Speaking of books. When are you launching your
book and any other future plans? Hello? Hello. Welcome back to the
freelance Friday podcast. It's been a while since we've done
a Q and a specifically for the show. So let's hop in and answer some questions. First one, what is the difference
between a social media manager and a community manager? Love this question. I've actually thought about doing
an in-depth kind of video or podcast about this topic in particular. Let me know in the comments,
if you're watching on YouTube. If that's something that you'd like to
see, but the long story short is a social media manager is primarily responsible
for the content calendar, you know, coming up with ideas to post managing
the creation or the delegation of who's going to go ahead and create that content
and scheduling it out onto the platforms.
Primarily now a community manager
is more on the engagement side where they're going to be actually
be like stimulating conversations. They're going to be maybe going on. The forums maybe going on Twitter, maybe
going into discords, things like that and talking with potential customers
or community members, there are really different models or do different
job descriptions for any company. Of course, when I worked in corporate. The first social media job was actually
a social media community manager job. And I pretty much interacted with
our, um, clients and things like that through the brand account. But sometimes a community manager
is actually asked to do that. Own account or through like a,
a personal account of some kind. Maybe let's pretend that I worked
for Mac and apple and they wanted me to get a Twitter handle called
Latasha apple or something like that. So it kind of depends, but I definitely
see that role being more and more important these days, particularly as
we're seeing more live streaming platforms like Twitch, you know, you can have mods
that are basically community managers.
And discord and things like that. So that's kind of like the high
level difference between the two. You can also do both, of course,
a social media community manager. That's kind of what I did in
my first social media job. I was scheduling the content, but then
I was also responsible for engaging and talking to people and things like that.
I am bad at copywriting and I'm not able
to find good resources to learn from. Can you suggest some? Sure. Um, so what is this book called? It's called the copywriter's handbook. I will link it in the show notes. That's one of the first copywriting books
that I really reached for when I was kind of first starting out in this industry. It is very specific towards writing
for the web, which I found to be really important, you know,
writing a blogs and social posts and ad copy and things like that.
So if you're just looking for a book
resource, definitely recommend checking out that one as far as like courses or. YouTube channels or anything like that. I don't know of a ton off hand if you
know of any and you're watching this feel free to leave a comment on YouTube,
I will say, um, there's obviously like an handily there's copy hackers. Those are kind of some of the bigger ones. Also. Terry's Schilling he's
been on this podcast.
Actually. I'll try to find our episode in Lincoln. And he has a great Twitter account. I think he has some courses as well. So I really like him. And I think he is really smart and he's
always sharing tips and things like that. Um, oh, and Grammarly, I
wish this was sponsored. It's not, but honestly just for a
really simple, day-to-day kind of. Piece of education or knowledge check. I really recommend grammar. Really. It is a browser extension. You just download it. It's free. I just use the free version at least. And even just the process of like
getting those corrections and those suggestions for your day to day writing. Really I think has helped me
become a stronger writer overall. So it's not like a course that
you're taking, but you're kind of learning on the job if you will. And then lastly, I just
thought of another resource. I haven't tried this one myself, but
I actually, I recently interviewed Sheree cob on my Instagram live
and she is a former social media management accelerator student.
And she does. Like amazing tick talks
and things like that. Anyway, she recommended a tool called
copy a I haven't tried it myself, but she definitely recommends it. And there are a lot of these
sort of AI copywriting tools out there on the market these days. I'd definitely like to try one for a video
in the future, but my gut instinct is that they're, you know, they're good and bad. I think that they're probably
a good place to start. If you have like a long blog post or
something that you're trying to edit down into a social post, popping it in
there, we'll give you a starting point, but I think you're still going to have
to edit and you're still gonna want to edit it and add that human touch to it. So I think that they, it just like
Candra, you know, Canva doesn't replace a graphic designer, but
I think these copywriting tools. Help kind of, um,
empower you a little bit. So definitely a few resources.
