all. So let’s not talk about the markets are saturated. Everybody’s doing it. No, it’s hogwash. Like let’s, let’s get rid of that thought. So 100%. So type it in type in your keyword. That’s one. Also look at your friends who were actually ideal clients, and ask them what groups that they love, and then go join them. So a lot of things that entrepreneurs don’t want to do is talk to people. I don’t know what that’s about. But sometimes they just don’t want to talk to people. It’s so important for you to talk to talk to people. If you don’t, then you’re never going to know, right? So it’s going to be very, very important for you to ask the questions that are going to propel your business forward. That’s one way you can find them. Another way is thinking about the other things that your clients do. So what tools do they use? Do they use Canva? Their Canva groups do they use dubsado? There are dubsado groups? Do they use Trello Asana, there are Trello and Asana groups. So if you are a you know a health coach, why don’t you go into the groups that talk about high cholesterol, talk about the nutrition groups, type in words that are complementary, so I do marketing, and I focus heavily on ads, but people who are complimentary for me are organic social media people. My clients don’t want to do organic they will like they do it in addition to ads. You know, I work with those who value their time over money at the moment. because they can buy back their time currently, right? So they will use organic social media as a compliment. But organic social media, people, PR people are adjacent to me, people who do Pinterest people who focus on, you know, service base coaches who do service based businesses, people who have masterminds, you know, things like that. So you can look for or typing keywords of things that are adjacent to what you do. And you can find groups that way. Erin Ollila 05:28 When I heard you talk about, you know, we’re not all competing against each other, like I wanted to clap, because I completely agree. Like, again, just using your example, like I cannot serve 19,000 people in my business, I don’t even know if I want to serve 19 people, right, just from like, at least for the service based offers that I have. So I love thinking about that when we think about how to like, make friends grow our network be visible in our business. But I think that when you said that my first thought was, and we talked about, like joining competitors group is like, make sure when you go into groups, we also have to like put our actual thinking cap on and not spam groups, because that’s where it all goes wrong. We are all such good detectives these days, like we don’t even need to put on our detector pads. The second we see someone acting like a fool in these groups were like, oh, no, thank you, right. And then in the grand scheme of things that kind of like deflates our opinion of the group as a whole, especially if it’s like allowed to happen often. So I’d say, you know, when you join a group, you kind of want to have a plan of attack of like, how are you going to show up and be present within the group as well? Ashleigh Chanél 06:33 Yeah, I agree. So one of the ways that I like to go into groups is, I do an introduction, I know that people kind of, like roll their eyes at them. But it’s because of the way people do introductions. It’s because we know that when you do an introduction, you’re just trying to get business. So when one of the rules in the groups and I think on almost every single group, one of the rules is give more than you take. I truly believe that’s a real thing, when people feel like you are helping them when you show up and you’re helping you kind of become a group celebrity in the sense that your posts show up more when people are liking and commenting on your stuff. So ask questions, and then also answer other people’s questions. Another thing is, I when I do an introduction, I always post a picture of myself. I like myself, I’m going to post a picture so that people know who I am. And when they see my posts in the group, they remember Oh, that’s that girl who posted that picture of her in Mexico on that swing, you have Erin Ollila 07:31 beautiful pictures, by the way. So like you should post like five pictures of yourself every time that you do it. Ashley and I are kind of just meeting right now. She was referred to me for this particular show from a bunch of people in our network. And I just remember going to like check you out, scope you out. I’m like hot damn, this girl’s gorgeous. Look at all of these beautiful brand photos. It’s funny because at the same time when I was looking for like you as a guest, I was also recording an episode about how to like, show up with confidence and style in your brand photos. And I was like, well, Ashley could just be our like, case study on this, these pictures are beautiful. So you deserve all the credit for that. Well, thank Ashleigh Chanél 08:08 you very much. I appreciate that. I remember, this is a side note for anyone if you travel, I don’t care if you’re going out of the country or not. When you go to another destination that’s not your home, like like your biggest physical house. Find a photographer, like they’re not as expensive as you think. But Erin Ollila 08:25 