Marketing Tips from a Fellow Instagram Management Agency Owner: Reels, Branding, Content Ideas, and More! [Episode 98]

Molly: I'm going to keep today's intro short and sweet because it's a longer guest episode. Y'all know I can't keep my guest episode short because like I get to interview the like most incredible people and yeah, I just like always have so many questions to ask. But today's guest is my friend Allison. She's actually a fellow Instagram management agency owner.

Her and her partner, Jen, Own Wolf Dog Market. Wolf Dog Marketing, where they actually do websites and Instagram and she has like a whole host of services. So Allison is just a wealth of knowledge and I love having other Instagram. I think she's actually my first other Instagram management agency owner.

On because I like to hear different perspectives just to see, you know, with our agency, like, we only manage chiropractic acupuncture and functional med and health coaches right now. So it's cool to see things from a different perspective. Um, so yeah, so without further ado, I hope you absolutely love this episode.

It is chock full of tips. There's even some amazing post ideas at the very end of the episode.

Hey, welcome to holistic marketing simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

So let's come hanging out while we chat all things easy in your marketing. And my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a, I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please.

Dr. Carly: Hi, I'm Dr. Carly and I'm a mentor for other chiropractors from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And I listen to holistic marketing, simplified podcasts.

Molly: Hi, Alison. I'm so excited to, uh, I mean, we've been talking, so it always feels weird to say like, hi, whenever y'all hear the edited version of this, it's like, we just started talking, but we've been chatting for like 15 minutes.

Allison: It's like three, two, one action. Hi, Allison.

Molly: So far.

Allison: So good to see you. Oh, hi, roomie.

Molly: I know. So Allison and I call each other roomies because we met at the social squad society retreat in Nashville, actually in 2023. When they put out their 2024 Savannah, they had an opportunity. To have like a discounted ticket for someone to share a room. And the funny, it was like such a high school girl moment because I was like, Oh, I want to ask Allison if she would want to share a room with me.

But like, then if she doesn't and she says, no, I'm going to feel really dumb. And then I get a message from Allison that was like, Hey, do you want to share a room? And I was like,

Allison: how funny. Right. I know. And I probably was like. practicing the email. I probably wrote it and then rewrote it and wrote it again, like trying to sound casual, but like excited.

Molly: No biggie. No big deal. If not, like, you know,

Allison: you know, like totally cool if you don't want to, but I just figured our personalities are so similar. And I thought, anyways,

Molly: so it was really fun. Yeah, we hit it off. We, it was so funny. We get there, we have like matching pajamas. We had matching outfits on the other day too.

And then. When we saw each other in Indy a couple months ago, we were matched to have like, Oh, we didn't match that day, but I just said, Oh, I have that exact

Allison: outfit. So if you were wearing like a pull over that I have in the exact, and I think, I don't know if it was the same one, but the same color, but the roommate thing, actually, we did discover that we had the same college roommate address senior year, right?

Molly: 171. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's so wild. Okay. So the reason I wanted Alison to come on today's because I don't think I've had any other fellow, I know y'all don't just do Instagram, but Instagram management agency owners on and Oh, so honored. No, I just, I feel like we tend to get in our own little, so our agency is so niche that like, yeah, you just work with such a great variety of people that I think it's cool to hear other people's perspectives too, of kind of like, I don't like to say what's working.

I don't know why, because I think People's definition of what's working is can be defined in a million different ways. Sure. But what you're seeing, like I said, now that we're about to be in 2025, which is wild. Yeah, I'm just going to say working because whatever you can define that whatever way you want, it doesn't necessarily mean that it goes viral or gets a ton of engagement.

Because one of our clients, when we were doing a content review for her, She was like, Oh, this, this carousel actually got us the most patients calling our office and it got like terrible engagement. So it's just funny to me, like what's working is a relative term. But I

Allison: think viral got replaced also, or utilized rather as a word for like reaching.

You know, like we used to say, like how content would reach, you know, or let's reach your right audience. Or this had really good reach. Like I just think about, you know, before like reels and now it's like viral kind of replace that concept, but it isn't the same. So I think that that I completely agree.

Like, you know, the idea of going viral

Molly: and we've had clients go viral and we've had it go both ways. We've had it where it went viral and it literally did wonders for their business. Yeah. Thank you. And then we've had people go viral and then it like ruined their, not ruined when you look at their stats, they're a local client, like 5 percent of their followers are in Mumbai.

We've had it go both directions. Yeah. It's still, like I said, it ruins not the right word cause they still get a ton of referrals from Instagram. So it's not like it like really honestly messed with anything. It's not all that big of a deal to be honest. But as a fellow agency owner, the first thing that we kind of like, we were like, we want to talk about how our friend, our mutual friend, Shannon McKinstry, which is her and Emily Schwalbach are the ones that have social squad society.

How we met is Shannon posted something on threads. And it's so funny as someone who is an agency owner, I was like, Oh, I need to share this. That was like, when you hire a social media manager, you expect them to wear, like, we have so many expectations on us. And I'm not being like, Whoa, is me like, I don't, we love our jobs, but it's like, They expect us to like be ahead on every single trend and like rewrite all of your copies so that your messaging is on point and then be your strategist for all your marketing and then all like, it's like, Oh wow, yeah, no, you didn't hire me for all that.

