Converting real-world customers is really all about having customer conversations. Social media strategist Stefanie LaHart teaches people how to create micro-scripts or taglines to start conversations. These micro-scripts are one-liners to get people invested enough that they stop doing whatever they’re doing and get interested. Stefanie discusses more about customer conversations, traditional PR versus digital marketing and social media, clickbaits, DEF CON, and running her eleventh marathon.

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Watch the episode here

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Customer Conversations And Social Media with Stefanie LaHart

 

 

I’m with Stefanie LaHart and I’m so excited. I’m so glad you’re here because we’re going to talk to an expert who is an expert in the art of becoming an entrepreneur in the social media age. It’s really different. I’m so glad that’s your topic. You have the TraDigital Podcast. I love that title because that’s what you are. We’re doing a lot of traditional things, but we’re doing them in a digital way and you’re merging that. One of my favorite episodes is when you did the Dirty Secrets of the Industry. I love that one. It’s one of my favorites. Obviously, I’m a listener. I’m a fan because I have to get information from somewhere too. I can’t just be an expert in everything. I had to rely on all these great people who are on my platform.

That’s the first place I turn when I’m looking for information. Yours is a frequent one for me when I’m looking for new information on what’s going on in social media. I love that one because those dirty little secrets are the things that I see on the other end when people come to me and it’s all gone bad. You aired that. You have a ton of experience in traditional marketing and you had a lot of that. I love that because you’ve got a great foundation for that and how to turn that now into digital conversations that translate. You talk about really making conversions. That’s our industry insider terms, but you call them to get converting to real-world customers, having customer conversations. That’s fabulous. Tell me some more about that.

Thank you so much. I’m in the perfect place right now. We’re at a podcast convention. You mentioned my podcast and I only came up with the idea for my podcast and launched after attending here at Podfest Multimedia Expo in 2018. I’m a social media strategist and Podfest was one of my clients in 2018. I showed up in 2018. I was handling all their social media. I come to the event and I do live social media the whole time. People kept asking me, “What’s your podcast?” I was like, “I don’t have one.” They have this event that goes on called the Strategic Alliance, which Tom took part in too. It’s 84 tables, seven people at a table and you sit at the table and they have various questions. It’s like speed dating for podcasters and networkers.

As you go through these questions, you learn more about the person and their podcast. At table number one, they were like, “What’s your podcast?” “I don’t have a podcast.” Then we go around the table and they were all talking and I was like, “Screw this.” By table number two, I have a podcast. I came up with the name, I came up with the concept and I tested it at the next table. I was like, “My podcast is called the TraDigital Talk Show.” They were like, “What’s that about?” I was like, “That’s where traditional PR meets digital marketing.” They were like, “That sounds fascinating.”

By the end of that, you go through seven rounds of it. By the end of it, I had fully flushed out my podcast and I called up my soon-to-be cohost, my best friend, Sharon. I said, “We’re going to do a podcast.” Sharon is traditional PR. She’s had her own PR firm for several years. She’s well-versed in that area. She’s so traditional. She’s not on social media at all. She doesn’t even have a friend and family Facebook page which most people succumb to. Our talk show has been so great because she truly teaches me stuff every week and I teach her stuff. We use a lot of these traditional methods and we call them new words. We make up new terms and we think it’s something different. There was actually a gentleman here who we spoke to. His name is Bill Schley and he was talking about micro-scripts. Do you know what micro-scripts were called back in the day? Taglines.

That’s what I was thinking.

Having that story formulated in your head already makes for better social media. Click To Tweet

Your micro-script, your tagline can be so impactful. It can really set up the tone and the terms for your business. He has a great book where he outlines how this has played out in politics, how they use those one-liners, call them a tagline one-liner, and their micro-script to not only launch with their platform and in their idea but to get people invested. I was like, “That’s exactly what I do,” because I teach people how to get that. I call it a cocktail conversation. How do you start that cocktail conversation that literally has to be a one-liner to get people invested enough that they stop doing whatever they’re doing and say, “I’m sorry, what was that? I’m really interested in that.” Exactly like I did with the Strategic Alliance. I sat down at a table and I had something to say that sounded interesting enough and I said it in one sentence and people were like, “Tell me more.” The more I had to talk about it, the more I flushed out the idea.

