Nicole Laino
Hello, and welcome to the limitless entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And I am here with a very special guest today, I’m here with Amanda chi Jek. She’s the CEO of Amanda COGIC coaching. And she is going to we’re going to talk today about one of my favorite topics. And I know one that will resonate really, really heavily with our listeners, viral engagement, and organic marketing. It’s not dead, right? There is such thing as organic marketing and vile viral engagement still, Amanda?

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, that’s right, everybody thinks this dead, because they’ve seen these changes in these adjustments on Facebook. And so they think, you know, every time it’s updated, that they see less and less engagement coming through. But you’re right, it’s not dead viral engagement is definitely not dead.

Nicole Laino
So tell me a little bit about you talk to talk to our listeners, let them know who you are, what you do and what they can expect from you.

Amanda Kijek
So, like Nicole said, my name is Amanda Kojic, I really I work with entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs. In all different types of businesses, what I do is I’m a Facebook marketing strategist and business coach. So I really focus on how to help them grow and scale their businesses using those organic Facebook marketing, tips, systems strategies, right and really simplifying it so that you can, you know, catapult your business without the use of ads, right? We don’t in the beginning, you don’t need those things. And even later on, you don’t necessarily need those things. It’s just those are the, you know, the cherry on top that you can add in if you want to. So that’s really what I could talk about all day. And I’m excited to talk about today.

Nicole Laino
So I love that and, and we’re going to talk we’re gonna really focus today on Facebook, right, that’s going to be kind of the main focus of the organic lead generation stuff that we talked about. And I love that because I do think that that’s a really common misconception. And something I hear from people a lot is that they feel like that if they don’t run ads, that they’re not going to have any of that top of funnel happening. And so well, I guess the to be even more clear about the misconception is that I either run ads, or I spam people incessantly. And those are the two options that I have. So I’d love for you to kind of dispel some of that myth, because we’re all about myth busting here, but dispel some of that myth and talk to us a little bit about like, viral engagement, for starters, like, talk to us about, like, what viral engagement is and how you can create that now.

Amanda Kijek
Sure. So first, you know, what I always teach my audience and my clients is that you really don’t even need a business page, because a lot of us are spreading ourselves too thin trying to show up, you know, on our business pages on all these other areas and platforms. And if you were to just focus in on one area, which your personal profile is free, it’s right there for you, you’re on it every day, right. And that’s where people are showing up billions of people daily. If you show up there, and you’re posting your content you’re giving value, you’re going to start seeing more and more people coming in there and engaging and wanting what you have. So if you’re doing that on a business page, this is just a little tip, if you’re doing this on a business page, there’s no point if you aren’t running ads, your business pages for running your ads. And again, you know, when it comes to ADS, you’re going to make sure you want that quality audience there you want them really pinpointed. So for you to be just bringing all of your friends over from your personal profile, which many, let’s say network marketers usually are taught to do is to just hit that friend button right max out those 5000 Friends, if you’re bringing those people over, you know, and then bringing them into your business account, that’s not going to help you because now you’re going to spend much more money anyways when it comes to if you want it to run ads, right. So that’s why I really love to focus on organic and keeping everything laser focused in on your personal profile because you don’t need to worry about that you literally are building your audience and your your raving fan base by just showing up creating value and giving your audience what they want. So if you want viral engagement, what do you got to do? You got to be social, right? Because it’s social media. Facebook wants you to keep people on their platform. They want you showing up posting your topic, posting your you know, going live and then engaging with those people, right if you know SallyAnn is coming over and saying, you know, hey, you know, I’m on live watching your your live video, you know, and you ask them to say hi, you’re engaging now you’re creating that two way reciprocation with each other. And Facebook notices that and it’s going to give you more views. So obviously, let’s say for an example, you’re going live, and you say, you know, let me know where you’re coming in from, say, Hello. And, you know, SallyAnn, who’s going to be our, our viewer is saying, Hi, right. And right now you can say hi, back. But now when you’re done recording your live video, right, and you and it goes on to your news feed, more people are still going to get to see that and watch it right. And now you’re going to go in, and you’re going to respond to SallyAnn. Right? Even though you said hide, we’re alive, which was great, it was showing the algorithm that you’re being social, you want to make sure you go in there, and you respond back by typing Hello, thank you for watching live, right. It’s really, it’s it’s such a simple thing that I think a lot of people just forget to do. But that’s all it really takes is being social and engaging back with those people who are engaging with you.