So do you want to talk about not saying we can't do all of that and we do, we do always go the extra mile for all of our clients, of course. I don't think a lot of people realize what all is actually involved in social media management. So I don't know if you kind of want to talk about that.

Allison: Yeah, absolutely.

I obviously agree. I think that a lot of the expectation comes from, you know, how quickly social media has evolved and What it takes to be successful. So unlike other marketing folks that people may have hired in the past, where those roles and what they do have been around for like a really long time.

And what the expectation is for what they can deliver is kind of defined. I do feel like for social media strategists and managers and agencies, that is still kind of newer. And so I really appreciate, like you said, when people like Shannon remind and share what is. Reasonable to expect your social media manager to do and how you can participate to help set them up for success.

I feel like a lot of times there's this idea that by taking over your social media, I think, like, this is also what you were just saying is that we're going to do it. Fix all of the big buckets or do all the big buckets. So we're going to Nail down all the messaging. We're gonna You know do all the branding and I think a lot of times you see that from like the evolution where social media managers make a feed more aesthetic or more cohesive or But that is not necessarily the same thing as the branding exercise or the messaging exercise And that we're going to, you know, help understand lead generation.

How do you move through the funnel? You're going from social media to this next step. And it takes you to the website. It's like, those, you know, are all like specific things that you often hire people for. And you might have an agency or a social media agency owner, or, you know, person you're working with that can do those things.

But they have to be scoped. I feel like also to do those things. So I, I really feel like understanding that your social media partner, first and foremost, My wolf dogs right here, is She's good. They're there to really help you, you know, build and grow your presence online. Build that community on social media with your ideal audience, and then simultaneously by creating those connections and that trust, move them through the customer journey.

That's, I feel like, like the overall, how I would define the social media, you know, manager. For the most part do.

Molly: Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of questions online of like, well, how much can I expect to pay for social media management? And it's like, well, that's like asking how much does it cost to go to the doctor?

I mean, literally, it's that broad of a question because every agency is going to be different in what their deliverables are. So just, you know, like I said, if you are listening to this and you're wanting to outsource, just getting really clear on the deliverables, because I cannot tell you how many discovery call I'm so clear on discovery calls.

Now I'm like almost talking people out of it. I'm like, listen. I cannot pretend to be you, A. B, on our lower tier package, which is where a lot of people want to start, which I get, right? They're like, well, let me start out on the lower tier and see if it works. I'm like, oh, no, no, no. Our lower tier package is clearly written that it is four posts a week.

It is not for growth. We call it the presence package. You likely won't see much growth. You might see a little bit of growth in the first couple of months just from reach and things being optimized. But it is not intended for growth, it is for our clients who have full practices and they just want a consistent presence.

And then I'm like very clear and they're like, okay, I get it. I understand. But that's the one I want to do. I'm like, cool. And then three months later, it's like, oh, hey, I just don't know if this is working. We haven't really grown. And I'm like. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I told you this is not what this is for. You're like, we talked about it.

Let's check tape. So we have all obviously like higher tier packages where we're doing engaging and we're doing stories and like, you know, more of like growth activities. And then I think the beauty of like what with your agency, because you also have the website capability as well. So it's like. Yes.

Sometimes we get clients who come to us whose websites are either broken or they don't portray what they actually do. I actually had, I was on a call with a client who I love dearly and she's like, I haven't generated any money from my Instagram yet. And I'm like, what are you selling? I thought we were just like repurposing all your, you know what I mean?

There wasn't like a clear package. She was like, Oh yeah, I don't have any of my packages. I'm like, so right. So we need to figure out what we're

Allison: selling. No, I was going to say, I think that again, like. It can be super overwhelming, right. As a business owner to do all the things, right. But when you actually, you know, and marketing is always right.

Like it goes to the bottom line, marketing's an expense. And so when you think about wanting to get the most out of your social media or the most out of your online presence, that can be like a huge piece where the. The sale, if you will, falls apart, right? Because if somebody is learning and following you on social media, or somebody recommends, like I'm looking for X, Y, Z, and somebody like sends the profile, I do that all the time.

Like in the DMS, you know, to somebody, Oh, check out this person or check out this provider. And then they're like, cool. And they go to the website to get more information, find out the pricing. And the website is. Let's just say like disappointing or unhelpful. It's like abandoning your car, right? You've got in line, you know, and you're in line with your cart and then there, you don't know where to go.

It's taking forever. It's not low. And you're like, forget it. You just leave. And so it's, it is such an important part. And I think that's again, why it's important to take a look and make sure do you have all the pieces set up for your business to be as successful as possible, because you can't really blame social media and say it's not working.

Like the final part of the puzzle then isn't set in place.

Molly: Yes, I completely agree. The customer journey piece. Now, I mean, you can't, there are people who do it the other way around, right? Who like, they're like, I'm just here to build an audience. I don't have anything to sell right now. I'm just trying to build my audience.

That's great. That's typically not the people who are going to hire a social media manager though, I would say, cause they're not really, I actually had a guy reach out to me and A couple of days ago in my DMS, and he was like, I'm curious about your program. And he told me what he does. He's like, I just started my business.

