You Betcha She Did! Life Advice, Business Tips for Rad Women Entrepreneurs, Leaders, Coaches and

90 | Gain Social Media Wins By Being You

• Ladies First Digital Media Company • Season 5 • Episode 90

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Are you ready to embrace your quirks and build a brand that's as unique as you are? Rayna Rokicki here, and I'm thrilled to introduce the incredible Whitney Morales, whose eye for photography is matched only by her knack for fostering vibrant communities. Tune into our May Day - May Day Series where we peel back the curtain on what it truly means to amplify your brand and voice in a world cluttered with imitations. Whitney's no-nonsense approach to social media challenges you to be unapologetically yourself, flaws and all, while utilizing repetition in marketing to keep your message fresh in the minds of your audience. It's time to ditch the cookie-cutter mold and resonate with those who appreciate the real you.

Tune in as we discuss:
-Social Media Tips to Boost Engagement through Authenticity
-Why you need to repeat yourself more than you think
-How to Cultivate a Personal Brand on Instagram

Connect with Whitney Morales:



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Speaker 1:

Did she really do that? You, betcha? She did. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of you, betcha. She Did the podcast where we teach you to elevate your voice, grow your brand and earn your worth. I'm your host, raina Rakicki. Today, I have Whitney Morales in the studio. She is an amazing photographer and community builder and, in honor of this month's theme of Mayday Mayday, let's get your voices heard she's going to give us some tips to help get your voice heard and your brand grown. So, whitney, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank, you Glad to be here.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you're here too, so let's dive in. You work so well with visuals, with making them appealing, especially in online platforms. What are some of your best tips, things you've learned that help get you seen?

Speaker 2:

Um, I have three tips today and they are vague, but not vague. Um, bring them on. I'm going to bring them on. The first tip that I have is be willing to show up imperfectly. This is all an evolution. You're never going to get it right the first time and I think for a lot of people that stops us from doing at all and it sets the bar higher than we're ready for actually. And if you're not showing up, nothing good will come of that. So just be okay with that. Be okay with allowing yourself to grow in this process. And also, I have found so like not only does this help me show up, but this also is so relatable to other people, which will bring me into my second tip, which is aspire to be more like you.

Speaker 2:

You are the unique asset behind your business. It's you. It will always be you. It won't be your product or your specific service. It will be you. So don't try and make your marketing look like someone else's. Let it be unique to just you. And as you're showing up imperfectly, that will kind of allow you to see what things resonate with people, what things don't, and it gives you opportunity to pivot, dive in deeper on things that they're going to be interested in, and I bet for me. I've noticed, and I bet for you too, that when you're showing up as yourself, they're going to want more of that. They're going to want more of the thing that you are already good at. I've had times in my career that I have felt like I needed to present in a certain way, but I am really, really good at creating authentic content, and that's what people want. That is what people want and that is the thing that will set you apart from everybody else.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I'm going to just interrupt, for a second.

Speaker 1:

You know, I for a long time I was afraid to show up authentically without like looking great and everything being really, you know, perfect. And it's crippling and it doesn't bring you any progress because you're just worried about it. And the more, like you said, you show up like looking like a normal person. Maybe your hair is a little funky, maybe you have a pimple, whatever, maybe you got a cold, but just be you. People can relate to that and it's true. They want to have that connection, they want to really know you and the people that you resonate with or resonate with you. It's because you connect. And if you don't connect, that's okay. They're not your ideal client, but the only way to figure that out is to put yourself out there right and experiment and, like you said, dive deep on the things that do work. So great tips. What else?

Speaker 2:

There's someone that I follow, that I encourage. After hearing my tips, I encourage you all to follow her. Her name is Simone Sol S-O-E-L, and she says that if you're not repelling someone with your content, you're also not attracting the people that you need to be working with. We're not here to satisfy the masses. That is just impossible for one, and you won't do your best work that way. So just dive into who you are and what you offer, and that will help. But my final thing is I'm going to give you permission to repeat yourself a lot.

Speaker 2:

I put a lot of good content out on reels the. The reels are visually appealing, and then I have captions that are deep and a lot of people don't see them, but a lot of people do, and whether they've seen it or not, they probably don't remember within 10 days if they read it and if they do remember, or so my point is you can repurpose that content elsewhere because you actually need to. I remember when I was in high school 20 years ago, the tip was to say things seven times for people to remember it and take action. Now I think it's like 30 plus Okay, so just give yourself permission to repeat and repeat, and repeat, in different ways, obviously, but I think again, when we are marketing ourselves, we get this idea in our head that we're being annoying and it's just not true. So just keep repeating it, keep sharing, because I know Raina and I are both parents running our own businesses, we are busy and people need these reminders from you.