Nicole Laino
You know, I think that that goes to something that people take for granted, which so going back and writing a comment back, you’re starting a conversation, because they can’t really respond to you. They’re responding to you in the live video, they can write and answer your questions. But the opportunity to have a conversation with somebody after is so huge, and we miss out on it so often, because we think, Oh, we’re not thinking we’re not thinking strategically about how to spend our time. And I think when we think about organic lead generation, we think about things like either people are just attracted, do you think of that attraction marketing thing we’re waiting, it’s that if you build it, they will come sort of idea. And then the spamming thing. So I love that you brought that up about like intentionally putting out your content, putting out value, letting people respond to it, and then going back and actually furthering that conversation and allowing that and then you’re playing the algorithm game, right?

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, that’s the thing is, that’s so important is really, you know, being intentional, being intentional with how you show up, if you’re building your business on, you know, this, this amazing platform that we’re given for free, and we can show up on, you don’t want to spam, you don’t want to be posting in branding for your company, you want to show up and be branding yourself. So how you do that is by creating value. And I think so many people just get confused by, you know, they hear us talk about, you know, create value, create value, and they get so confused with well, what does that mean? How do I show up and create value? Well, you are talking about things you’re interested in your core values, but you’re also having your audience at top of mind, you’re thinking about, you know, what is it that they’re always that they’re interested in that they want from you that thing that you have, so of course, you want to go in there and you want to engage with them and respond back, because now they’re going to want more of what you have. And the reason why I really focus on live and, you know, use that for the example is because what better way to you know, really amplify your reach than to show up live using the features that Facebook is, you know, really, really focused on right now, which live video was one of them, right? And your stories, right? So showing up, you know, in wanting your engagement to really increase use those features show up live, engage back. And, and another really important thing is to before you do these things, okay, this is these are some golden nuggets, you guys, so get your pens out before you do these things. You want to engage on stories for about, you know, five or 10 minutes before you’re even thinking about posting or showing up and doing your own life. Okay, so engage on other people’s stories, give love. If they have a, you know, a poll in their story, you know, answer one of the questions in the poll, but be engaging in there, do that for five or 10 minutes, then what you want to do is go into your newsfeed and also do that, okay, so scroll through and engage for about 10 or 15 minutes in posts, then do your post or your live stream. And then most importantly, is make sure you have that time allotted so that you’re engaging back with the people who were commenting and engaging on your live stream or your piece of content. That’s really important because there’s a little window of time where you’re gonna get more views and more you know, you’re you’re kind of flagged for Facebook, showing them like Wow, really people really liked this Amanda girl because they’re engaging with her and now she’s finished and she’s still getting engagement and she’s commenting back right in the comment section below. So it’s, you have that nice little window of time, there’s not really a set, you know, I would say do it within the first half an hour. Beyond, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still, you know, boost your, your video up or you know, still have people coming on there and seeing it doesn’t mean people aren’t going to still see it. But in that first little window, if you can get the maximum amount of engagement and views and that’s best that’s going to work best for you.

Nicole Laino
Right? So everything that you’re talking about right now is the the algorithm game, right? The lead let’s, let’s get the algorithm, you know, acquainted with me. And so you’re connecting with other people, you’re going into stories and you’re, you’re engaging with people, and then you’re going into your newsfeed and you’re engaging with people, and do they want to be strategic about who they’re engaging with, and, and playing that game to make certain connections with people is that also another layer that they could add to that to make this even more more powerful,

