Hey there. What's up and welcome back to another
episode of the freelance Friday podcast. Today's episode sponsored by Upwork. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. It's not, it's not. Um, but for anybody who's
watching the video version. I have an Upwork mug and I was like, Hmm,
this looks like a little sponsorship. So apparently I will work for mugs. I'll do free sponsors for you. If you send me mugs, I'm. Saying I like mugs, but seriously,
if I had to choose a sponsor for today's episode, it would be the
social media management accelerator. For those who haven't been following
me on Instagram or TikTok or anywhere where I've been talking
about this, you definitely should. I'm at the Latasha James, but the social
media management accelerator is my live. Four week course for social media
managers who are looking to up level.
And for those who are interested in social
media management and wanna know what this is all about and get the essential skills
that they need to go out and get clients. In addition to learning about social media
strategy, workflow, client communication, we're also doing things a little bit
different this time around, and I will be doing a special section just on
selling and pitching, putting together your packages, creating proposals. Actually getting the job
of a social media manager. So it's gonna be a lot of fun class
kicks off in less than a month.
We do live lessons, live Q and as it's not
just like a course where you, you know, take it and never hear from me again,
it's very interactive and it is just. So much fun, but anyway, I thought
I would do a chill Q and a today. And, uh, I've got a lot of social
media management questions, some just general business questions,
some questions about S M M a and a couple of life questions as well. So buckle in, grab yourself
a drink and let's get started as a social media marketer. Do you have to create the
content for the client? I've been told that I don't have to,
but I'm confused on how I'm supposed to create a content plan and schedule
when I don't make the content. Okay. So I hear this a lot on marketing Twitter. I hear like a lot of arguments
back and forth about social media managers do not create content. And, uh, it depends like
anything like any job.
I mean, I can ask a chef. I don't know. Do you ever serve. Food yourself. And I'm sure some would say
yes, you know what I mean? Every job is different. What I find in, in my experience, I've
worked with fortune 500 companies. I've worked with nonprofits. I've worked with very,
very small startups. I've worked with solo businesses and
of course I've been my own social media manager for my own business. What I have found is that those larger
companies, those fortune 500 companies, those corporate companies, some of those
bigger startups with a lot of budget.
Sure. They will have a content creator,
a content team, copywriters, photographers, videographers, whatever. But if you're working with those
smaller companies, solo entrepreneurs, mom, and pop shops, uh, nonprofit
world, sorry, not a lot of money in, in that world typically. Yeah. You're gonna be making the content. So I. What's important to know what you can
gather from this question is figure out what types of clients you wanna work with
and then learn those skills accordingly. If you know, it's really important
to you to just help solo businesses, very, very small businesses then. Yeah, you should definitely. Be experienced, know a little bit about
creating content, but if you're like, no, I just want a typical nine to five job. Or I wanna work for like, I don't
know, capital one or like, you know, some huge company like that. Then you probably are going to be
more on almost like an admin side of social media where you'll be
scheduling stuff and you'll be. Doing meetings and maybe doing
some strategy stuff, but you won't be like taking photos and
stuff for a brand like that.
Similar question. Do you have your clients write
the captions for their posts? Again, it's gonna depend on
what your team looks like. Do you have a copywriter on the team? When I worked at a fortune
500 staffing company. I did have a copywriter, not she wasn't my
copywriter, but for the team, there was a copywriter for the marketing department. And so I would write the day to day
social copy, but when we would have like a big campaign, like a mother's
day campaign or a big hiring event or something like that, we would often have
her write the copy and I would just. Do the strategy and do the actual posting. So again, it depends
for most of my clients. Yes. I am writing the copy. Most of my clients do not have a
copywriter dedicated to just social media.
What is your favorite part about being
a social media manager slash creator? Um, Hmm. I mean, obviously as a freelancer,
as an independent business owner, I love like the freedom that I have. I can kind of do what I want most
days, if I'm not feeling it, I can take a nap and try again the next day. Obviously that has drawbacks
too, though, because of course what I put in is what I get out. But I, as far as like the actual role,
I mean, I just love that I'm able to be really creative with YouTube in particular
and even content creation for my clients. Like I love being able to use some of the
skills that I've learned over the years. Like be able to try interesting new things
and play around with music and visuals. Like those are things I'm
really passionate about.