great point. Thank you for adding. Ashleigh Chanél 08:28 So when you’re in the groups post a picture of yourself, one that shows your personality, right? Like, I don’t I typically don’t wear pants. And what I mean by that is I like shorts, and I wear dresses, I like my pictures of our typically have me in in shorts, and I like my hair a certain way. Usually it’s like a big curl. So it’s just like when people see me and I’m smiling all the time, I like to be in pretty outdoors. I’m pretty bougie I like luxury. So when you see my photos, that’s kind of what my brand is going to show you. So show show parts of your personality. It doesn’t need to be a regular headshot, you know, show something that’s fun, show something that’s with your you know, your animals or your kids like it doesn’t really matter. I mean, if you want to put your kids on internet and I totally get if you don’t, but you know if you do you know post something that is fun to you and can actually start a conversation and then when you’re talking about your caption, like when you’re in your caption, obviously tell people what you do. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Tell people your name, what you do, maybe where you’re located, talk about hey, I’d love to do in person meetups, if you’re that kind of person, or do a boring fact about yourself. And I mean a boring fact. I don’t mean a fun fact. And by boring one of my boring facts is I don’t like coffee. I think it’s gross and disgusting. I don’t understand how people drink coffee. And so then I’ll I’ll segue into I’d love to you know meet more. You could say like minded Did you can say I’d love to meet more people who are in this field. So right when we talked about complementary people complement complementary groups, hey, I’d love to meet more of your health coach, more nutritionists, because this is what I do. And I’d love to meet more of you, I’d love to have referral partners, you know, things like that if you want, if you wanted to say that upfront, I’m kind of a very direct person. So like, I like to get to the point quickly, I don’t like to beat around the bush. But you can do that. Or you can wait to post something later and say all that. But if you did a boring fact, then you could ask someone, what’s your boring fact, and then get them talking on your page, and having conversations with people and getting to know what they do. And then when they comment, you get to know what they do, then you say, oh, my gosh, I love that. I’d love to have a coffee chat with you. But I call mine sparkling water jets, because I do not drink coffee or tea. Erin Ollila 10:50 I think the I think what you say but like you are their direct person. So you want to get down to it. I think even if you’re not a direct person, that’s really smart advice. Because, you know, we talk about social and overwhelm. And I think part of the overwhelm is people are just kind of like dipping their toe in and then just keeping their fingers crossed. And it’s like, why are you wasting your time and everyone else’s time? Like, you don’t need to cut to the chase without any introduction, because that that removes the connection. But you do need like, Just say what you want and what you’re looking for, you’re going to attract the right people. And if you repel anyone, great, cool. I mean, I’ve said this in probably half of the episodes, repelling people is great, right? So if you have like a diehard coffee drinker, who is like, I cannot believe this woman does not drink coffee, I would never be friends with her. Cool, because you don’t want to be friends with a crazy person who doesn’t like you like coffee, right? Like, you don’t want to work with them either. So like, no big deal, like stake your claim, let us all start taking ownership and like taking space. In the social media world, you know, especially for women, you know, like, we’re, we’re so far back when it comes to like pay rates, even in the freelance world, even in the small business world, and all of these other things. So it’s like, Alright, ladies, we have control over this, like stake your claim, say this is what I do. This is who I want to work with. Here’s something like interesting to know about me, I’d love to know something about you. And let’s continue the conversation. That’s it. That’s it’s as simple as you allow it to be. Ashleigh Chanél 12:27 Yes, I totally agree with that. And I love that you said Don’t you don’t want to be friends with the crazy person because you don’t. And so I’m gonna say, I have been so I left. And this is actually another idea. And I’ll segue into my story. If you are going to a conference and event, whatever, start your own Facebook group, and invite anybody who’s going in, like, if it’s in a bigger Facebook group, say, Hey, is anybody going to so and so event? Hey, I have this Facebook group so we can all get connected and meet each other beforehand? Or if you don’t wanna start your own Facebook group, start a thread a comment, or like a starter post, Hey, is anybody going and connect with them? And ask them a question like, What are you so excited about, etc, etc. And then connect with them on Zoom if you want to do more one on ones or it is fun when you get everybody in the same zoom and everybody’s talking and