I was on a podcast!

Welcome to Module 4 in Crafting a business!

I was recently on a podcast and where I went through marketing fundamentals as well as my business journey.

There is a podcast version here, or you can read through the transcript below. 

Happy listening!

 

Ep 123 – Debbie Hatumale-Uy: Build a community first, and the sales will come.

My corporate/marketing world and crafting worlds have collided, and the result is this podcast! ❤️ Thanks so much to @leanneshelton247 for having me as a guest on the Marketing & Me podcast. Here I chat all things social media marketing and a little bit of how I found myself becoming an “accidental” business owner.⁠ Below is a transcript of the podcast, or you can listen here. 
⁠

LEANNE 

When it comes to social media and business, we often get caught up in the multiple ways we can possibly push our products and services out there. But what if you took a step back and focus on building a strong online community first? And build up a strong following who came to hear what you have to say? 

I talk about building the new like and trust factor a lot on this podcast, but the truth is I talk about it because it actually works. Today's guest is a Debbie Hatumale-Uy who is a living, breathing example of someone who accidentally found success by simply being herself online.  

00:00:51

In this episode, she shares a few tips and gives us a look behind the scenes to see how the development of an online community has helped her, and her crafting business, Only the Sweet Stuff. Let's dive into the episode.  

Welcome to the marketing & me podcast. If you're eager to grow your health and wellness business bar effective marketing methods or maintaining your own health and Wellness, this podcast is for you. 

The show features a beautiful blend of guest and solo episodes covering marketing and business growth topics. As well as ways to improve your physical, mental and emotional self. I'm your host Leanne Shelton and I run a health and wellness copywriting agency while also offering content marketing training. Wo where they are keen to outsource or DIY, my team at Write time marketing is here for you. Either way, we will ensure your message is seen and heard by your ideal client.  

If you’re keen to connect book in a free 15-minute chat about this. The details are in the show notes. And today I'm joined by my guest Debbie Hatumale-Uy. Welcome Debbie. 

00:02:01 

DEBBIE  

Hi! Great to be here. 

LEANNE 

Great to have you. So we’ve known each other for, I don't know how many years we need to, uh, from like one of my last corporate job I guess and we're both going with somehow kept bumping into each other 'cause like through dancing, like when I was doing dancing like “Debb, you're here!” - That's really cool, yeah, and then just yeah, I think this is owners or just kind of keep bumping into each other. But yeah, I'll just write out your biothat everyone knows you are so. 

Debbie is an accidental E commerce business owner. She's currently on - you have here inverted commas, “maternity leave.” 

DEBBIE  

Very, Yep, emphasize the inverted commas, yeah, ha-ha. 

LEANNE 

Having found Only the Sweet Stuff when pregnant with her second son. Debbie has had a 15-year corporate marketing experience but doesn't create success of her business to this. She's also a performing artist, having taught dance for 15 years and has played piano since she was a little girl. She is a mom of three and fur mom of two, very awesome. 

So let's kick things off and can you show us a little bit more about your business journey? What's brought you to where you are today? 

00:03:21 

DEBBIE  

Well, so yeah, so right now my business is called Only the Sweet Stuff. The name comes from when I was actually used to making cakes and cupcakes and slices and all of that stuff. Because I love baking and that was my first maternity leave and then I had to go back to work or as I say real life, so I couldn't. continue the baking journey, but I still do it every now and then, you know. When I was on maternity leave, no when I was pregnant with my second and as with my first I had really bad nausea and I had what's that they know what it’s called - the HG, I think it’s called Hypermesis the one where you're just sick all the time – yes I had that. 

My husband saw that there was this fancy machine and I had been youtubing this machine and it was a cutting machine. So basically, it allows you to be creative you know I make things out of, you know, using materials like vinyl, cardstock, that type of thing. 

Yeah, so then one day the machine ended up at Costco and it's not a cheap machine. It was like $700 for a machine when it came to the bundle and stuff. But my husband said, “Look you need something to keep your mind off the nausea” and said, “come on let's go get the machine.” 

So, we went to get the machine, actually when I say we, it wasn't me, he, went to get the machine. And then I just started making stuff and literally all I did was share my creations on Facebook and on my Instagram - and then all of a sudden - People are like “Hey Deb *chuckles* and I really like that, can you make me one?” and I was like. - “ah, okay, yes, sure!” 