So it's really cool to be able
to use like some of my biggest passions every single day. And then, um, as far as like
the more social side, you know, what I love about social media? I love that I have the social media
management skill in my tool belt. I can go and get a job if I really
need to, or want to, I can take on more clients if I need to or want to. And the cool thing is like,
it's such a growing industry. Everybody needs a social media manager. I mean, It, it's really hard for me
to think of a business that couldn't benefit from having a social media
manager or social media marketing team.
So I think it's really in demand
and therefore I feel pretty good job security, you know, even if it's not
maybe the dream thing that I wanna be doing, I know that I can probably
go get a job somewhere if I need to. So it feels like a, just
a good skill to have. Do you think Instagram is
losing its personality? I mean, Listen, I, I don't do
the whole like updates on every single Instagram algorithm. Like I don't comment on all that stuff. Just because part of this part of
being in this role is knowing that like the only constant is change. I mean, we are living history. If you will. I mean, 10 years ago,
this job didn't really. Barely. So we have to understand that things
are gonna be constantly in flux.
I'm not gonna like everything. Do I like that? Instagram is just all videos now. I don't, I personally do not. I went out and I got a new
phone finally after several years because I was like, okay. One of my biggest stresses right
now is that I have this small phone. And I'm having to watch videos
on my phone all the time. And I don't like it. And maybe I'm 90 years old, whatever. It's fine. But we just have to adapt
to like every banker. I'm sure doesn't like every banking
regulation, every accountant doesn't like every change to the tax code. Right. I'm sure they actually hate
most of them, but this is. You know, this is life, uh, to
answer the question directly. Yeah, Instagram, isn't my favorite
in that regard, I still love Instagram for stories like that is
my number one feature that I use.
I post on stories almost every day. I think it's just a really quick,
easy way to connect with my audience and, you know, take this
for you and your clients as well. Like I think it's just a really. Quick raw, immediate way
to connect with people. So no other platform or feature
really offers that to me at this time. I can't really think of maybe discord. I don't have a discord, but maybe
something like that is similar. But I do think that is its big
strength for me personally. Where can I find the best tips
for LinkedIn company pages? I have several videos. I will link some for you. If you wanna check those out. What happens after securing the
client like the first two weeks? So.
The first thing that you'll need to
do is have some type of a strategy conversation meeting with them
and figure out what exactly you're gonna do and what their goals are. Most importantly, it is super important
that you are aligned on goals before you start creating content and
putting all this stuff together. Then usually what I do,
I usually have a, a. Leg, like it's gonna take me
at least a week to put together a content calendar for them. Now I might still be in there if they
already have an existing social platform. I'll I'll check inboxes. I'll respond to things. I might post a couple of really quick
posts, but I'll have like the full fledged calendar ready for them.
On week two so they can approve it. And then we're gonna go live
at the end of that week. Hopefully, hopefully we
can turn it around quicker. Like that's always my goal, but you do
need to write in time for yourself to actually like put the stuff together. It's also gonna depend on whether or
not you have to create content, whether or not you have to request content. So honestly, it's. It's kind of hard to say,
but that's the short version. One of the things that we do in S M a
actually the first call is all about social media management workflow. So I kind of go in depth about
each hypothetical situation.
Like, do you have content? Are you creating the content? Are you starting completely from scratch? We go through each of
those sort of scenarios. So you have a more accurate timeline,
but that's the short version. Do you need to specialize in one platform? I just talked about this in my last video. I think it. Is helpful. It's definitely a trend that I see,
especially as just more and more features and platforms keep popping up. How do I retain clients? Great question retention is so, so
important and it's just something everyone wants to talk about how to get clients.