Speaker 2:

That's all it is. It's a friendly reminder. You are serving them by helping them remember. Oh yeah, I did hear about that. Oh yeah, I really do want to do that thing, or I want to have her help me with this. That sounds great. So those are my three tips, and I think that they are easy to implement and just will only kind of feed into each other really.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they do. They build on each other. Just hearing you talk it was such a good reminder for myself that I need to do because, yeah, for some reason, I shift back into that mindset of like I can't say that again. I already said that and I'm like no, you know, like only a small slice of the people that I want to connect with saw it, and if they did, they're so busy they're gonna forget and keep putting it out there, because you can't just put it out once and be like oh, I heard crickets.

Speaker 1:

I guess people don't like my idea. It's like no, they probably do. They probably just need to hear it many, many times. So, thank you. I was like I need to repeat myself more. One other quick thing I wanted to pick your brain about and this is something I haven't experimented with yet yet being the key word is Instagram Lives. For some reason, I'm like intimidated by it, and I know it's silly, I know it's like a mindset, but I know you have done them, so do you have any tips about just how to get started with?

Speaker 2:

those Definitely. First of all, you could always delete them. It's okay. I did it just like two weeks ago. I was just not concise in my messaging and that's okay. It really is. But if you're trying to get into lives first, I would start with spending time talking in stories and just get comfortable there, if you're not already doing it. And then also I don't know. I just think lives are such an easy way to access your audience in a candid way, get immediate feedback from them, and it's just something you're just going to have to tiptoe into. And they are a little intimidating, but it's okay, you can do it. You can do it, and if you hated it, just delete it. It's okay, it's really okay.

Speaker 2:

I told everybody I deleted my live the other day and I came and did it later. I taught myself I need to write down a couple notes. It's okay, Just like the showing up imperfectly. It's really really okay. And a lot of people are intimidated to show up live. So if you are willing to take that step, that's already inspiring to others, whether you do it perfectly or imperfectly. Already, if I see somebody doing a live, I'm like way to go. You did that and I bet most of your audience is gonna feel the same way. If they're not, that's the point where you get to repel the people that aren't your people.

Speaker 1:

It's okay, I love that. Okay, it is okay, I like that. Okay, I need to give myself the boost and just do it. I guess my biggest fear is like what if no one shows up and then I just feel silly for like talking to no one? But if you know how to do, this notes.

Speaker 2:

that's helpful Because to every single time I've talked to nobody people might say hi, you know, but there's not that many people for me personally that are there live.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that makes me feel better. It's like okay, don't worry if no one shows up, they can always watch the replay. Or at least they're like hey, that person was on.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think too, this isn't something I've been in practice with personally, cause I just show up in lives when it feels really good for me, and so that's the permission I've given myself. But if I were wanting people to consistently show up for me, then I would need to consistently show up for them and have a schedule and maybe advertise that you're going to be there if you're looking for that in time feedback from people, so I would definitely opt for a more consistent schedule for that. But that is again. I give myself permission to show up the best way for me and I just offer it when I can, and if people are there, they're there. If not, the message is still the same and hopefully we can have some dialogue in the comments later on.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I like that. That gives us two frameworks to work with. One is like show up when you can give yourself permission, especially if you're a busy woman, which is pretty much the entire audience of you. Betcha, she Did. But if you want to be consistent, do it and then just let people know. Like every Friday at noon, central time, I'm showing up. Come join me, so awesome. Well, whitney, if people want to get more advice or work with you, how can they get in touch with you and tell us a little bit about what you do?

Speaker 2:

Okay, Thanks for asking, raina. I have realized that I've just kind of been on this like tangent to just give people permission to do what they want to do, and for me, what I want to do is I want to do a couple different things. So I am a professional photographer, so I offer branding and family photography and content creation through that, and that is through WhitneyMoralesco on Instagram and WhitneyMoralescom on the internet. But then, additionally, I have a coworking space here in the city where Raina and I both live, in Sheboygan, and that is a place where you can come and connect with me on a regular basis and connect with the greater community here, and there will be evolution to our membership here, which will eventually come fall consist of regular monthly touch points where we work on these exact skills, either facilitated by myself or wonderful assets to our community, like Reina and other people to help you continually build your business with a support system, because doesn't that just sound really nice to have a support system?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes it does, Especially for, you know, lonely solopreneurs. I was like we need a community right, so find your tribe, the Sheboygan Collective.

Speaker 2:

Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I'm like. I never said what it is. It's the Sheboygan Collective and that's the Sheboygan Collective on Instagram and com for on the internet. Yeah, so that's about me.

Speaker 1:

Yay, well, thank you so much, whitney, for coming on the show. Like Whitney mentioned, there are all those places you can reach her. I will have them in the show notes too. So, very easily, just go to show notes, click the link and you can connect with Whitney excuse me, and you can connect with Whitney, get her expertise, learn about community building and just be an all-around awesome person, as always. If you like what you're hearing on you, betcha, she Did. Don't forget to share the show with a friend, a neighbor, a colleague. You never know who needs this information. There are a lot of us and, as always, leave us a positive review if you like what you're hearing and take care of yourself.