And then that turned into - you know every day, there was like two or three people messaging me, saying Deb, “I need that!”, You know and it was around the time it was around November. So, people were already in that frame of mind of “What am I going to get for Christmas?” 

So here I am pregnant, and sick. But I had this thing that kept my mind active and it allowed me to mesh my kind of creative, you know graphic design skills and styling aesthetic, which I gained through marketing and through, you know, kind of like my corporate world and then yeah just orders started flowing in and so pretty much that Christmas period I had paid off the machine times two, I had paid off all my materials and I was busy like to the point where because I was still working - I had to buy the portable machine, not just the big machine, the portable machine, and bring that to the office because I had to make stuff in my lunch hour. 

00:06:15 

So yes, so then, that happens, January rolled around, you know, order started kind of, you know, dwelling down a little bit because Christmas was over. But then I was like, holdddd on a second like this has just made me money. And all I've done is share my journey, right? So, then you know I started making more.  

I opened my Etsy store and shortly after that I opened my Shopify store and then I had given birth *chuckles* and then it just kind of grew. From there, things have changed a little bit since that day when I got that quick machine. I'm still a crafter and I'm still making things, but my focus has changed, so utilizing my marketing background on my corporate experience, I've kind of moved into working with B to B, so B to B means business to business. 

So, I gain so much more satisfaction dealing with other people that are in the same shoes as me, other people that are trying to, you know, make a little bit of money on the side selling these items working at night when the kids are asleep, you know planning their social media off their phone when they're not trapped, you know these are my people, these are my people! 

So yeah, so now my focus is more into what's trending right now in the crafting world. How do I source those items or how do I work with suppliers overseas to produce those items in a way that's crafting friendly, but also how do I get them to Australia in and, you know, in my crafter’s hands with enough markup to make sure that they make a profit when they go to sell at a market or when they open up their Etsy store and they sell online. 

00:08:05  

And with that because I've got a bit of like my kind of social media experience has allowed me to manage and promote my journey all through organic content and all through organic sharing. 

And like my husband is a photographer actually. He doesn't do it anymore, but he still has all the gear and he's got the training too. I could run professional photo shoots if I wanted to but I don't because I want my content to be as relatable as possible. 

And that's what's equated into me being able to call this a business and to make an income. Yeah, so I mean, that's a bit of a whirlwind way of how I got here, you know. And when I say accidental business owner, it truly was an accident because all I did was just make and create things and share my journey on social media. 

00:08:56  

LEANNE 

And was that just on your absolutely personal news feed right? There wasn't like you didn't create groups or anything like that? 

DEBBIE  

So, I started off on my personal page, but then when I realized oh, I've already got a brand, I've already got only sweet stuff with the logo, I shifted to that. 

So that's why I repurposed the logo that I had, the pages that I had, which had a small audience, you know, and then only when I started dealing with B2B and selling blanks. 

And when I say, like when products moved faster, that's when I opened up a Facebook group and that's purely for blank customers, yeah? 

LEANNE 

Yeah, so what do you think - Is it just like the engagement that then led to all these customers at influx. Like what do you think that you did was a lot of videos like what kind of content did you put out there? Why do you think it is also successful? Or is this just my idea? 

00:09:52 

DEBBIE  

OK, I'm going to. Answer that two-fold, because I don't think it's the actual pieces of content that were successful. I think the underlying theme is that the content was relatable, so things are shot on my phone. 

Things are shot in natural light, things are shot with a shaky camera, that's really an unproduced I get on stories pretty much every day, you know, and my wins are my customers wins, so when someone messages me and says “My items here”, I joke and I say and it's not really a joke because I am really happy. 

I say that you know I don't need to check Australia post because my customer tells me that my that their items are have arrived right because I purely want to create a community through the content that I'm pushing out. So yeah, I answered that question with you know, with caution because yes, I could say you know my number one performing pieces of content are always timelapses because they are. 

Timelapses product of me making something still shot in natural light, you know they're all my best performing pieces of content, but I really don't think that you know that, that is the silver bullet. 

It's really that it's relatable content and you know, for example, when I do a timelapse. Some time lapse video of the production. I always give a tip like for example you know a pain point for crafters is what we call reading right? 

00:11:21  
So, when we cut it out of vinyl, it sometimes can take up to like 15 minutes of like tedious work to pick out all of the off cuts, right? 