I mentioned you can check
those all out a link them. What was your experience like with
your first client as a freelancer? So I'm realizing that I've actually
told several different versions of this story, and I want you to
know it's not because I'm lying. It's I guess I have a bad
memory about this stuff. So my first, like long-term
ongoing recurring client was from Upwork and that was a $20 a blog. Gig. I did that for a while. And then it eventually turned into
like a social media copywriting job, which I really liked, which
I also stayed up for awhile. And that was really, you know, my first
freelancing, but I did do a freelance gig before that and I totally forgot about it. So I went to school for film and video. I was working at a nonprofit. As a, you know, an intern at the time,
my nonprofit, it shared a building with another nonprofit and I kind of
be friended or this person befriended me who worked at the other nonprofit.
Basically it was a friend. I don't know why I had to do
that long convoluted story, but I met a friend outwork and they
were a little bit older than me. So they were already out of college. And I had told them, of course, what I
was studying and what I wanted to do. They had a friend who was an office. Who needed a kind of like a
book promo kind of YouTube video thing, a shop for them. And so they threw my name out there
and the author wanted to work with me. And I'll be honest that like my
imposter syndrome certainly kicked in, in that moment because I had
never shot something that was not for school or for my YouTube channel. The author was big and important. So I definitely had a bit of imposter
syndrome or thought I said, you know what, I'm just going to go for it. I didn't even have a
microphone for my camera. It was just like using
the in-camera microphone. I was not really a pro, but
I, I went for it and I did it.
And I think the video turned out
really, really well, you know, for the, for the equipment that I had in
the skill, the skill level that I had. So, yeah, it was a good
experience overall. It was scary. It was intimidating,
but I just went for it. I knew that I knew the knowledge. I knew that I knew how to do it. I just needed to like work
up the courage to tackle. Shit. And yeah, it was really, really fun. And I think it worked well for
her because the author's book actually got turned into a movie.
So, I mean, I'm guessing she
probably sold a lot of books. I'm not saying I'm responsible for that,
but you know, it is part of the process. Right? Speaking of books, when are you launching
your book and any other future plans? Okay. So I'm writing book is
definitely an experience. I would say I'm probably like a little
over halfway done with my first. So if I really want to crank it out,
I think I can be done with the first draft in the next couple months. My goal is really like early summer to be
in the editing phase, but I really don't know when I'm going to be putting it out
into the world because I don't know what I'm going to do as far as publishing yet.
I haven't even. When that far yet, I don't know if I'm
going to be looking for a publisher, which means I'm going to have to look
for an agent and all this things, or if I'm going to be self publishing, which
means I'm going to be having to hire an editor and a book designer, and, you
know, do a lot of that launch work myself. I'm kind of torn because obviously by
self publishing, I'm going to be doing everything, working with the publisher. Easier from what I hear, you know, you're
doing a lot less of the hands-on stuff, but you also typically make a lot less.
I mean, unless you're some hugely
important thought leader or whatever, you're not getting like some six
figure book advance, you know, so. I have to decide. I think if I want this to be more
of a thought leadership piece, maybe get me onto some bigger
stages, get me in some bigger board rooms and just use it as that. And not really think so much about
the revenue aspect or if I want it to be a revenue driver and
something that I'm actually selling. And. Trying to put into the business mix, but
like I said, I'm not really letting myself get there yet, to be honest, because I'm
really just trying to enjoy the process.
I'm sure this is going against a
lot of advice, a lot of advice that I've read about writing books that
actually sell and all that stuff. But you know, this first draft is really
for me, that's how I'm looking at. I need to get these words out and
then afterwards it can kind of put on the commercial lens, put on the
business lines and say, all right, Natasha, what's going to sell. What's going to make
sense for our business. And so on. So long story short, I don't
know if you do want to follow along the book writing process. I haven't shared too much on YouTube
just cause I know that's not really what a lot of people are here for. But I did start a sub stock, which is
basically like a blog slash newsletter. I've been updating that
like every other week or so.
