Ep. 54

Managing a Launch in the Midst of a Pandemic with Laura Higgins

Everyday, people are inundated with thousands of marketing messages which make it nearly impossible for your message to be heard. How can you cut through the noise?

That’s where our guest today, Laura Higgins, comes in! Laura is an online marketing strategist and the Founder of Lala Social Club—a digital marketing agency helping small business owners cut through that noise.

Laura truly believes (and knows from first-hand experience) that if you can market your business, you can grow your business. Find out how, even in the midst of a Pandemic!

Laura’s website: https://lalasocialclub.co/

Jessmyn:

Welcome to Interact’s Creator Stories Podcast. Interact is the easiest way to convert curious people into loyal and happy customers by using a lead generating quiz. On Creator Stories, we get to hear the entrepreneur’s journey. This is a podcast about how they took their knowledge and experiences to carve out a place in the world, owned what they know is special about themselves and turned it into a successful company. Today, we get to speak with Laura Higgins, founder of Lala Social Club and My Marketing Playbook. She’s an online marketing expert based in Australia and is recognized as a marketing trainer with an engaged community of over 20,000 small business owners. Laura presents fresh and effective marketing ideas that help businesses get results. Her authentic, easy to understand approach means your audience will feel empowered to take action and implement their ideas. All right, let’s get started.

Jessmyn:

Hi guys, and welcome back to Interact’s Creator Stories Podcast. As you know today with me, I have Laura Higgins from Lala Social Club and you also have your own podcast, My Marketing Playbook. Forgot to mention, if you don’t already know I’m your host adjustment Jessmyn Solana. But Laura, thank you so much for being with us today. I’m super excited. I was just on your podcast last week or two weeks ago, whenever that was, but yeah, tell us a little bit about your business now, and then take us back to the beginning, how you got started and all.

Laura:

Thank you so much for having me, Jessmyn. It’s so good to be on your podcast this week. It’s lovely. Always fun. I run a business called Lala Social Club. I’m based, if you can’t here in the accent, I’m based in Australia. I live in a town called Newcastle, which is a couple of hours north of Sydney. And essentially what we do is I’m a marketing consultant. I work with service based businesses to help them to cut through the noise in their marketing. We look at social media, we look at email marketing, Facebook ads, messaging, copywriting, website design. We really look at it all, but really our lens is helping service providers to really, if I could like sum it up super simply, it’s to help them to communicate effectively online. Because for me, marketing is really an exercise in communication.

Laura:

It’s not necessarily the best service that wins or the best product that ends up being super popular. It’s the person who can communicate with the most clarity and connect with people. Because at the end of the day, it’s actually about people wanting to engage in your service or your product that you are selling. I really work with people on what is your communication strategy?, how do you want to feel? How do you want people to feel when they encounter your brand or your business online? And how do we cut through the noise of everything else that is going on online? I work with a lot of different types of businesses, but really the main outcome is that we help them to communicate with clarity and to cut through the noise. And essentially how I started, it’s a bit of a funny … I think everyone’s startup story is so interesting because it’s not shiny.

Laura:

It’s like, I don’t know. I think what people imagine, like expectation versus reality. It’s like graceful and beautiful and no mistakes, no self doubt. Then what actually happens is you’re like, “I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m fumbling my way through and trying to figure it out on the go.” I was definitely the latter and I started my business, I was … Before I started my business, I was a barista and Australia has a pretty incredible specialty coffee scene. And so I’d worked in coffee for a long time and I love coffee. And so I am like, “Okay,” I started working for this coffee roaster based on the Central Coast, just a little bit north of Sydney and I started working for them in sales. I had no experience in sales.

Laura:

I was a barista. I was like, “I don’t know, I’m trying to sell their coffee.” And it was actually my brother-in-law’s business. And so he just took a bit of a chance on me figuring it out. And it was hilarious. Jessmyn, I was so bad at sales and so I would walk in, and my job was really to essentially get cafes to use our coffee. And so I would walk into cafes, I’d be holding a bag of beans and I’d be trying to like get them to change from their coffee supplier to our beans. And by the end of the coffee conversation with them, I would be like, “Do you know what? Just forget about it. Don’t worry about it.” I just was like, I’ve lost confidence. And so I would end up just leaving and being like, “I’m so bad at this.”

