The Social Circus

EP16 - Facebook Groups

Sarah shares her strategies when it comes to starting your very own community on Facebook - a place which allows you to show up and provide great value. Providing insights into the best questions to ask yourself when thinking of setting up a Facebook group. So, if you’re considering using a Facebook group as a marketing tactic and want to get up close and personal with your audience this episode is for you.
Tune in to hear all her tips from what you need to consider before getting started, best practices to keep your audience engaged, as well as how to share great value to build an engaged community.
The first thing to consider is why you need a Facebook group. And whether you are prepared and have capacity to show up on a regular basis to keep your audience engaged.
As well as this podcast, Sarah has her own Facebook group “The Social Circus with Sarah.T.”  A community she set up when she was seeing a lot of her Online Social Butterfly audience looking for digital marketing support and advice. She tells us why it’s important to make it clear the group is managed by you and how she goes about this.
She says, “Don’t start a group without a strategy in mind, make sure you have capacity to show up there regularly”.  Sarah checks-in live with her “groupies” every Tuesday at 9:00am (AWST)…  be sure to tune in next time.
You’ll also get to hear her advice when it comes to what to do when someone joins your community, and why it’s important to make your audience feel part of your tribe. As well as showing up and making your audience welcome, it’s important you add great value to keep them engaged, making it a space they want to hang out in.
This link will take you straight to Sarah’s freebies and guides, as well as her current Online Courses Facebook Marketing Course | Facebook Marketing Specialist | Online Social Butterfly
Don’t forget to leave Sarah a review and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
Happy listening!

EP15 - Marianne Tansley - All things Microsoft with Maz

Marianne is the founder of Thrive Admin Services and has over 20 years' experience in corporate admin and document formatting. When it comes to all things systems, documents, and formatting, if Marianne doesn’t know it then it’s not worth knowing. She’s an absolute expert, or a rare unicorn as I like to call her.
We chat about Marianne’s love for working inside Microsoft 365 and finding better ways to work that fit with your values and personal brand. Her happy place is when she’s working in a Word document - yes, you read that right! A problem solver by nature she loves nothing more than fixing up a document when someone else can’t work it out. Gaining most of her knowledge working in a corporate environment, yet most of her tips and tricks come from the time she has invested in working things out when others either didn’t have the patience, time, or inclination to. You’ll hear how passionate she is about wanting to educate others on the things she’s taught herself over the years. 
It's fascinating to hear her insights into the apps you think you need when you start out in business and overlook the ones you may already be paying for. Microsoft really has a lot to offer, and the advantage of using one system means less passwords… bonus! Why pay for Zoom if you are already paying for Microsoft Teams?
This is a brilliant episode if you’re looking to streamline your business, save some dollars, and want to better understand what Microsoft has to offer as an alternative to other platforms out there. To find out more about Marianne and the “done for you” services she talks about in this episode, head over to the show notes for links to her website and social media. Don’t forget to grab your FREE copy of 50 Secret Hacks for Microsoft 365 from the homepage of her website.
 
Home - Thrive Admin Services
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thriveadminservices/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thriveadmin

EP14 - Gemma Wilson - Content Creation with Gemma Wilson

Tune in to hear Gemma share some gems about how she operates as a social media manager.
She starts by telling us about her business journey, how she started out as a Virtual Assistant (VA) 3 years ago, before quickly finding her passion for social media, now offering a full suite of social media management.  
Not only does Gemma offer content and image creation. She also includes social media post scheduling on Facebook and Instagram, as well as engaging with your audience on your behalf. How cool! 
She tells us how she can uniquely tailor her services to meet client’s needs. She takes the time to get to know your business as if it were her own, walking you through the process of what it looks like to work with her for a smooth transition. Imagine the day… one minute you’re spending your income generating time creating your own social media posts, the next you’re in Gemma’s capable hands. She openly explains it takes a little time from initially connecting but once information has been shared it’s a breeze, and you can get back to doing what you do best.
Gemma and Sarah discuss the importance of community engagement, and how it’s often undervalued. Engaging with your audience is just as important as the content you share. It’s the fastest way to grow your following… Gemma offers this as one of her services too.  
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work with a social media manager, this episode is for you.  
If you’d like to get your hands on Gemma’s Content Planner or find out more about her hashtag research, this is where you’ll find her:
 