So, I found a way to reverse weed, which means that I can cut out a decal and read the decal in less than a minute, right? And because I was able to do that, I was able to do 30 Coffee cup orders in two hours instead of taking the whole weekend, which is what it did in the past, right? 

So, and when I do timelapse videos I always put that tip as the forefront. 

So, it could be a time lapse, it could be a still photo, could be reel could spend an hour taking your YouTube video telling you how to reverse, weed. 

So, it's not the channel or the piece of content that's the winner here. It's the fact that it's relatable content that I know other business owners in my shoes will appreciate. 

00:12:14  

LEANNE 

Fantastic, ok, so in today's episode we're talking about building a community first and then the sales will come. I guess you can't attach from that, but do you want to just expand on what you mean by that? 

DEBBIE  

Well, you know what the way I see it is that all of my customers, they're my friends too, right? And I want to grow my friend network and therefore grow my customer base from that, right? 

I'm not saying you have to be friends with everybody, but everyone knows only the sweet stuff is synonymous with me and I am synonymous with Only the Sweet Stuff. 

So, and I hope my customers know that, they could call me like they call a friend and be like “Debbie I'm in a pickle, I can't get this stock in or I need this item.“ And customers do this they call me and they're like “Deb I'm down the street, any chance my order is ready? “  

And I want to have that relationship with my customers because that's how communities are made. And when you are with a group of people that are all in the same boat as you and they're all trying to, you know, make an income out of this from home when they're stuck home with the kids and whatever their situation is I'm there to help.  

Because I know that if you guys get away, you make that sell you best believe I'm right there with you being that cheerleader because when you make a sale then I get satisfaction from that and I my business expands too right? 

So yeah, I guess people always ask me “why do you share so much?” 

00:13:56 Debbie  

I don't want to over share - that's not what I'm saying, but like – you know that reverse meeting hack? You know like I could have kept that to myself and you know, told everybody that I have an hour turn around instead of two-day, three days, turn around and then the customers would come to me, because they need a last-minute gift or whatever it is, I could do that, right? 

But I don't want to because, like my whole ethos of these businesses to be as relatable as possible, and the more people that are here, that are creating and making things the better. 

Yes, there's competition, but everybody has their own patch, I can't do the things the way that you do it and you can't do the things the way that I do it - so there is room for all of us. 

That's really what my who ethos is on all of this is - that yeah, I wanna create relatable messages and relatable content so that I can build a community around me. 

00:15:03 

LEANNE 

Yeah, I said people all the time you know 'cause I'm all that content marketing, right? And that most of the time that's free content and people freak out. I mean, this podcast alone has all this amazing content for nothing. And I have heard people say it to me “You're giving away all this stuff for free like don't you want to make money?” 

Well, that and the thing is, like I heard a podcast once I've had I've mentioned this on the show before but if you are hope focus was like you ultimately want create a piece of content or content series that is so valuable and amazing that people think wow, if this is what I can get for free imagine where I get if I paid for it, and so ultimately that's kind of what you're aiming for, right? 

You want to make sure that people like, oh this is really great. I mean transparency and in regards to you would be very valuable, like help, right? 

I could say you're reliable, you're honest, I see you as a friend, not someone up on this pedestal that I admire. But and one hour turn around, I could never do that, you know? So, it's a whole different angle and I'm like you. 

I also my business service business yeah, growth is all thanks to me. Like it's often me that people want to work with me and so I yeah, I completely agree with that. 

00:16:21   

DEBBIE  

And just on back on that is that I, I mean I, I see myself as a crafter first. I craft first and then secondary to that I'm an E commerce business owner - where I will source the items that are trending or whatever it is that I will find useful in my business then that will help others.  

So, and content is a way for me to cement myself - as I hate the word thought leader - but thought leader *chuckles* You know you know what I'm saying, so I want to be an expert in my space. Not to say that I have nothing else to learn. I always have something more to learn, but if I learn when everybody else learns as well. 

So yeah, so really like as I said, like in order for me to succeed in the whole premise of my business is that I'm a crafter first like I could just anyone can go and source the items. 

Like can go order samples, tweak the samples, send them back, and that's what I do. But because I have crafting experience, I'll know well, that's not going to work because of X reason. 

You know that transfer tapes are too tacky because I know when you're using vinyl, it's going to pull up the off cut as well as the vinyl. Then that's going to set you back 20 minutes. You know, a normal person wouldn't know that unless you're on the tools. 