Nobody wants to talk about how to
keep them, uh, do a really good job. And this is something that is maybe
an unpopular opinion, but this is one of the reasons that I'm an advocate. Slow steady growth over these. I woke up and I was a
millionaire kind of stories. Like, I mean, of course
there's good and bad to that. Uh, you know, whatever your
journey is, your journey. But for me, I was really glad that I
sort of had this slow, steady growth because I was able to really nurture
every client, do the best job that I possibly could for them before like
biting off more than I could chew. And I kind of had like a, a moment
a couple years ago where I was realizing I was doing a really good.
Selling to my clients and closing deals. And I was still doing a good
job with their accounts. I mean, who knows, maybe I
wasn't doing as good of a job. It's hard to say when you're in it, but
I definitely feel like I was doing a good job for them, but I personally was so
burnt out because I had so many clients off on a tangent here, but long story
short, do a really good job for them. I think also, you know, I. I'm a fan of honoring loyalty as well. So don't get me wrong. Raise your rates, all that stuff. But like, you know, also if
somebody's been with you for years, maybe they get a little bit of a
discount, surprise and delight. I love a good surprise and delight. I posted an Instagram story about it over
the holidays, but like my photographer, she hand delivered like a bag of just like
some little goodies, like nothing too.
You. ostentatious or expensive, just
like some chocolate, like some cute little things like that. I mean, I know it sounds maybe
simple, but people just, again, they love to feel appreciated. So I think that is a really good way. And I also am gonna say communication,
you know, I think that goes into doing a good job, but making sure that
you're having regular communication with your clients is super important. Show up, people are far less likely to
get rid of somebody that they have a good relationship with, that they look forward
to seeing every week or every month or however often you're meeting with them.
And they're also gonna feel on
the same page and they're gonna be knowledgeable about the value
that you bring to their business. If you are showing them every single
month, if you're showing them reports proactively and they're not having to
dig and say like, okay, what impact have you actually made on our business? You are proactively telling them about. Yeah, I think those are some
great ways to retain clients. Favorite moment of running
your business thus far or a day you would like to relive. Wow, that is deep. I love this question and I should
have, I looked at it when I was copying them into this note, but. I should have thought
more deeply about it. I mean, okay. I think my favorite moment that I
really recall was when I launched the social media management toolbox,
this is basically a template pack for social media managers. It's very, you know, affordable and
it's just like a quick products.
They didn't really think much of it. I sort of had all this material from
working with my coaching clients over the years and I just was like,
let me put this together, basically. Throw it into think Gick record a
couple videos to go along with it. And may hopefully, you know, some people
will like it, but I didn't think it was gonna be as big as it has become. It is now my biggest seller in
terms of units sold the social media management accelerator is a higher
ticket product, so it sells more dollar wise, but the toolbox sells more units. And when I launched it on a webinar,
that was the first time that I saw. more than a thousand dollars come in on
a webinar, like on that one hour call. And that was just, I don't know, it
was just such a cool moment because. I had been doing this for so long. I'd been giving free stuff away for
so long and, you know, teaching on YouTube and my podcast for so long. And it finally felt like, okay,
like people are willing to pay you for this knowledge and for
the help that you're giving.
And you're also. Serving. So many people like seeing all those
names, just come through my phone. Every few minutes was like, this
is a new person that is starting their business now, or that is
going to better serve their clients and retain more of their clients. And it was just really cool. I think I cried. Like I was, I have an Instagram story. I'm pretty sure of like me crying cuz I
was like, I've never had a launch this big now I really think I'm gonna cry cuz
I actually . I actually looked at my, um, orders, cuz I like was not watching them
on the call and you guys repeat my goal. even through all the technical craziness. Thank you guys. You guys are the best. I don't know, know the numbers, but
I think it was my first five figure launch actually, which was really cool.
And a day that I would like to relive,
honestly like a recent memory was when I went to Dallas for digital summit. Just to talk, I love talking. I love exploring. I love going and traveling for work. It's just really fun. I love dressing. Cute. You know, um, Yeah, that was a fun day. A fun recent day. Um, any, any business travel, I guess? Well, not any, let's be honest. How do you start your day to. Motivated on your daily tasks. Every day is a little bit different for
me, but I try to follow a pretty similar morning routine, which is wake up, have
coffee, have water, have breakfast. I try to eat something healthy that
has protein in it, carbs in it. I'm a big carb person
that has fiber in it. You know, all of the good stuff. And, um, nutrition is super
important on the days when I don't eat well, or I don't eat at all. My whole date is just screwed up. so that's very important. And then I have been
doing a walk at my desk.