Social Media Manager | Cherry Blossom Social Media
https://www.instagram.com/cherryblossomsocialmedia 
https://www.facebook.com/cherryblossomsocials 
https://www.pinterest.com.au/gemwilson2013

EP13 - Understanding Apple iOS

The most talked about Apple iOS update has got to be the one that took place last year involving data tracking. How us as users weren’t aware our data was being tracked as we moved from app to app. This update gave us the power to opt out of having our data tracked - if you tune in, Sarah tells us how. 
Data tracking is used by companies to provide us with a product we didn’t know we were looking for. It does this by tracking our data, it goes a little something like this… you search the internet (or google as we refer to all internet searches these days), for a holiday destination, next you “google” car hire, a bit later you’re on FaceBook and you see Air bnbs being advertised in the location you’re thinking of travelling to coming up in your feed. Sarah tells us how this is no coincidence, and how we can change our settings to opt out of our own data being tracked.   
We hear how customer data is like gold for organisations as they can better understand how to advertise to us. You may be surprised to hear Microsoft as big as it is failed to collect data on its users, certainly a different approach than the likes of Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. 
Sarah recommends a couple of great shows to watch on Netflix which will help us better understand how the algorithms work, keeping us tied to the apps we use.
The Social Dilemma 
The Great Hack
Hear what it means for Facebook Ads since this update, including the longer wait time for “real time” reporting. 
If you haven’t already, one action you can take today inside Business Manager, is to make sure you verify your domain, as this has a positive impact on your ability to run your FaceBook ads. 
I hope you feel more confident about how Apple’s iOS 14 update changes have impacted you as a user, and as a business owner by the end of this short episode.

EP12 - Pinterest with Simone Pavils

Simone talks about her love of Pinterest and how you can get the most out of it. Calling herself a traffic strategist as she helps business owners drive traffic to their website. This episode is full of insights and top tips.
She’s a big fan of repurposing content, so much so she has a resource on her website which shows you how.
There are so many things Simone loves about Pinterest; one is the fact it’s evergreen - content outlasting the likes of other social media platforms. You won’t believe how long one client has had content up that is still receiving interest.
Tune in to hear Simone’s recommendations when it comes to advertising, what to do if you’re thinking of holding a sale, trialling campaigns, and the best place to start. Top tip alert! When initially setting up your account make sure you add the Pinterest tag to your website from the very beginning (or today if you haven’t yet) so it’s already tracking data.
Hear also what Simone and Sarah have to say about Tailwind, a scheduling tool with a community aspect. As promised, here is the link Tailwind Social Media Management Tool | Create, Schedule & Optimize (tailwindapp.com)
Remember Simone loves helping people set-up their Pinterest account, conducting audits and strategy sessions. If you’d like to connect with her to talk all things Pinterest, this is where you will find her…
 
www.simonepavils.com
www.facebook.com/simonepavilsbusiness
www.instagram.com/simonepavils
www.pinterest.com/simonepavils

EP11 - Living your best life with Sarah Potter

Sarah talks about how she helps creative entrepreneurs who might have a brilliant idea, yet struggle to share it, and the whole mindset shift that comes with running your own business. Helping you reduce the overwhelm by encouraging you to take tiny steps to build confidence so you can show up fully in your life and business without fear of being judged.
 
She shares how the transition from working for some else, talking their language, and their brand to working for yourself and being able to speak from the heart, but not knowing how to go about it. She laughs at the time when she started her business Instagram account… she didn’t tell anyone about it.
 
Sarah is passionate about sharing her learnings about knowing what to share with your audience… only share what you’re comfortable sharing - a great place to start is talk about what you really love, what you easily talk about and build on that, a tiny nudge of feeling comfortable in this place, before you know it you’re miles away from where you started. One great tip was don’t not do something for the fear of taking imperfect action. If you can impact one person, then it’s a positive.
Another good tip is not to feel like you must explain why you didn’t show up on socials this week - it’s your business. Don’t worry about the people who don’t understand, they’re not your people. So many good tips!
 