Laura:

I’m not saying that as like a false humility thing, I was bad at it. I felt bad trying to sell essentially. They came to me and they were like, “Look,” and this was years ago. They were like, “Look, we think this Instagram thing might be a bit of a thing that we should look at as a business. It’s this photo sharing app, blah, blah, blah,” which makes you sound like a bit of a dinosaur when you say it like that. You’re like, “What? From the dark ages.” Anyway, I was always interested in design. I was always in photography. I loved writing. I was a songwriter, I loved creativity. And so I was like, “Great. I could probably give that a go.” And so I took over their Instagram and very quickly it all sky rocketed and their whole Instagram grew.

Laura:

It meant that their business grew. It meant that more people were inquiring, more people were buying their products online. And so I found my sweet spot and for me, it was this mixture of like clever copywriting, design, photography, and strategy. Really from there, I was like, “Okay, cool. This social media thing is something businesses need to have a handle on.” Then fast forward, their business kept growing. I was looking after their marketing and just figuring out as I went and then other businesses started approaching me saying, “Hey, we think we need to be doing the same thing. Can you help us?” And so I started this little side hustle called Lala Social Club, and then from there I went, “Oh, okay, this is actually legit.” You guys say legit, right?

Jessmyn:

Yeah.

Laura:

Okay, good. Because sometimes I’m like Australians, we shorten everything. And so I find I’m like, “Does that translate?” Anyway, from there I started working with different businesses and really starting to grow and then eventually got to the point where I could afford to quit my job with the coffee roaster and go out on my own. Then from there I think I’ve been in business now for four and a half years maybe, I think. Since then it’s grown and now we have a team and we sell digital courses. We work with a bunch of different types of businesses on a bunch of different projects. And it’s really grown from there. And now today, I really work with people rather than me doing it for them and managing their social media and their marketing. I teach them how to DIY and how to really take ownership of their marketing and grow their business that way. That is like the long version of my story.

Jessmyn:

I love it though, and I think this is a common theme where a lot of entrepreneurs have some sort of a skill that they want to use. They know they can do more with it, but it does sort of start as like a side hustle or they have some sort of a full-time thing going. They’re like, “Okay, this seems cool, but what do I do with it? And how do I get started?” For those who are listening, what went through your mind when you’re like, “Okay, I’m going to quit this job that I have, even though I don’t feel that great at it. I’ve been doing coffee for a while, but I’m finding this new thing. And now I want to pursue that?” What was that like? And what were some of the challenges as you were going through that transition?

Laura:

Such a good question. I really feel like for me, because I think I was 22 or 23 maybe when I started my business. I think it was honestly naivety. I think I was really like, I didn’t know. Looking back I’m like, I just didn’t know what it took to really build a business. There are so many things looking back. I’m like, “Wow, how did I do that? And how was I okay with the big” … It feels like this chasm between you have to take the leap at some point to go, “Well, if I want to give this a really good go, I do need to take a step of faith.” There is an element of, “I do not know the outcome. I have to trust that this is going to work.”

Laura:

If it doesn’t work, I have to trust that I will be okay if it doesn’t work as well. I think that went through my mind. I think I just had this sense of, “Well, I’m just going to give it a go and see what happens.” And for me, I didn’t have a mortgage. I didn’t have kids. I didn’t have many things that … I felt like if it were me 10 years later with a mortgage, with more commitments, maybe I would’ve done it differently, but at the time I’m like, I was 23. I was just whatever, and none of my friends … It was weird because at that point, you’re just doing what your friends are doing.

