I spent Saturday night savouring the flavours of Top Cheflicious with my friends This Kinda Life Always On Board Lindsey and Ashley. Huge shoutout to @localliciousfestival and The Peggy Hill Team for hosting this culinary showdown, and major congrats to 147 for claiming the title of Barrie's 2024 Top Chef! 🏆 The competition was fierce (and oh-so-delicious), leaving me with a full belly and a fresh list of must-try local restaurants. Cheers to Cravings Fine Food Market & Catering and Fishbone Kitchen + Wine Bar - Friday Harbour Resort for their impressive finishes at 2nd and 3rd place! 🥂
If you are having a hard time thinking about 'Keeping Up' with your digital marketing needs this summer...we hear that! It's definitely not 'All The Small Things' when it comes to your business. Keeping your brand visible is time-consuming and you don't want to be focusing on that all summer instead of enjoying your time off.
Let's chat. I promise you'll be saying "Dammit" why didn't I do this sooner. The last thing you will be saying is 'I Miss You' to the stress of remembering to post on your socials.
Your wins are our wins, so whether you made a big sale, got a new client, or hit a new milestone, we will celebrate with you, Ted Lasso style!
"I help..." statements are so last week. (We told you social media moves fast!)
Value statements are in.
While we see "I help xx reach their goal of zz" often, and sure, it shows us exactly what you do... but it doesn't show who you are or why you do that thing that you do so well.
Value statements are the soul of your business. It’s a message that shows the values and priorities of your company. It lets your customers and staff know what is important to you and what your core beliefs are. It humanizes you in a way that helps potential customers choose YOU over the other guy. When a client connects with your values, it's much easier to sell yourself.
What are your core values?
Running a business is rewarding AF, but can also be a real energy suck if we don't put in some boundaries!
After 4 years in business, we are finally learning to put some in place ourselves and it's been so fulfilling. We make a huge point to focus on our clients doing this, but listening to our own advice is much harder! Some boundaries that have worked for us are:
😴 Snoozing work alerts for the evenings, so we can actually walk away.
📆 Scheduling in small self care things, even as simple as a walk outside.
✏️ Delegate tasks to someone else - a Virtual Assistant/ consultant/ etc.
What have we noticed since putting up boundaries? Way more energy to put back into our biz, renewed passion to learn and grow more, more creativity for new ideas.
But...for real though. Anyone else?
I realized recently that just telling people I run a social media management business doesn't really encompass all we offer.
Did you know we can help you save time in your business by:
⭐ Fully managing your accounts by creating and scheduling all your content (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn & Pinterest)
⭐ Optimizing your Bio and Feed on Instagram to ensure you are reaching your ideal clients
⭐ 1:1 Social Storming sessions to help you with your upcoming content
⭐ Running workshops to help your team learn how to best use your social media channels
⭐ Visual Branding Packages to make sure your brand comes across the way you want it to
⭐ Engagement to ensure your brand is growing and reaching new ideal clients
Want to know more about how we can help your business? Click the link in our bio to book a Discovery Call. Let's chat!
Social media can't save your business. That's the hard truth. When your business is failing, a pretty Instagram post here and there in a month can't work miracles.
The average consumer has 7 interactions with a brand before making a purchase, and those aren't always going to happen on Instagram.
(The algorithm can be a real b*tch, too) 🤫
What CAN Instagram help with?
➡️Visibility
➡️Brand Awareness
➡️Connecting with your clientele
➡️Showcasing a product/ service
➡️Showing off your brands personality
Need help with a strategy to help revive your business on and off social media? Send us a DM, we can set up a strategy call and see where we can help!
We were all set to have the kids go back to school today and have life return to semi- normal... but Mother Nature had other plans!
We'll just keep rolling with the punches over here 🤪
Plans include: watching Seal Team on @netflix, toboganning in the back yard with all this snow, and hopefully relaxing with hot chocolate (will mine have Baileys in it? I’ll never tell).
How does your day look?
Tis the season! Social media managers and business owners everywhere are refilling their coffee mugs and looking at their calendars while trying to get a lay of the land. They are looking back at what worked this year and trying to see the future with a crystal ball in order to plan next year. Not an easy task.
Here are a couple things to ask yourself:
What worked?
One simple step is to check your IG insights - what performed well? What got the most shares, the most comments, the most engagement? What do those posts have in common? Obviously that is resonating with your audience, so use it going forward.
What didn’t?
On that note, what flopped? Was it the time of day you posted, hashtags that didn’t work for you, or content that didn’t land with your audience? Consider these while planning ahead (and don’t worry, we all have posts that flop!)
When you have your own business there are boxes and boxes of different hats to wear! But changing hats all day can be exhausting and even lonely.
We get it – we’ve been there. It’s stressful and feels like you’ll never get everything done!
We have somewhere you can hang up those hats. Let us take care of the tasks that are weighing you down and keeping you from being your best, productive self 👒
Like content writing. It’s great if it’s something you enjoy and that you’re good at. But if not, it’s a time-consuming, creativity-intensive chore that never seems to end ♾
But we love content writing and we’re GREAT at it. Send us a DM and let’s see how we can lighten that load!
