Get ready to be F.I.R.E.D U.P! Today, we have Laura Davis. She is the owner and Personal Brand Specialist of Laura Davis Creative. She specializes in building your personal brand and social media presence. We will talk about how can you get more gigs if you are new in speaking, how to build your personal brand, and the app that will shape how Community Market Leaders get connected, the Clubhouse App. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
Krista Mashore:
And hey everyone, are you ready to be fired up? Because I sure am. Today we have got Lauren David. She is a personal brand strategist for leaders and speakers, and so she helps you. You just show up to the world like hot rock. So if you're interested in finding out some tips and tricks on how you can optimize your brand, how you can show up as the authority, well you want to stick around and you are going to be fired up.
Krista Mashore:
Are you wanting a kickstart on your business, and you want to learn how to be the go-to professional in your industry? Well, guess what? I've got a challenge for you. It's five days of coaching. It's brand new. Just go to KristaMashores.com/clientconversion. That's KristaMashore.com/clientconversion, and you'll get a training with me for five straight days that's going to help kickstart you as the go-to professional in your industry. So sign up and I'll see you there.
Krista Mashore:
Hi Lauren. Welcome. Thank you so much for being on here. I really appreciate it. Talk to us about yourself.
Lauren Davis:
Hi Krista. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and I am Lauren V. Davis. I am from the Midwest and I really got my start in my business by opening up a record store in Rockford, Illinois when I was 19 years old. And that along with some traditional education. But the education I got from real life experience was what built me into the marketer I am today and into the personal brand strategist that I am right now.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, wonderful. So tell me exactly what is a personal brand strategist? What exactly is that?
Lauren Davis:
Well, I work with people all over the world on developing their digital brand strategy. So what happens is a lot of people say, “Hey, I want to be a coach. I want to be a speaker. I want to be a leader in whatever community I am in, whatever industry it is.” And then they get to work. They build a few funnels. They create a lead magnet. They have a website and they're like, “Okay, what now? How do I promote myself? How do I stand out in all of these industries where there's so many other people already in the spotlight? What makes me different?” And so I work with people to find that clarity, to work together, to push their brand out, to push the personal brand out online. So when they're on stage, when they're off stage, when they're online, when they're offline, people know them for whatever industry they are seeking spotlight in.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, so tell me how you do that.
Lauren Davis:
Well, I do that through a variety of ways. We work a lot on social media. So working through developing relationships online, that's a huge part of that story is developing genuine and real strategic relationships. But also telling their stories, working through different stories that people have behind the scenes that they might not even realize apply to the business that they're running. Working through their stories, building their funnels, so that and optimizing their pages. So that way, whenever people go to their links, they're making sure that they're getting free resources. They're becoming a closer connection to that personal brand instead of just a warm or a cold connection. And so we work through all of these different things and especially when events are happening, when people are on stages, again in big events spaces, making sure that what they say on stage translates to people following them and connecting them once they get off stage.
Krista Mashore:
So it seems like do you have people that are building these funnels for you, or are you building them yourself?
Lauren Davis:
I work with some people on figuring out what their basic funnels are, but I don't create the funnels myself. So, I work a lot with one-on-one strategy, helping people figure out what that clarity is, what they need to do and where they need to go. What steps, what applicable and actionable steps they can take to get from point A to point B.
Krista Mashore:
Okay. So let's just say you're working with a speaker and a speaker wants to get more speaking gigs. What would your advice be to that speaker? How would you tell them to go about getting more speaking gigs?
Lauren Davis:
It definitely depends on what level they're at. But let's say for the beginner, let's say from kind of the beginner. Someone has spoken on a couple of stages and they are really, really interested in speaking and they're saying, “You know what? This really fulfills me inside. I feel so lit up by speaking.” And they're like, “I really would like to get more stages.” The first thing that I would suggest to them is building out a speaking page on their website. So that way someone could go to their website, see pictures of them speaking, hear their voice, have a little speaker reel on there, hear them speaking on stage and get a feel for their cadence and their tone and how they come across to the audience, how the audience is connecting with them.