Laura:

All my friends had real jobs. They’d all gone to uni. They all seemed like they had their stuff together. And I remember just being like, “I’m making $400 a week and I’m living off hummus and crackers.” I was like, “I am just figuring this out.” I think for me, I just had to go, “Do you know what?” I think I just had this trust that whatever happens, I will figure out a way to make it work or to go, “Okay, well now I’ve got some skills and if the worst came to worse, I could go, ‘Well, I’m just going to go get a job.'” I think it’s a funny thing, because we think the sky is going to fall or like the ground is going to fall from beneath us, but actually it’s like, well, if the worst happens, we figure out a strategy, we move on or we go get a job.

Laura:

I don’t know. I think I felt a bit like that of like, “Well, we’re just going to figure it out.” And I think with COVID, when COVID hit, for me I lost half of my business overnight.

Jessmyn:

Wow.

Laura:

Yeah. And I mean, I know so many people have experienced way worse than that, but I had this again in that I feel like I just had this resolve of, “Well, we’re going to figure it out.” And since then, our business has been in a much healthier and more profitable space than it has ever been. I just think for anyone listening who is like, “I have a side hustle and I’m waiting for the perfect time, waiting for the right amount of clients or waiting for the right amount of revenue or for the stars to align for me to quit my job and do it.”

Laura:

I just don’t think that time arrives in the way that we want it to. And so I think there is an element of faith, of actually just going, “I have to just trust the process and trust that I’m going to make it work.” And that’s not to say you shouldn’t have a plan, you shouldn’t have a strategy, you shouldn’t have a good accountant. You should. But I think even with all of that, it’s an exercise of, “Okay, I have to have an element of belief that this is going to work even though I don’t know the outcome.”

Jessmyn:

I love that so much. I think it’s so true because I wonder, how you said, like maybe if it happened 10 years later, you would’ve done it differently or would’ve thought about it differently. And I wonder if that was just a perfect time for you looking back because of how young you were, you were just like, “Oh, well I’m just going to do it.”

Laura:

Totally.

Jessmyn:

If you had waited or if you were older and you had all these responsibilities you had to think about, it might have clouded that sort of transition because you wouldn’t have ever taken that leap. You would’ve just been like, “I can’t do this right now. I can’t, there’s no way.” But at the time it probably was just the perfect timing for you. And I like that you said maybe it won’t work out the way you think it is, because I think it happens for everybody, right? Where they just say, “No, I need to have X amount of money or I don’t have the time right now,” but if you do keep waiting, it might not ever come and you might not ever just jump into it.

Laura:

Yeah. I totally agree. I think we have this idea that everyone else knows what they’re doing and we are the only ones who don’t and like, we think, “I’m going to be found out, people are going to figure out that I don’t know what I’m doing or that I’m an imposter, I’m a fraud,” or that there are gaps in my knowledge. And I think the reality is anyone who runs a business is still learning. I just think as humans, we are still learning every single day. And so the idea of waiting until the perfect moment, until you feel qualified until you feel like, “No, I know everything there is to know.”

Laura:

I just think actually that’s long term in business, there will always be changes. I think about in online marketing, if I have a fixed mindset of, “Well, I understand Instagram at this point in time, or I understand how email marketing work or Facebook ads work,” but I have a finite understanding and I know everything there is to know at this point in time, the algorithms update every month. It’s like at the end of the day, we are all learning, refining, reiterating.

Laura:

It’s actually a process. It’s a process every single day for everyone in business. I think if you’re listening and you’re waiting for the perfect, to feel qualified, to feel like you’re an expert, I just think it’s just better to go for it and do it confidently and then have the mindset of, “If there are gaps, I’m going to figure it out. If there are things I don’t know,” or even just acknowledging, there are things I do not know. There are things I do not know about Instagram or about Facebook or about my thing that I’m an expert in.

Laura:

There are still gaps and there are still more things I can learn and more ways I could change my approach. The only thing I think that stops people from really giving it a good go when it comes to starting something, I think we are our worst enemies in that sense. And I think if you could take one thing away, it’s you’ve just got to go for it.