I bought an under desk treadmill,
which I love, so I try to, I try to get 10 K steps in every day. Um, so I usually do at least
five in the morning and. And while I'm doing that,
I'll like check emails. I'll usually listen to
music while I'm doing that. Just to start the day in
like a good, positive mood, as far as like actual tasks. I do like having a checklist,
like a to-do list for the day. I need to get back into
a physical checklist. I was just talking about
this to one of my friends. I used to do this when I was
first starting my business. I would write down every single
thing, like reply to this person, post this Instagram, do this, do that. And I just kind of fell outta the
habit with it, but it really does help. And it also helps minimize distractions. So I'm not having to have like a, to
do list on my phone or on my computer.
So, um, yeah, those
are some tips, I guess. How do you handle clients adding
more work than you agreed to? So this is called scope creep. I think I have a video on it. I wanna say. So I'm gonna link it. I think it might be a YouTube short. I will link it if I
have any information on. But the long story short is call it out. I mean, there's no, you, you don't wanna
get in the habit of just, oh yeah, sure. I'll do this. I'll do this. I'll do this. I mean, call it out within reason, right? I mean, there's also like, I think
a little grace period, I, I can speak to freelancing from both sides
because of hired many freelancers.
And of course I've been a freelancer for
many years and I also will say the Lance. Who I hire, who are like, oh yeah, you
held me for one extra minute on our call. I'm gonna charge you for that. Like, those are not people I'm gonna
hire again, because you don't care. Like you just don't
care about the business. And I get it.
Nobody's gonna care about my
business and you know, like me, but. , it's not a good look. So call it out within reason, you
do wanna under promise over deliver to some extent to your clients. But if it is like, hi, can
you send this email campaign? And you're a social media manager. Like, no, that's out of bounds. If they're asking you hi, could you. Check our social inbox once, you know,
after normal working hours, because it's this once a year conference that
we go to, I think that's different. Do we get a certificate in S M a yes. That is something that
I'm really proud of.
And people seem to really enjoy. You can put it on your LinkedIn. You can share it with clients. Uh, you know, you can. Talk about it at your next job
interview, but you do get a certificate of completion from the course. Once it's over, there are
also assignments as well. They're optional. So you, you know, I know
everybody has lives. Some of you have clients already,
not everybody's able to submit all the assignments, but if you do want
assignments, I personally grade them.
So there are four different assignments. I will personally grade them
give you feedback on them. So you know how you're doing. Um, one of those
assignments is a portfolio. So if you want me to critique your
portfolio, uh, that is an option as well. What time are S M a classes
and what if I miss one? So they are on Wednesdays and
Thursdays at 11:00 AM Eastern standard time, which I believe is 8:00 AM. Pacific time. 10:00 AM central. Now if you miss one, that's totally okay. They're all recorded and they're
all uploaded to the course platform within, you know, the, the day. So you can always rewatch them. Also S M a is yours forever. So it is a four week program. Meaning like I'm there live talking
to you and answering your questions for four weeks, but you get access to
all of the materials, all of the live classes, as well as all of the on demand
classes that are uploaded into the platform for as long as the platform.
So you, you know, if you
miss something, no worries. You can always rewatch it later. You can always rewatch it in a year. You know, if you're not at that point yet,
how to deal with a client who knows more than me knows more than me was in quotes. So I think they mean like that
thinks they know more than me. My answer to this is always data. Use data to kind of back up your
decisions, you know, don't just say, oh yeah, I think you should do
this TikTok thing because it's cool. Like you wanna say. Uh, your competitors all did this, or, you
know, whatever, like the top performing Instagram accounts use Instagram reels. So we should be using Instagram
reels, you know, use a little bit of research, some data, don't just
say like, oh, things are cool. I wanna do this. But at the same time, I'm also
gonna say, if they are constantly belittling you, they're constantly
being like, well, I know this.
