00:00:00 Thanks for joining us on Episode 5 46 of the inspired Stewardship podcast. I'm Heather Hyman from Sweet Tea Social Marketing. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures toe live out your calling. Having the ability to reach others is key, and one way to be inspired to do just that is toe Listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mater. It may just be just a connection.
00:00:47 That's a business one, but it could very well be a partnership collaboration. A potential client. They refer someone to you. And so all of those air just tiny, small things that we can all be doing when we're just out and about just thinking about welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in. The inspired Searchie podcast will learn to invest in yourself,
00:01:23 invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's interview with Heather Hyman, Heather and I talk with you about her definition of leadership. Heather and I share how you can have influence, even if the number of followers you have isn't large. And Heather and I also share how to deal with haters when they come out of the woodwork online. One reason I like to bring you great interviews like the one you're gonna here today is because of the power in learning from others.
00:02:09 Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast has brought to you by audible Go to inspired stewardship dot com slash audible to sign up, and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 100 and 80,000 titles to choose from, and instead of reading, you can listen your way toe. Learn from some of the greatest minds out there that's inspired stewardship dot com slash audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast social media strategist and the Arthur of the Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing,
00:02:57 Heather Hyman has over 20 years of combined experience in sales, social media and business consulting. She's the founder of Social Thrive Business Academy and serves clients internationally from Australia to South Carolina and has worked with such great brands as Chick Fillet and several chambers of commerce. Heather is also an international keynote speaker. She's the podcast host of Business Jesus and Sweet Tea, which I've had the honor of being a guest on. And she enjoys living in Colombia with her husband and three Children. Her real zone of geniuses helping businesses leverage the power of social media to increase their influence,
00:03:42 increased their income and make an impact. Heather, welcome to the show. I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much, Scott. Heather. One thing that people often think of is developing their influence is being a leader. Now, you mentioned in the intro that you have gone to school. You got a leadership and management was was one of your degrees. So how do you define that word? Leadership? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think that leadership is a big,
00:04:15 heavy topic. But when I think of leadership done well, I think of someone that is not necessarily just putting out instructional things are helping people be ableto like Do X, y and Z. But it's someone that genuinely cares about the inner core of the people that they're wanting to lead. And so they're ultimately working on the outcome that they want people to actually have. But it's really wanting Thio to develop their people and to be able part of that is be the encourager, be the motivator be you know all of those things,
00:04:56 but at the same time be worthy yourself. Teoh t give people sometimes that drive that they may not have internally or to motivate themselves more so by your example.
00:05:08 So I'm anything that's like such a does the concept of leadership, you know, I remember even when I was in graduate school.
00:05:15 Is this whole conversation of, you know, can our leaders able to be trained? Or is it something that is just within them when they're born?
00:05:25 You know what it's like at the end of the day, I think we're all teachable and Some of us are more teachable and more coachable than others,
00:05:33 and some of us have more of those those skill sets that allow us to be more equipped to lead others.
00:05:42 And I think the ability to lead other people to inspire them tow, want to be better is is a gift.
00:05:49 And I think that some of us see people out and about as we're living our lives. That is almost like this natural thing within them that they're developing and that they're working on.
00:06:00 And then I think that we see examples of others that maybe it's not very natural, but they are like,
00:06:08 still working super hard at it. So I just think that the definition of leadership is like super hard to put into,
00:06:17 like, one sentence. But I just think the concept of leadership is really having like this servant's heart of just genuinely wanted to encourage and dry people to do more than they might could think they can.
00:06:33 So when we're starting out and we're trying to build influence on social media and again, I think we talked last week about looking at the numbers and recognizing that there's people behind the numbers.
00:06:44 Ah, lot of times, though, it kind of almost turns into this competitive numbers game. You know,
00:06:49 it's, you know, I've got X number of followers. I've got X number of downloads. I've got X number of likes,
00:06:57 you know, But when we're starting out, a lot of times we don't have a lot of that.
00:07:02 You know, it's like I've got 12 followers, you know, and it's a low number. So,
00:07:08 Heather, would you share how our voice can still have an influence, even if all we've got is a teeny,
00:07:16 tiny little small following? Absolutely so I mean, I think first of all, the idea of the numbers when you're comparing yourself to people that have four million followers can very easily begin to make you feel insignificant and can begin to make you feel as if quote social media is not gonna work for you because you don't have,
00:07:37 like, that number of people. But I would just like to encourage everyone listening to know that you are influencing someone you're influencing your spouse,
00:07:46 your influencing your kids. Maybe you're influencing your neighbor. Maybe you're influencing your students. Maybe you're influencing the people that work for you.
00:07:54 But if you're looking at a number of followers and let's just say you've got a teeny tiny Facebook page with 100 followers and you're just sitting there again,
00:08:06 allowing yourself this mindset to compare to everyone else. But if you for whatever you do, I don't care if you make homemade avocado jelly with sounds terrible as I say that I was with you.