He had literally two posts on his Instagram, didn't have a website yet. And I was like, love that you messaged me. You don't need marketing yet. Like you, you don't even have like a way for people to book an appointment with you. So like, yeah, he had a space, like he had, you know, his, like, he was ready to start seeing clients, but like, You had no packages, no website, no way to like, and I'm not saying you have to have like a fancy website, but no way to even, you know, like you said, other friend, I was like, take her program first.

She'll set you up with like the business foundations, then you can do marketing.

Allison: And I agree. Like you said, you have. A lower tier package for people. We do too. We have what I call the classic, right? We have like a, you know, that's how you build that presence and, you know, get awareness and stuff like that.

We have the same thing with our websites. We have actually a package where it's like a one page in a day website, a beautiful like scrolling. So yeah, you don't have to have the most complex website, but I think the most important thing is to be honest with How people behave, how they behave online, how custom, you know, like customers or clients behave when they're looking for your service, how they behave on instagram.

We judge books by their covers. And so if you go and you look for a business, you know, especially certain businesses, we're going to hold at a higher standard and they don't have a website or it's not professional or you get a 404 page or you go to their instagram and it's all over the place and it's not consistent.

You're not going to maybe consciously think this, but subconsciously you might be not thinking they're not that professional or they're not as legit or I'm looking for someone with more, you know, experience and and how you get that 1st impression, like it or not, is actually going to be a lot harder.

Make people kind of judge how professional or how good they think you are at what you do.

Molly: And I do just want to say what you just said made me think about a good point. Like talking to, you called it your classic, I call it the presence package. It's not like it's still not doing, Oh, why would you spend the money?

It's like, well, because it's, you're building that consistent presence online. I got served up this great ad for these like feels gummies or whatever. And I was like, Oh, these look great. Like, cause I don't drink. And so, I mean, I drink like maybe every once in a while, but I'm like, Cool. Like these look fun.

It's like, yeah. Advertises and alcohol alternative. They were like CBD, whatever. I'm like, cool. Let me check them out. Their ad was so good. They hadn't posted organically since 2022. So I didn't buy them. And I looked in the comment section of their most recent posts and people were saying the same thing.

They were like, And if y'all think I'm making up a story, it's called FEALS, like F E A L S, you can go look. People were like, kind of sketchy, y'all haven't posted since 2022. Are you still in business? Like, you know what I mean? Like you said, that subconscious signal of consistency is. Is so important and, and especially the market that I serve, you are going to have so many silent lurkers.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. People aren't common. Like they're just everyday people. Like they're not necessarily like, they're like, they like see your post and they're like, huh, cool. And then it keeps rolling. And so it's like, eventually it sinks in.

Allison: Yeah. I have actually, one of my favorite clients is a place called Maplewood.

And so they're like in greater Boston. So, you know, cause I, Located in the Metro Boston area and they're like a go to destination for families. So they have indoor outdoor playgrounds. They have children's classes, preschool, summer camp. They're like, okay. And they're reels since, you know, I started working with them.

They do phenomenally, like just, you know, really great. But they don't get a lot of comments when I, when you look at the shares, they're absolutely crazy. So kind of like your, your lurker concept, people are like, you know, like, let's say I like DM did to you. And I was like, Oh my, we have to go here. We have to take MJ here.

This would be so fun. Right. But you're not commenting necessarily on it and tagging, you know, me and say, you know, so I think that that comment is really important to remember. You have to kind of look at all the things. It doesn't mean that, like you said, those packages don't have impact. Absolutely do because how people interact and you know, where you're located, what your business is, how that customers, it kind of goes back to what I was saying about the behavior.

I'm like really big about behavior, like how people behave is something really important to understand. You can maybe influence. Consumer behavior, but you can't completely change it. Right. So it's better to actually lean into how do they behave? So how can you reach them that way in the way that they already behave?

I think that's like something I think about a lot, that lurker thing. I don't, you know, like bring on the lurkers, right? Like that's great. Cause those people

Molly: are potentially qualified customers or leads. Like the perfect, the perfect scenario I always tell people is my two best girlfriends and I here, we're like trying to book.

A girl's dinner and we hadn't, we're like, let's go somewhere I've never been. Yeah. So we googled restaurants in the area and then what did we do after we googled them? We looked at their Instagram. Yeah. We didn't comment on a thing. I don't think I liked anything. I don't think I shared it. I think I took a screenshot.

Like an old person. And I was like. Yeah. Screenshot. What is that? Lemme send it to my, I do that all the time. Is that old person's? No, I'm just saying, but like screenshot all the time. That's what I call invisible engagement. Like Yeah. Nobody knows. There's no way to track that in Instagram if someone took a screenshot and sent it to their friend.

So yeah, it's that kind of stuff that really does. But if they hadn't posted since 2022, I'd be like, is this restaurant still open? ? Yeah. Like, I don't know, are we gonna drive there? It's gonna be closed. So anyway. Yeah. So true. Yeah. We'll get off our, um, high, we know it's a lot like it's. Me having this podcast, I told my editor, I was like, I'm like the worst client because I feel like I'm always up at the last minute.