I call that my airplane conversation. That’s how it started for me. There’s that person that sits next year in business class or whatever and then they go, “What do you do?” I finally started baring it over time. Before our podcast business, we were in product design and development. I told people I was a ghost designer who designed products that you bought every day at mass market retail like Costco and Walmart and Target. People would be like, “A ghost designer? I never heard of that before.” Then you would end up within a conversation in your entire plane ride. I learned really quickly not to have that conversation if I was tired.

That’s a great intro because you could have just said, “I make these products.” You used a micro-script of, “I make products that you use every day, you buy and use every day from Costco, Walmart, and Target.” That’s a micro-script. You did it.

I’m technically in PR because I’m in the media. I’m actually a writer. I have three columns now. I write a column for Authority Magazine, which is new and we’re featuring podcasters. Also, I’ve been writing my column for Inc. and it’s an innovation and I’m in my fourth year. I also write for Thrive Global whenever I can. It’s still more of a contribution side because I don’t have enough bandwidth to do it all. I was mentioning your Dirty Secrets podcast, which I’ve loved and I love to talk a little bit about that because I think there’s a lot of misconception with what we talked about here. Many people are like, “I hate this. I hate it,” and here we are, live streaming on it and utilizing it. It is really a great tool. I just don’t want to have to do it.

I actually have Dirty Secrets of PR from the media perspective like, “What you don’t know when you pitch to us.” It’s a fire. We put it out for free all the time. Whenever I give this talk, I give it away because I want people to know that when you’re pitching, there’s an angle to it that’s a little bit different now that we’re in the digital age than it used to be in traditional PR. It’s not what you’re saying. That’s not different. How you say it and what you say. It’s how you’re getting it to me and how you’re finding me, that’s how it makes the difference.

Sharon touches on a lot of that during our podcast because she’s teaching me stuff all the time. She’s like, “You have to understand when you’re trying to speak to media, you have to have the story fully formed before you go to them. You don’t go to them with a spec sheet and say, ‘I just launched this product, business or service. You figure out how to package me.’” Essentially and correct me if I’m wrong, you go with a story and you make sure the person you’re approaching is a person that would normally cover a story like that and then see if that is something that they’re interested.

Customer Conversations: When you’re trying to speak to media, you have to have the story fully formed before you go to them.

 

Make sure it’s in their beat. That’s what they call it. When I read about innovation, someone who goes, “I’m a health empowerment coach.” I’ll be like, “Not so much. It’s not going to happen.” We’re wasting each other’s time when we have that conversation. When you go straight to the right person that then makes a big difference and they’re really willing to listen to that story and you’re helping them by writing that story. That’s so important. I think social media is the same way in a way because you’re serving up little bites and bits of stories that intrigue those of us in the media or wherever you might be trying to get or customers and clients and conversion as well. Having that story formulated in your head already makes for better social media, I would imagine.

Then you’re a lot clearer about who you’re talking to and what you want to speak to them about. When somebody starts to get you into the conversation and you start thinking, “This person is just wasting my time.” We see that all the time and the thing about social media is you only really have seconds. The finger moves so quickly. We all have power fingers now. You only have seconds to get somebody’s interest enough that they want to get into an initial conversation with you. That’s why it is important that you know what to say and who it pertains to. The big joke in business is that people are like, “Who do you work with?” “Anybody that will pay me.” That’s the worst response ever because it’s not true and your service doesn’t actually apply to everyone. On social media, I could do it for everyone, which isn’t true. I could do it, but am I doing it effectively? Am I doing a service to myself or this customer? Probably not. If I were to sit there and be like, “I’m an expert in the legal field.” I’m not. I’m not going to be great for someone in the legal field. That is the thing about social media that has changed.