I used to, I've had this experience
before where like somebody would be like, well, my husband said, I should do this. And I'm like, cool. Then have your husband run your
social media, you know, like, whatever, again, use your best
judgment because if they're gonna be constantly doing that to you, they
probably don't respect your expertise. They don't, you know, respect
you as a service provider. They're just looking for somebody
to do what they wanna do. and honestly it, you know, it might be the
best scenario for them to just like, get a virtual assistant or something who will
do just more admin stuff in less strategy.
So use your best judgment, but
also be able to speak to your decisions from a data driven angle. And not just like, I feel like doing this. Okay. Really quick. Some life questions. When did you realize you
needed more work life balance? I don't know that I like really. I, I don't really use the term work life
balance very much cause I'm gonna be. My life is very like
heavy in the work area. Like I'm just keeping
it real with you all. Um, I use the term work life integration. I want my life to work
nicely with my work. You know, I just want to feel
good about what I'm doing. Um, all that kind of stuff. I don't know. Maybe I can do a video about work
life integration at a different time. Let me know if that's interesting to
you, but yeah, I definitely realized like my work was not conducive to
my life when I was taking on way too many full service clients.
Again, kind of going back to, I mentioned
this earlier in the video I was taking on way too many full service clients. They were like super hard on me. They were always. Always emailing me all the time. I was also taking on many coaching clients
at the same time, which I love working with coaching clients, but when you're
working like with five and you know, you're getting DMS from your clients, from
your coaching clients, you're getting, I, I just had no room to like think. And obviously, you know, I wasn't doing
as good of a job for any of those people. As they could have because I was always
like stressed out and it was like, this is just not, this just doesn't work.
So that's when I raised my rates
for everything, for full service. I raised my rates for coaching. I took on way less of all of those things. And I really pulled the
lever on digital products. And that enabled me to help
way more people for way less. I don't wanna say way less time, but way
less energy like that kind of energy. It's a different kind of energy. But it's definitely a lot
less like people interaction. I don't know if that was a answer at all. Um, marriage, did you
always know you wanted it? Who taught you about it? No. And no one. Yeah, no. I never thought I would get married and I. Who taught you about it? Books, therapy, friends
talking to friends. I'm like a super open book
with anybody in my life.
So, um, I love having deep
conversations with all my besties. How is your home coming along? It's good. It's good. Um, yeah, we've got, we still don't have
like pools, cabinet pools on our kitchen cabinets, which I realized the other day. I was like, wow, that's probably should
have been the first thing we did. So there's like things that just,
you know, take time, but, uh, I'll show you one of the favorite areas. One of my favorite areas of the house,
it's like my little loft area upstairs. I think eventually I might look
into doing built-ins, but then I'm like, I don't know, resale value. Should I drill in the wall? I haven't decided yet, but
it's super cozy right now. Like it's not perfect
aesthetically, but it's super cozy. I spend a lot of time up there. Yeah. Um, I don't know. It's it's good.
It's just really nice to. Space. And the last question is what's
your favorite comfort drink lately? While speaking of the home,
the best purchase I'm telling you is my best advice. If you can swing it, invest in
the refrigerator, refrigerator, refrigerator with the water. I drink a lot of water and I was like,
I really it's a lot more expensive. I'm gonna be honest, but
like, I think I will use it. I really think I will. And I drink so much more water now that I. Fancy little ice machine. It's so nice. Um, so that's really my drink
of the moment and black coffee. Um, but now that it's almost fall,
which is of course the best season of the year, don't fight me about this.
I do usually have like one or two
pumpkin spice lattes a season because you know, I'm basic, whatever. It's cool. Yeah. So that okay. That's it for? Today's Q and a. I hope you enjoyed. These are always like the
least commented on episodes. So if you watched on YouTube
all the way till the end. Leave me a comment and just like,
leave me your favorite emoji, just so I know that you're with
me and thank you for tuning in. I appreciate y'all leave links
that I mentioned in the show notes and I'll see you next time.