Lauren Davis:
The second thing I would tell them to do is start showing up as a speaker on your social media. So make sure that whatever you want to be, whatever place you want to be in, make sure that you are showing up as that person when you're on your social media. So that means in that first nine photos on your Instagram, you should be speaking in a few of those photos to make sure that people say, “Okay, this is a speaker. She is available to be booked for speaking, or he is available to be booked for speaking.” So it's little things like that. There's little touches across all of your platforms, and if you want to be booked for the thing that you really want to do you have to believe, first of all, that you are that person. And then secondly, start showing up as that on your social media platforms.
Krista Mashore:
Yes. Other people have to believe it too, so they need to be able to see you're doing it right?
Lauren Davis:
Yes, very much so.
Krista Mashore:
Yes. Awesome. Okay, great. That's great, great advice. And then utilizing social media. So do you, tell me about when you say you're teaching them? Because this is what I teach social media strategies, right? And this is the main way that I help realtors and professionals really show up and then I teach them how to run the ads and all that. So I always like to learn, I don't know everything, obviously. There's more than I can always be learning, and I love talking to people like you, especially a brand strategist. So what things are you telling them to do on their social media and are you helping them create their ads or it's just more of the strategy behind what they're saying and doing?
Lauren Davis:
It's much more about the personal brand strategy behind what they say and do, like bringing clarity to their voice, bringing clarity to their messages and what they're saying to the people they're trying to build genuine relationships with. Because you all know about those social media pages where you go to them and it's like a ghost town. There's content being produced and you see content, but you just feel like you can't really connect with them. It's like an outer shell of who that person is.
Lauren Davis:
And then you also have accounts that you follow, let's say on Instagram, where they're talking in their stories, they're connecting the dots. They're asking for your opinion. They're really reaching out to you. Those are the social media accounts that have hundreds of thousands of followers. They have tons of likes. And what I also tell people is it doesn't matter if you only have a thousand followers or if you have 300,000 followers. An account with 1,000 followers who are all super actively engaged, or even if you have 500 followers that are so super active and engaged with you, that's so much better than having a dead account with tons of fake followers. So don't worry as much about-
Krista Mashore:
I totally agree. So many things can be bought. Be really careful. People are buying their so-called fame. I hear this all the time. “Oh, I have two million followers.” And I'm thinking, “Well, how much money are you making? What revenue are you doing? What impact?” I don't care about your followers. I want to know, what is that turning into as far as making an impact on you and on others, right?
Lauren Davis:
Right.
Krista Mashore:
Followers are nothing. Yeah, and I totally couldn't agree with you more having a smaller amount of followers that really, really are true diehard fans that love you, know you, like you and trust you are absolutely … oh, I'm so sorry. I've been up for forever and I just, I'm just getting over COVID. I had COVID for three weeks-
Lauren Davis:
Oh, gosh.
Krista Mashore:
It sticks around for a while. So [inaudible 00:08:11], it's not the funnest thing to have. So I apologize for yawning.
Lauren Davis:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
But, oh yeah, I could not agree with you any more at all. Okay, good. So, what other tips and strategies and things are you telling people?
Lauren Davis:
Well, most of the platforms are, they have algorithms that aim to put things you're very interested in front of you, but specifically on Instagram and TikTok. So for instance, Instagram they're always tweaking their algorithm and there's probably going to be an algorithm update at some point in the future, because there always is. But right now the algorithm on Instagram is based very heavily on interest recency and relationships. So the more you can develop relationships with people on Instagram, the more your content is going to be put in front of them if they are following you.
Lauren Davis:
So what that means is how do you build relationships on Instagram? Well, that means if you're commenting back and forth, if you're liking each other's posts, if you're tagged in posts together, which I would use only if it's relevant. If you are DM-ing each other, like have you ever noticed that the people that you direct message that you follow, their content shows up.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Lauren Davis:
The people that get direct message often their content shows up first for you. That's because the Instagram algorithm has already determined that you have a relationship with that person. So it's always going to show people what they want to see. So if you and I Krista are DM-ing each other a lot in the upcoming weeks, we're going to start seeing each other's content more and more because we're following each other, we're connected with each other, and we are building a online social media relationship with each other.
Krista Mashore:
Yes, yes. Keep going. Go ahead.