sharing ideas and things like that. But that’s one thing. So another thing is when you leave the event, make sure you connect with everybody who was at the event, even if you didn’t even if you didn’t mean that even if you didn’t meet them, sorry, I get so excited. I stopped finishing my sentences. But even if you did not meet them, send them all a message I sent one I came back from an event on the 28th and I sent everyone a message that hey, this event was a whirlwind it was so much fun. I was and I said this I was like I was delusional thinking I was gonna meet everyone who was there. I don’t even have energy like that to do that. But even though we didn’t get to meet in person, I’d love to stay connected. To see how we can work together collaborate, or you know, or if there’s someone I can connect you with to help you you know in your business. And then I also said and I’d love to do a coffee chat or connection coffee, you want to do that. And so I’ve connected with three people this week. And the funniest part one of the one of the people freaked out because I don’t like coffee and so that was like a funny thing that we were talking about. Another person we bonded over the fact that we don’t like to do dishes that we will put dishes in the dishwasher. And I don’t care like this is one of those things that is not eco friendly but I do not care. I will run the dishes with two dishes in the dishwasher. I am not doing a dish and I will let them soak Erin Ollila 14:42 your claim right like UVU right here. Nobody needs to if you don’t like that she’s not doing you know eco friendly dishwasher to be Ashley’s friend like Ashleigh Chanél 14:52 that. And then today actually before this I got off a call and we bonded over loving flowers like for Flowers and I love to arrange flowers. And then also she does, like tablescapes because she’s having friends over tomorrow. And I was just like, I love that because I love that as well. So, not only are you connecting with people off of regular human things, okay, I’m sorry, I’m saying it so aggressively, but it’s like, not everything has to be connected off of business like, yes, it’s like, okay, so what do you do? Like, we, you know, we figured that out. And then actually another person I was talking to today, it was a connection call from the event. And we bonded over both living overseas and hating the fact that America says it’s, it’s developed, but can’t build build a bullet train between Houston and Dallas, or between, you know, we only have Amtrak and like Greyhound, it’s like, what are we doing, when I can get from Rome to Florence and an hour on a bullet train, like, Oh, my goodness. So you know, it was just fun to bond over those things. So my point is that, when you are in groups with people who are like minded with you, and who want the same things as you, that’s very, very important, okay. And then you connect with them after an event, or just connect with them in general, because the group is like, cool, and like, fill out the vibes of the group. If it’s drama, leave the group. Erin Ollila 16:11 There’s so many things, I want to comment on one, I love the idea of the whole pop up Facebook group, right? Because, you know, I mentioned before the possibility of having a group if you want to build community, but you don’t need to build and maintain a community, if that’s not like a key part of your business. However, if you want to do some lead nurturing, or like community building within your own network, what a great opportunity, it’s a short term thing, you know, like, you open it for a couple of weeks in advance a couple of weeks later, everyone knows it’s gonna close down over time, but it just gives other people a chance to get to know each other, which uplifts you as being the person who’s kind of like leading the charge here, right. And it introduces you to people you don’t know, I, you know, I think that where we all go wrong into social is that we think of it as just the conversion tool. But when every conversation I’ve had about this, the it all boils down to we do business with people that we like, in general, like I mean, that’s not always the case, sometimes we like you know, a car breaks down, you have to bring it to a shop, you might not necessarily know them. But if you had a great experience, that one time, you’re gonna bring your car back to that shop, because you had that good experience, because you liked them because they were fair, honest, or whatever. So in just using the situations that you bring up, like you’re meeting these new people that you didn’t have access to before, you may have never crossed paths, paths with before. And you’re finding these elements that do like you say, you know, human human connections. That’s what people remember. Like, if you take it way back in the day, pre social media, pre online business world, and you just go to that, like, you know, town store, maybe it’s a pharmacy on main road, or whatever, you get to know the people who own the shop, or who worked there. You don’t have to be their best friends. But like, it could be that like, you’re a little kid going to buy candy after school on the way home, and they give you like an extra like couple of like Penny candies. And you’re like, I always gave me Penny