You Don’t Have to Be on Social Media
13:36 Share

Oh my gosh, how do I launch something if I'm not on social media? You do not have to be on social media. Rather, think about it as starting with your people, your people's people. So asking for nominations, asking for referrals, and then ultimately your challenges people or your communities people or your events people. That is the single most efficient way to grow.

Hi, I'm Gina Bianchini, and this is People Magic, where we talk about all the topics that you would want to have covered in creating a million-dollar community. So with that, let's go ahead and dive in. Hi, Gina. So I went off social media in the past few months, and it's been amazing. Like, I truly feel like a brand new person, but I'm having a problem. So I'm launching a new business, helping amateur chefs launch their own catering business.

How am I supposed to get members to join me if I'm not on social media? I love this question because you are not alone. There's a lot of people that are like, yeah, that's not my thing. Or kind of even the sort of the worst case, which I probably fall into, which is I'm consuming a lot, but I'm not posting. But then I also am like, oh, I should totally post.

And then I don't really want to. I think that this is such an important question for any creator, any entrepreneur who is building a new business, which is number one, you know, your lifeblood is how are you getting new members? And the thing about social is there's this really enticing promise of it, which is, well, if I post to social, I'm

people will see it and that will be enough. They'll click through and they'll come and join my thing. Well, that's not really happening. So number one, most of the algorithms, certainly this is true for LinkedIn, Twitter, a little bit less so for Instagram, but they will essentially deprioritize anything with a link.

Anything with a link. Now, it's not true across the board, but it's a good kind of rule to live by, which is put your link in the first comment. Don't put it in the post. But what that means is that, number one, you got to post a lot.

And even when you're posting a lot, only about one to five percent of your followers are seeing your posts. How do you get more people to see you on the social medias? Well, great business. Boost. Run ads. So now all of a sudden you're like, okay, well, now I'm going to spend like $500 or a thousand. I'm going to spend money. And you still, like you boost things, right?

And you still don't get a good response in part because it's probably not that great of content. And like you are competing like nobody's business for attention. So I would say if anything, the fact that you're not on social media is a blessing because it points you in the direction of things that are much more effective in working.

Start with your contacts. I talk about it as like starting with your people, but really anybody should talk about it as starting with your people. Start with the people who are in your contacts, who is going to know somebody who is interested in cooking, likes to cook, maybe might wanna like dip their toe into how to run an event, or you can help and think about what are the set of things that somebody could do if they just wanna experiment with

Would I be interested in catering? Would I want to do a couple events here and there? How would I do that? One of the best things that you could do, especially for getting this off the ground, is don't start with your fancy, high-produced course or anything like that. Start with a dinner at your house.

invite people who might be interested in what you're going to put on and introduce a 14-day or 30-day challenge. Hey, I'm setting this thing up that over the next 30 days, I'm bringing together a group of 10 amateur chefs, people who like to cook and who are...

business curious about starting a catering business or doing the occasional event. Together, over the course of 30 days, we'll have small groups. Amongst those 10, we'll just like break up into two people and we'll go ahead and I put together kind of a set of things for people to do every day or every week or once a week we'll meet up. The benefit of starting with something that is finite, 30 days, you will learn so much more about

And you won't be on the hook for something that you are a little bit afraid of. Like, what if people don't want it? Or what if I put together this massive offer of an annual membership and I get five people? Don't do it that way. Instead, start with 10 people, 30 days or 30 people over time.

30 days. But start with a end date as the first place to go. Start with your contacts. Ask your contacts for people who are in their networks.

And just keep asking, oh, well, do you know anybody who would be interested in this? And one of the things that is so important about getting your ideal member, the people who want or need your community, your course, your challenge, your event, the most right now, right now is like all caps, like they are motivated. This is a perfect example of a transition.

I love to cook. Maybe I could turn it into a business. And then their best year ever, well, I'd be able to turn it into a business that I love. Maybe I'm even able to quit my day job and turn it into a full-time gig. Maybe I could end up hiring more people and I can do it in these really cool ways that work for me. That is the power of an ideal member plus...

their best year ever equals the big purpose. I bring, I'm bringing together amateur chefs, people who love to cook, to dip their toe in the water of a side hustle all around catering. And we're going to do a 30-day challenge or a 30-day workshop, and it's going to be super fun. And

Obviously, we love to all entertain, so we're going to do this. And it's going to be, you know, the price of us being able to really invest in making this community amazing, making this 30-day challenge amazing. So that might be charging $499 if you're a little concerned about

wait a second, I haven't done this before, just invest it into the community. So it's not about you profiting in maybe in the first cohort in those first 30 days, but it's certainly for you to understand is there...