Amanda Kijek
you definitely want to be thinking about who you’re connecting with, and who is, you know, who you’ve made friends with, you know, and those are the people who are going to be showing up on your timeline anyways, like in your newsfeed. So if you’re one of these people, if you’re in network marketing, and you’ve, you know, maxed out your friends list on 5000 people and you just have a variety of people in your, you know, your stories showing up in a variety of people in your content on your newsfeed showing up, you still engaging with them is helpful, because they’ll probably see your live video and see your your content until you can go and clean that out. Right. So don’t get focused on so focused on, you know, worrying about, I guess the views and stuff. Because yes, that’s important, it is important to help you boost you up in the newsfeed for more people to see you. But you really need to focus on the quality of content and the value you’re putting out. And then if you’ve maxed out their friends, lips, cleaning out some of those people, because yes, quality leads and quality friends are more important. If you just have a super variety of people who you friended you got your aunt on there, you’ve got your ads cousin, you’ve got you know, all of your team showing up and engaging on your posts, that’s not helping you, that’s not helping you, you, you want to have a system in place so that you are creating quality leads. So you’re showing up creating quality content, and putting all that hard work in, you don’t just want everybody in their dog commenting, you want quality people commenting so that you can then bring them to a place where you’re either having a conversation with them, right, putting them into a group, or bringing them somewhere else where you want them to go. Okay? And that’s why we talk about like what you brought up Nicole about with spamming. That’s why you don’t want to just be doing that and posting your company’s products and logos all over the place. Because then they’re just going to google it to avoid a conversation with you. But if you’re providing value about those things, what’s the result? What’s the trend for transformation that that person can get? And then you’re showing up with this content or this live video, and then you’re having a call to action, you know, saying reach out to me have a conversation or join my group or whatever it may be for you. That’s where you’re going to weed out the people who aren’t your friends who you don’t need, right, right. Because yes, we call them Facebook, friends on Facebook, but to you growing your business on social media organically, they are potential customers or potential clients. Right. So this is kind of like your qualifying process. Okay, your Facebook newsfeed is like your qualifying process. It’s like your resume that you’re putting out into the world. And you’re, you know, having people read and think, do I want more? Right? So the way they do that is by clicking on your stories, clicking on your content, engaging back with your content, and then it’s up to you to follow through. And do you know even more?

Nicole Laino
Right, and I think that there’s a few things that came up that I kind of want to dig into one. I think one thing I hear from a lot of people, my clients included is people get really tripped up when you say like add value, they get really tripped up on what does it mean? They think they need to be teaching something deep and meaningful all the time. But value could just mean connecting with someone in a genuine way. Like that could be value to the other person when you’re not thinking about you and you’re thinking about the other person that can first will take a lot of pressure off of you. And second you build these connections and that’s really what live video is so powerful for is that If you have this, they can respond immediately, you can be delivering content, you get to see who is responding to what you put out there. And then you get to continue the conversation. But to your point about having quality people in your friends list that allows you to be where you’re kind of automatically being strategic with your engagement before and after your videos or before and after your posts. Because if your friends list is filled with people that you want to be connecting with, and you want to deepen your connection with, then you’re always engaging with the right people. If your friends list is kind of a mess, and you have a bunch of people in there that aren’t really serving your business, then you have to spend time being like, do I want to connect with this person? Do I look for these other people? But then that can be a bit of a dance because you want to get the right eyes on your content? It’s not just getting eyes on it. Right?

Amanda Kijek
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And there’s, you know, so many simple ways that you can do that. I’m sure many people have heard of like using their birthday reminders. If you get you know, those notifications that pop up automatically within Facebook, use that have you has it been a year you got this reminder, the last time you got it was probably a year ago. Right. So now it’s Sally Anne’s birthday, and you’ve just got this notification does she meet your avatar is Does she look like somebody who would buy from you? Does she look like somebody who would be interested in anything that you have? If not unfriend her right? Then save yourself some time, okay, she’s not going to see it, unless she gets your birthday reminder. And then it’s like, oh, well, oh, we’re not friends anymore, right? But then just be authentic. And, you know, if she reaches out and says, you know, oh, I noticed we aren’t friends anymore. Just be authentic about it. Okay, I’m all about being genuine and authentic. If somebody I actually had that happen the other day, like I said, my, my market or women entrepreneurs, and I had a male friend reach out to me, and he said, Hey, I had an old post that popped up, and I saw your name. And so I reached out, and I and then I noticed that we weren’t friends anymore. And I was like, Oh, well, I’m constantly cleaning up my friends list. You know, I use Facebook as my, you know, main form of my business. And so if you haven’t engaged on things for a while, or I haven’t seen it, you probably got cleaned out. And he was just like, oh, you know, and you can still talk to them, you can still be friends with them. But you don’t have to use your space. Because like I said, like this is you guys, you can grow a massively successful business using organic Facebook strategies, okay, and having these systems in place. So you know, don’t let the guilt of not having, you know, letting some people go, you’re lightening your loading, you’re making your your life easier and helping your business. I love that.