candies, right? These are the things that make people remember businesses. So it’s not so much we have to look at it as like, like a tool where x y, z has to happen if we truly just look at it as how can we use it to connect with people, it will benefit your business? Like, you know, just I love to be example of what like 19,000 cities or whatever it was that you said it, you can’t make that many friends either, like, do you really want, like 19,000 people within your network, you won’t remember them. Let’s even if you break it down to like, 9000, that’s still a pretty big network, right? So like, just remember, like, it’s totally okay, that you’re not the right fit for other people, because the people who are right fit for, they may be clients, they may be like peers that you could like mastermind with, they may be my one of my favorite categories. And that’s just the like regular everyday cheerleaders. They’ll never buy from you. But like if some actually this is a great example of what we talked about earlier, when I was looking for a Facebook expert. I already had two people I knew I was going to talk to you. And I was looking for the third. Someone who has been on the show actually Jackie Googly, who did our quiz episode from try interact. She was like, oh, anything for Facebook, you need to talk to Ashley. And then later, Brittany Herzberg, who was on the show and talked about testimonials to case studies. She’s like, Oh, you need a Facebook person. Do you know Ashley Chanel. And it’s two people in this tiny little network that I have, have gotten to know you and liked you. And that’s how you came into my world. Right? So it’s all of these little relationships. We’re building like those two people worked as cheerleaders like Britney and Jackie haven’t I’ve never hired them. They’ve never hired me to do work. We are within each other’s networks. We cheerlead each other and they’re cheerleading you, too. Don’t like now have like a one visibility opportunity for you. And for me to bring someone in that I needed, that I was looking for someone in particular. So don’t discount those cheerleaders. They’re a great, great business asset. Ashleigh Chanél 20:13 And I’m a cheerleader for them. I’ve worked with Brittany on case studies, and she’s chefs kiss. And Jackie, just like the most amazing person. She’s so just great. And also a great cheerleader. She makes me feel good about myself. Yeah, you know, you might they might not be clients, like you said they could be people that you’re going to go do a training or a presentation in their group. Erin Ollila 20:31 Yeah, I completely agree. Let’s shift gears just slightly. So we can kind of cover some more Facebook here. Besides groups, do you have any recommendations for business owners who know they want to be on the platform, maybe they’re nervous that their clients are not there, but they still want to potentially use it as a marketing asset. Ashleigh Chanél 20:50 I think start connecting with with lots of people and start using your Facebook profile as a place where you either blog share your thoughts, because a lot of thought leadership happens on Twitter and on LinkedIn. But you can also become a thought leader on Facebook. So connect with people. And what I mean by Connect is friend request them so they can become friends. Because before Facebook would kind of like shut down your personal profile if you started using it for business. Now, that is not the case. And that’s what and I’m currently just starting that with my Facebook page. Because I used to be like, Oh my gosh, I’m not trying to invite all these people to friend request me because again, remember, I started Facebook with just my friends, my college people. And it was like, I don’t want all these people on my business. What the heck. So I never used to accept friend requests. Now. I do, because I’m trying to use my Facebook page as a business asset. So you can do the same thing that way. And then obviously, there are Facebook ads. Erin Ollila 21:50 Yeah, no, that’s important. Because I was the same way like Facebook was the one like, obviously, I have a Facebook page, I did have a group I participate in groups. But my personal profile was my one like locked down on the internet. I was like, You are not going to like you random internet stranger who I’m going to be like a scary creep, that I would never judge anywhere else. But like you’re not seeing pictures of my babies, like you are not going to find out like what kind of tacos I’m eating, which sounds so crazy. Like, again, coming into the Facebook age of one you had you needed a college email address to communicate with people and it was you know, and then growing throughout all of these years and changes and evolutions of the platform. I think it just I protected that personal space. And I felt like I couldn’t. And now the beauty of Facebook is because you can determine who sees what, right like you can create segments of like, what I generally do, is I anyone that I don’t know personally, I make them an acquaintance. But does that mean that I don’t let my acquaintances see things? No, not at all. The only things I generally don’t allow acquaintances to see is the majority of the pictures of my kids, just because I personally don’t want my children to be