It's just words are
hard dot sub stock.com. Please don't subscribe. If you don't care, like you're not
going to get social media tips on there. It's legitimately me telling like
random stories from my life and sharing updates on how the book is coming along. So don't subscribe unless you truly
want to, but you can find more there. Okay. Future plans. Other future plans, we are wrapping up
sales for the social media management accelerator round three right now. So you officially have one week. If you'd like to be part of the
third cohort, you have one week from the date of this podcast
going live to secure your spot. So I'll make sure to leave that
link in the show notes for you. Love that course. It's eight weeks. It's really interactive. Um, it's just so much fun. And seeing the transformations happen
of people who are just wanting to become social media managers or who
are really struggling with their day-to-day workflow and then seeing
them graduate and just have so much more knowledge and so much more
confidence is truly a wonderful thing.
Then after that, I'm actually planning on
it kind of a fun little passion project. I've been talking to you all on here
a little bit about how I really want to do some more stuff with video. I'm really passionate about video. A big part of my business, a big part
of why the business has been successful. So I really want to help you all
create some long form videos as well. So stay tuned for that. I'm working on kind of like a
little hybrid between a course and like a accountability group,
but challenge, if you will. Stay tuned. There's going to be maybe a fun,
little collaborative element too, which I'm really excited about. I think it will be a really fun project.
And then after that, like that's
all I've got planned out so far. I don't even know what the fall
is going to look like or the winter, but that's already a lot. Speaking of how do you balance exploring
new ideas versus staying focused? I E new business revenue streams. Oh, I would say this is hard. It's hard because I was talking about this
to someone recently, like my advice to you is to stay focused, but my advice to you
is also to diversify your revenue stream. So it is, I, I understand how
it's a little bit confusing. What I'll say is, I think
start diversifying your revenue streams once you. Main revenue stream is
profitable and sustainable. You know, you're able to repeat
that success a couple of times, like really make sure you get that
sort of formula down before you try to do way too many things.
And this is very general advice because of
course, like I know entrepreneurs, I know friends of mine who don't follow that. Like they do the opposite. They're like all over the
place and more power to them. So you kind of do have to like
listen to what works best for you, like with any business advice. But what works for me is.
Doing something, proving it
sustainability, meaning I can repeat it a couple of times it's profitable
and then it's trying something new. Um, and also I'll say you want
to think about your audience. Of course, like at the, I mean, at
the beginning of the day, you should be thinking about your audience and
what is truly going to serve them and what is going to not confuse them.
You know, I try to make. Stagger my launches and my project. So I'm not like offering five different
courses that are all limited entry. They're like cohort-based and live
at the same time because people are going to get really confused. They're like, well, which
one should I choose? And I don't want people to be in
the position where they're having to spend thousands and thousands
of dollars to join everything. You know, so making sure that you are
also keeping like the user experience in mind is also quite important. So that's my advice there. What's the virtual office
service that you use. I'm just curious. So I honestly just use a coworking space. Um, there's I won't say the exact one
that I use, but there's a coworking space around here that I really like.
And so I'll go in there and work every
once in a while, but it's pretty rare. These days, most coworking
spaces have like a male only. Or a mail addition to their plans. So I'll be transparent. I think I pay like 40 or
$30 or something like that. Just be able to have a mailbox. My name is on the door,
which is pretty cool. I don't know. And they scan my mail or forward it to
me if it's like a package or something. So it's pretty affordable. Just check around at your
local coworking spaces.
I'm pretty sure. Um, we work and stuff does it, but
my recommendation would be to look at smaller local ones, if you can. I feel like my dollars go a little
further there and helping a small business, but also I think the pricing
is a little bit better at local ones, how to generate leads for service-based
businesses through Instagram marketing, exact points to conquer. So I would say, I mean, just
look at some of my videos on lead magnets and sales funnels. I think it's important if you're going
to be marketing through Instagram, to be able to point to something
that gets people into that sales funnel, meaning you are collecting. Email address. So create a lead magnet. This can be a PDF, it
can be a video series. It can be, you know, anything, really
a discovery call I gas, or like a free one-on-one create a landing page for
that, where you collect emails or you book a meeting with them and then use
an email tool like float ask is my favorite one to keep them in that sales
funnel, you know, and start delivering value to them, start selling to them.
