Don't stop posting about your business.
Katie McManusHi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach.
Katie McManusAnd welcome to the Weenie Cast.
Katie McManusMy apologies.
Katie McManusI won't sing again, I promise.
Katie McManusBut seriously, I know we're heading into the December month, which tends to be chockbox full of holidays and lots of other things that people do, and it's very tempting to believe the myth of this seasonal slowdown.
Katie McManusIt's very tempting to think, okay, well, everyone else is taking a break.
Katie McManusI should probably hit pause too.
Katie McManusAnd logically, yeah, that makes sense, right?
Katie McManusBecause people are at holiday parties, they're out buying gifts for their loved ones.
Katie McManusAnd especially this year, maybe buying gifts from people that they don't really want to buy presents for, that's a different story.
Katie McManusThey're trying to wrap up a bunch of stuff for year end.
Katie McManusThere's a lot going on and you've probably already noticed a little dip, if not a massive dip in your engagement on your social media posts for your business.
Katie McManusSo logically, yeah, sure.
Katie McManusI mean, you can absolutely build the case for no one's paying attention right now.
Katie McManusNo one's buying right now.
Katie McManusYou should just, like, shut up shop and restart everything in January, right?
Katie McManusI think you know where I'm going with this.
Katie McManusThat's a big fat no.
Katie McManusAbsolutely not.
Katie McManusAnd I want to be perfectly clear.
Katie McManusI'm not telling you that in the month of December, when you want to be spending quality time with family, celebrating the holidays that you celebrate, that you should be off doing work in your business, grinding away, doing a gazillion hours a week.
Katie McManusAbsolutely not.
Katie McManusBut what I am saying is that you cannot stop being visible right now.
Katie McManusI know it feels like no one's paying attention.
Katie McManusWe're gonna debunk that.
Katie McManusBut actually, this is one of the best times for you to promote your business, for you to continue banging the drum about who you help, the problems they have that make them the perfect client for you and the outcomes that you'll help them reach.
Katie McManusSo let's talk through why it actually doesn't make sense for you to stop posting throughout the holiday months.
Katie McManusNow, first and foremost, sure, you might not get a ton of new followers right now.
Katie McManusAnd that's actually normal.
Katie McManusPeople are busy, they're shopping, they're cooking, they're going to holiday parties, they're spending time with family.
Katie McManusThey're probably not doom scrolling as much as they normally do.
Katie McManusWhich means that the strangers out there who haven't discovered you yet probably aren't going to discover you right now.
Katie McManusBut what it does mean is that the people who are already following you, who already go to look at your content, who are already used to your name showing up in their newsfeed, you're likely to show up far more often for them.
Katie McManusRight?
Katie McManusBecause I want you to think about this.
Katie McManusThe algorithms are smart.
Katie McManusEven LinkedIn algorithm, which is janky as fuck, it's pretty smart.
Katie McManusIts goal is to keep its followers on their site for as long as possible.
Katie McManusWill the algorithm want to run the risk of showing its user new content that may be hit or miss?
Katie McManusProbably not.
Katie McManusBut if that follower has a track record of liking commenting on your posts, or at least sitting down and reading and having that pause time on your post, you're a known quantity.
Katie McManusYour content is far more likely to be shown to your followers right now.
Katie McManusAnd believe you me, your followers are still on social media.
Katie McManusThey are still doom scrolling on Instagram, they're still on LinkedIn reading all the posts.
Katie McManusThey might not be commenting as much, but they're there.
Katie McManusSo right now is the perfect time for you to start creating urgency for your followers to take the next step in this relationship with you, or at least start planting the seeds for them to take that step in January.
Katie McManusAnd we'll talk about that more in a second.
Katie McManusBut first, I want to talk about something that you and I both know is happening for the people who are paying attention to you who haven't bought yet, they're spending time with family.
Katie McManusOkay, I don't know about your family, but I think most families have some people in them that you need excuses to get away from.
Katie McManusThere are moments in most family gatherings where someone's hiding in the bathroom.
Katie McManusWhat are you doing in the bathroom?
Katie McManusYou're not going through the medicine cabinet for that long.
Katie McManusI don't care how nosy you are, you cannot stretch going through someone's medicine cabinet for that long.
Katie McManusYou probably need something to read.
Katie McManusYou probably need to like, sit on the edge of the tub and scroll on Instagram for a little bit or on TikTok.
Katie McManusIf you're bold, you might be doing this out in the open, just fully ignoring some people.
Katie McManusSo your people are still consuming social media content.
Katie McManusThey're doing it on the DL.
Katie McManusThey're doing it to avoid conversations.
Katie McManusBut not just that.
Katie McManusThey're consuming social media content around people that they've known their entire lives, people who know them and trust them, who might be your ideal client, even if the person who follows you isn't.
Katie McManusCan you imagine posting something about your ideal client?