Nicole Laino
And yeah, instead of being authentic, it’s sort of standing in your power and not feeling like your door has to be open to every single person that ever ever walked through it. Since you started, you know, you started a Facebook profile in the first place. So, if you were to if someone was starting out, or somebody feels like they are on this hamster wheel, I hear all the time, social media doesn’t work for me, you know, quote, unquote, doesn’t work for me. What would you say to that person? What are three things that you would give them and tell them to start with? To be like, Okay, well, let’s get these things in line. And then that should shift you into a place where you feel like it’s starting to work for you, and then we can amp it up.

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, so the simplest, easiest thing you can do is do a little self audit on yourself. How are you showing up right now? What does your profile look like? So the simplest thing to do is to, you know, if somebody was to friend you, or to check you out, right, what are they seeing? When it comes to your profile, you should have a profile cover photo. So the big square image at the top that has, you know, either a picture, you have to be in the picture, you have to be in the picture, I always say, but it could be you, you know, at the top of a mountain could be you at the pool with your family could be walking your dog, you know, it could be a few different pictures as long as you’re in there a colt, things like that. Um, you know, when I first started out, I didn’t really have anything, you know, special or specific to kind of, you know, draw that curiosity about where I was going like with my coaching business, I didn’t have celebrities that I had pictures with or things like that. Some people do, you can use those. That’s fantastic. Because now you’re you’re kind of positioning yourself as knowing them and it helps your credibility. But if you don’t have that kind of thing, then I just had a picture of myself on a family vacation. My main moral is family first and most women that is what you’re working toward As you’re working towards being able to have that more freedom, time freedom, and you know, spend more time with your families, right? So, using things like that, but the main focus on your cover photo is you should be in there. And it should be something that’s relatable to your audience. And that paints a picture also, even though you’re in it paints a picture of keeping them top of mind, what is it that they would also they want for themselves, right? So that lifestyle type photo of me on a family vacation with the ocean behind kind of paints that picture of like, oh, okay, this picture looks amazing. But that’s something else I want for myself, because the next place we’re gonna go to is your little profile picture, which is the little round picture. And that always has to be you. That always has to be you, it can’t be you and your husband, or you and your friends, it has to be you. So people know who does this account belongs to remember when I talked about this kind of being like your resume of sorts, you want people to know, like, this is my account. I’m Amanda COGIC. And, you know, this is what I do. And the next place they’re going to their eyes are going to fall to is your bio. So that’s where you get to tell people, what can you do for them? What transformation? Can you get them? What is the result of them, getting staying here and getting to know you more? And if you use those three things, those simple three things, you can paint that picture very quickly, and you can lead them through to the rest of your content, you’re going to see a shift in yourself because now you’re you’re more aligned with okay, how am I showing up? How am I positioning myself? Who do I want to be known as, so if you can paint that picture for them, right, because we’re very visual people are very visual, if you can paint that picture for them, and tell that story that’s gonna help not only them see that they want to see and get to know you more, but it’s going to help you get more clarity as well on where you want to go with your how you’re showing up on your newsfeed.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, I love that. It’s sort of setting up your identity. Right? And you’re saying like, and this is again, your, your opportunity to connect with people, right? So people, we connect on things in common first, no matter what I mean, you know, diversity is wonderful. Diversity is needed. But But humans initially and and it just it goes to moms, you see another mom, and you’re like, Oh, we both have kids. There’s something comforting about it. That is just human nature for comfort to come from seeing something like for like, so like, oh, we have this in common? Because we think about like, what are we going to talk to this person about? What do we have? What What how do our lives align. And so we see kids, we see a place that you live, we see we hear about background, we hear about how people grew up. So sharing those stories. So I talked about, like my corporate background a lot. And this is where like, the value part, I think trips people up, like they think like, well, I don’t know what to teach. And sometimes it’s just like, worried about building connection and setting up the identity that somebody can connect with? Who am I? I am a strong mom, who views the world a certain way, like does your profile, kind of kind of show that off? Or does it seem generic, because that’s kind of the death of anything on social media, because it’s so noisy, if you’re generic in anything, then you’re just gonna kind of blend in with everybody else, right. And the idea is to stand out to the right people.