Lauren Davis:
And then the next thing that it bases it on is interests and recency. So it's going to analyze what types of posts and content that you stop on. So if you're always stopping on pictures of dogs and you're always looking at pictures of dogs, it's going to start showing you in your explore feed more pictures of dogs, even if you haven't liked the post. So it's really interesting whenever I work with a client and we open up their explore page, I can definitely tell what posts they've been scoping out over time. You can see what content they're interested in because that explore page puts content in front of you that you might be interested in.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Lauren Davis:
And then recency. So people worry about how often should I post? Frequency and recency are things that people are always talking about. Well, it's going to put things in front of you as far as recency goes, it's going to put things in front of you more often. I'm sorry. Your content is going to show up more often to people if you're posting more often because of the recency of the posts. It's going to prioritize more recent posts in front of older posts. But it doesn't mean that it's in chronological order. Now, frequency people worry about how many times should I post? Should I post on 10 times a week? Should I post 14 times a week, or should I post … what if I can only post once a day or once a week?
Lauren Davis:
The correct answer to that is you should post as many times as you can be consistent. So if you can only be consistent three times a week, that's how much she should post. If you can only be consistent once a week, that's how often you should post. If you can post more than twice a week, or if you can post once a day, even better. But don't let that stop you because you can't do that from getting consistent content out there, because the consistency factor is absolutely key when you're working with Instagram and most social media platforms.
Krista Mashore:
Yes, absolutely. Same thing with Facebook. It's almost everything you were saying is just the same with Facebook too, and TikTok. I know I'm not into TikTok. What do you think about the new Clubhouse app? Let's talk about that one. What do you think? I love the new Clubhouse app. In fact, if you're listening to this and you are not on Clubhouse, go right now to the app stores, only on Apple or you can all use it from your iPhone and your iPad. It's not Android based as of yet from the time of this recording. But you want to get on Clubhouse. Go and reserve your name. Your name can only be 15 characters long. In fact, I'm going to do a whole thing on Clubhouse. But it's really important you sign up for Clubhouse. It's an invite only app.
Krista Mashore:
Be sure when you go and they ask if you want to invite all your friends, you say yes. And when you do, go there and follow me, Krista Mashore and follow Lauren Davis. You'll get in front of us more. So follow us. Go and sign up for Clubhouse. It's going to be just like Facebook was. I believe this app is going to be, probably even be better than Facebook. Quite frankly. It's going to absolutely be beneficial for any business or any profession, especially real estate. So go and sign up right now today. And when you do, make sure you follow me and I'll follow you back. Okay, Lauren. So TikTok, tell me more about TikTok.
Lauren Davis:
Oh, were we going to talk about Clubhouse? That's what I-
Krista Mashore:
For real, you want to?
Lauren Davis:
Yeah, yeah.
Krista Mashore:
Okay. So let's talk because first of all, what Clubhouse is everyone, it's an interactive app where you basically, you can schedule a room. You can actually have your own clubhouse if you apply for one. You need to be a moderator at least three times before you can apply. And you go into these rooms and you can ask questions, like Russell Brunson's been in there, Grant Cardone, Perry Belcher. I can just keep on naming all these names that are in there and they are, there's famous people in there. They actually had some people from Shark Tank on there. I mean, you would not believe who's on there and you go into these rooms and you get these people are talking in real time, as it's happening right now. It is live and you can interact with them and ask them questions and add value. And it's a great way for you to utilize Clubhouse, to really, really enhance your business.
Krista Mashore:
Right now, there's mostly people like me and Lauren, right? A lot of professionals on there. A lot of real estate agents, a lot of entrepreneurs. But I believe that pretty soon it's going to be just like Facebook and you're going to have everyone on this app. So you could use it as a really great local marketing platform too. So tell me what you've experienced with it Lauren.
Lauren Davis:
Okay. So there's a couple different things I've been experiencing. The first thing is I suggest always early adapting to different platforms like this.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely.
Lauren Davis:
So like you said, go and reserve your name. It is invite only right now, but that doesn't mean you can't go reserve for your spots. Go reserve your name. Be an early adapter. Tell someone, put it out there in the world that you're looking for an invite and see if someone can invite you. It is only for Apple right now. That has a lot to do with how apps are developed. You want to get it pushed through the Apple store first, and then you actually have to redesign an entire app for different devices. That's why it's not available yet to non-Apple users, but it will be soon. I'm guessing that's usually the way it goes.