17:43:00 

LEANNE 

Yeah fantastic. So, do you have some tips to share for anyone who really wants to build that online community and never really done it before? Scared by it or whatever the case may be. 

DEBBIE  

Yeah, first thing is, be yourself and I know it's a little bit daunting to come on camera. Like For the first year of business, I didn't do any stories. I didn't do, you know, I was never on camera, and me as a performing artist who's used to be in the spotlight. It's a juxtaposition, right? 

But be authentic, whether that's through your through. How you're talking like don't feel like you need to be corporate or you need to be a certain way. 

Yeah, just be genuine. Be genuine. The second thing is the content that you're pushing out doesn't need to be 100% perfect. As a marketer myself, I know like it everything when you're working in corporate lands like if there's a spelling mistake it's like, you know, gives me heart palpitations here. 

If you don't make a deadline, you're in trouble. You know that type of thing. So, and but the way that I see it in my business is that most of the time I'm doing this at night when it's 11:00 o'clock at night. I want to watch Netflix, but I can't and the way I see it is that it that that piece of content either goes out or it doesn't at all, right? So if it goes out with a spelling mistake or not as much detail as I'd like, that's still better than it not going out at all. 

So yeah, so I think my table on that side will definitely Like be ok with it not being ok for now, because when you grow and when you're able to have some help and you have a crowd of people around you that is able to push you up, you know then you can worry about the 100% perfect content that goes out. 

My other tip is to batch create content if you can. So, every time I make something I always make sure to have a time lapse, have photos of the final item have finals that have items of the process to inform right? You should see my photo of my I cloud I pay a subscription to Apple and they take whatever $15 every month and it's always full because I always want to have more content than not enough. 

Because you never know when you're going to use that content, right? One photo can be turned into a boomerang if you push it as a live photo on your stories, there's a Infinity symbol that turns it into a boomerang. Then you could use that on your website as product photo, then you can use that as part of our reel if you wanted to. 

You know those, you know those slideshow rules where it just flashes up a whole lot of. Just one of my best performing piece of content is that you could use that you know in a story. 

So, say for example, you know you want to do a launch or you know when I say launch, I say that loosely I mean like you want to tell everybody that you've got a new product, right? 

You might put that image in the story you know, so one piece of content just from that one photo can be used all those different ways, so it's about being really smart. 

And batch creating that content but also the number one tool that I use is a scheduler, so there's heaps of schedules out there. 

There's Planoly, theres later.com, you know, and there's some of them are paid. Some of them are not out. Canva is another one obviously, but I use later.com simply because they have like a freemium version, so I wanted to I could pay a little bit more and have like 30 posts, month or whatever but I don't post that much. 

I don't know, but what I do is I create that content so if I know I have half an hour while Chris is asleep and I have my phone on me I would create that content on canvas so I might do. 

Like a quote graphic every Monday I alternate between a quote graphic and a testimonial 

So, a testimonial someone giving me the feedback and then I turn that into a graphic on Canva and the same thing with a quote. 

You know if there's something that I like, I turned that into a graphic on Canva in my colours. I generate that content in Instagram size and then I scheduled that. So then in my later.com you know if I'm not trapped - I'm able to write the copy, write the caption, schedule that in for next Monday and then not have to worry about it, you know. And that's the best thing for me because the thing we're building their community and building social media, and building an audience around you is that you need to be consistent. 

And when your mum, you can't – you just can't, right like, I mean it's too hard. So, the way that I see is that those kinds of tips are like that really works for me. 

Batch creating that content when you have the time to make something and then making sure that that content is in your scheduling system so that you don't have to worry about it later. 

00:22:42 

LEANNE 

Really great tips there. I have always tried to batch my own content, but honestly, it's a general ad hoc and I get my marketing assistant. Great other stuff like definitely like 100% when you're making products. 

Like you, you probably yeah 'cause if you know selling it, you turn it up to you to take photos again so. Yeah, exactly it's going. To do it all at the same time. So obviously it's very different for me 'cause it's a service or it could be a website which is online, can always go back to it unless they change it. 

So you've decided to target like to B2B approach. Do you think things will be very different? If you went down the B2C route, do you think it would still work the same way, or do you think your success is because you're speaking to your people who are trying to be successful like you? 

DEBBIE  

So I started B2C and to be honest I haven't changed anything in my aesthetic or changed my strategy or my tone of voice at all when I'm talking B2B. 

Because the way I see it that the B2B customers are small business owners like me. And they are people like me, right? 