You have to be more succinct and really tight and clear in your mind about not only what you do but who you want to work with. It’s not just about, “I only want to work with special people.” You have to understand where you fit in the food chain because when we don’t, people are going to check out early off that conversation. They’re going to know immediately, “This doesn’t pertain to my life.” There’s nothing worse than somebody trying to sell you something that has nothing to do with your life. That’s why I’m a huge fan of the fact that everything you do on your browser gets tracked and then you see there are advertisements everywhere.

It’s like a mirror there.

I would rather have ads served to me that pertain to my life. If you watch TV during the daytime, it’s horrible. These ads that are running, they’re not pitching to me, but I have to sit there and listen to them. Wouldn’t it be great if the TV was more intuitive, so they knew a little bit more about me? Every time I turned on the TV it pertained a little more to my life. That can be super creepy because you could tie yourself into a box and never see another point of view. As I tell Sharon every week, I come from the land of unicorns and rainbows, which means everything is always done in an altruistic, really good for the world way. I do believe that for the most part, people are interested in making sure that your experience is positive. I’m hoping TV will catch up at some point. I don’t know about you but I never turn on the local regular TV anymore.

I don’t turn on any that I can’t fast forward through the commercials on. I just don’t do that anymore. I don’t have time in the world for that. As I’ve listened to your podcast over time and I’ve read through some of the posts because I’m more of a reader than I am, even though I do listen as well. I like to read sometimes because you have great links and stuff like that. I noticed that in the particular episode you were talking about how we title things and the debate between clickbait titles. We tend to do that in social media and other things, but we do not do that in podcasting. I believe that you learned that from us because we’ve been hammering that home and from the Podfest community, I hope. It’s different. It’s like you’re out here and you’re real and authentic and you’re doing that. That is hard to hide in a podcast. Putting that out there from the title all the way through to everything that you do in the post that you make after is really important. Talking about the difference between clickbait headlines and regular headlines and in this podcast community, we push out that you’re there to be of service to people and be found in the ways that they’re searching. Being real and true to that, both in how you present yourself and how authentic you are, that has to translate into the headlines in everything you do and even into how you share it afterward. Trying to avoid that clickbait thing serves you better in the long run.

Not everybody is reading every one of your posts. Click To Tweet

Clickbait does not work for podcasts and here’s why. People utilize clickbait online because for the most part they need you to go somewhere and they get paid just for you visiting that page. If I clickbait you and I make up a title of my podcast and then you go to it and it’s nothing like what you were expecting, you’re going to click off. By the way, I’m not getting paid for that anyway. I don’t get paid because you clicked on my podcast. It does not serve me in any way to lie to people about what the subject matter is or what we’re going to be talking about.

I will tell you because I am doing something specific. Sharon is traditional PR. She’s not on social media at all and she was very hesitant in the beginning because she is not used to sharing. In media, we’re very comfortable with sharing. She had a lot of fear about that. We’re on show number twenty and she is finally getting warmer now, feeling like, “Maybe I can be a little bit more of myself.” In our very last show, the title of our show was How Do I Know When To, because one of the questions that both of us get is how do I know when to launch my social media? How do I know when I need a press release?

I started out the show unbeknownst to her because I was actually at her house and we were in her office. Sharon has a side hobby, which is turning into a business where she breeds, raises and sells tarantulas. I know this about her. She’s never made it public. We were in her office and she usually has the tarantulas all behind her and they weren’t there and I was like, “Sharon, where are the tarantulas?” We’ve had a very unseasonably cold winter in LA. She was like, “I had to get a heating cabinet for them because they’re tropical.” She opens up this cabinet and there they were in their little cages and boxes. They’re not just roaming around the room. We were laughing about that. When we started out the podcast, I brought that up and started talking to her about it and she was laughing and very relaxed.

As soon as the show was over, she was like, “You have to edit that whole tarantula’s thing out.” I go, “Why? People are going to love it. It makes you more relatable. It makes people feel like they know you a little bit better.” She goes, “What if somebody who’s listening to us has severe arachnophobia and then we lose a listener?” She was worried that we’re going to lose listeners because they’re afraid of spiders. I said, “That’s not your concern, Sharon.” I’ve been networking here at Podfest Multimedia and everybody is like, “I’ll check out your podcast.” They pull up the most recent one and people love it. That is so funny. They’re not big spider fans, but they love the fact that she has outside interests that we’re talking about. That’s what you have to do.