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, if you want organic to work best for you, then think about being organic, think about being yourself, think about, you know, showing up and not looking, you know, all put together. And, you know, if you’re let’s come back to the example of a mom, like, I’m a mom of two toddlers, my posts on my profile, you’ll see a mixture, though, and you’re gonna see what’s going to do best. So test this, right. So if I have a picture of myself, you know, done up feeling beautiful, right? Because that’s what we want to take pictures of ourselves is when we look the best and feel the best. But if you have those kinds of pictures, you know, one or two of them might do good because and get tons of engagement because people are gonna be like, Oh, wow, you look so gorgeous. Like they might think say we’re had a photo shoot or something. But if you post the pictures of you playing with your kids, you know rolling around your hair is a mess. You know, I’ve done live trainings where I literally had to just hop in my car and I had like a tank top on is like hanging off and I looked like a disaster those got way more engagement and views than anything where I was ever you know, trying to look good for myself because that’s the thing is you’re not it’s not about you, it’s about who is watching you and the information you’re giving them and me showing up like that those views are better when I’m showing up like that hot mess Express because who is my audience, my audience or other moms there? Are other women who are trying to make it work? So they relate to that more. They don’t relate to me showing up, you know, in my blazer in my hair and makeup done, because they’re like, Oh, dang, I wish I could have washed my hair today. Right? No, they, they’re like, Okay, wait a minute, she’s just in her car. And she’s going live quickly with these, you know, three tips on how to max out your engagement, I can do that, right. And if they see they can do it, that’s the person that they’re going to follow that makes you the credible expert and the leader, because you’re showing them.

Nicole Laino
And I think there’s something authentic. And there’s a time and a place for everything. You know, like, when you’re when you’re sharing something where you’re like, I just needed to share this or I wanted to, I wanted to put this out to everyone, someone might need this message. When you show up when you come as you are, and you show up and you just deliver something. It feels very authentic, it feels people are sort of like, oh, well, there isn’t a facade physically. So I think I can believe this message. You know, when you show up, and you’re teaching something, or you’re being more deliberate, or it’s okay to look good, too, it’s okay to show up, feeling your best and, and, you know, putting your best foot forward physically, but not letting that other stuff hold you back and realizing that that in itself is a little bit of vulnerability, to not show up with the perfect hair, and the perfect makeup. And you know, with the house looking Instagram ready, which I never does.

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, I don’t know, if somebody took a picture in my house, like it would be a disaster. Yeah, it’s like my zoo, I call it my Zoo. I think, you know, that’s the most important thing is being consistent to if you want your, you know, to really, really see that change in your, you know, your business growth by using organic, then have a system have a plan in place. So showing up consistently is one of those things and you hear you’ll hear us talk about it and coaches all the time showing up being consistent. Well, that means also not only creating that, you know, valuable content, right? But having if you’re showing up, like you said showing up, you know, what’s your live show, for example, I do my live shows every single Tuesday around 9pm. If I was to suddenly stop doing that, that’s not going to help the algorithm that’s not Facebook’s gonna be like, oh, wait a minute, what’s happening, right? If I’m just jumping on at random times and random days, yes, you’re still using the feature of you know, being social showing up live. But if you’re consistent, when you’re showing up, then you’re going to also be able to, you know, max out, though, that viral engagement, you’re going to really be able to hit more people. So that doesn’t mean though, that, you know, this is not for you to use an excuse of okay, well, you know, this Tuesday night, I’m busy because I have, you know, a date, it’s my anniversary, and I’m not going to not show up at all, because I can’t do it at 9pm. No, I’m going to do it earlier that day. Because it’s not, it doesn’t mean I get let off the hook, it means I’m still going to show up. Because I’m showing up not only to get engagement in Leeds, I’m showing up for you. I’m showing up for my audience, I’m showing up to bring you value in to, you know, bring you the tips and the things that you want. So doesn’t matter how you show up, if normally your live show is on the Tuesday at 9pm. And you do try to look nice for it and bring value. Don’t just not do it because you have something else that’s you know, a higher priority consistency is always always going to take, you know, the top spot there.