Yeah, I haven't changed anything in that in that front. My content pillars may have changed like I'm doing more of the hacks and you know, I found this tip and whatever I find it is helpful, yeah I have changed that and I've put more of a focus on that, but that also helps you know, B2C. Like my audience, but some business owners tell you to niche down as much as you can, and in a way I have - now that I'm concentrating on B to B. But I haven't niched out of my audience you know, I will still talk to everybody as if they're part of my tribe, as if they're part of my community, regardless of whether you're a business owner or not. 

LEANNE 

So what are your thoughts as well on Facebook groups versus pages? 

00:24:45 

DEBBIE  

So I have both, I have a Facebook group and a Facebook page and the reason why I started the group is because I wanted to exclusively have a place where people that wanted to buy blanks would know about things before my wider audiences and I found it really helpful to test the borders in that group as well. 

So, every so often I kind of say “hey guys, I'm looking at this item. You know it'll take me X amount to get here, but what do you think” And often I'll get messages on things that I have never thought about. 

Like for example I had these Easter Tutu baskets for Easter hunting, obviously, and I didn't even think about putting a vinyl name on the band of the item. And you know, I never thought about these Easter sacks that I had the Easter bags with the Bunny. 

I never thought about tying the ribbon off the top to make that in Easter sack, like I didn't think about that right? 

So, putting it out to my group and kind of say look - they don't have to buy it if they don't want to, but like we're only as good as the ideas that we all get as a collective, right? 

So yeah, and everybody loves participating in that, I've started doing weekly, no, it monthly competition - is not the right word like a creative exercise - I don't know what to call it- basically I have a selection of blanks and I put up a photo of those blanks and I put it out to everybody and say “Hey guys, what would you come up with when you 're creative?” And the person that has the most creative ideas will win the pack. 

So, it is a competition in a way, crowd sourced it, because I know that people will then read through that trail. And be like, “Oh, I didn't think about that you know, maybe I’m going to borrow that and I'm going to expand that idea and then I'm going to put it out to my customers.”  And all of a sudden you have a new product line. 

So, I there's you can't go wrong with collectively being creative and I think the Facebook group is the perfect place to do that. 

LEANNE 

Love it. And so, what is blanks?  Just to clarify. 

DEBBIE  

Oh yeah, Ok, so in the crafting world. And personalization for example say, can you see this way? So this is an airport case, right? And it's a clear case, so I've vinyled my initials on it, right? 

So, the blank is the actual airport case without anything on it. So uh, crafter will buy the blank from someone like me – a supplier - Add their own flair on it and then sell that to a customer, yeah? 

LEANNE 

Awesome, thanks for clearing that. You mentioned that a couple of times and like I need to make sure I know where that is. Obviously not in the crafting world 

DEBBIE  

That is OK. 

LEANNE 

I did sewing at in high school like you year 7 or year 8 whatever - right or whatever and I would like to do one or two stitches and also teacher, is this right? Like my grandmother was a dressmaker - sorry grandma, always like I can do cooking so I inherited that from her mother grandmother but sewing no. I'm just that's the perfectionist that's and any other kind of crafty. 

DEBBIE  

Yeah, I can't sew either. 

LEANNE 

I missed it, I know it never seems to match what's in my brain. So, it just frustrates me. 

But I also wanted to ask you, and now it's just escaped me - So I example another Facebook community. It's worked really well that I'm in, it's by Samantha Melbourne and it's, uh, a dressmaker. 

And I was interested her stuff about a year ago from someone in my BX community there wrap dresses basically. It was 12 years ago, wrap dresses would work well for my feedback. Some kind of the inverted triangle kind of thing. 

Yeah, so she has a Facebook group and I don't know how many people were in there, but it's a lot and it's all very interactive in terms of getting, looking at some new fabrics for you know for dresses, what do you think? 

And she'll share like two or four different fabrics and get everyone feedback going, yes, no, yes no. Cause you know we're going to buy it and we love being part of the process. 

And then because we're part of the community we get told first of all, when things are released and you know that kind of stuff. So that's just one example of group that I'm in that I know that I enjoy hanging out in I love giving feedback. 

We shared photos of us wearing our dresses and I showed one I was at this conference like couple months and months ago and I had a stall and I recognized the dress of the woman next to me. 