Lauren Davis:
So this is what I've been realizing is that it is a really great place to build your audience. So if you are an industry expert, which I am sure that almost every person listening to this podcast is, what I would suggest is going and creating your own Clubhouse rooms, where you can speak on a certain topic, where you can answer Q&A. Every time I'm a moderator in a Clubhouse room I walk away with several new followers. And then what's really important is after you get those new followers, what you do with them. Because again, remember we're talking about how Instagram and Facebook favors in recency relationships interest.
Lauren Davis:
So make sure that once someone follows you, you go message them. You have a conversation with them, a short conversation to see what content they like. It's really important that what you do afterwards is key. But what is interesting is Clubhouse has no way for you to connect with other Clubhouse members, except by following them and by speaking with them when they're on stage and when you both have your mics open. So that being said, that means that they have to go to another platform to connect with you. That means they're going to hop over to your Instagram. They're going to hop over to your Twitter. So make sure-
Krista Mashore:
So make sure you have your Instagram handle or your Twitter handle, or both on your actual profile.
Lauren Davis:
That's what I was going to say.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. When people are actually talking on this platform … so let's just say me and Lauren are talking, we're on stage, right? You know that me and Lauren are moderators and there's this little bubble, it almost looks like a text message bubble and it's green when you're in there, and you know Lauren and I are moderators. So the idea, first of all, if you liked what Lauren was saying or liked what I was saying, you would then turn on the little bell, so you're notified anytime that Lauren and I were talking. Well, as Lauren is talking, or as I'm talking or as you're on the app and you're in a room, you can click on any person within the room. Click on them, their profile comes up, you can read all about them, all this great stuff. And then you can actually go down and you can click on their Instagram or their Twitter profile, and it takes you while you're still on the app, into Instagram. So you can message them. You can follow them. And it's a great, great way to do it. I just love it.
Lauren Davis:
Yes, me too. It's really interesting and I will be really interested to see how this adapts over time. How they will adapt the app. How it will change, because it's already changed from when I signed up a couple of weeks ago.
Krista Mashore:
I know.
Lauren Davis:
There's already new things happening all the time. It's changed in the way of what their algorithm is putting in front of me. It's really interesting, and it was honestly what we needed this year to like-
Krista Mashore:
Oh, yeah.
Lauren Davis:
It was one of those things like, “Oh, this is so fresh and new and it's making social media really fun.” So I always-
Krista Mashore:
People are doing like hours.
Lauren Davis:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
How many hours have you spent on it so far?
Lauren Davis:
So, that's another tip that I would say to people is make sure that you've set a time limit for yourself. If you have stuff you got to do, say, “I'm going to show up for these two hours and then I'm going to turn it off,” because it's so easy to spend four hours listening to people talk. And for those of you who are still confused about what this is, it's audio only. So, there's a stage. There's moderators like Krista was talking about. They have a little green button next to them. Then there's people that the moderators invite to be on the stage. And the only people who can unmute themselves are the people that are on stage.
Lauren Davis:
So if you're fearful at first about talking, don't worry, you can just join a room. You don't have to speak. You can just [inaudible 00:18:33] person. If you want to speak and you think you have something to say, you can raise your hand, if the moderators leave hand-raising on. If you raise your hand, they can invite you to come be on stage and contribute. And then it also shows who the speakers follow and then who is just in the room by themselves. So it's interesting to get to know new people, to get to see new people and just listen. It's almost like listening to a podcast, but live, would you say?
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, it is like that, yeah. And be careful too. So when you go into a room, you need to really watch the room. And I remember the first time, because I've only been on Clubhouse about three weeks now, and I was petrified Lauren to speak. I was so nervous, my voice was shaking. I was so nervous to do.
Lauren Davis:
No way.
Krista Mashore:
Oh my God, totally, I'm not even kidding. And so make sure you watch the room though, because some of these rooms are like, they're very specific. They don't want you saying, “Hi my name is Krista. I'm a digital marketing real estate/local professional coach.” They're like, “Excuse me, Krista, what's your question, or are you here to add value?”