Jessmyn:

Right. Just jump, jump in the water.

Laura:

Exactly. And not to say you shouldn’t have a plan. When I started, I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t even know how to … I didn’t have an accountant. I don’t think I even understood how to even charge for my services. So don’t do that. There are things you can do to have a plan to start, but I think there’s always going to be things that you go, “I can only figure that out by doing it.”

Jessmyn:

Right. It reminds me of how they always say when you go to college, you don’t actually learn anything because you learn everything you need to know when you’re in the field that you’re in, when you’re in the real world working. I think it’s so true because I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that I retained. I work in marketing now and I was a marketing major. Yes, in a sense, I learned a lot, but a lot of the stuff that I’m actually using, it’s like facts here and there, little facts here and there. It’s not so much like, “Oh yeah, I know how to do XYZ.” But I learned that through actually working, not going to class and doing it. It’s the same idea. You can watch as many YouTube videos as you want, or try to be prepared as much as you want, but until you actually start doing it, you won’t know what works and what doesn’t work, or what’s the next step that you need to take in order to grow.

Laura:

Totally agree. It’s such an interesting one because in this day and age, I feel like it’s not about the what. I think it’s about, “Okay, well, how are you going to do it that’s different?” I totally agree. You can learn as much. You can listen to all the podcasts, you can do all the webinars and the courses in the world, but until you’ve just actually given it a go and gone, “Right, well, we’re going to give this a go. And perfection is not the goal.” Actually, progress is the goal. The only way to make progress is to start exactly where you are.

Jessmyn:

I love that. I think that’s such good advice. Something that stuck out earlier when you were talking was you said that during COVID you lost half your business, but it sounded like you took a step back and tried to figure things out in order to bring back that momentive … Momentum. I can’t talk. That momentum of actually growing and getting back to where you were before that. Can you talk me through that? I guess the word that I want to use is heartache, because I feel like that would hurt my heart if it were me, but just, yeah. Walk me through how that happened, what you did when it happened and how you were able to bounce back from it.

Laura:

Yeah. I feel like everyone has a COVID story in business because it’s just been this thing that has permeated across the world. And it’s like, it’s not just been one person’s experience. It’s like this collective experience that has been hard, you know? I really think I remember it so distinctly. I was going, “Okay, cool. This COVID thing.” It was really crazy, actually. I was in the US in-

Jessmyn:

Oh, wow.

Laura:

I flew home from LA in, I think it was like the 4th or 5th of March. Then from there, it was like a couple weeks later the whole world had shut down. And so we were like, “Okay, this is pretty crazy.” I had been working with a coach to help me to get out of … Like the year prior. I’d been working with a coach to help me to get out of doing done for you.

Laura:

I was still managing people’s social media, looking after people’s websites. We were still doing that and I really wanted to move out of that. I wanted to move into the space of consulting and teaching people to do it rather than me doing it for them. Because I just felt and you would get this, Jessmyn, like managing someone’s social media is so big. You have to know everything about their business. You’re on all the time. I really just felt like this is not going to work for me long term. I don’t want to be doing this. And so I had been working with a coach to help me to move out of that, but I had kept one foot, the safety thing. Because this one offering we had was paying all our bills.

Laura:

And so I’d always kept one foot in that camp of still doing this management thing, even though I really didn’t want to. And even though I’d spent tens of thousands of dollars working with this coach to help me to not, I still had this thing in me that was like, “Oh, I don’t know., am I ready? What happens if this doesn’t work?” That self-doubt thing, it shows up all the time. You know? In a way COVID pushed me out of doing that because I remember I was sitting at my dining room table and our biggest client called me and he said, “This is bad. This thing is going to really, this is really going to be bad for small business.” And my whole clientele was small business. And so he was like, “We have to finish” and it was pretty well overnight. “We have to finish right now because we don’t have the cash flow.”