I was wearing one too and we got a photo - and she didn’t even know there's a Facebook community- which she said “I'm so gonna join that too” 

Just for my own personal experiences, Yeah, that, having those kinds of groups. I have the marketing & me community which I'm only really starting to grow now – which used to be my meet up group. Now I'm moving with the podcast over to that space as well, but I know I want to put a bit more effort into that. So do you have any tips for me in terms of like ah, just if you're starting from absolute scratch and people unengaged - like how do you get the engagement happening? 

00:29:58  

DEBBIE  

So I mean I'm no expert and I could do so many more things with the group. So I guess what the way - you can schedule of the content and I will do engagement, focus content first. So, things like that competition idea you know sharing, like asking the community what would you do with this. 

Or you know - What is the number one question that you get you as a marketer when a business person comes to you? And says “I need marketing help like you know what?”  

What it's number 1 question so you could do a series. On top five FAQs or whatever it is you know and then kind of everybody would kind of chime in and say, “Oh my God, I get that too.” 

Like you know, and you can't, you can't force it, right? You can't force at all. Again, a lot of my engagement is purely organic and my Facebook group has grown purely based on referrals. 

So people are, you know, somebody says oh, does anyone know where to get this glass can shaped cup from and one of my customers goes “Hey Only the Sweet Stuff has it,” you know and then all of a sudden I get five people in my group, you know? And really, all it is having a place for that like minded conversation. 

You know I would love a series on you know “I've got these new can glasses which I do actually I've got these new can glasses in a 400 ml set of a 600 ml what would you do with them, you know.” 

And you know, and people will have to chime in like that other competition idea that I told you about I had a blank bookmark, right? 

So acrylic bookmark normally all I would do is put a name on it, nice pretty font in maybe a rose gold color, you know.  

And that's the extent of my creativity, right? 

Someone else said I'll turn the bookmark into a ruler like with the centimeter out of vinyl, and I'm like mind-blowing like duh. 

Like why didn't I think of that, right? And then if you have a ruler, you could put a name on the other side. 

Yeah, so I would just try to think of questions to foster that communication. But also to like have it as a place where people can share their thoughts and their and their kind of questions in a way that it's not so intimidating. 

I think and then you will start to get the community having and then you start to get the comments through. Does it answer the question, no yeah? 

00:32:27 

LEANNE 

No, that's brilliant. Thank you. Come to that. So yeah, it's been a really great conversation. 

I want to ask you, yeah, one quick question and then I go into my regular gues questions and where do you see social media going like, do you think these Facebook groups are going to be around another 10 years. You think it's going to be a whole - I mean I don't touch Tiktok, I think I've only seen a couple of things that happened to be pushed across to Instagram. Snapchat never went there like. What are your thoughts on all the social media world? And the future? 

DEBBIE  

So the latest? One of the latest studies that I have just read says that Internet usage is up, and that doesn't surprise anybody, right? So I feel like the channels as in the social media channels, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, whatever it is they'll come and go. I think the channels itself will come and go. 

The way that the information is consumed and new channels will come and replace those old channels all the time. But I feel like the way of communicating with others online will never go. 

I think social media will always exist, exist in some sort of form, you know, and whether it's called social media, whether it's called online communication, whether it's called, I don't know blogs, right- because they were they were social media before, it's I think it will still always be around. It's just about us adapting to where it is right now. Like I don't have A TikTok I mean I have a Tiktok right now, but I won't really get on it like I went on the other day and I had five unread messages and I said oops, haha. 

And I'm a social media marketer, right? I should be on all of the different channels, but you humanly can’t -  just don't have enough time so. 

I think the premise of the way that we communicate - Nothing will replace that like everything has moved online whether it's by phone or whatever device. It is the channel will change, I think. 

00:34:21 

LEANNE 

I wonder for myself because I don't have it you know, look at my phone I visit Facebook and look, I look at notifications are nothing interesting. 

I skim read, I'm just bored, but I'm just saying that birthday, anniversary is like that's all seem to pop up on my news feed. 

And a psychological thriller book community I joined that all that stuff and some business stuff. But I actually feel bored and so I do wonder. 

Is it going to keep up its momentum? I think it needs a bit of a shakeup 'cause  I'm not a video watcher, so I think that's probably why I'm not big on tiktoks and in all. 

I know for me, I'm like I prefer to read like I don't I get enough stuff going my into my head every day and I couldn't add extra crap. 