Hear also about what else contributes to her “sweet life”.
 
Let listening to this podcast be your permission to take imperfect action and be yourself.

EP10 - Creating Social Media Content – My Simple Strategy

In this episode, Sarah shares her strategy on how to create social media posts with ease.
 
She shares her experience – most people that she works with through coaching and training find posting on social media one of the biggest struggles.
 
She shares how she does content and how if you break down your content into promotional and baseline, it all gets a little easier.
 
Promotional content is something that changes regularly according to your marketing or promotional calendar. This needs to be created and updated regularly.
 
Baseline or evergreen content is the type of content that you can create and have it go out on autopilot, no need to constantly change it.
 
Baseline content can include:
About you – share who you are
Testimonials
Lead Magnets
Non-promotional services such as coaching
Quick tips
Memes and fun posts
Posts to get engagement
 
She then talks about her fave scheduling tool – RecurPost and how this works – allowing you to schedule and forgot.
 
Sarah also runs a free monthly content planning class via her Facebook group so come and join to participate.
 

EP9 - Understanding leadership with Jenny Cole

Jenny generously shares her own personal experience when she rapidly rose through the ranks to Principal of a school and found herself burnt out. This led her to question why some people cope so well and others, like herself, found themselves crumbling under the pressure.
 
She is a renowned leadership coach who specialises in education but also to the wider female business community. She has 2 businesses, but her baby is Positively Beaming. Her goal is to not only survive but thrive in this very business world.
 
They talk about how as entrepreneurs that are often reluctant to think that we are leaders. She calls this “one man and megaphone”. This is a hangover from old stereotypes. We lead our business, set direction, and make sure we are heading in the right place.
 
Self-leadership is so important. It starts with confidence and self-belief. We are doing this every day. They talk about how many of us feel uncomfortable being coined leaders.
 
Jenny’s favourite definition of leadership comes from Brene Brown. Her definition is anyone who can find potential in people and processes. So when we hear that, we are absolutely leaders in our own business.
 
They talk about self-leadership to believe we are enough and that we don’t need another course or another thing – we are enough. Jenny also shares the need to take imperfect action – take action, learn from it and keep moving forward.
 
One amazing tip Jenny gives is to give your inner critic a name and call her out when she holds you back.
 
Be sure to check out Jenny’s vibrant community on Facebook!
 
You can connect with Jenny here:
https://www.positivelybeaming.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/postivelybeaming
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wildlywonderfulwomen
 

EP8 - Lisa Kniebe - Courses That Connect

As the Launch Success Coach, Lisa helps coaches and healers translate their one-to-one work into online courses. Her specialty is launch messaging, and she really knows how to work her magic with words.
 
As a copywriter, Lisa found herself booked out – a common occurrence for those that deliver services such as coaches and trainers. She was inspired to create an online course and quickly developed a passion for helping others create their online course.
 
Lisa believes that everyone has an online course inside them. Her signature course “Courses that Connect” takes you through the process of mapping out your course, designing the content and everything in between.
 
She talks about the fact that we get very overwhelmed with the process of creating a course. In our mind, we often have so much to share and initially try and bundle everything in to the single course.
 
The hard part of creating your course is NOT the tech – it is unpacking your idea and putting the learning together in a way that flows for your audience. However, many people get stuck inside the tech – this is what often holds them back. The reality of it is, that you can create a course with very simple and unsophisticated tech.
 
Sarah also shares her experience of creating her courses with Lisa as her launch success coach. She shares her initial launch and how during COVID in 2020, she went on to create more courses applying the knowledge acquired through working with Lisa. Lisa has intentionally created a process that can continue to be applied in your business.
 
They also discuss the key to launch success – it is about having an audience. This means we have generally battle-tested what we want to create a course on, we have testimonials and we have an audience who is primed to buy from us.
 