associated with my business, personal friends, personal acquaintances, they’re just regular old Facebook friends. But I still let those acquaintance group see almost everything else. So don’t not open up that personal profile. Like if you were nervous about it in the past, just know, there’s a lot that you can have control over now, in changing what you share with people. So that way, you determine who sees what, because I agree, I think the personal profile is people communicate differently, right? Like, I don’t want to go to anyone’s Facebook page. I’m only gonna go especially if it’s local to see like, are they in business? What are they doing? I’m not really communicating via Facebook pages. If we’re friendly, though, that I’ll read all of the things that they have to say they’re in my feed, I fall into the Facebook camp have like, I talked to everyone. And sometimes I’m like, Man, you haven’t seen that person in 20 years. Like you haven’t physically seen them. Is it weird that you’re commenting on that cute picture of their kid? Or is this not weird? But I’m gonna do it anyway. Because that’s just who I am. Right? Ashleigh Chanél 24:10 I think it’s normal. Erin Ollila 24:11 Yeah, I mean, fingers crossed. People might have some wild opinions about area and these days, but I don’t forget and stake my claim. What’s your opinion on pages though, before we kind of like tie that tie up our Facebook strategy in a knot here? Do you think that there is value to using Facebook pages or any advice how to use the Facebook page? Ashleigh Chanél 24:31 I do think there is value I think that you should post or go live when it comes to your Facebook page. Don’t leave it dormant. I mean, I’ve gone to lots of Facebook pages and I’m like, either either have one or don’t but don’t have one and and just leave it and it’d be mediocre. Because it doesn’t make any sense for that to happen. One thing that I do I have zapped setup anytime I’m on Zapier, if no one knows what I’m talking about, that anytime anybody buys for me, I have a post that automatically goes out that says so and so purchased absolutely adds, absolutely adds is a, you know, as course to the data, and then I have a link. And so it posts so that I don’t have to post the number one, it’s fresh content. And also, I might post things on like, videos that I post on Instagram, I will also post on Facebook, because I know people talk about omnipresence, but I don’t think you have to do a whole bunch of stuff just to be omnipresent. I think you can post the same video on other platforms, it’s not really that serious. Like also testimonials would be great to post on your social media, your Facebook page, and then also share them on your Facebook profile. So like actually click the share button and share it to your Facebook profile would be helpful. Um, oh, and then also make sure that your Facebook page banner tells people what you do. And it’s very clear that I would recommend you send it to people and say, if you didn’t know me, what would you think that this meant? What do you think that I do? And then have a clear call to action? All right, Erin Ollila 26:14 I love that. And since you are an ad specialist, do you have any suggestions for people who are listening and they are actively using Facebook? So they they know the advantage of it at this point, they want to do more like what can they do to be able to either strengthen their Facebook presence or to like build out like really smart and great ad campaigns for their business. Ashleigh Chanél 26:36 For those who have not been using Facebook as kind of want to maybe have tried, they did not work in the past, I recommend you start by answering questions that people have asked you. And I know you’ve probably heard this before. But I’m talking about the stuff that oh my goodness, if I got paid a nickel for every time somebody asked me this, I would be rich type of questions. Those are the ones that I’m talking about. And record yourself answering the question or talking about that topic, run it as a video ad for $1 a day. And you can run it to the audience of people who already follow you or engage with you on Facebook. Or you can run it to a cold audience of people who, you know, maybe use the tool or like read the books in that kind of in that industry or whatever. Erin Ollila 27:27 Awesome. I love that in this sense. It is like the testing phase, right? So it’s like, I think ads are one thing that like, are anxiety, creating until you get used to them. Once you get used to them. It could be a little addicting even when you’re like, Okay, let’s go with this ad campaign, because you see the benefit. So I think that that’s great advice to kind of just dip your toe and get more comfortable before you build up and like, go all in and hire Ashley, to do the ads for you. All right, Ashley. So Did we miss anything that you’re like, Aaron, you didn’t ask me this one thing you should have asked it. Ashleigh Chanél 28:05 No, but I will say, share what you feel comfortable sharing, you don’t have to post if you don’t want to post your kids, don’t post your kids. If you don’t want to give people access to this side of you then don’t give people access to a certain side of you. It’s okay, you can share what you want people to know. And that