I think that's probably. The best, like exact points that I
can recommend for you other than, of course the basics, like staying
consistent with your posting schedule and engaging and like checking
your inbox and things like that. Have you ever considered doing
something other than marketing? Yes, I still am. And I think I actively am. You know, I love what I do. Don't get me wrong. But I think as I think about. The next 10, 20 years of my life. I don't know that this is what
I want to do for that long. And I don't think there's
any shame in that. I think sometimes people, people have
left comments on my YouTube channel, like, oh, you don't do that anymore. And it's like, yeah, cause
I'm not the same person as I was seven, eight years ago. When I first started my career, I
have a lot of passions and interests and things I want to do in my life. So yes, I definitely. Five ten-year plan. I, one of my dreams is to own like
a bookstore coffee shop, small venue, you know, like acoustic
music venue or something like that.
I think that would be so, so fun. I know nothing about brick and
mortar business ownership though. Could be way over my head could be
way more expensive than I think. I don't know, you know? But I'm definitely keeping that on the
vision board, on the longterm vision board of something that like, and baby
I will do in five or 10 years other than entrepreneurship though, I'm
going to be honest, not in a long time. I mean, when I was younger, I worked
in a lot of different industries. I worked in retail. I worked in politics.
Um, and I think that's where I really
wanted to work for a while, but that was many years ago and things were different. The climate was different. It's a little hot these days, so
definitely don't want to do that anymore. So, yeah, I think, I mean, since
I've been like an adult I've really only ever wanted to work for myself. Uh, okay. These ones are a little bit
more on the personal side, so. Tap out. We'll see you next time. The first one is how are you today? And thank you so much for asking. I am doing quite well. I'm feeling good. I'm really loving the spring weather
and it's making me feel a lot better. Uh, what keeps you
motivated to work so hard? The thing I want to
say about this is that. I do work hard, but I
don't work like so hard. And this is something I've really
been challenging myself to do over the past, you know, year and a
half or so is not worked so hard. So yeah, I mean, I do definitely
work hard, but I also take breaks and I work hard at letting
myself relax and enjoy life.
But who I worked so hard for or what
made, keeps me motivated to work hard. Honestly, it's like my family,
particularly my nephews and my niece. I just think like knowing that they're
watching, they're so observant and they, they just like, tell me stuff about
myself that I forgot, I said or did. And I'm like, okay. They're watching me, you know, so I
think it's really important for me to be a good role model for them. They have a lot of great role models in
their lives, but I want to be another one, especially when it comes to career. And I think just like my future in
general and my family's future as well.
I just, I really don't want to
have to be like hustling into. Way later years that doesn't sound fun. It doesn't sound healthy. I want to, you know, work hard now
when I'm younger, when I have a lot of energy, when I have more time,
so that I'm able to enjoy my life a little bit more in the future.
Are you watching the
Elizabeth Holmes show? Yes. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I
had to watch this show it's on Hulu. If you haven't seen it
yet, please tune in. It's fascinating. I'm I think it's really
well done as a show. Also, it's just really fascinating. It's a fascinating, like look
into Silicon valley culture in like the early, mid two thousands. It's kind of creepily accurate. I mean, I've never like worked in Silicon
valley, but a lot of my startup founders. People that I know are so
like that in their own way. Like, no, they're not all frauds,
but there is definitely this startup culture of like making yourself
appear more important than you are. And, you know, kind of like these
little white lies to get into certain rooms or to get access to
certain people to fund your projects. That is a very. Thing. And I think it's even real in online
business and it's forced me to kind of examine, you know, my relationship and,
you know, my, how I'm portraying myself and things like that because there
is this certain, like little level of phoniness to certain types of businesses.
And I think this is a really
interesting example of it. Like I said, I'm not saying
everybody is a fraud like Elizabeth. Allegedly was in the show, but it
is quite, it's really interesting. And it also just like brings me back
to that era of, you know, when Facebook was still so new and like all this
startup stuff was still so new, they do such a good job even of just the music. Fashion of how well
the phones, oh my gosh. We were dying about the, like the phones
that they were using, like, oh, okay. I know exactly what year it is. Cause she has an iPhone five.