This is the thing that I really love about podcasting and I’m so glad we’re talking on International Women’s Day because this is a thing. Much of what’s out there and some of what the coaches are teaching you is, “Vomit out your whole story and do all of this.” In podcasting, we have to go the distance. This is a marathon and you are a marathon runner. You’re about to run your eleventh marathon?

Yes. I will be running LA. It will be my seventh LA Marathon, my eleventh full marathon. I’ve also run ten half-marathons. A half marathon is thirteen miles. A full marathon is 26.2 miles. You know the spinal tap joke. Why does it go to eleven? Because it’s there. That’s pretty much me with the marathon running. I love it. I don’t run with music or even listening to podcasts or anything. I just love to totally be in a place where I can’t connect to anyone and nobody can connect to me. I can’t pick up my phone. It’s a great place to be at.

Customer Conversations: Social media has given us a way of connecting with more people on a deeper level.

 

Tying into the marathon thing, that’s what I love most about podcasting. We don’t vomit out that story. We give it out in bits and pieces and people get to know us over time, which is a much more natural way to communicate or natural way to build a relationship with people. People find out, “I have kids.” It comes up in conversation over time. I had Christy Whitman on the show and she goes, “Alexandra’s your daughter.” I was like, “Yeah.” She was like, “I just made that connection and I’ve been working with you for how long now.” That’s it, over time it reveals itself in your relationships with your clients and your people. That’s what I love about it. That’s more authentic.

Because of social, we are in a space now where we’re used to oversharing. The crazy thing is some people, and I think people are now starting to learn more, they expect you to know this amount of stuff about them. There was a time there where people would post stuff on Facebook and if you didn’t respond, like or say something about it when you actually saw them in person, it was like, “Tracy didn’t even ask me about that and she clearly read it on Facebook.” Not everybody is reading every one of your posts and you’re right. We had gotten into a space where we weren’t expecting natural conversation, but we’re now getting back into that healthy space where we’re like, “Maybe you wouldn’t have known that so I can’t be mad at you.” Also, it gives me now a way of having a more natural interaction with you. I can tell you stories and you go sit there and glaze over and be like, “I already read your Facebook feed or saw your Facebook Live and I don’t care.” It’s just crazy.

Social media has given us a way of connecting to more people on a deeper level, but because the connection is so easy, I think we’re learning now how to manage that better. Because remember when the phone was first developed, when phones first went into people’s houses, they had to learn how to interact on a phone. People had to learn protocol. People had to learn what society’s expectations of a phone call would be. In the beginning, phone calls were very serious business. Only people who were very wealthy had a phone. They were used for business and very serious topics. You didn’t call up and just be like, “Hello,” and talk for hours and hours. It was a very short conversation. There was a definite meaning to it. If you watch old movies, my favorite is Meet Me in St. Louis. The oldest daughter is waiting for a call from her beau and the whole family is sitting around and they know if he calls it means it’s getting serious. Even that conversation lasted maybe half a minute.

What I’m saying is you learned at that point how to use that technology. Then everybody started developing these social norms and we all started accepting and agreeing on it. Then social media came around very quickly. Technology is moving very fast and we did not know in the beginning how to handle it. People were first blurting things out and just doing things. One of the things I teach my clients is social security now. As business owners because so many of the gurus and the coaches for a long time were saying, “Tell everybody your entire lives.”

What I’m doing is trying to rein people back and lean on and be like, “Let’s think about how much of your personal information you actually want to put out there to make sure that your family, your business and just you are secure on a daily basis.” The fact of the matter is even though I live in the land of unicorns and rainbows, there are people out there that could take information and use it against you. Here’s a great example for you when I trained my clients on when you’re doing something like this, a live video interview or whatever, be aware of what’s in your backgrounds. I’m in a hotel room right now. It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing around me, but you have stuff hanging on the wall behind you.