Nicole Laino
Well, and absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. And I think that the consistency part. It’s just as much for you as it is for the algorithm. Yes, it helps the algorithm. Yes, Facebook loves it when they see you showing up regularly. That means that people are watching you, it means that people might show up on the platform to watch you all of that stuff exists. But it’s also this great tool for you to say when you get overwhelmed when it when social media feels really big and you don’t know what to do just be like one day a week. Can you wrap your head around one day a week to deliver one video? One day a week? Most people would say yes. Most people if you ask them like can you conceptualize just having one day a week where you show up live and you deliver some form of value that you show up for your audience one time a week. Most people would be like, yeah, I could do that. You He feels doable. And so many times we think about this and we think about, like, I need a social media strategy, everything you just laid out here, I’m going to recap it. So that so that we can, because I want everybody to see how simple this can be that if you are having trouble right now, if you are not able to stay consistent, if you feel like social media isn’t working for you, if you feel like organic traffic is dead, and you’d either need to buy ads, or have like a team of 10 working for you in order to make it work. It’s not true. So some things that you can do right now are and Amanda jump in, if I if I’ve missed anything, but I feel like do do an audit on your profile, right? Go through and look at what is your profile saying about you currently, right? Look at your cover photo, look at your profile picture and your bio, is it putting out the message? And are you connecting with people on like, some sort of level right from that spot? Exactly. Have some consistent, show something that you’re delivering, if you can wrap your head around that one time a week, and then engaging 10 to 15 minutes before with people intentionally in stories and on the newsfeed do the video, wrap the video, comment back to everybody that was in writing. Because if you look at the total number of comments that you have on a video, it is everyone that commented plus every response. Yeah, so that’s how you get to add comments. Because only 30 or 40 of them came from other people, you can be that other you can be you can make up half. Yeah, love that you can double your comments, which will double which will boost you in the algorithm. Exactly. And then afterwards, doing a little bit more of that and engaging still for that 10 or 15 minutes, after you’ve commented back to everybody right there, that gives you actionable things to be doing every single like you know, setting up your profile and setting you up and then and then looking at, you know, a strategy one time a week. And then building from there.

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, and that’s really is the simplest thing you could possibly do. Another point is, if you’re strapped for time, and you’re not good at writing content, how easy is it to just go live, you know, go live, it’s, it’s, I was just talking with a client about this today, she has five kids, she’s very busy. And it’s easier for her to go live. So I said, like, Yeah, let’s let’s focus on that, then let’s go live, don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about that content and making it you know, look nice, and you know, having that flow and that call to action, do it live, right. But there, there is a way to show up. And there is a right place and a wrong place. And there is the most important thing, when you’re first starting out is to focus on that profile, focus on that profile, because Facebook is a moving platform, okay, so if you want people to see you, and you want them to stop and say I want to get to know her more, then you have to have that cover photo, that profile picture and your bio, okay, and then then there’s more you can learn to go with it to make it create that invisible funnel, right, you can add those extra things in there, you can add your, you know, in the description, your link, not to your company, right? If you work for, you know, XYZ company, don’t put that in there. If it’s an MLM, right? If it’s your own company and stuff, you can have a description, you can have your links, you can, you know, there’s so many places you can create these, these extra little tidbits of information to drive them to a place that you want to go. But in the beginning, focus on what’s most important now. So you’re taking those bite sizes, and you’re taking action rather than getting overwhelmed. And, you know, continuing to just be like, I can’t think of what to post today. I’m just gonna post you know, this stock photo, and, you know, hope that someone bites because when you do that, you’re just creating resistance. You’re just, you know, if you’re lucky, somebody might google it, but what’s probably happening is they’re just like, oh, no, I don’t even want to I’m not even gonna come over to this chicks profile because I’m not interested. Right.

Nicole Laino
Well, and I feel like that is something so that the the becoming the billboard for your company. This is specifically for network marketers were talking about can you talk a little bit just just a minute or two about why they don’t want to do that? Why not the stock photos Why not the just product photos and being that billboard I certainly have my views on this as well, but I would love to hear what your thoughts are on on being the company first. I always believe that the brand is you and then you happen to sell things that this other company provides.