is totally fine. And also, out of everything that I said pick something that you feel will work for you. You don’t have to go as hard as I go. I mean, this is what I do for a living, just generally speaking, I’m a marketer, right? But you don’t have to go that hard. I want you to choose something that you feel feels good to you and feels aligned with you. And do that you don’t have to do everything but do something because it’s not about you having a great idea. It’s about you having great execution. And without the execution, you’re not going to get to the goals. So I just wanted to say that and you know, value alignment in any and everything that you do, whether it’s you talking to your clients, making sure that your values and their values align in your content, or just you taking a certain type of action. If it doesn’t feel right to you, you’re not going to continue to do it. So yeah, pick something that feels good, so that you continue to do it. Erin Ollila 29:21 Yeah, I love that. And it’s just proof of concept, right? So it’s like doing the work. If you find something you enjoy, and you keep doing it, you’re gonna see the results and you’re gonna want to keep doing the work. But the more you do things you don’t enjoy doing, the more you’re just proving to yourself that like, Oh, this is I’m failing at this or I’m putting in all this effort and nothing’s working. I always ask a few follow up questions. My apologies. I didn’t prep you for any of these beforehand because we just kind of jumped right in. But if you could give a teeny tiny homework assignment based on our conversation today to people who are listening, what would you give them for their homework assignment? Ashleigh Chanél 29:56 Oh, my homework would be to write a list of Have industries, job titles or, you know, types of businesses that are complementary to what you do? Then go find Facebook groups to join and introduce yourself with a picture. Okay, extra homework, but yeah. Erin Ollila 30:20 Okay, what are your predictions for Facebook in 2023? Ashleigh Chanél 30:25 In 2023, my predictions are that people are going to be leaving your Facebook groups if you are not providing interesting and engaging conversation, because I don’t go check, I promise you, I do not go check any of those notifications, I get that say so and so tagged you and others, it’s probably not going to be engaging now. And then usually, it’s because they’re talking about themselves or something that they’re doing, they’re not doing anything that’s going to make my life better, more fun, more funny, more, like convenient, you know, whatever. So I feel like people are going to be leaving groups because they don’t find it beneficial to their life. And I think that people are going to be wanting more, I think from Facebook groups, like really, there, they’re going to want Facebook groups that do provide actual community, not a community of people who are obsessed with the group, admin, but a community of people who were actually connected with each other. So I think connection over everything is the trend for 2023. Erin Ollila 31:41 And I think, you know, honestly, I think that could be said in Facebook or elsewhere, right? So it’s like, if you listen to these episodes, you you hear them and you’re like, you know, I’m not sure Facebook’s the right place. I think anything actually said today could really be translated into the different platforms. Like that’s, you want to you want to get more sales, connect, don’t sell, right. So I love that we kind of like closed off our social media part of the conversation on that because I think that it’s just great advice. And I prediction wise, I think you’re gonna, this one’s gonna come true. Okay, final final question. If you could meet anyone who would you meet? And why? Because this is my like cheerleader question here. I’m like, I’m gonna go find actually some friends or clients or someone. Travel partners. Ashleigh Chanél 32:30 Oh, my goodness. Um, okay. Yes. If I could meet anyone, it would honestly be people who think of retreat is an actual retreat. Meaning, okay, wouldn’t want to go on a retreat and not. And it’s not about business, it’s truly like just about enjoying the space that you’re in. So people who love to travel, people who love a good charcuterie board, because I love a good charcuterie board. And people who just want to enjoy life, and aren’t going to allow the limiting beliefs of society, impede on their journey to greatness. Erin Ollila 33:16 I love that. That sounds like an incredible group of people to be around. So let me ask the question, because, you know, it’s funny, when you first started saying this, I was like, Oh, I wonder if she’s gonna say like the opposite here, like, people, because you said like, people who think retreats could still be like, just a retreat. And I’m like, is she gonna say that doesn’t exist. Ashleigh Chanél 33:35 I don’t mind a business conversation. But I don’t want to learn about accounting, I don’t want to learn about marketing. I don’t want to do any of those things I want, you know, silent time, I want to hear the waves. I want to be around people who love to take care of themselves, and who can teach me more about leaning into taking care of myself. Because again, I live in