We Hustle, and we Flow. We wipe noses and pack lunches. We carve out time for our spouses and ourselves (sometimes). We strive to be great Moms, caring wives, supportive friends and amazing biz babes...and we always have each other’s back.
Last week we had a first... Julia woke up to her youngest daughter having a tick 🤢 The first person she panic texted was Melissa, because while we have each other for biz needs all the time we are also there for everything else. It is so comforting to have that person who can help you figure out what’s what in all areas in your life.
It made us think...Who’s your go to person? Tag your support system in the comments to let them know how much you love them! 🙌
*BRAND & SM AUDIT TIP | Imagery*
What do people see when they come to your profile, to your website, and open your emails? Do they see a perfectly curated look? Do they see something that sparks affinity? Do they see a mish-mash of things and don’t know what the heck it’s supposed to mean??
The imagery you use should constantly reflect your brand. Imagery includes pretty much everything that someone sees. We’re talking pictures, graphics, colour palette, font choices...all the things. But it’s more than just looking pretty. It’s also about impression.
Three areas to check in on for your 2020 Brand & Social Media Audit:
✨ Brand Alignment: Of the dozen posts you selected, do they align with what your brand stands for. Are you consistently using the same style of photos, graphics, fonts, and the same colour palette?
✨ Authenticity: Are the images used an honest representation of your business? Go back to the basics on this; do they give a clear idea of what you do, what value you provide and what you stand for?
✨ Vibe: What emotional spark is going on with the imagery? Does it connect with the brand voice ‘personality’ of your business?
What did your dip into your imagery look like? Tell us below in the comments!
Words. They matter. The words you use to talk about yourself and business can be the difference between making that next sale or not.
Just ask Dionne, one of our fab clients who has worked with us 1:1 and been a member of Hustler + Flow Business Mentorship. Before working with us, her sales were sluggish and no one really had a clear idea of what she did.
After she started working with us, she invested her time to get clear on what she wanted in her biz, what she wanted to do in her biz, and how she wanted people to perceive her. Her messaging went from being all over the place to precise, targeted, and full of value.
What was the impact of that? In the first month she changed her messaging she signed on 9 new clients. Nine!! That was more clients than she had booked in the past year!!!
Not knowing what to say and where to say it hurts your business. You deserve to figure that sh"t out. DM to chat with us and learn how we can help you start using the right words in the right places so you can start making those sales you desire.
How the wrong approach to social media is holding you back and what to do about it
Interviewing Social Media Experts/Mompreneurs/Podcasters, Melissa & Julia of Define + Design Co
Curious...does your biz have a tagline? How did you pick it?
A tagline is a phrase that highlights your brand’s position and identity. It’s what people will associate with your brand and the value you provide.
Your tagline doesn’t have to define what it is you do, or who you serve, but rather connect with an emotion. Let’s take McDonald’s tagline, for example: I’m Lovin’ It. There isn’t a hint in there that has to do with what they are. But if you were to read that tagline for the first time, you’d know that whatever it is they do, they are committed to providing a product that their customers really enjoy and likely come back for again and again.
We’ve recently changed our tagline, and well, we’re lovin’ it.
“Every business has a story. What’s yours?”
We think it’s hitting the mark on emotion, but it’s also hinting towards what we do.
How did we come up with it? We examined what it is we do, held some brainstorming sessions on that, and narrowed down our ideas until we arrived there. We ran it by others for some feedback to make sure it hit, and voila! We arrived at it.
Tell us your tagline in the comments!
Party all night!! Or until 9pm. Last night was the @kw_oktoberfest Rogers Women of the Year Awards night and we had a blast!!
It was so inspiring to meet and hear about what women are doing in the Kitchener Waterloo community. Something that really stood out to us was how supportive everyone was and the way that women empower each other.
It is amazing what happens when we build each other up instead of tear each other down.
We love our tribe and community!!
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#kwawesome #oktoberfest #girlboss #lovemytribe #womeninbusiness #wrawesome #success #dancing #girlpower
Let's talk about brand and audience and expectations for a moment.
1) Do you have a clear brand?
2) Do you know who your audience is?
3) Do you know what your audience has come to expect from you?
Yesterday this playful elephant delighted a crowd of young and old by squinting us with water. Adults laughed, children squealed, and everyone had an experience they were hoping for: to see elephants swim and get sprayed by one of them.
This elephant played her part perfectly. I swear she was smiling as she coyly as she dipped her trunk in the water, looked around and then lifted her trunk up for the big splash. She knew what her audience wanted and gave it to them. Clearly she's taken a marketing course somewhere 😆
If this elephant can nail it, so can you. While I am sure she has years of experience and trainers who have guided her, she still nailed it. If you need a little help figuring out your brand and how to connect with them, let us know. We can help.
- Melissa
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#elephant #africanlionsafari #swimming #soaker #personalbrand #professionalbrand #smallbusiness #girlboss #momboss #mompreneur #goaldigger #corporateladder #careergrowth #resumes #socialbranding