Amanda Kijek
Yeah, it is. You know, it’s not even the network marketers fault really in the beginning because you guys, I started out in network marketing Kay, I started out in network marketing. And because I wanted to stay home with my kids, my background is actually I’m an esthetician and have been for the past 20 years. So when I, when I found a company that I aligned with, and I knew that I could do well with, I jumped in, but what is taught to us in our companies is, you know, here right away, here’s all the photos, you can use, here’s the products, here’s what you can talk about, you know, you can say your XY and Z rep. And so the, they train you that way, and you don’t know any better yet. But now, okay, this was, you know, six years ago, when I got started, you can still kind of get away with that. And you could get people, you know, coming into your team and, you know, joining you, but now, okay, and even, you know, two years ago, that has started to die off big time. Okay, everyone sees that as what we’ve been talking about spam, right? If you’re posting a picture of your product, and you even if the name isn’t really showing, it’s still already putting a sales twist on things people aren’t seeing that’s not value, all they see is your bottle, or your spoon, or your you know, whatever it may be, and or your before and after photo, right? Everybody has before and after photos. Now think, think about this. Like, I’m just gonna throw out a bunch of names of companies, let’s say you’re with Rodan and Fields, and you post a, which is a skincare company and you post a before and after have two faces right? Now, let’s say if you’re with unique, which is a makeup company, and you post the before and after of two phases. Now let’s say if you’re with Modere, which is kind of a combination, you post that all of those look the same to everybody. Right? So how are you branding yourself as that expert who can help somebody to get clear skin, who can help somebody lose weight, who can help somebody feel more confident about themselves, that’s what you want to talk about, you want to talk about those results that they can get, because if you’re just showing up with your spoon, with your makeup brushes, with your this with your that all you’re doing is telling people I want to sell to you, I want to sell you not I can help you. Right. So it’s so important to see the difference in how you’re showing up and saying, you know, you know, I’m Amanda COGIC, a Facebook marketing strategist who can help you grow and scale by using organic strategies compared to you know, I’m a business coach who’s going to help you, you know, do this or I’m a, you know, Rodan and Fields representative and I can help you XYZ, right. You don’t say Rodan and Fields you say your name, and the result that you’re gonna get them. Okay? So try and see the difference in how when you show up and you see that how people are going to see you and and think about this, I guess is what do you want to be remembered? As? Do you want to be? You know, SallyAnn the makeup rep for unique? Or do you want to be Sally and that lady who has helped my son, get rid of his acne? And he is now not, you know, scared to take swimming lessons anymore? Because he you know, it irritates the skin and it’s read and the kids tease him, right? You want to be known as that person who helps people feel better and get results or get that transformation?

Nicole Laino
Yeah, I mean, the one thing that I completely agree with everything that you just said, I would the only thing I will add to this just because I see this come up all the time. And I think that it’s just a really obvious thing. So many people when you ask them, if they would join a network marketing company a lot, most people say no. And the biggest fear that they have, or the reason that they don’t say yes, is well, I don’t want to just be selling all the time on social media, and spamming my family and friends. And then what do we do when we go out there? Or what do what do a lot of network marketers? Do? they exemplify exactly the objection that they most often get. And when you look at it that way, it’s like okay, well, how can I not be whatever, how can I not be the stereotype? And, and there’s so many it does take a little more thinking. And I think for a lot of people, there’s there’s a vulnerability with it because you do have to share more of you. And you have to think about like this is this is the value I offer, which is sort of then accepting the fact that you have value to offer others and that’s usually a bigger leap and this As you know, the limitless entrepreneur podcast, so I definitely I would, it wouldn’t be an episode without me bringing up mindset or your own inner struggles. But this is I think the biggest, it’s so much easier to have people judge the product and judge the company than potentially judge us. So kind of like, that is something that I always come back to, with my clients and with other people that I talk to is sharing on social media is, you know, it’s sharing you, once you start doing it, it’s actually cathartic. But those first steps, and every hurdle you hit on the on the way, you know, you’re up against that, that fear muscle that saying like, nope, nope, not safe. Yeah, we don’t want to be judged. Yeah. But so I, I completely agree with you about not going that way. When I also say this, like, I don’t know about you do, you know, a lot of really successful leaders that just post pictures of their products, and because I don’t,