You can connect with Lisa:
https://lisakniebe.com/
https://www.facebook.com/launchsuccesscoach
https://www.instagram.com/thelaunchsuccesscoach

EP7 - Understanding the role of a VA

Join Sarah as she chats about all things “virtual assistant” from understanding how to outsource tasks in your business to getting organised with tools such as Asana.

EP6 - Jo Bendle - Creating the Business of your Dreams

Jo Bendle is the Founder of the Meant for More Movement empowering women in business to stop settling and claim more from life.
She’ll fast-track you to claiming your more with her proven methodology that gets you clear, focused, and taking aligned action towards the right dreams.
Jo shares her own personal journey and how she created a business that allowed her to be location-independent and how she is now the leader of a movement that helps women create a business that lives up to their dreams. She shares honestly her journey when she noticed she was making choices that felt aligned to her values and goals.
In the early days Jo was known for her productivity skills and systems. Her business now uses these tools as the foundation and offers inside her membership, the opportunity for women to work on their mindset, goals and all the things that hold them back.
Jo’s membership is called “The Lab” based on the “Meant for More” system. Inside this membership, you are encouraged to dream big and relentlessly pursue those dreams.
Her one piece of advice in terms of uplevelling our thinking, Jo suggested:
In the morning – choose what the story is. Is this enabling my mission?
 
You can connect with Jo:
www.instagram.com/jo_bendle
https://www.facebook.com/JoBendleUK
www.jobendle.com

EP5 - Getting started with list building

In Episode 5, Sarah discussed the foundations you need to get started with list building. To get started with list building, you don’t need lots of moving parts. Start simple – you need an email marketing platform and a lead magnet.
 
So why is list building important? Let’s look at a couple of things that happened
 
You know that social media is my jam - I love it  and spend a huge chunk of my business teaching and coaching people on how to make the most of it. But (now this may surprise you), I would give them all up before I gave up the most important assets in my business - these 2 assets are:
My website
My email list
I have thousands of people following me across my main social media platforms. It is where I spend so much time hanging out, connecting and growing my business. But, let's look back over some events of the past couple of years:
February 2021: Facebook shuts down the pages of the main media outlets in Australia- GONE, just like that, do not pass go, do not collect $200
October 2021: Facebook went offline. Like the whole platform - down for almost 6 hours. 
These actions remind us of some cold, hard facts about social media:
We DO NOT own our page, our followers, their info, our content. We are playing in their sandbox, by their rules and at their direction. If it all vanished tomorrow, what would this mean to your business?
My most frequent posts on social media always link to list building - I probably post 3-4 times a week across all platforms encouraging my followers to sign up to my list - it is vital to the health of my business that I get people across from social media to something that I own and I control - that is my email list.
If all this makes you feel a bit vulnerable, now is totally the time for you to start your list-building journey. 
 
To get started with list building, you need 2 things: an email marketing platform and a lead magnet. That’s it.

EP4 - Rachelle Glendon - How to Live Slow

Rachelle Glendon hosts the podcast How To Live Slow where she shares stories and inspiration about motherhood and slow, seasonal, simple living for gentle mums who want to opt out of hustle culture. She supports her clients to do less, be more present and prioritise rest in a world that pressures mums to 'bounce back'. Her first book, The Seasons Of Slow, is due out later this year. 
Rachelle shares her own journey where she found herself considering how on earth she could do it all. She discovered Slow Living as the feminine side of Minimalism.
As women who run businesses, we often feel the pressure of trying to do it all, working long hours. She talked about how we can start our business to be flexible parents. We can think that will give us the flexibility we did not get in the workplace.
She talks about how all this can go wrong so quickly – instead of creating a life that suits you and your ebbs and flow, you create work that is just at home.
They chat about listening to your body and your seasons and cycles – what does this look like?
 
“If that is the time to capture, your best work moments, there are no rules”.
 
Rachelle teaches a system that allows us to play with seasons and cycles. This is balanced with serious rest time. She calls it “the seasons of slow”.
 
“We are not used to resting”.
“The do less phase is all about learning to have boundaries and saying no to things that are not our priority”.
“You can’t be clear about what it is you want if you don’t take time to rest and reflect”.
 