America, we live in a place where it’s always go, go go. And I want to lean into building a business where I feel very calm and relaxed. And I’m putting myself first in a way that ensures that I’m at my best so that I’m at the at my best, so that everyone else gets the best of me, including my clients. Erin Ollila 34:20 Yeah, that’s so important, right? Because I mean, even in this like online business world, or looking at Facebook groups, just as an example. I see so many that are like, we’re heart centered entrepreneurs are where like, we live our business wholeheartedly, and then the message within these communities are not that right. So because it’s like it’s really what you say like we’re conditioned as Americans specifically to have everything be hustle related. So I really love that you are taking that effort and making it like a value, right? Like you talked about, like living on our values and kind of like leaning into them. You’re making it a value to actually want to connect and to learn about you but not learn about accounting, like you say, but like, grow within these group of wonderful people, maybe they do own businesses as well. But it’s just the growing as a person, because that’s going to benefit you elsewhere. Ashleigh Chanél 35:14 Because I think it’s just so important for us to do things that fill our soul. Like, we’re in our business all the time, we’re in our business, doing business talking to other businesses, about their business, but it’s like doing things that fill your soul. Like I said, I love arranging flowers. Because I’m a, I’m the epitome of a Taurus and I have a Pisces moon. And one of the quotes one of these things I read gave me was, life is based on emotions, and improved by beauty and comfort. And when I say that encompasses everything about me, I love beauty, and I love comfort. So I’m going to buy the flowers, I’m going to buy this beautiful glasses and put water in them, and not wait for an occasion to put wine or I’m going to wear the outfit or I’m going to go to the location, even if even, even if I have to go by myself, because life is to be lived. And it’s important that we don’t forget that and don’t wait on other people in order for us to live the lives that we want. Erin Ollila 36:12 And you know, like tying it into what we’re talking about, like, you know, a lot of the times I get, even though I’m not really creating any social content questions I’ll get from my client, like, what do I even say, on these platforms? And it’s like, think of what you just said of like, like, just just live your life. Like, you know, I think there’s a big misconception on how to storytelling on social media, like we all like treat it as like, like a tactic. Right? Like, let’s just look if you have a story tell the damn story. Like, that’s what storytelling is. Like, think about like, this is super corny. And listen, I’m not that I’ve even had this particular lived experience. But like, here’s how I imagined like kids summer camp, right? Like you’re sitting around a fire like roasted some marshmallows, you’re chatting about your life, right? Again, also never went to a kid summer camp. But if we take this as like, what we see in like, the movies of like how people communicate in a non like in an analogue way. That’s how you should also communicate in a digital way. So you’re on social media, like what would you say if you were actually camping with friends? Like what kind of story would you chat about while you’re roasting those marshmallows? Or you’re at a retreat? That is not a business one, you just left the sound bap, you’re feeling super Zen, like, what would you say to your peer who also wants to like, feel superman who wants to like embrace that, like social care and self care that they’re getting from like a group retreat like that. That’s the storytelling like, that’s what you say, you show up and you like, you know, stake your claim and say about how you hate coffee, you show up and you talk about, like, why it’s super important to you to live a life where you are living your life. That’s storytelling. So we don’t have to, like, think of tactics, we don’t need to like actually, like follow like the arc of like, you know, drama, and like, you know, like the crazy clips that and then the downfall, right, like, just tell the stories that like come into your head that are important to your heart. And I think that’s really where you’re going to see the maximum impact. Ashleigh Chanél 38:13 I agree with that so much. I know people ask me all the time when it comes to ads, or, or even just video content? Well, well, how do I say that? And I’m like, exactly how you just said it. And if you want, everything’s always recorded here, take this and just go run it as a video because you said it was such passion was such hard. Let’s love that. That’s what people need to see. We don’t need to see prim and proper and you said it eloquent so eloquently, because I speak very eloquently, usually, but I have been right now suffering over my words in this in this conversation, but that’s okay. Right. But everything Erin Ollila 38:49 you’ve said has been so valuable. Like nobody, anyone who listens to this podcast episode, or it’s not going to be like, Oh, that Ashley, she just what did she just say? No, they’re