Katie McManusSomeone who feels like they're your friend on social media, sees it while they're at the Christmas celebrations with their family and then turns to their cousin Doreen and is like, doreen, I think you need to see this.
Katie McManusThis is someone that I've been following for a really long time.
Katie McManusYou should follow them and check them out.
Katie McManusThis is prime referral time.
Katie McManusBut your followers can't refer people to you in that moment if they don't remember that you exist.
Katie McManusThey don't remember who you're useful to and the problems that you solve and the goals you help people reach.
Katie McManusSo your content right now has to bang on about that over and over and over and over again because especially this year, people are looking for things to talk about that are unproblematic.
Katie McManusAnd talking about someone that you follow on LinkedIn is pretty unproblematic.
Katie McManusSo to summarize what we've already covered, your followers are far more likely to see your stuff, which means that the people who've already built up a level of trust and relationship with you blindly through social media, they're seeing your stuff far more often.
Katie McManusThey're also spending time with people who know and trust them, which means even if they're not your ideal client, they could potentially be referring your ideal clients to you because they're coming into contact with them within their family systems.
Katie McManusWe also have looming start energy coming.
Katie McManusStart energy happens whenever there's a shift that we've been trained on, right?
Katie McManusSo like in the Northern Hemisphere, start energy happens around August, September.
Katie McManusRight.
Katie McManusWhy?
Katie McManusBecause we were all raised to start school then.
Katie McManusIt's something that we were programmed to feel like.
Katie McManusThere's start energy there.
Katie McManusYou know, there's also start energy around the spring.
Katie McManusYou know, spring clean, get into shape.
Katie McManusYou know, we're coming out from hibernation, the sun's coming out.
Katie McManusWhen else do we have start energy?
Katie McManusThe start of the year, January 1st.
Katie McManusI know it's just an arbitrary date and it really doesn't mean much, but we're so programmed to want to start start new things and start imagining who we're going to be in this next tour around the sun.
Katie McManusAnd I don't know about you, but most people I talk to, when they think about who they're going to be next year, they don't think about, like, the worst version of themselves.
Katie McManusThey're not like, yeah, I can't wait to still stay out of shape.
Katie McManusYeah, I can't wait to still be underpaid and underappreciated in my job.
Katie McManusI'M going to get a worse job.
Katie McManusEven I'm going to get a job with less vacation time.
Katie McManusThey're not like running their teams and thinking, cool, we're going to make people more miserable, we're going to sell less product, we're going to implement worse technology that makes things less productive.
Katie McManusThey're not thinking about that.
Katie McManusThey're thinking about how they can make things better for themselves, for their teams, for their bodies, for their work.
Katie McManusAnd not only that, they're thinking about how they're going to do this.
Katie McManusAnd they're not just thinking about what they want, they're thinking about how the they're going to get it.
Katie McManusI've shared this before a gazillion times, and I'll share it again.
Katie McManusWhen I hired my producer for this podcast, Neil Velio, I actually hired him in my head a full year before I ever spoke to him.
Katie McManusI'd seen him showing up in my newsfeed for, I think, well over a year at that point, and he'd slowly been building himself up as the go to expert in my mind.
Katie McManusHe shared harsh truths that made me trust him.
Katie McManusSo I decided to hire Neil a full year before I ever got on the phone with him.
Katie McManusBy the time I got on a sales call with him, I had to finish the call by saying, shut up and take my money.
Katie McManusHe didn't realize that I'd already made this decision.
Katie McManusAll he had to do on that call was just not f ed up.
Katie McManusHe did a great job not f up.
Katie McManusAnd here we are, more than two years later, still going strong.
Katie McManusI'll bet you anything if you've been consistent in your social media content and people have gotten to know you, they've learned how you're useful to them.
Katie McManusThey've probably already started kind of daydreaming about what it would be like to work with you.
Katie McManusAnd here they are, primed for that moment where they realize, like, the rubber needs to hit the road.
Katie McManusThey need to actually get to work on this and make some progress.
Katie McManusIf you disappear, if you don't post, if you don't continue to share about how you can be useful to them, they're going to end up hiring someone else.
Katie McManusThey might hire someone who they don't trust as much as you.
Katie McManusThey might hire someone who's less qualified than you, who doesn't have as good of a track record of helping people.
Katie McManusYou staying quiet and invisible and not posting right now is doing your future clients a massive disservice.
Katie McManusBecause, let's be real, they're probably gonna end up working with you at some point regardless.
Katie McManusBut are they gonna waste money on someone who's not as good as you first?
Katie McManusYeah, if you're quiet right now.
Katie McManusSo you need to continue posting.
Katie McManusYou need to continue posting because people are hungry for their future selves and they want to get to that point as fast as possible.
Katie McManusAnd right now is the time where they decide how they're going to do it.
Katie McManusAnd one of the leading options for how they're going to do it should be working with you.
Katie McManusIt should be their top choice.