Amanda Kijek
this, that’s the thing, right, and I think that’s why other cuz i, this, they don’t now, they don’t now, because they have huge downloads, they’re already successful. But if that’s the problem is if you’re first starting out in network marketing, and you don’t see your leader doing these posts that they’re telling you to do, then and that’s what happened to me, I was like, wait a minute, um, I don’t see her doing it. I’m not gonna do that, right. And I started looking outside the box, that’s I saw her posting pictures of herself, of her family of, you know, funny memes. You know, just the other day, I posted a picture on my stories, it was like, just a cartoon of like a mom on the toilet, and like holding the door, and the kids trying to like their little fingers come in underneath the door, right? Because who can relate to that, like, you can even get a moment of silence when your kids are home, right? So you try and lock yourself in the bathroom, you can even get it there. So it’s just those are the kinds of things that you get to post when you’re showing up as yourself, you get to post that stuff, and attract your ideal clients and buyers to you. Right, that’s the beauty of it, when you put a little bit of thought into it, but you do have to look outside the box, you’re not going to be able to follow suit of what your upline is telling you to do, unless they are following attraction marketing and these organic strategies, right? Because they’re probably telling you to do these outdated things that they did, you know, three, four or five years ago that worked for them, but those things do not work now. Okay. And then and that’s the other thing is, that’s why you have to look outside the box and think about, you know, getting other mentors and coaches because your upline doesn’t want you to stop working. They don’t want you to start, you know, doing trainings, and all these things and learning all these different things and getting other people off track, which is so sad, because if they just took the time to teach this stuff, they would see exponential growth, right. So I think that’s the biggest thing that I tried to like really talk with my clients about is like, you now can be that leader for your team and your downline. Like imagine if you put these things into place, imagine if you learn these things now, what you can pass on and what you can create within the duplication so much more easily.

Nicole Laino
From the start to like, what if you started, and this is before you, you would be able to tackle all of these limiting beliefs, all the things that are keeping you out of action, when you’re really close to your downline, because those first 30 days you sort of I think everybody should stay really close to their downline, definitely for those first 30 days, they’re direct, making sure that they’re getting started on the right foot, get them started on this foot on showing up the right way on social media, so that people are reacting because you want to make people curious, and nobody’s curious about a product photo that 20 other friends of theirs are posting at the same time. Because it’s the same gift sets, it’s the same promos. It’s sometimes the same team because you have friends, mutual friends who have other friends that you’re friends with and the circles get closed, they get really tight. And you’ll see like four or five people posting the exact same stuff, sometimes the exact same text because they just copied a script and replaced it

Amanda Kijek
exact exactly my story when I first started out exactly it and then the beauty I would I started making my own like pictures of myself but it was like my back with like even putting my own little like taglines. And then people from the team would copy those and use them because they just didn’t know. Right. So before they get into those bad habits, yeah, teach them the right way before they get confused. It’s just Yeah, it’s one of those things that Thank goodness you know, we we Have this training, we have the stuff at our fingertips, and we’re making able to make people more aware. And, you know, because I do believe wholeheartedly that network marketing and MLM is a fantastic model to build, you know, an amazing business with and you know, leave a legacy. But the nice thing about, you know, all of these organic strategies is they really can work in any business coaching, you know, affiliate, whatever it is, it’s you have this at your fingertips, and you can take this information and make it work for you.

Nicole Laino
Absolutely. And I think that’s the perfect place to leave it, because I think you’ve just summed it up really, really beautifully. And I know that everybody is going to want to stay in touch with you, because you’ve added such great value here, they’re going to want to say they’re going to want more Amanda skyjack in their life to figure out what else do you have to offer for them? So where can they find you? Where can they keep in touch with you?

Amanda Kijek
So I would come on over to my Facebook profile. Look up, Amanda, Kojak, right on Facebook. And I even have some free resources right there in my cover for you to help with engagement to help with your posts. And yeah, reach out to me send me a message. So just look me up on Amanda COGIC. And, and then also, I have an amazing community as well, the profitable mompreneur. And all of that is right there available on my on my profile.

Nicole Laino
And we will link all of that up in the show notes. So if you are driving, or you are not able to write all of this down, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. And you can just click the links and shoot on over to Amanda’s profile to grab those free resources, which is awesome. Or to her Facebook group where you get to be part of the community and not only stay in touch with her, but meet lots of awesome other entrepreneurial women, which is great. Well, Amanda, thank you so much. I think this was a really valuable and and needed conversation, particularly for the network marketer to hear that not only is there a way that they could be doing it, but it’s not as hard as they think that it’s simple to get started. And actually, once they get started, it will be simple to keep it going. It isn’t as big of a mountain to climb as they think. And I think that that was like the the big message here that you can grow organically still. And you can do it while still having a life and not being chained to your phone all the time.

Amanda Kijek
Exactly, exactly. So thank you so

Nicole Laino
much for being here, everybody. Thank you for being here. I hope that you found this conversation useful, helpful and valuable. If you did, please click that subscribe button so that you will not miss the next episode. We will see you next week on the limitless entrepreneur. Thanks. Thank you