Like, I'm always like, she's always like, where's your episode? And I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm like, I truly do empathize of what it's like to be. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. It's tough. Even if you do outsource your social media to someone. Jen

Allison: and I say, Jen, my business partner, we say that all the time. We're like cobbler's kids without shoes, right?

Like you can do so well for others, but not necessarily for yourself.

Molly: Oh yeah. I just, I just thought about it. I was like, when did I post on my feed last? It's been like, A couple days. I don't know. I'm like, I keep meaning to like really get my shit together, but that hasn't happened yet. Okay. So let's dive into, so Wolfdog Marketing, which I think is just like the coolest, like what y'all, what y'all do.

You said y'all have a really awesome brand questionnaire. So I just want to give it a little tidbit about why these, because we have a pretty thorough onboarding. Two, but it doesn't sound near as fun as yours. We, the best results we ever had as an agency was with a client who came to us who had been through Donald Miller's story brand training.

Have you ever heard of that? Yes, I have. Yeah. She already had this really dialed in. She knew exactly who her customer was. She had this really dialed in messaging. And since our, again, our scope was Instagram. So we were able to take these beautiful foundations and this beautiful customer journey that she already had.

and quadruple her inquiries in two weeks. And we don't get those kind of results for everybody, right? Because they don't come to us with these, like, I'm like, okay, now I'm having to try to think about messaging or I'm trying to say, Hey, did you know this link was broken to book an appointment with you?

Or like, you know, but she had all of that dialed in and it was just like, so cool to watch. Like, Oh, all we did was tweak it to make sure it made sense. And now it's like going like wildfire. So this kind of stuff is the stuff you can't skip. So tell us about your brand questionnaire. I love this thing. Uh, so yes, part

Allison: of

Molly: our process to off

Allison: onboarding is like not super fun, more just straightforward.

The branding questionnaire is something that we created and we've actually evolved and updated since we started Wolfdog, but it's a. series of questions. There are multiple choice except for a handful in the beginning that are kind of like, you know, what is your, you know, mission statement in one sentence or that kind of thing.

But then it transitions to various questions to help define things in and around your brand, whether it's, uh, your personality, your voice, uh, your audience. And so it's things like, and this is my favorite question is if your business wants a bumper sticker, what would it I love this because If you visualize a bumper sticker like probably picturing run right now, you can only get so many words on a bumper sticker.

You can't write a paragraph in a lot of times, things like that help slash force business owners to think about if I had like 4 words, maybe 5. What would I say each word's going to really matter to define my business? What I do, you know, or, you know, capture the essence, if you will, of my business and things like that really help to make decisions like you were saying about moving forward with messaging.

Prioritizing important messages, saying messages different ways and helping clients in particular to get really clear. I think I always say you have to be clear before you can be clever. You have to be clear first. Does that be my bumper sticker clear before clever? No, probably not. Maybe one of them.

That had like a bumper sticker store. Um, but I think that's like important.

Molly: Ever since you said that, I'm like, I don't know. I've been thinking about it ever since. I'm like, what? Because we talked about it before we start HitRecord. And I was like, what would mine be? That's tough. Do you have people right on there like, I don't know?

Allison: Yes. Yeah. But a lot of times I think people will be like, Okay, like this was as close as I could get. I know it's still too long. It's not like a I mean, I get this because I'm like extremely competitive It's not like a game, you know, like trying to win it. It's not I mean, it's not

Molly: a competition. It is what it is

Allison: Um, but I think again the goal is to get you to think differently about what you do how you talk about what you do what's unique about What you, you know, like I'm a, I, we talked about this before.

I'm a big believer of, it doesn't matter how many people do what you do. Every industry saturated, every industry is crowded. There's like, I'm sure there's lots of room still for innovation and big and good ideas, but like lots of the big ideas have been thought of, you know? So it's like, it's not that there isn't room to succeed.

It's quite the opposite, right? There's. Every industry saturated because there's so much opportunity, the right clients, the right customers for everyone enough to go around. So how do you communicate what's unique about you? And I feel like this, the branding questionnaire is just like one way to get to it.

We say things like, again, they're kind of multiple choice, but like if your business was a state, which state would it be? Because automatically when you see Arizona or you see, you know, like you see. New York, like you think you have a visual going, like, what do you think about it? How's it make you feel?

Was it smell like, so these questions kind of get to it. If you were a car, what kind of car would your business be? And then there's like a list of questions. So it's just like a really fun way throughout the beginning process to help hone in on like those things that feel even less tangible. Like, what would your business sound like saying?

You know, like you're your best friend or saying you're like authoritative There's like a million ways in between so these things kind of help understand that I

Molly: love that I love this

Allison: question.

Molly: I'm forever now gonna be like I'm gonna think of it at like 2 a. m. And text you

Allison: Yeah, I have a client her name is coach D.

So she does fitness. She's this program called fierce And she does obviously fitness, but also like a lot of empowerment. She does like retreats and stuff. And she's, I think hers was workout with a little woo. Oh, I love that. And she just, and she did like, uh, she's, she's very kind. Like she'll, she talks about us a lot.