Laura:

And then another client, same conversation. There was nothing at that point, I couldn’t be like, “Well, hey, we have a contract.” I just was like, “Do you know what? I get it, because this is crazy.” I remember sitting at my dining room table going, “Okay, what am I going to do? I have to contact my staff and let them know what the plan of attack is.” At this point, there was no government funding. There was nothing. The other thing was that when COVID had just started, lockdowns had just started. I had planned to launch a course because this was my thing of, “I want to launch a course. I want to move out of the done for you. I want to do one to many.”

Laura:

The day we were filming our course, we’d hired all this gear, we’d got this video company to come in and film everything. The day that happened, that we were scheduled to do that, the government was like, “You’re not allowed to have any more than X amount of people in a room, social distancing, masks, the whole thing.” I think it came into place the following day. And so my video guy was like, “Are we still doing this?” And I was like, “We’re doing it. We have to do it.” I had people give me advice saying, “Do not do this. This is so bad. People will not buy this because we’re going to go into a recession. No one’s going to buy your course.”

Laura:

And I was like, “Do you know what? I’m doing it.” And so we did it. It was crazy. It was like, I don’t know. It was like a 15-16 hour day of filming because we had to get it all done that day and it was crazy. I just was like so determined because I knew actually this is where we need to be. And even though we’ve lost like half of our business, pretty much overnight, this is where I see the business going. And from there we launched the course. It went super well and it was this thing of, that’s why I think I’m so passionate about actually you’ve got to follow your instincts and your gut. And I think for us that really paid off. Because we went, “Right, well, this is a line in the sand. We’re not doing this done for you work anymore.”

Laura:

It propelled our business into this area of growth, even though at the start of COVID I was like, we have lost half our revenue, by the end of 2020, we were in a better spot than we’d ever been financially. We were doing more of the work that we wanted to do. It was such a thing of, “Okay, well there’s an element of when you do what your gut” or your instincts or taking that step of faith and going, “This seems crazy, but I’m going to do it. And we’re just going to figure it out,” that has really paid off. For me, it’s been such a roller coaster, but I do think … I feel like there would be so many stories of people in COVID and in lockdowns and in everything that has been going on who have had a similar experience where they’ve just had to go, “Well, we have to pivot,” even though everyone hates the word pivot now, but I think there’s just this idea of the uncertainty.

Laura:

We can either rise to the occasion or we can go, “I need to stay safe.” And I think I have found for myself and for our business that rising to the occasion and going, “Right, well, we’re going to figure it out. And we are going to film a course in 20 hours and we’re just going to figure it out.” That’s been the story for my whole business journey, I think.

Jessmyn:

Yeah. It sounds like there’s a pattern in terms of how it works, but it totally works for you. And I think that’s awesome because who knows if you were like, “Okay, we’re not going to film this. There’s just no way we’re going to get it done in one day. And we’re just going to try to keep doing what we’re doing.” Who knows where that would’ve gone. I think especially no one knew how COVID was going to play out. But I think in the online world, DIY and became a huge thing. You made the right choice, looking back, because people wanted to take courses.

Jessmyn:

They wanted to see how to do it themselves because they no longer wanted to hire done for you work. And it’s really interesting. I know looking back, it sounds easier said than done, but it is really interesting to just like how you said, trust your gut and just go with it because you knew like that’s where you wanted to be and that’s how you wanted it to play out. Oh, I love that so much. It sounds like a domino effect in a way of you made this one decision and it just all fell into place.

Laura:

Well, it was strange as well because had it not been for COVID pushing me to, it was like adapt or die kind of thing. It was a little bit like that. I don’t know where our business would be if that didn’t happen, you know? It’s this funny thing of in all of the uncertainty, there is something for us to glean and to learn and I mean, yeah, I have so much work to do in the area of, okay, well, what are the things I’m doing now that are holding us back? And what are the mindset things? Because as I said, I was terrified to let go of the done for you thing until I was backed into a corner and I had to.