This is an Al Bruce print, which is a classic color palette, which says something about me. That’s Dr. Minette Riordan, one of my favorite people. She’s got a great book, it’s her business plan for creatives. Anyway, I always like to keep those in the background and every so often Minette will comment on it. She’s like, “My tool is in the background, my business plan.” I’m like, “That’s right. It’s right back there.” I keep that because I do know, I’m aware of what’s in my background and thinking about that. Stefanie is so smart in sharing that with us. This is why I didn’t get on Facebook right away. I actually was afraid to and because I was afraid of all that security.

Technology is moving very fast. We did not know in the beginning how to handle it. Click To Tweet

It wasn’t about me being who I am. I’m very who I am out in person but being out there on social media and there being so many potential security risks scared me. I was telling people what was in my background while it was there because I actually am very aware of it. This is actually Dr. Minette Riordan’s business plan for creatives, which I totally love. Every so often she’ll see a video with it and then she’s like, “I can’t believe you still have that on your wall.” I’m like, “I keep it there all the time.” You’re right, the security thing is a big deal.

If people are filming from their offices, whether it’s a home office or it’s off somewhere. Frequently we’ll have things like calendars on the wall or notes and stuff. You have to be aware that you’re putting that information out there because of what could happen in a real-world circumstance. This has happened to many CEOs. This is the problem where information is found out about them and say there is somebody who wants to infiltrate that company. The human component is what they call the weakest link and they call it social engineering. Basically, you’re hacking a human. What if you knew something about me that then you can utilize in a real-world situation? I know Tracy likes to go to this Starbucks. I know she’s into this business color wheel.

I’m going to go to that Starbucks. I’m going to naturally start up a conversation with her. I’m going to input that information. I have a bonding episode with Tracy and she’s like, “Stefanie, we should go have coffee or something.” Then if I was trying to infiltrate a company or a CEO, that’s my door in. On social media, you have to be aware that people do utilize stuff like that. I don’t mean to scare anybody, but understand that information is power and something could be used to be used in a way that you had not expected. That’s something that I’m very passionate now to make sure businesses understand that and they’re training the employees that. Don’t take pictures of your workstation and post them everywhere online. I took part in a big contest. There is a hacker’s convention called DEF CON.

I was going to mention that. You went to DEF CON. This is why you are so sensitive to security.

I went to DEF CON and entered a contest called the Social Engineering Capture the Flag contest. It is part of DEF CON and it is hacking humans. What happens is before the contest they gave us a Fortune 500 company. Then what we do is go online and do something called online intelligence gathering, which is onset. Anything you can find out online that you could use to somehow infiltrate that company, that’s what you put together in this report. You submit the report. If it’s accepted, then you’re invited to Vegas. You get on stage in front of 700 people and you call that company and you’d live hack them on the phone.

Much like California and Nevada is a two-person permission state. If you’re calling somebody, you cannot record them without their permission. When you’re on the phone, it’s not being recorded at all. It’s not like there’s any illegal activity there. In fact, when you’re speaking to the audience, they can only hear you speak. I don’t even think they could hear the other person. Basically, you’re trying to get information on the phone and you get flags for the various information you get. I ended up with the second highest call score of the entire tournament. I think I hit 600 points in flags, which was amazing. I did not win it because I didn’t do as well in my written report. Honestly, when I was doing the report, I didn’t spend much time on it because I didn’t read the directions and I didn’t realize it was 50% of the grades. I’m going back strong. I’ve already entered the contest. Social engineering is a real thing. When I started doing more investigation and education, I was like, “This is something I need to make businesses aware of,” because there are still the people, the coaches, gurus out there, people who are selling courses and they’re telling people misinformation at this point. Don’t vomit everything out. Let it be a little bit more natural. Let’s have a little mystery.

Customer Conversations: When you do a little bit of research or reading or listening, you show that you care enough to take the time.