And so she did a whole story about it. And she was like, I say that now, like I actually, she was like, should I get t shirts? Like, she's like, but it is such a. You know, it doesn't mean that you don't go on to go deeper about things, but it's just again, like we're so busy as people. If, again, if you step back and think about yourself on Instagram, you're scrolling, you know, you're not necessarily there to like have businesses just talk to you.

So if you were going to be like short and sweet, you know, in and out, like what would you say? Things like this, these exercises, I feel like help you to, to practice that and figure out what you would do if you had four words or five words.

Molly: I love that. Yeah. Workout with Lulu. And that's also very clear.

Like it's not like, because I feel like some people would want to go with like, empowering women to, it's like, okay, but how? Like, how are you empowering them? Are you a therapist? Are you a, you know, like, are you a, are you a stylist? Do you dress women? Is that how you empower them? But it's like, no. Like, you've got to be clear.

I love that. I love that. That's what I tell people too. And they, I've had people ask me before about naming their program. They're like, what names do you like? I'm like, none of those because I don't know what that is. Like it has to be, it has to basically say what it is like,

Allison: Oh, again, like you said the thing about the, like, not being, you know, not doing for yourself.

So Jen and I, we were talking the other day, we were like, we really need to update our, our own website. Right. Right. Right. But we had done a website revamp, like, to the content and 1 of the things I was when I was on the social media packages, you know, section, I was like, these names are just like, you know, I was really trying to play off the wolf dog wolf pack thing.

So it was like, join the pack, lead the pack. It was like, these names are so they don't. They don't say what I think I want them to say, because I still, when I send over, you know, proposals and stuff, like I clarify. So I'm like, if you're clarifying, it's like, it's just, that name doesn't work. And that's why like classic deluxe, like those things, I feel they just make more sense.

Premiere. Like you kind of know what they mean. Maybe over time there's a way to meld the two, but I think if you are going for clever first. It might sound really fun, but when it's in practice, like, does it deliver what you need it to? Again, you don't want to make people work. You want to make them have to work for anything, like figure out what it is that you offer, figure out how they would connect, take the next step.

You want to make it like super easy.

Molly: Yeah, mine used to be called the whole kit and caboodle. Okay. I actually love that. I know. I love that. Like, you know, it's just presence and growth.

Allison: Like, yeah, yeah. That's it. We had a spa, a spa owner who had like kind of more of like a menu and we did do some fun stuff.

Like we had one that was like from burned out to blissed out, but then it still had like. Yes, but still had a little qualifier under it. So I don't think it's like that. You can't ever be fun. It's not that it has to be like basic, you know, standard like health insurance plans. Like, I think it can be open enrollment on the mind.

Right? So I don't think it can be. It doesn't have to be that. Um, there's no fun, but even just like the bumper, like coach these bumper sticker example, like work out with a little woo. You can still be fun and have some personality. Like getting more concise, like finding a way to like not have to use a million descriptors to explain something will be super valuable then when you go to make content that's more effective.

Molly: Yeah. So I kind of want to transition. It's like a perfect seg into, well, I want to talk about reels, but also I want to talk about. like storytelling in your, we can talk about maybe storytelling in your reels too. So you, you were talking about how every market is saturated and I teach the same thing. I tell, always tell the story when I'm doing a presentation.

And this is a true story about a girl I went to high school with messaged me on Facebook and the message literally said, I breed geckos for a living. It is a very competitive field. And I was like, you, is this a joke? Like, is this made up? And I started Googling it and it's like, And you're like, get out now.

It is clear. My browser hit. No, I'm just kidding. But like, for real, it's like a big thing. And so I'm like, you think that what you're doing is just like, everybody's doing it. Cause I'm like, first of all, you can support your colleagues, but unfollow all of them. Cause if you're following their pages, it's going to stifle your creativity.

It's going to feel like, make you feel like you're not doing enough. Like you don't have to unfollow. I'm just saying like, do something to where that's not everything in your feed because. Yeah. It just keeps feeding into your brain like, Oh, everybody's doing this and I'm not unique, but you are so unique.

Everyone has their own thing. So one of the ways that you can harness that uniqueness is through storytelling. And I think a lot of people get intimidated when they hear storytelling because they're like, well, I don't have any good stories. I'm like, well, nobody. I mean, like, I just sent an email to my list about when I said birds are neat in the Miss Alabama pageant, which was like on stage.

I said birds are neat. Okay, so

Allison: we're going to have to have a complete

Molly: conversation about that information that I just learned. So yes, it wasn't Miss Alabama, it was like a preliminary, it was bad. The whole thing was bad, bad, bad, bad. Well, here, I'll tell the full story because maybe this will be helpful when it comes to Yay!

She's going to tell a

Allison: story that I get to learn so you guys can learn

Molly: about storytelling. Here's the email. The email It's like, I won my high school pageant and, you know, basically got a little like, oh, there's scholarship money in pageantry. So like, when the people came to our school, we're like, hey, here's a preliminary to Miss Alabama.

Um, I was like, oh, I won the high school one. Like I can do this. Uh, no, these girls were legit professionals. My onstage question was if you could have any superpower, what would it be? And I said, and imagine I've lived out of Alabama for like 16 years now. So my accent was much thicker when I was 17 years old.