Laura:

I think there are so many things where I think what are the things that are blocking myself from really leading and following my instincts of where the business needs to go? And also my instincts of what the people that we serve and the people that we love to serve, what is it that they need? Because I think in the online world, there can be this idea of … It irks me. It makes me feel uncomfortable when people talk about, “I did this launch and I made $650,000 and it was overnight and I’ll teach you how to do it too.” For me, I find that really … I just think, no, you’ve got to talk about how much you spent. You’ve got to talk about how much time you spent. What are you spending on ads?

Laura:

I think the transparency thing is really, really important, and so for me, I think this is why I like talking about this, because I think anyone from the outside might go, “Oh, well it looks like you made this much money overnight.” And it’s like, “No, no, no. You didn’t see me having a little mini meltdown the day before filming and you didn’t see all of this time.” I think it’s really important that we share these stories of, “Oh my gosh, this was really hard” because it actually makes it more realistic for someone else who wants to launch a course. I will be the first person to say, “Hey, it’s going to be so rewarding, but it’s a lot of work.” And I think anything that is worthwhile in business, it is work.

Laura:

I think that’s been my journey, that has been the case where it’s been like, okay, we need to be realistic about how much time things take. What’s involved, how much things cost and really being okay with, “Hey, this isn’t an overnight thing as well.” And so I guess something about being backed into a corner, that for me, I just knew what I need to do. I need to take a step into the direction I want to go. Otherwise I don’t know where our business will be. And also being okay with it, not being like a hundred thousand dollar launch the first time we do it, you know?

Jessmyn:

Yes.

Laura:

I think there’s this thing of a course should make you this much money while you’re sleeping. And it’s like, yeah, but I don’t know, it’s the first time you do it. You probably don’t know what you’re doing. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just figuring it out.

Jessmyn:

No, I think that’s so true because I have this theory that that’s why a lot of people give up on their dream of having their own business or they put it off for so long because they see these overnight success stories and they don’t realize that actually the overnight success took a few months.

Laura:

Oh, my gosh.

Jessmyn:

It took a few months or a couple years. That’s what they meant by overnight. They didn’t mean it as literally in 12 hours. I mean, I think it’s a great thing to talk about because there’s so many great ideas out there. There’s so many people, like you said earlier, that could be out helping, but they can’t because they think like, “Oh, it’s not working for me.” And I’m sure especially last year, there were probably so many people that decided, “Oh, well I’m screwed. The world’s screwed, so here we go. I’m out of here.”

Laura:

Totally. And that was the crazy thing was like yeah, we had advice from other people in business going, “Do not launch this. No one’s going to buy it.” Maybe that fueled me a little bit, because I was like, “What? You don’t know what people are going to buy.” Also I felt this thing of actually, what else are we going to do to help our community? It was really this thing of, “Well, this is actually me serving. I want to serve these people who are afraid, don’t know how to market their business, but can’t afford to outsource it.”

Laura:

This is the way we can help. I think as well, I learned from that you don’t have to listen to everyone as well. That was something I really learned. You don’t have to listen to everyone’s advice, even if it’s well meaning. And even they’re trying to help. You have to actually really know, I think intuitively, “Okay, no, my gut says we’ve got to do this and I’m just going to back myself and do it.”

Jessmyn:

That’s so funny because I told you that I’m thinking about starting my own podcast. And aside from this one, in case everyone’s wondering what I’m talking about. I had this huge thing of I just don’t want to talk to anybody about it because I know I’m going to get too many opinions of, “It should go this way.” I even remember when I was telling a lot of family about this podcast for Interact that I’m doing, and they were like, “Oh, you should do this. And you should do that.” And I was like, “We’re really not going that way.”

Jessmyn:

But at some point I just said, “Yeah, that sounds great.” Because the more you talk about it, the more people want to give you … I’m going do air quotes here, advice of how you should or should not run it. And at the end of the day like you said, I think it goes back to your gut and your instinct, because the way you run it will end up being more you than you think it is. And it’s more about you and your personality, your work ethic, how you want to run it. Not so much how other people want to run it. And so if you listen to too many people, you might also think to yourself, “This is too much work. I’m not going to do it.”