00:08:21 Do you added the word jelly raspberry preserves. Okay, you make this amazing raspberry preserves that you sell at local farmers markets or if you are the business consultant and you had 100 people show up at a local hotel in a venue with 100 seats,
00:08:42 all sitting there and you're taking the stage and you're talking about your thing you're talking about, whatever it is you do.
00:08:51 You're talking about how you help people. You're giving advice. You're demonstrating someone that you've already helped. That paints a very different picture than what you might be feeling.
00:09:01 If you're just quote, I have 100 followers on my Facebook page because that is ah, 100 people.
00:09:07 And if we just even said statistically, let's just say it's 100 of the right people because not all.
00:09:13 You know, I don't advocate that you go by followers. Not a good idea. You don't want people that don't speak your language that have no idea what you're saying that are just there because that's going to make the metrics of everything that you're trying to measure on social media look really poor because they're never gonna ultimately potentially be a customer from you if they have no care about what you d'oh.
00:09:38 But if we're saying you've got 100 people, I care about what you do or they're interested in this.
00:09:44 And let's just do the numbers game thing again. And just say, one out of 10 people could be a paying customer,
00:09:52 so that could be potentially 10 paying customers for what you do. So if your pact is or $3000 that's a decent chunk of change.
00:10:02 Or if you're saying that's 10 people buying your jam, that's 10 customers. But again, it's your shift in your mind.
00:10:09 Set those air 10 paying customers that you can then get video testimonials from that. You can then create content on social media about them in the success that they're having with the results that you've gotten.
00:10:22 So it's like I want everyone to just literally, if someone tells, you know, you've got obviously be putting yourself out there and you do have to be pitching or giving people an opportunity to know how they can work with you and that's not gonna be every single post that you put on social media.
00:10:41 But there is nothing wrong with you putting out your offer in the midst of the content of you putting stuff out there.
00:10:49 But again, you're gonna be able to get more customers. And the next time you hear No, I want you to tell yourself that that means the next one.
00:10:58 Because if the sky and I sit here and tell you that it's a numbers game and one out of 10 people are gonna say yes or sign up for your course,
00:11:04 your program and you ask three people and then you just like Wow, y Y social media stinks. It doesn't work.
00:11:11 No, that's not true, You asked three people, but you had a conversation with three people. You can't give up before you literally give it a full try.
00:11:21 A full effort and so continue just to say these are people that you can influence and that 100 should not still be 106 months from now,
00:11:32 it should continually be growing. And again, that's gonna be very strategic. If you were out in the vow doing live events of any kind and you've got a moment to say,
00:11:44 Hey, guys, I've got my slides. If you want to get these here, just bring me your business card and I will email you my slides.
00:11:51 You know, you're able to look old school, grow your email list. That way, you don't have to be all consumed with,
00:11:56 like these funnels and back in things and think that this can't work for you. Or you can have a Facebook group and and gather people's information that way.
00:12:05 Or maybe have, like a behind the scenes space on social media, where you can just keep taking people to the next level.
00:12:13 Because social media Scott is this space where you know, some people say you can't do social selling, but you can't be doing social selling every day,
00:12:24 every post all the time. But you are wasting your time. If you're never telling people how they can take that next step with you.
00:12:34 So that kind of raises to this idea of building relationships and connections with social media. Would you talk a little bit about how we can actually use social media to build that?
00:12:48 You know, the real connection, as opposed to just again? We're broadcasting here, Here, you come to business with me here.
00:12:55 Here's a neat post about me, but actually kind of build that two way dialogue in the connection with Rowe people.
00:13:01 Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you a story. So true story. I read about this in my book,
00:13:07 but by my connection on Facebook with someone that I paid money, I bought their course. I was quote a student of theirs who respected me,
00:13:17 who knew the kind of clients I liked and served reached out to me and said, Hey, do you have any bandwidth for new clients?
00:13:23 And I said yes. And so through that connection, which was literally just a Facebook message, she connected me with someone she knew that I did not know which didn't lead to about a 15 minute phone call,
00:13:37 which then led to them saying, I wanna hire you, which then led to about a $72,000 income opportunity for me from a 15 minute conversation with someone whom I did not know.
00:13:50 The relationship in the connection was there with the person that they referred me to. So we need to realize that their relationships aren't even just the ones that were having with people.
00:14:04 But it's with the people that we know that then no other people that might come to need what we have in what we d'oh.
00:14:12 So I would just encourage everybody to just remember that these relationships, if you are just getting started, that if you're going to a conference,
00:14:23 ask yourself, Do they have a hashtag? Is there a conversation happening pre conference with people that are active on social media that are engaging?
00:14:33 Is there a Facebook group? Is there anything pre event that I could do to make connections with people prior to just walking in and going to that two day event?
00:14:45 Because that type of thing is going to allow for youto leverage social media before it, which then could make maybe a lunch or maybe a coffee,
00:14:55 Or maybe, like we're just going to sit next to each other in this workshop, a deeper connection.