See, now when it's a good
one, I highly recommend it. Have you been working out lately? And do you have any exercise tips for work
from home or you've been looking great. Thank you so much. That's so nice. Um, no, I am not a gym rat by any means. I so wish I could be one of those humans. Jim batty used in like the, you
know, workout outfit looking cool. That's just not me. I hate working out. I hate not being able to breathe. I hate sweating. I really do not. So my tips on. Um, and, and also like to answer the
question, maybe what you're seeing, if you are seeing a difference, I don't really
like weigh myself or anything like that is probably what I've been eating, which
I've been vegan for about a year now. And I definitely have noticed a change
in myself, um, since that, but, uh, my advice for working out is honestly,
like, do what you know, that you can do. And for me, I really love to walk. And so I walk every single day.
Some days I walk for a really long time. Some days I'm just
walking around the block. But if you know that you are not person
who likes to work out like myself, like do move your body in the way that you
know that you can commit to even like this weekend, we hung out with my nephews and
we were just like playing catch in a park. Like that's fun to me. I was like, oh my gosh, we need
to play kickball next time. That sounds really fun. So if you need to like,
game-ify it or whatever. Play with your kid, play with
your nephews, play with your dog. That counts. I think sometimes we feel like, unless
we're going to the gym and like pumping iron, it doesn't count as working
out, but you know, it, it does, it counts as moving, moving around and
that's, I think really what most people need to be healthy now, obviously.
You know, intense fitness goals
being like super ripped or whatever. Like that's never been my goal ever. I just want to be healthy and feel
confident in myself, but yeah, to achieve those things for me, it's
mostly just about eating rights and moving out at least once per day. Okay. Last question. What was middle school Latasha like, and. The question obviously for
selfish, like nostalgic reasons. But I also love it because one of my
pieces of advice to people, when they're trying to figure out what the heck to
do with their lives or their careers, at least in the moment, it's like, think
about young, you really young, you knew like you were young, you gravitated to.
Certain things naturally young, you was
good at things, certain things naturally. And I think that looking back to times
when maybe we were the happiest or when we felt the most free can really be helpful. And for me, one of those times
was definitely middle school. I loved metal middle school. I think it was my first. Era of school, high school
start to get a little too real. You know, life started
to get a little hard. I got my first job and stuff. Elementary school. You're still very much a kid, but
like middle school, I felt like I really started to come into my
own felt, you know, a little more grown up, but not too grown up. So anyway, um, I, I'm gonna see
if I can find some pictures.
I was a drummer. I played. The first song I ever learned how to
play was iron man by black Sabbath. I was in jazz band at school,
but like we always played rock and roll and rock and roll. Why did I say that? Um, as far as music, I was listening
to a lot of like post punk and metal. I wore like bondage pants
and, you know, band hoodies. Like I all black, only black ever. I would say I was gone, but I think
it was mostly more like a poser. What else? What else? Um, I had two best friends. I I've never had like a lot of friends,
but I did have two best girlfriends. So we were like a little
squad that was fun.
They weren't goth. They were like normal and thought I was
kind of weird, but they still love me. Anyway. I also started writing during this
time I started writing poetry. Which is weird. Cause I don't write poetry. Like haven't written poetry in years, but
yeah, I think I was actually kind of good. Cause my teacher likes
submitted some of my poems to a magazine, which was pretty cool. BI I think those were like the big. Personal attributes about
me in middle school. What else did I do? Yeah, I think drumming was really my life. Like I really loved playing drums. All right. I'm going to ask you all
kind of a selfish favor here. If you're watching on YouTube,
these videos tend to do usually pretty well in terms of use, but
I usually get like no comments. So please leave me a comment. Help me out with the algorithm here.
Let me know if you have
anything interesting to share. Actually let me know what you
were like in middle school. This is what I actually truly
want to know and myself. For the podcast listeners, if you want
to go ahead and rate and review the show, it would mean the world to me and
helps other people find our community and join it and learn from the show as well. And yeah, I hope you all
enjoyed this episode. It was kind of fun and I hope
I will see you back here next Friday for a new episode. Thanks for tuning in bye..