00:35:24 

DEBBIE  

I get that. This just highlights the importance of your content being the content that you're consuming, being relatable and resonating with you. 

If you were a crafter, and you were in my community, then you would find it really interesting you know all the time lapse videos or “what is she making” or “what's new” you would find that really interesting, right? 

LEANNE 

Right, well the book group. I'm always like oh, yeah, “what’s this”. Cause my sister got me onto that – and that got how many thousands of people in it all over the world and so that one like Oh yeah, OK - “Adding to my to read list” and you know that I'm interested in the business related networking stuff. I'm always interested but yeah. If it doesn't pop up my news feed - you just relying on the algorithm to show you what you want to see. 

00:36:03  

DEBBIE  

It is interesting and we'll see a lot, I think in the next year. Also like for example, how Facebook pulled the publishing so the news related content and user publishing related content, how they pulled it. 

And basically they said today I'd you know Facebook decided not to push that out, you know. So that's what I mean by the channels will change the channels itself will change. 

But something else will pop out they'll be new way to consume the content soon, and you know. And it's our job to kind to see what we can use to benefit our communities pretty much. 

LEANNE 

Yeah, love it all right. So I mean one of the typical questions I always ask to my guest is what's the best for marketing for your business? I think that's pretty much been this episode, so I want to skip onto the next line, which is, how do you take care of your health and wellness, Debb? 

DEBBIE 

Oh well, if you have any tips for me, I will take that. 

How I take care, so, *takes a deep breath/sigh* 

Self care is so hard - and the way that I do it is - like, I like to work - and I like to take things off my list and I like to be able to say - OK, I’ve finished that - and I get anxiety when I don't. So when I have my Shopify list and there's, you know 50 orders just need to be packed. You know if I can see it go down from 50 to 45 to 40 - And even if it's only two a day then I'm Ok, right? So myself care is blocking out the time so that I can humanely be able to accomplish things within that - And that's really hard for me because I'm used to working in a corporate environment. I'm used to working highly productively, you know. So for example, I used to be the social media manager at McDonald's and I used to run social media government teams for across government departments. I'm used to high volume, get things out quickly. You know I'm used to that, but myself care is learning to be OK with the little wins I guess, and being OK with OK, I'd love my business to be, you know, the next Amazon, but that's not going to happen right now, but it might in a couple years' time, if I take those small steps to get there. So yeah. I guess my self-care is take it like time blocking that that time but also taking time for myself to wind down at the end of the day. 

You know, I actually find it really relaxing to watch a webinar and then take something from that, because I know if I've identified that webinars something I want to do. I want to be able to take that off before I go to bed. 

So I find it relaxing. That's weird, right? I’m a nerd, I know. 

LEANNE 

Being productive is soothing and I rather feel like I've got a massive list I haven't got through so I do get that yeah, yeah, also well and one last question is how can people connect with you? 

DEBBIE 

Oh sure, so I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram - Only the sweet stuff if you search me, I'm sure it will come up, uh, my have my Facebook group, which you can join so it's Only the Sweet Stuff blank VIPs. 

I also have a newsletter on my website which you can sign up for. I'm a little bit behind in my newsletter, just saying. But I am getting a new team member on board so hopefully more comms will come out and I can't wait for that day. 

You can find me on pretty much all those channels. And by all means like message me if you find something that was helpful out of this Podcast or you want some more information like feel free - honestly, you know, just message me! 

00:40:01 

LEANNE 

Fantastic, well thank you. It's been really insightful. I yeah, I'm just hearing more about your business and how it all has come back so obviously see things pop up and I'm like, Oh yeah, it's just doing thisstuff then I know she's busy. But I had no idea what was kind of happening behind the scenes. 

That's very cool but yeah, Thank you for joining me, Debb, it's been great. 

DEBBIE  

No problem! I'm glad to be here, thanks for having me. 

LEANNE 

You’re welcome and thank you. And thank you listener for tuning in. 

You can find it show notes to the episode at marketingandme.com.au if you enjoyed listening, please subscribe and leave me a rating and review via Apple Podcasts. Of course, grab a screenshot of this episode and share it across your socials to get the message out there. 

If you're interested in connecting with me, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn to search for Leanne Shelton and let me know you're a fan of the show you can also find me on Instagram under @LeanneShelton247 all booking a free 15-minute chat. 

Because I'd absolutely love to chat about how I can help you grow a thriving health and Wellness business. Until next time. 

I wish you good health and good wealth.