I was like, well, I guess I've always thought birds were neat. So I'd want to be able to fly like onstage. I had so many friends and family there and I could see their face like they were like close enough to where the stage lights were and they were just like jaw drop like what the hell did you just say like they were all like are you supposed to say world peace I don't know but you could tell they were like cringing on the inside for me like it was just the way I said it like flying is not wouldn't have been a bad answer but it was like the way I said it like miscongeniality moment I had a total miscongeniality moment by the way that's it That's the gift that went into my, um, email as well as the Miss Congeniality gift.

Um, so funny you said that. April 25th. Because it's not too hot. Not too hot. It's not too hot. Not too cold.

Allison: All you need is a light jacket.

Molly: Yeah. Amazing. So, my seg for the email was. Yeah. What did every girl who placed in the pageant have in common and won scholarship money? They had a coach.

Allison: That's amazing.

Molly: I love that. So let me be, let me be your coach. And that is what storytelling is. It's like, it activates a different part of your brain and lets people picture or relate

Allison: or yeah,

Molly: I think

Allison: it's like, I think with the thing about storytelling again, Similarly to like the word viral and I now I can't remember if we talked about this before we were like officially recording or not, but I feel like the word viral just starts getting used.

As a blanket word when we mean things like reach reaching the right people reaching more people expanding your reach is not the same thing as going viral. But we kind of put going viral at the top. I think storytelling now also kind of captures a lot of things unlike viral that actually is accurate to the idea of storytelling.

Storytelling can just be visual. Like, it can be, it can be B roll. It can be following. You know, let's say you're following a chiropractor like through their day and it's Not words. It's them walking in and setting up the office, setting up the office and going through appointments, doing a workshop like that is storytelling.

So, I think sometimes we think like you just said in the beginning that storytelling has to be this like. Amazing like edge of my seat. You're waiting to hear the like the payoff or the like, you know, every story doesn't have to be some like crazy thing that happened or huge failure. Fall on your face.

Learning moment. Storytelling is all of the things that make something become more visual. And help people connect whether they have had that experience or not. But when you feel like you understand something better and it has, like, you get an emotion, like when I was hearing that I was made me laugh, right.

You're sorry about the bird. And now I feel warmer. Right. So if I was like, you know, reading that email, it would be more effective. That message about hiring a coach or working with a coach than just saying like, why you should hire a coach here that, you know, like it, so it's, I think again, Storytelling sounds like you said scary, but we have to remember that doesn't just mean, like, all of the biggest moments in your entire life.

Like, maybe you don't want to share those things. That's fine. You know, it's like, it's more than that. I think storytelling can be, again, like, picking up parts of your personality. Are you funny? Are you, uh, a dreamer? Like are you, you know, and like letting those things come forward in little ways. It can be, again, like the setup, like if you just visually show that you're working out with a little woo, like what is it that you show?

And those are stories in addition to actually telling little tidbits or,

Molly: yeah, or compare, I think analogies are great. Easy. Cause you tell them about your Hallmark reel. That was my favorite.

Allison: Oh,

Molly: thank you.

Allison: So I did a reel and I think it said like approach content creation like you're a big city girl coming home to save the family farm and falling in love with a guy in the flannel in the process because if Hallmark's taught us anything it's that a good formula and knowing what your audience wants works every time.

So like immediately you're like oh I've seen what you just I've seen that movie 55 times that you just described right and you're like and I love every single one of them. It's like a guilty pleasure. I love it. I love watching them. How do you apply that same concept to your content? Right? That idea of like a good formula or whatever it might be.

So I, I love that you said that concept of analogies, taking a visual and making it feel like somebody can draw exactly what that means. Like it's well known, whatever that may be. And they're like, Okay. I get that. That makes sense. Um, because again, every industry, whether you're, um, health professional or you're a fitness professional or social media marketer, every industry has jargon or terms or, you know, and so like, I think for us, right.

Content pillars. I feel like that one is used a lot, right? Like if you're not in marketing at all, or social media, like, do you know what that means? Not necessarily, but there's lots of analogies and. Things that you can talk about or say to paint a picture that helps people understand what that is, you know, so I agree I love a good analogy.

Molly: Yeah, I loved your hallmark one because my husband was making fun of me It was like two nights ago and he's like, are you on like a Lindsay Lohan marathon? I'm like look these movies are terrible and I'd like but I can't they make me so happy

Allison: Like I'm just and I'm absolutely here for the low Hannah sauce Like the renaissance of Lindsay Lohan because yeah, I just watched the, yeah, I haven't watched the secret one yet.

I watched the one I think she's in last year where her dad was like the hotel. I've watched that one too. And it's like, again, also that makes me think of another thing, understanding your audience can also be things like maybe shared. Nostalgia or, you know, generational whatever. So like Chad, Michael Murray from, you know, like the movie with Hillary Duff and C, you know, CW Montreal, he's in one of those Christmas Netflix movies, the merry gentlemen, and it's like.

When I'm talking about it on stories or whatever it might be, I'm getting so much engagement, so many comments. It's not about social media marketing per se, but it struck a chord with other millennials who remember Chad Michael Murray. And now we're like, Oh my gosh, I don't know whether I liked it or whether I had secondhand embarrassment.