 

What you’re saying is so important because this is what I think makes me a great interviewer. I told Tom I calculate it between my Inc. column because I’ve written for several years. I write six a month. I do all interviews for every single one and I also do interviews for four podcasts now. I have four. Between all that, I’ve almost hit a thousand interviews in the last few years. I’ve gotten really good at the interviewing process. Part of it is the research that you do ahead of time and the fact that you listened to it, you read their book, you do that little bit of things that make them comfortable right at the beginning. It’s actually something I share. There’s a podcast on that on my interview tips and it is this exact thing that social engineering that you’re talking about. When you flatter them, the bigger the celebrity, the more important it is to do this. I was introduced to Molly Bloom if you haven’t seen Molly’s Game. You should read the book.

I just watched it. You met the real Molly Bloom.

The real Molly Bloom, I interviewed her. I looked at her and said, “I read your book,” because I had actually read it because the movie fascinated me and I was like, “I have to read this book.” I read the book and I said, “I read your book and I really enjoyed that insight into you.” That was before we even started speaking. That lit her up for the whole conversation. They were rushing us through it and she gave me extra time because I said, “I read your book and I cared about it.” That in and of itself moves that relationship a step forward for you. You can use it to your advantage for good in this land of unicorns and rainbows. Use it for good because then you get a better story and you get a better interview out of the whole process and they get, “This isn’t just some interview that I have to get through. It’s somebody who is interested and I can talk to them.” That is setting that groundwork. It starts with a little bit of research and a little bit of reading or a little bit of listening in most cases.

You showed her that you cared enough thing, you took time to actually read the book and not only watch the movie, but also read the talking points or whatever they gave you. Especially when she’s doing PR for that, she’s used to people who have no interest. They’re doing their job. I’m sure she was very excited and refreshed when she got to someone who was like, “I read the book and I really got something out of it.” Because most people didn’t even watch the show online. They’d probably just saw a headline.

It was a two, three-minute interview. It was short. I’ve asked her back to come on the podcast that I started out of that interview. Not just her interview, but a series of interviews I did at an event. She’s agreed to come back on the show because we built that relationship and I have this tiny little show. That is how it can help you. It’s International Women’s Day and it’s the end of this. You’ve got more events to get to, but my goal was to highlight all the amazing women that we have on our platform. I wish I could do all of them. There are so many. I only had so many slots because I had a limited schedule too. I’m so glad you came on this. The theme that they went with was #BalanceforBetter and I added #LifeInHarmony because I don’t really love the term balance. Obviously, you’re doing a lot in your personal life. You’re running and you’re marathoning. You’ve got a lot going on in your life, but how do you make that work for you?

Working out has been a part of most of my life. When Jane Fonda came out with her VHS tapes, I was immediately doing step aerobics. Working out for me has always been the way that I relieve my stress. I understand the endorphin highs of it. I make time for that. We all make time. When people are like, “I don’t have time,” it’s like, “No, you just choose to not make time for that thing.” We all have the same amount of time and truly time means nothing. Time is endless because you make time for what you want to make time for, whether that’s your family or your business or whatever. For me in my life, I make time for working out and running because it makes me feel good. It centers me, it’s my meditation. It keeps me healthy. My body looks great. For me, it’s not about how do you fit that in? That’s where I choose to spend that portion of my time.

You make time for what you want to make time for. Click To Tweet

Some people say, “I don’t have any time.” I’m like, “What are you doing during that time?” “I garden or I watch TV or my kids have this.” We have the same time, but you’re doing something different during that time. It’s not that I fit it in, it’s just that’s how I choose to spend that block of my time. Somebody might be doing something else that I have no interest in. I have to say with the working out because it was ingrained in me from Jane Fonda. She got me in that ethic early on in my life. When step aerobics came out, me and my older sister started doing it and we’re like, “This is the best thing,” because it was fun and the music and the cute outfits and everything. It was something I did my whole life. I’ve always worked out.