00:15:00 So then to really do that well, it doesn't mean everyone you meet. It's gonna be like this kindred spirit that you're gonna wanna like B B F F's with.
00:15:09 That's not what I'm saying, but they're intentional relationships that you can try to pursue. And you can do some of that before the event during the event.
00:15:18 And then even after the event, which then can it can solidify that as it someone that you have that connection with,
00:15:26 and it may just be just a connection. That's a business one. But it could very well be,
00:15:32 Ah, partnership, a collaboration, a potential client. They refer someone to you. And so all of those air,
00:15:38 just tiny, small things that we can all be doing when we're just out and about just thinking about offline,
00:15:46 You know, you and I might think, you know, social media is this, and this event is separate.
00:15:51 But when you connect the two and especially if you do maybe before, during and after genuine follow up,
00:15:59 it allows for that relationship to be so much stronger and so much, uh, bigger of an opportunity for it to be a business building experience.
00:16:09 I mean, I tell another story, the actually, the very first time we ever met was exactly that kind of thing.
00:16:17 We were at a conference way. We didn't meet before the conference, but during the conference somebody said you because they knew me.
00:16:24 They knew my background. They knew I liked working with Christian businesses and business owners. And they're like,
00:16:30 Hey, there's this Heather Actually, I think what they said was there's this Heather chick but anyway, that there's this Heather that she does social media marketing and she works with Y'all need to meet,
00:16:41 you know, it's like Okay, um, so we ended up meeting in the lobby of the hotel at the fin con um and having a 30 minute conversation.
00:16:51 And then from there, we've, you know, not necessarily become best friends. But it's I'm aware of you that I know what your business is.
00:16:59 You know a little bit about me. You know, a little bit about things I talk about. I've been on your show.
00:17:03 You've been on that, you know. So there's still a relationship and some sort of, you know,
00:17:08 knowledge and potential Because again, if I run into a business that's kind of in that right size group and this is what they want to do,
00:17:18 I know who I'd send them. Teoh. You know, I would send them to you if they're the right kind of business.
00:17:23 Because I know enough about who you serve to be able to do that, you know, And at least start the conversation.
00:17:30 Ah, it s O that is a powerful tool for building that relationship and you know it. But it's also a long game.
00:17:38 It's not the short game, you know. And I think social media is like a long term marketing play,
00:17:45 you know? You know, it doesn't mean you can't do things and get quick results. It doesn't mean that I don't have clients,
00:17:50 and within 30 days we have their engagement, like Skying through the roof on their social media. But I am in the relationship business with people,
00:18:00 and that is something that cultivates. And it just continues to grow and get better over time, and it can impact your business.
00:18:09 So one of the things that kind of can happen to a sometimes when we get on social media is the haters come out of the woodwork.
00:18:16 You know, the people come out that everything they have to say about anything is negative. So what advice do you have for us?
00:18:26 Tow handle haters in the right way? See? Yeah. So I mean, at the end of the day,
00:18:33 if you had if you have negativity happening on like, let's say forward facing a business page, I just literally have this philosophy of,
00:18:43 like block, band and delete and move on like I don't personally get in back and forth banter with just people being just downright nasty.
00:18:52 That's just not how I'm wired at all. Now, if it's just someone like having a different opinion,
00:18:59 if it's somebody like questioning like why you said something in just your approach, I have no problem just in a kind,
00:19:08 respectful, taking the high road approach of saying like this is the answer to that. But I would really encourage people to not to get into this back and forth like banter like 79 comments deep.
00:19:19 I don't think that's really effective or good use of anybody's time, but it's again at the end of the day,
00:19:26 we have the ability to allow things to come into our mind and impact us. Or at the end of the day,
00:19:34 I think that we can just say that happened. Who knows what's going on their world that's causing them toe like,
00:19:41 lash out in its Oftentimes it's not personal at all. I would just really encourage people to not take it personally to literally just let it,
00:19:51 like, roll off your back in. Just keep going. Just trying to be like the, you know,
00:19:58 salt of the earth. Just continue trying to be a light for Christ and not letting it get the bust of you.
00:20:05 But at the end of the day, does it mean that you're human if you still are, like being?
00:20:10 They were such a jerk or like what were they thinking? But don't allow yourself to just keep repeating that story for the next six months till,
00:20:18 like every person you see, because at the end of the day, I think that just kind of allows,
00:20:22 like that darkness and that enemy just to become more a part of what you are talking about. And that's not what I would prefer to like.
00:20:30 have my focus be No. You can follow Heather on Twitter, as at Heather Hyman spelled h u M A n.
00:20:39 She's also on linked in an Instagram. Under that tag, her website is Sweet tea social marketing dot com,
00:20:47 and she goes under sweet tea social marketing on Facebook as well. I'll have links all of this over in the show notes.
00:20:53 Thanks so much. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:21:05 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way toe Live your calling.
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00:21:45 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world