It was super weird, you know? So, but it was a connective moment. And so even though that story doesn't necessarily sell the package, it makes. People consciously or unconsciously like feel like, Oh, she's so relatable or like, I also love one. We have more in common,

Molly: you know? I feel like that's when you, that's one of the ones I would need one of those gummies to watch is the marriage.

Allison: It was just, I don't know. I just feel like. Just because Channing Tatum could do Magic Mike doesn't mean everyone can. It was just like, I was just very much like, I, I don't know what's happening, like why is this happening? Skip it or? No, don't skip it, absolutely not. Okay, still watching, got it. Absolutely, absolutely.

Okay. I do, I applaud, I applaud his, um, his bravery. I do. And his bravery.

Molly: I'm like peeing my pants. So actually something came to mind as a content post idea for all of you that I, it's not original to me. It's not actually my idea and I can't even create credit and original creator cause I've seen it done so many times, but it's one of those formulas that works.

It's like if you remember X. It's time to, or if you watched blank or if you grew up doing blank, then it's time to get adjusted or have your hormones checked or be taking a vitamin D supplement or be taking it, you know, insert whatever like health thing you do. So

Allison: I can't believe you're saying this because I have a reel that's going to go up after this and hand like not making this up.

It says reminder. That you used to wait seven hours for a two minute song to download. So if you have the patience to do that, you have the patience to keep showing up till the right reels views roll in. Uh, Um, again, like you just said, but again, like you just said, has nobody ever done that Hallmark comparison?

I don't know. Like, I mean, probably it's not the most original idea on earth. Has anyone used a Napster or LimeWire comparison? I'm sure. But. The idea of what you're saying is you're evoking like a time and place, right? Like if you grew, if you were born in the mid eighties to early nineties, if you're born somewhere in there, you might remember downloading music or having my space or, and so it's another way to do kind of what you were saying about, like, if you had, if you used to do that, it's time to do this.

Like it's time to use retinol or whatever. Or it can also be used as like, uh, an active thing, like it's an example of patience, but visually, instead of saying you're a patient, you have patients, you can wait. It's like, okay, but you used to this actually something you used to do. You have it in you. You can keep showing up in, right?

So you're making a comparison in a way that is nostalgic or emotional and it connects.

Molly: If you had to wait for your mom to get off the phone to use AOL, you could do it. Yes. I remember that sound. If you

Allison: had to, like, if you had to use a payphone, You had

Molly: to read the shampoo bottle while you were on the toilet.

Allison: Oh, okay. This one, because thinking about it, I don't know how to use it. I tell my daughter that

Molly: all the time. She's like, where's my phone? She's eight. I'm like, you can read the shampoo bottle. That's so funny.

Allison: Oh my gosh, that's such a good point. I one that was like, um, if you Finish your hair with a blast of cold water at the end of your shower It's probably time to blank because apparently that was something in 17 magazine forever, but that's not necessarily like a real thing Still do that.

Oh, I still do that too But I and again, like you said that's not original. I saw somebody talking about that I don't know if they used it as like a hook, but I saw them talking about how like 17 magazine just used to have like these they weren't like harmful but just these like tips that all of a sudden became like You Gospel, but is there science?

Like, and that was like one of the examples they gave and I was like, wait, really? I do that all the time. If you use Apricot scrub, then I'm just kidding. . Yeah. Yeah. If your skincare routine used to be Noma, like, or

Molly: I need to, I'm gonna message my, um, my holistic marketing hub community has a, has a Slack channel.

I'm gonna message that idea, like right now. Love

Allison: it. If you grew up on Clearasil and Noma, you know.

Molly: I guess the last thing we don't have, I want to wrap this up, but I did just want to talk about some reels creation stuff, tips, whatever, when it comes to like, what are you seeing that's doing well for your clients right now?

And like I said, using well as a relative term. Yeah. I'd talk about reels creation.

Allison: And I love how you like to clarify the concept of well, because I do think it's really important to understand like what your goal is. And like, what's your actual objective? It isn't to collect. If you're a business owner, it's not to collect views.

You know, like you were saying, I think, wouldn't you rather reach a few less people, but have all those people potentially be a good referral source or an actual client or whatever it might be, then a bunch of people that would never buy from you and have nothing to do with your business. So I think, Again, like it isn't formulaic, like not everything works perfectly for every business since I work with a lot of different types of industries.

I do think things that work really well are various forms of storytelling, like and mixing it up. I think wear out is high in, in social media and on the social platforms and Instagram in general, right? Like POV, right? That was like everywhere. POV XYZ, like POV Europe, blank, blank, blank. But we also saw so much of those that you saw people start to back off and use them more like sparingly than all the time.

Right? So I think things that work well is finding a way to mix in like storytelling, which can be actual, like, talk to camera storytelling. It can be like, Doing some sort of a lip sync trend that you have adapted, you know, to your business, cause it makes sense. It can be B roll with a short, you know, text on screen.

So I do think like various forms of storytelling. And I think. Finding unique ways to showcase, and I think what we probably call in the past, like, value content, but that idea of educating without, and again, I know we're going to quote Shannon now twice, but I love this. If you can like, Google it and like, read all about it, like, that shouldn't be your content, right?