Then I started running actually later in my life. I didn’t start running until I was 39 years old. The way I got into that was doing this boot camp class and there were several of us that were getting a little competitive with each other and our instructor was all like, “You four, get on the treadmill for half an hour before class,” because she felt we had extra energy we needed to burn. We got on the treadmill and I started running. I was like, “I like this. I’d never been on a treadmill before. This is fun.” I’m enjoying it. I said to my friends, “Why don’t we all run a 5K? That would be really fun.” They were like, “That doesn’t sound fun at all.” “I think that sounds fun. I’m going to do it.” I signed up for this local 5K. I didn’t know anybody there. I went and did it myself with 200 other people that had signed up. I had a great time and I loved it. I wasn’t fast or anything, I just did it for fun. What happened was the competition was over. I was walking back to my car by myself. I’d gone by myself. All of a sudden, I heard my name called and I was like, “What?” It turns out I had won my age group. I was like, “Me?” I won a $10 iTunes card and that kicked off my running career.

Was that a competition?

I was like, “If I can do a 5K, I can do a half marathon.” I immediately went home, I signed up for the Malibu half marathon and it was on. I was like, “This is so much fun.”

What I love is when you’re really passionate about whatever it is you’re doing, whether it’s doing a marathon or whether it’s doing social media. Whether it’s getting a promotion, whether it’s interviewing, having a conversation, when you’re all in it, that is just the best. That’s how I love to feel. That is why I love podcasting and that’s why I love promoting other women and men too. I love that promotion side of it because it feeds me back when I hear all these wonderful stories and this exciting passion that you have for your businesses. Stefanie, I’m so glad you joined me for International Women’s Day and took time out. I know you’re at a trade show and it’s so busy, but I’m so glad you did.

I picked the last spot purposely because I knew that I would be done doing the work that I had to do and everybody was going to be heading over to the party. I get to go head over to the party and the first wave of people that went to the party is probably leaving. I’m at the optimum time to get food and drinks and I don’t have to wait in line.

Customer Conversations: We still struggle a lot with our own self-worth as women. Step up to that table and understand that you don’t have to ask permission.

 

Someone missed their appointment before and I couldn’t connect with her. I was like, “Am I done for the day or not?” I’m so glad you joined me though. The thing is we have lots of promotion opportunities here at Podetize, Brandcasters and Feed Your Brand. The thing is that I think that it’s so essential because sometimes we don’t do a good enough job or we’re just too busy to promote ourselves. You’re out there promoting so many other people in so many events and so many things that sometimes we don’t have enough time. When people push us and go, “Come and do this interview,” it really makes us sit back and go, “I’ve got to keep promoting my own business. I do have to do that.” I’d love to be that push for people.

Thank you. I appreciate it. As soon as I saw your email come through, I was all in. I was like, “Yes, I want to be part of that.” I want to do anything I can to promote women in business and empowerment. I am the middle child of three girls. I’ve been surrounded by women my entire life. My poor dad was outnumbered since we were born. I’m into that whole feeling and we still struggle a lot with our own self-worth as women. Being able to step up to that table and everything and understand that I don’t have to ask permission. I can do that. I’m lucky I grew up with parents that really gave me that instilled sense of confidence.

I feel it’s my job to help other women have that gift of confidence as well. If women are watching me and they’re getting a little bit more of a boost and they’re like, “She’s crazy but I’m crazy like her so I can do that.” I want to be that little push for women too. I invite any woman that is out there, if they’re having social media questions or they want to know a little bit more about how to start their own marketing or social media business, please contact me. I’m here for you. I’ll answer any questions that you want. I don’t do coaching, I’m not selling the coaching business. I’ll just be there. If I can answer your questions, I will.

Thank you so much, Stefanie. I really appreciate you helping me wrap up International Women’s Day. Thank you all.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

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About Stefanie LaHart

She has been digital since video killed the radio star. She has helped hundreds of businesses launch their websites, social media, and online advertising campaigns to create digital conversations that convert to real-world customers. She works with both B2C and B2B clients to grow their social media audience & leverage it to activate engagement and increase sales.

Stefanie LaHart is the President and Founder of Boomtown Marketing, an online marketing agency that connects businesses with their ideal customers.

Stefanie has worked with a variety of clients developing strategies to build their customer base and create strong online reputations. Her client list most notably includes Geomni Map Pros Robb Report, CardCon Expo, Nickelodeon, Podfest Multimedia Expo, Up My Influence, Live Earth, City Grows, Lusive, Ronin Lift.

 

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