Katie McManusAnd lastly, let's talk about December and buying habits.
Katie McManusI don't know about you.
Katie McManusWhen I go gift shopping for other people, I see something for someone else and then I see something for me, and then I see something for someone else and then I'm like, oh, and here's something that I want too.
Katie McManusHmm.
Katie McManusAnd it becomes like that scene in hold that Ghost by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, which, if you haven't seen it's an excellent black and white film where at the end they're counting out money and it's like, one for you, one for me, two for you, one, two for me, three for you, one, two, three for me.
Katie McManusPeople are not complicated beings, right?
Katie McManusHow we do one thing is how we do everything.
Katie McManusWhen we're in buying mode for other people, we're also in buying mode for ourselves.
Katie McManusBut here's the thing to remember.
Katie McManusLike the things that you can go out and buy to shop, like, you can put that on your Christmas list and you can ask other people to get it for you.
Katie McManusWorking with you, hiring you to help them with whatever transformation they want to tackle in 2025 or in whatever year.
Katie McManusYou're listening to this episode.
Katie McManusAnother person cannot buy this transformation for them.
Katie McManusAnother person won't know that you're the person that they trust to help usher them to that goal.
Katie McManusHiring you is something that only they can do.
Katie McManusWhen I first started my business, I assumed December would be my slowest month.
Katie McManusI just figured, eh, I won't even waste my time, no big deal.
Katie McManusLike it'll be busy in January.
Katie McManusActually, December historically has always been my record breaking month.
Katie McManusEvery year I make more money in December than I do any other month of the year.
Katie McManusAnd it's because people want to start at an advantage.
Katie McManusThere's nothing clean about like starting January 1st and be like, cool, what's the goal I want to have this year?
Katie McManusHow am I going to do it?
Katie McManusThen you spend a couple days trying to figure out the goal and Then you spend a couple days, like figuring how you're going to do it, but then it's like January 8th.
Katie McManusAnd there's nothing magical about January 8th, it's just January 8th.
Katie McManusYou've already lost a week and a day.
Katie McManusLike, there's no magic start energy to that.
Katie McManusBut if on December 27th you decide, this is the moment when I want to hire this person because I want to be able to start working on this goal January 1st and really keep my promise to myself and hold myself accountable and work towards this massive goal I have for this year.
Katie McManusLike, how are they going to do that if you disappear on them?
Katie McManusHow are they going to give you their money in December?
Katie McManusAnd let's not forget there are businesses out there who have budget that they need to spend in the calendar year of 2024 or they lose it.
Katie McManusYou disappearing doesn't do them a service.
Katie McManusThere are people who need to invest in their business or in themselves in 2024 for tax reasons so they can write it off.
Katie McManusYou disappearing doesn't do them any good.
Katie McManusSo here's my challenge for you.
Katie McManusIgnore impressions, ignore views.
Katie McManusIgnore how many comments you're getting.
Katie McManusIgnore how many likes you're getting.
Katie McManusGo and create nine pieces of content that you're going to schedule in advance so you can take some time off for the holidays that you celebrate, but still stay visible to the people who need to see that you can help them.
Katie McManusAnd for simplicity's sake, these nine posts, three of them should be about the pain that they're facing right now with the problems they have that you can solve.
Katie McManusWhat's stressing them out about these problems?
Katie McManusWhat are they afraid of these problems turning into in the future?
Katie McManusWhat are they frustrated with?
Katie McManus3 of these posts should be about their desire.
Katie McManusWhat is that thing that they want more than anything?
Katie McManusWhat's the big juicy goal here?
Katie McManusAnd what will it feel like when they finally have it?
Katie McManusAnd lastly, three of them should be testimonials or case studies about how you've helped people just like them, yourself included.
Katie McManusGo from point A with all those problems to point W, where they have all the wins, where they've reached the goal, where they have access to that future self they've imagined for so long.
Katie McManusAnd the key here is, at the end of each post, you have to have a call to action.
Katie McManusYou have to invite them to buy, you have to invite them to book a sales call.
Katie McManusAnd if you're planning on taking, say, December 23rd through December 31st off, and you're not going to be available.
Katie McManusAnd remember, you want to have a really strong call to action that reminds them that the time to start is now.
Katie McManusThe time to set themselves up with a plan to actually achieve the thing that they want is right now, not January 8th.
Katie McManusHe myth busted in a way that I was like, yeah, this guy, like, he's not gonna blow smoke up my butt, which is such a weird saying.
Katie McManusWas that actually a thing that people did to, like, try to convince people of falsehoods?
Katie McManusDoesn't that strike you as very Gwyneth Paltrow?
Katie McManusLike, who was the Gwyneth Paltrow of what, the 18th century that was blowing smoke up people's butts?
Katie McManusAnd how did we go from that to steaming vaginas?
Katie McManusThese are the questions that keep me up at night.