Content that I think gets to that, that desire place, or that makes people feel really seen like, so instead of if every day at three o'clock, you just want to lay face down and take a nap. This tip trick has changed everything for me for my clients or my

Molly: client. Yeah. Cause you add in that authority, like.

For my client, you're like, Oh, she actually does what she,

Allison: okay. Um, I was doing some, I was like brainstorming with a colleague the other day with, um, Emma and something for a client. And I was, it was about a recipe. She was just like looking for something fresh, right? Of how to draw people in and she's a private chef.

And so I had said like, well, what if it's like. I'm not saying this, I don't remember, apple crisp recipe is the reason that my clients all hire me. But why don't you be the judge? And then write it down below.

Molly: What a cook is that Allison? I'm writing that one down,

Allison: right? So I'm not saying so, you know, and there's a million ways to use that sort of, that sort of thing.

So I think of those things as. I think trends aren't just like audios, right? Like what do you see people like responding a lot to you? And how do you apply that concept? Because when you apply a concept, you're not copying, right? You're just like that formula makes sense. That works. So how can I apply that to what I do?

Right. I'm not saying that this. Like 5 minute stretch exercise routine that I give my clients is the reason everybody books with me, but why don't you try it out and see what, you know, and you be the judge, like, because you're just you're giving the authority. You're saying, like, wink, wink, why everybody books with me,

Molly: but

Allison: and here it is.

I think gatekeeping, like, the days of gatekeeping are just crazy. Over somebody asked me what I think is works well, or what's like the number 1 thing to have reels be more successful. It's actually not tactical. I would say it's having a strategy. And again, I know this is sort of self serving because, like, that's a huge reason you would hire a professional.

However, if you're savvy enough, Maybe start to do this yourself, but, um, you can apply every hack trick, whatever that are given by social media experts on Instagram or whatever platform. And most of the time, like 90 percent of that information is really good. Like, it is really good, but no hack in the world is going to overcome that.

Not having any sort of strategy because it's like, and then, and then what, like, people watch it, but were they the right people? Did they do the right takeaway? Did they save it? Share it? Did it make them want to do something next? Go to your page. If all it did was rack up views. That is not successful. And if the vice versa is happening, if you're doing those things and you're not racking up views, but all you're doing is implementing hooks, it isn't that those things don't work or that you can't make successful reels.

Again, it goes back to you, but you don't have a strategy. There's no messaging strategy. Nobody knows what you stand for. There's no repeat. So I feel like if I was like one thing I would tell people is like, have a real strategy, strategy before tactics. Thanks.

Molly: My friend Mia says marketing isn't saying, saying a hundred different things, it's saying the same thing a hundred times.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah. Completely agree. I go back to your bumper sticker and your messaging and it comes full, very full circle. It's

Allison: so true. You should feel like, your marketing should feel like, That Blu ray episode your kid makes you watch 1, 700 times, you're like, why are we watching the Halloween episode in March or whatever?

Like, you should know all the words to the song, right, kind of thing? It's like, you know, that's how it should feel. Not annoying, per se, but it should feel like Oh, like, I love how Molly says X or Y or I love how Molly's videos are often in a similar place or whatever it might be. Right? Like, those little things are how people remember and recognize you.

So they have value and doing that. Pre work, chef's kiss.

Molly: Yeah, it's how you become such a recognizable and trusted brand and authority. Yeah. And it's how you stand out in the saturated market. Look, look at that, we wrapped it up with a bow. Yeah, ship that. How do we work with you? How do people work with you?

And like, what are your main offers?

Allison: Yeah. So, uh, I would love it for people to work with me. Um, you can obviously go to wolfdogmarketing. com and check out our different packages. Um, specifically, of course, we do offer both website design, development, and redesign as well as social media management. Um, and if you want to work with me, we offer full service social media management.

So, you know, we take over everything from strategy and content implementation. And then I also offer, um, Social media, uh, coaching and training, you know, for teams or individuals. And then I have, um, also reels creation and management services. So, and right now we are, um, for the end of the year and probably the beginning of 2025, we might extend it.

We're running some specials for our, um, reels. Packages so we have a reels chats. I think you have something similar Molly to for like, just general social media, but it's a 1 on 1 session recorded where we basically talk about anything related to reels where you're struggling your strategy. I can take a look beforehand at your reels and start to have some tips and ways to optimize.

Maybe you're somebody who hasn't even started reels. You don't know how to like, you can push forward. So, um, I have a reels chat that is like super on sale. I feel like it's a steal. Right now. And then also I have reels creation services where I literally do the, you know, done for you reels, where we have monthly strategy and planning sessions, a real planner that tracks like all the different ideas, filming direction, audio, but I'm creating them.

I'm editing them, the hooks, the reels covers, writing the captions, all that good stuff. And those are kind of customized to the number of reels per month.

Molly: That's awesome. Yeah. You've got like, that's so many different ways that people could work with you. So I love that. Thank you so much for having me.

This is super fun. Yeah. It's nice to hear other perspectives too. So yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you for listening to holistic marketing simplified and Hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast. Well, that's because it's super important.

These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day. To leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A.

Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.