Lauren Davis:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
So, and the reason being is because people can click on you. When you're talking, they can see what you do, where you're from, who you serve. And so they don't want you wasting the time. Also be careful that you don't use the platform to promote yourself too much. So in other words, if you go onto, let's say Lauren and I are having a Clubhouse and we're chatting it up and you get on there and all you want to do is just shove your information in people's faces and tell them how great you are and what you do. It really ticks people off. It's like, “Look, this is a collaborative platform, but don't utilize this platform that we've really worked hard in this room we've been building to just promote yourself.
Lauren Davis:
Right.
Krista Mashore:
So there's a fine line. It's more about adding value, serving not selling. When you serve on that platform, that's really what they want. And you're not just saying, “Me, me, me, me me.” You're going to get more followers and it will actually work better for you anyways. Don't you agree?
Lauren Davis:
Absolutely. Yep. And that's the whole thing is every room that I have been in where I've added value, even as a guest not as a moderator, I end up with a few DMs, a few new people following me, people that I'm now becoming friends with off of Clubhouse. And now we're talking about creating our own Clubhouse rooms together to give more value to people. So it's a really, really fun way to just really cultivate those strategic relationships, but also genuine, genuine relationships with people.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Lauren Davis:
And those relationships, those convert into sales. Those convert into referrals. And that's what I mean, we forget people say, “Well, I just want to, I really want to make money. I don't really have time for being friends with the whole world.” Well you do because people are, I mean, there's studies. People are 16 times more likely to read a post from a friend than from a brand. They're 16 times more likely to pay attention to you if you are their friend or if they feel validated by you. And so the whole idea behind Clubhouse is having these audio conversations of people, these building relationships off of the platform, and it's what you do with those relationships afterwards that really make a big difference.
Krista Mashore:
I couldn't have said that even better myself and the nice thing is, again, it is just audio. So people I love video and I think video is the fastest way to grow a brand over anything. But if you're absolutely petrified with video, this is a way for you to actually get on there and have your voice and share your knowledge and share your experience and add value. And like, I was in bed with COVID on my Clubhouse app doing Clubhouses while I was so sick and I looked like crap, and I hadn't washed my hair in five days. And I mean, but I could actually do this on this app. It was so cool. I got to learn from it by then, you know what I mean? So it was so, so nice.
Lauren Davis:
Totally.
Krista Mashore:
So yeah, it's changing all the time. And just last night, one of my friends had a four hour. I was only there for like an hour and a half, but it was four hours long, this thing went, right? I mean, it's just amazing. So go sign up, reserve your name. You only have 15 characters. If you're in real estate or make sure your first three lines, it's very important. So if you're a local professional and you're going after local business, you want to make sure you put your city and state that you live in and exactly what you do, because people are looking at that to give you referrals from other areas across the country. If you're a marketing specialist or a thought leader, or go look at Lauren Davis's profile. Go look at mine and you'll get ideas of what those first three lines look like.
Krista Mashore:
People want to look at that and go, “Oh, I know exactly what Lauren does. I know exactly what Krista does.” Right? And you want them to know that same thing about you. So our tip of the day, go sign up now because I believe this is going to be bigger than Facebook, because it's not video. Yes, it's not pictures. It's real time and people have to be real. It's not my assistant posting for me, or it's not my assistant answering my DMs. It has to be the person because it's a vocal on time present, right now real-time app.
Lauren Davis:
Yes. Yes. And that's another thing is that for people building their personal brand who are looking for mentors and looking for people to learn from, it's access. You have access to people that you didn't have access to before. It's suddenly like you're sitting 12 feet away from Daymond John from shark tank.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, yeah.
Lauren Davis:
It's just really cool to have that access for people who are really trying to build their mentorship and build their circle, build the five people that they hang out with the most. Access is the number one way that you can create relationships that lead to bigger referrals, bigger networks, and I will die on the hill of building relationships with people.