Laura:

Totally agree, yep.

Jessmyn:

I was thinking about something earlier too, as you were talking, I totally lost it, but I’m going to bring in something else that I thought about. You talked about how your business right now talks a lot of … You’re helping people with clarity, making sure your message is clear and you know what that looks like. Something that I’ve seen around the block, I guess you could say … That sounded so nerdy. But something I’ve seen a lot is just this sort of people want to go out, they want to do their business. They want to help people. They have an idea of what that looks like, but they don’t really know where to start. This is your expertise right here. How do you get started? How do you figure out what that is? And what did that look like for you when you were first starting?

Laura:

Yeah. I love this question. It’s funny because … Sorry.

Jessmyn:

It’s okay.

Laura:

It’s funny because in our course, My Marketing Playbook, the first thing we look at is your messaging. We are looking at what is it about your service or about your product that is unique, that solves a problem? And how do we sum it up in language that people understand, in a way that is memorable, it’s compelling, it’s repeatable. How do we package that up? Really what we really work on is rather than thinking about the methodology of, “Well, I’m a graphic designer. I design things,” it’s actually about what does your customer want? What is the result that they want to see? What are their pain points? What are their problems that they’re facing and how do those problems make your customer feel? The feeling is super important because people don’t buy things because of facts.

Laura:

They buy them because of feelings. The reason we start with that is because it really informs the rest of your marketing. When I’m working with people, I’m saying, “Hey, you have your demographics of your ideal customer. They live in this location. They’re this age bracket. They like this, this and this. They maybe shop here.” Having that is really great, but I’m far more interested in what are the problems of that those people face as it relates to your service? What are their goals? What are their values? We are thinking about, “Okay, what are really the things that they” … And maybe they haven’t even articulated this themselves, like your customers, but how cool would it be if they came across your business and you are saying, “Hey, do you struggle with this, this and this? And does it make you feel like this? If so, this is our solution for you.”

Laura:

I just think if you can be direct without being pushy, without being salesy or anything like that, if you can be direct and clear, those people immediately go, “I understand what you’re talking about.” We work with a lot of people in finance and people in finance, they’re amazing, but they have this way of complicating things for no reason. For me, someone who doesn’t know much about finance, I will come in and be like, “Hey, you said a bunch of words. I don’t know what they mean. I’m not going to buy something if I’m confused.” What we need to do is really, you have all this technical knowledge, you have all this expertise, but how can we bring it back down to something simple, something repeatable, something clear that your ideal customer needs to hear and will take action on?

Laura:

If you are starting, I would say really do the work. And I know that people say this all the time. Understanding your ideal customer and not just like, “Oh, they follow this blog or this influencer. They listen to this podcast.” Actually go, what keeps them up at night? What stresses them out? What do they really want to achieve? What do they care about? Then we can formulate something really clear and concise. That’s also super important that it’s concise because yeah, when people get too technical, when they make it too long, we’ve just got to make it snappy, clear, one to two sentences, kind of like your elevator pitch, but really framed more around the customer.

Jessmyn:

Right. I love that. I’m glad I asked because that was what my original question was that I said I forgot, was playing in on the emotions. I heard you say earlier, and I was like, “Oh, I should ask her about that.” But I think it’s so smart because I mean, that’s textbook, right? Is play on the ethos of what your customer feels. And that is truly what gets them to buy. They feel that sort of connection to what you’re saying. They feel a connection to what you’re selling essentially. That’s what pulls the trigger, so to speak, of like, “Okay, I’m going to actually click the button of buy and I’m going to give you my money because it said something to me and it made me feel something.” I love that a lot. I think that’s great.

Laura:

The other thing I would say is a really practical way to land on a one liner or a tagline or getting this elevator pitch sorted is to ask questions and take notes of the words that your customer uses. So, one thing that my ideal customer in sales conversations, on Instagram, in DMs, like if I do polls or they ask questions, the one thing that comes up a lot is confidence. “I don’t feel confident and I don’t know where start.” Our messaging needs to include those words because if we can speak in their language, it’s like, “Oh, okay, cool. No, I get it. Okay. That’s actually exactly how I feel.” Taking the time to, even just in DMs, even just on Instagram, looking at the language that people are using and trying to include that language in your marketing as well is really powerful.