gonna be like, Oh, that’s a good point. Oh, yeah, I want to do that too. Like, cuz again, it’s the connection part, right? It’s the like, we don’t hear with a red pen. We okay, like, we don’t listen to someone in their life. Okay, let’s look at let’s cross that started off with our red pen. Like, let’s highlight that value point. No, we just hear them. Because we’re people and we want to build that connection. Ashleigh Chanél 39:23 Absolutely. And I honestly would recommend when you are on some of these calls, if you could record them and just put the stuff out that you’ve said in the sales call, even you know, don’t like don’t put the other people’s conversation or the other side of the conversation in an ad or in a video but what you said, because there are other things that you can take us soundbites and help people understand your experience and your expertise and because, you know, I don’t know Do you remember that sound? Everything is content. Everything is content? Yes, yes. Everything is not content. Everything should have to be content and I think everybody out is like, oh my goodness, I need to I need to show that I my date night and that I’m living the life or I need to show that I’m at the that I’m traveling because my friend is always like, actually you don’t take any pictures. And I’m like, because I am living my life. But like people do also want to enjoy that with you. And I was like, okay, I can understand it from that perspective. But I’m not I don’t want to do it. Just because I feel like I need to create content, you know what I mean? Erin Ollila 40:30 Yeah, and honestly, I mean, think of it this way. I think it also comes down to knowing like your own personal level of okayness with storytelling and life sharing, and there is going to be a wide spectrum here, right? Not that it’s necessarily an introvert versus extrovert thing at all. But if you’re using that as an easy to understand example, if you’re very introverted, and you’re not one who’s going to be like, showcasing your life as if it were like a movie reel, don’t do it. Totally not necessary. In an episode that we did with Shannon McKinstry about Instagram, we talked about like, Well, how do you show up though, if you’re not like on Instagram, like, if you’re not one to like, share your whole day on stories. I’m like one of her easy examples that she shared, which I thought was super valuable was like, you don’t want to be on video all the time, like template, something in your life that you can use in a video way that doesn’t have to be done. Like it could literally be a video, like every morning, you take a video, I know you don’t love coffee, so you’re sure as heck not doing this. Take a video of your coffee pot brewing coffee, and you just use words over it to say like, here’s the goals for today. And if that is it, like if that is your little like, quote unquote, template of showing up on video, let that be it. That’s fine, right? For you. It could be like opening your sparkling water can if you use cans, I don’t know. But the point is, is like we don’t have like you said like you’re living your life. So in your mind, you don’t want you don’t feel like you need to document it as like the content of your business. And it doesn’t have to. If you’re deciding like alright, like, I’m gonna put like one picture of the vacation just like to announce like on vacation loving my vacation. That’s fine. Like, it’s really figuring out your comfort level to have what you want to share. Because if you force yourself past that, it’s like we said about like forcing content, it’s not gonna feel good, like figure out what feels good to share. If it’s just the coffee pot in the morning, that’s all you have to do. If it’s that you literally want to like influencer your day and show like every single thing you’re doing throughout the day. Cool, because maybe that’s just you maybe you’re super extroverted, and you want to let everyone know everything. That’s absolutely fine. It’s just knowing what works for you. Totally did not think we’d go here with the end of this conversation. But I’m glad we did. Ashley, you have just been a joy to talk to I will put the link to your quiz and different ways that people can get in touch with you in the show notes. Guys get in touch with Ashley. She’s just a joy. And she’s been so lovely to have on the show. And I think you know that if people listen to all the way to the end, so get in touch other make friends with her hire her and just connect with her over her over your shared love of not loving coffee. If that is you, because I think you non coffee people need to stick together. Ashleigh Chanél 43:18 I agree. I agree. All right. Thank you so much for having me. I’ve had such so much fun. You’re so you’re awesome. Erin Ollila 43:25 Thank you Ashley. Alright 43:26 everyone. Erin Ollila 43:27 I’ll see you back next week. And like I said, Go find Ashley now because she’s just a joy to have in your back pocket. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Top copy to me. If you enjoyed spending your time with me today. I would be so honored if you could subscribe to the show and leave a review. Want to continue the conversation. Head on over to Instagram and follow me at Erin Ollila. Until next time friends