People pay attention to what they pay for. Are they excited enough about this idea that they're like, yeah, I'm in for $4.99. Like, I'm going to come out the other side with meeting some cool people, having some great meals, learning together how to build a business. How are people finding catering clients? How do you manage your catering business?

pipeline? How do you think about charging? What are the kinds of recipes that make a ton of sense for catering your first event? All of these really interesting questions. I'm not an amateur chef. I'm like barely making hamburgers tonight, although I do make a great kale salad with them. But it's about the fun of doing it together and learning something with other people, which is absolutely fantastic. Now, here's what's really cool. If you do it as a 30-day challenge,

You get to decide at the end of it, hey, is there a demand here? Do I like this? Is it fun? And on day 28, you can basically say, hey guys, I am turning this into something on an ongoing basis. Here's what we're going to do. Here's what it looks like. And are you in? And if you're in, the price of membership is

is bring a friend. Bring somebody else that you are excited to have a part of this community as we continue to build it out. Now, I recognize the fact I just said the price of membership is actually paying money for membership. So I will adjust my price of membership being bring a friend to and bring a friend because this is going to be the kind of thing where each and every one of us

can help elevate each other's businesses. And we're going to get better together. We're going to take advantage of things that are happening in one geography versus another. And we're all going to benefit and all create something amazing. You didn't have to start there. You didn't have to make it this big thing that then becomes scary, that then becomes either really stressful or you don't end up launching it. I have seen both.

It's so much better to be like, we're going to do this fun thing for 30 days and then pay attention to whether or not you're getting energy from it, whether or not it's fun, whether or not it's a platform to meet new cool people and you're feeling more creative and it's more fun. Then you can turn it into something that is more of a business. So I know we started with, oh my gosh, how do I launch something if I'm not on social media? You do not have to be on social media.

Rather, think about it as starting with your people, your people's people. So asking for nominations, asking for referrals, and then ultimately your challenges people or your communities people or your events people. That is the single most efficient way to grow because guess what else?

You didn't go spend $500 to boost your LinkedIn post to try to get a few more people to see it. This is the way to go. And then over time, your community continues to grow because your members are inviting in other members. And that is getting easier and easier and easier because the software is getting better at

priming your members and encouraging them to invite new people in or reminding them the kinds of people that are just a perfect fit for this community and ways that they are going to get recognition and that they are going to get intrinsic motivation.

I've not seen extrinsic motivation work particularly well as it relates to referring members, referring new members into a community. It's possible, but not totally normal for human beings to do. Much easier to be word of mouth.

And oh my gosh, I'm in this really fun side hustle community that is... I love to cook. I know you love to cook. We're like doing things together to kind of build these catering businesses on the side. And it is the greatest group of people and it is so much fun. And I totally think you should come to our next event. It's like we do these live streams once a week. Feels really normal and natural to sell that. Also, I want to join this, even though I don't really...

have a lot of time to cater, but I would like to actually get better at catering my own parties. This is fantastic. Congratulations for getting off social. And this sounds like an absolutely fantastic community and I can't wait to see it thrive. I'm Gina Bianchini. Thanks for tuning in. This is People Magic. You do the Dino kale and you squish it all up. And then you add little tomatoes that you chop up, avocado, pistachios.

like roasted pistachios, you throw some of those in, get a little crunch going, and then I just do like a simple oil and lemon vinaigrette. Super tasty, really healthy, and then you can basically put it with anything else and you'll feel healthier.

Thank you for being a part of People Magic. I could not do this show without you. If you want a deeper dive on any of these topics, how to build a community, run a membership, choose your pricing, I have a nine-part free People Magic Masterclass on our website, and the link is in the show notes.

This is something that I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to share with you. So hopefully you'll find it valuable. And I can't do this show without some burning questions. So everything that I tackle is something someone just like you has offered their idea or offered their question. We take it and turn it into a show. So in the show notes, there is the link to leave me a voice memo and I hope you'll take advantage of it.