Krista Mashore:
I can tell that. I can tell that Lauren, you're so cute. I'm going to just say one last thing about Clubhouse. Be careful not to become such a consumer, that you're never an implementer. I think it can be a bad thing in a way that there are so many people just telling you all these things to do. And somebody could give you the blueprint, the step-by-step, the exact way to do it. But, it's almost like your worst way, your biggest killer of implementation. But it's hard to actually do all these things.
Krista Mashore:
So don't just go from room, to room, to room and get all these ideas and never implement. Maybe go to one or two rooms or stick around one or two people that you really, really can think you can learn from that can help you, and then start implementing what they're saying. But I do think that the information is great on Clubhouse, but so many people need the actual, they need to actually pay for the product or buy the service or pay for the coaching or whatever, because it's so hard just to ask a couple of questions and expect to really know how to get the blueprint and all that. So be careful.
Lauren Davis:
Yeah. Take action, because that is the way to success. You have to just keep putting your foot in front of the other and taking the best next right step.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. Excellent. Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and I always ask everyone, Lauren, if you could give us your one tip of advice, no matter if it's business or personal. What would that one piece of advice be that could make the most amount of impact for our listeners?
Lauren Davis:
Okay. Well, I work with a lot of people who are a little frustrated with social media, and I feel like you might too, because you work with a lot of people who are trying to learn how to use social media to their best advantage. And some of them are like, “It's just honestly dragging for me. I don't get it so it's not fun and it makes no sense. Do I have to be on every platform,” et cetera.
Lauren Davis:
So my one tip for those, for anyone in that position, that boat, is find one platform that makes social media super fun for you. If you find one platform that makes it really fun, then you find the one next best platform after that, that you can use what you're learning from the first platform to the second. Because the algorithms are different on each platform. Of course, you need to learn strategy for each platform. But for now, if you can change the way you think about social media and find one platform that is really fun for you, no matter what it is, then it's going to change the way that you look at using social media for your business in general. That's my one tip.
Krista Mashore:
Great. Some people are trying to do everything. It's like, “Oh, I got to be an Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Clubhouse and Twitter.” So, they don't do any of them, right?
Lauren Davis:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
So pick one, master it. I always say, learn, implement, master, repeat. Meaning, repeat that learning again with that same platform, like really, really dig into it, learn how it can optimize it, love it, get excited about it. And once you have mastered it and are doing it consistently, then move onto the next.
Lauren Davis:
Absolutely.
Krista Mashore:
Lauren, it has just been a pleasure having you. I know you've got a gift for our listeners. Go ahead and tell them like what it is and how it's going to help them and how they can get access to it from you.
Lauren Davis:
Sure. It's absolutely free for your listeners. It's 100 plus high quality social media prompts for personal brands. So if you're building your brand on Instagram, Facebook, and you're stuck in that land where you're like, “I just don't know what to post. I never know what to post. I open it up, it's a blank slate and my cursor's blinking.” This is going to help you tremendously. It's 100 different topic ideas, and they're all built around building relationships online.
Krista Mashore:
I love it. And how do they get it?
Lauren Davis:
We will put the link inside the show notes and they can grab it right there.
Krista Mashore:
Okay. The link will be in the show notes. You can grab it right there, and that is awesome. First of all, she's giving you 100 days of content for you to post on Instagram or TikTok or whatever your main one platform is. Lauren, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I'm excited that you have your own podcast. I'm going to be on that one too. What's it called again?
Lauren Davis:
The Real Personal Branding Podcast. I can't wait for you to be on.
Krista Mashore:
The Real Personal Branding Podcast. Go look at that, subscribe. Listen to her, because if you're listening to this, you want to listen to her too. And Lauren, thank you for all the value. It was such a good time. I appreciate you, and I can't wait to get this out there and just let all our listeners hear it, because I know they're going to love it.
Lauren Davis:
This was so much fun. Thank you.
Krista Mashore:
Bye.
Lauren Davis:
Bye.
Krista Mashore:
Remember everyone, I hope you are just as fired up as I am. Lauren has got me excited. I can't wait to get her freebie on 100 high quality social media tips to talk about. And just remember, it's great to listen. It's great to learn, but implementation is actually where your life's going to change. So be sure to implement and thank you so much for giving me this small amount of time from you. I appreciate it. I love it. Thanks for being here and I'll see you next time. Make it as always a super great day.