Jessmyn:

I love that. That’s great. Nice. Well, we’re coming up on time. I do have two last little bits, two questions that I always ask everybody just to wrap up. Second to last is what are three things most people wouldn’t know about you?

Laura:

Well, probably one thing that people wouldn’t know is that our business is called Lala Social Club, but the reason, when I started, I was just going to call it The Social Club. And my sister was like, “No, that’s not unique enough.” I was like, “Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough.” Coming up with a name for your business is so hard. So hard. Anyway, my family had called me Lala growing up and my nieces and nephews, I think I’ve got like six nieces and nephews and they couldn’t say Laura. They called me Lala. And so I called the business Lala Social Club. And it’s really funny because people email me being like, “Hey Lala,” they’re like business emails. And I’m like, “That’s what my four year old niece calls me. But great.”

Jessmyn:

I think when we first got in touch with each other for a second, I was like, “Is her name Lala?” Then I saw Laura. I don’t even remember where. And I was like, “I think her name’s actually Laura and check in with her what she wants to be called.”

Laura:

Then I think other things that people wouldn’t know, I am one of five. I’m the middle child of five kids.

Jessmyn:

Wow.

Laura:

And my parents are pastors. I’m a pastor’s kid. And another one, one final thing is I was in family band.

Jessmyn:

Whoa.

Laura:

Yeah. My three sisters and I toured around … We toured around the Midwest. We did Kansas City. We did Wisconsin. We did it everywhere.

Jessmyn:

Oh, my God. That’s amazing.

Laura:

And it was like a folk family band, like four part harmonies country folk. Crazy.

Jessmyn:

That’s awesome.

Laura:

That’s the other thing that probably people wouldn’t know

Jessmyn:

That might be one of the best ones that I’ve heard. I would’ve never guessed. I know you said earlier you were a songwriter, but I thought like on the side doing maybe some YouTube videos. Not touring.

Laura:

I’ll send you a link to the Spotify and you can listen.

Jessmyn:

I definitely want to listen to it. I wonder if I’ll be able to pick out your voice.

Laura:

No, I don’t think you would. I’m blended in the background.

Jessmyn:

That’s awesome though. That’s awesome. Last question to wrap up. What is a single piece of advice that you would give to yourself at the start of it all?

Laura:

Ah, this is such a good question. I would think if you’re confused about whether to do something or to not do something or to work with someone or to not work with someone, always go with your gut. Because I’ve worked with people that I’ve realized the fact, they’re lovely people, but they just weren’t a good fit for what we did. And I knew from the start, but I didn’t trust my gut. I think trusting your gut on your instincts, on people, on direction of the business, on new opportunities, really taking the time to listen to your instincts.

Jessmyn:

I love that a lot. I think that’s really valuable. And a lot of people don’t do it enough.

Laura:

Oh yeah.

Jessmyn:

Well, Laura, thank you so much for being on our show today. Can you please let everybody know where they can find you online?

Laura:

Yes. Gladly. I hang out on Instagram so you can follow me, @lalasocialclub.co and send me a DM and I’d be glad to chat with you.

Jessmyn:

I love it. I love it. And it’ll also be in the show notes. You guys could check it out there if you’re looking at this on our website or listening on any of the streaming platforms and that’s all I’ve got. Laura, thank you again. And everybody else we’ll see you next time.

Laura:

Thanks Jessmyn.

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Jessmyn Solana

Jessmyn Solana is the Partner Program Manager of Interact, a place for creating beautiful and engaging quizzes that generate email leads. Outside of Interact Jessmyn loves binge watching thriller and sci-fi shows, cuddling with her fluffy dog, and traveling to places she's never been before.