Rachelle goes through the four seasons and what activities we need to be doing in each season rather than just pushing through constantly.
 
Here is how you connect with Rachelle:
www.howtoliveslow.com
www.instagram.com/howtoliveslow 
www.facebook.com/howtoliveslow 
www.pinterest.com.au/howtoliveslow

EP3 - Podcasting with Amanda Kendle

In Episode 3, Sarah interviews Amanda Kendle.
Amanda Kendle is a seasoned professional in the social media space and has had the podcast, The Thoughtful Traveller.
Amanda started a blog 17 years ago. She was encouraged to start travel blogging, initially for someone else and then her own.
Her experience dates to 2010 in the social media space and she now offers support to sole traders, creatives and small businesses teaching them the best ways to promote their work on social media.
As well as running workshops and masterminds, she also teaches social media at Murdoch University (where she taught Sarah in 2021).
 
As an avid traveller, she runs The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, something which she initially entered as a blogger writing for others about travel.
“Consistency is the key to success with a podcast – it is one of the most important factors. It can be a lot of work but it is worth the consistency as the connections you build are so deep and long lasting”.
“People are listening to you in their ordinary lives”.
 
Amanda shares some of her best tips when it comes to pitching yourself as a guest on podcasts.
She suggests that you:
Make sure you are aware of the podcast and its content. Listen to several episodes so you know the format and provide a sensible pitch.
Pitch yourself in relation to the podcast content – how are you relevant? What can you offer to the podcasters’ listeners? What is your expertise, what is unique and useful?
Don’t be pitching them multiple times in the same week simply because they have not replied to you. Give them a chance to respond.
Check if there are pitching guidelines and make sure you follow them. If there are none, consider dropping them a quick message on socials and ask.
Follow them on socials and follow them to create a relationship and connection.
Know your work and how this aligns.
Consider what you can share and how it can allow people to connect with you.
 
Here is how you connect with Amanda:
www.amandakendle.com – find her podcast here
facebook.com/amandakendleconsulting
instagram.com/amandakendle
linkedin.com/in/amandakendle
twitter.com/amandakendle

EP2 - Why you cannot be ignoring video any longer

EP2 - Why you cannot be ignoring video any longer
Video has been a hot trend for so long. In this episode, Sarah will chat about why it is a great idea to get visible and if you are not ready yet, some great alternatives to creating video.
In Episode 2, Sarah discussed the importance of video content.
Taken from a study done by HubSpot, she shares some key insights including:• Video continues to be a key priority for marketers.• The amount of video people watch online has doubled since 2018.• Customers use video as an integral part of their brand journey.• 87% of video marketers reported video gives them a positive ROI.
With that in mind, video is truly the type of content you want to be creating consistently. But if you feel scared to put your face to camera, here are some tips Sarah shares:
Remember, your audience wants to see and connect with you, NOT judge you.
Being visible creates a deeper connection to your audience.
She also shares some tips to get yourself camera ready:
Try recording yourself on your phone. Get used to hearing and seeing yourselfUse these sessions to give yourself constructive feedback, NOT destroy everything about yourself.
If you want to dip your toe in gently, why not have a go at doing a Story on Instagram. Pop in and say hello, introduce yourself or just ask what people are doing today? It is a gentle way to use video – short and sweet.
Now if putting your face to video feels scary, here are some of Sarah’s alternatives.
Warm yourself up to putting yourself on video by using yourself as a voiceover to video – you might shoot a behind the scenes.
Turn a series of static photos or images into a simple slideshow style video.
Add gifs and animations to your content.
Use stock video footage
If you are keen to dive into video some more, check out this free class Sarah has on offer.
Want to create Reels without all that silly pointing and dancing? This class will walk you through how to create Reels in minutes using Canva:
https://onlinesocialbutterfly.com.au/reels-class

Ep1 - Meet your Host Sarah Thomson

Welcome to the first episode of The Social Circus. In this episode, you will meet your host, Sarah Thomson. She will share her journey into entrepreneurship with you. This is an introduction and over the coming episodes, you will get to learn more about Sarah as she shares her wisdom and insights.