Are you worried about being successful with a few social media followers? What if I told you that your follower count doesn’t matter?
Tyler J. McCall is an Instagram and social media marketer, strategist, and coach for creatives and online business owners. He teaches his students how to use Instagram with intention to grow their community online and grow their business. Tyler focuses on using Instagram and social media to tell stories, build relationships, and convert followers to fans, drawing from his 10 years of experience in non-profit marketing and management and community organizing. He’s taught thousands of entrepreneurs and managed dozens of Instagram accounts since getting into the online marketing game in 2015. Tyler is based in Chicago, where he lives with his partner Eric. When he’s not coaching or teaching, Tyler enjoys Target runs and road trips…that he documents on his Instagram Stories.
The amount of your social media followers doesn’t matter! Instead, focus on what you have to offer, and connect with your followers! In THIS BLOG POST, I’m sharing some top tricks on how you can connect to your online tribe of followers, so that you can sell to them, without even feeling like it being a sleezy or pushy sale!
Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:
- Michelle introduces Tyler J. McCall.
- Tyler shares about his job with the nonprofit: how he was burnt out, tired, and ready for something new, and was able to work with his vice president to create a position for himself that he was excited about.
- He took the weekend before accepting the job: and on Monday, he got a company-wide email that the vice president had quit, and that job was no longer available to him.
- Tyler just held on for a while, and eventually started a side hustle, and found his first client.
- Don’t rely on verbal offers: make sure to get things in writing.
- Chains of command can be very important when it comes to job offers and getting the motivation and help you need: Tyler lost that job he wanted because NO one else knew about it.
- Tyler started his own business with a business partner, but she said NO to him as this was not the business she wanted to have. That meant that Tyler had to face his fears and say YES to running the business alone.
- It was a scary time: Tyler had quit his full time job, and she had too! He was deep in credit card debt, and wondering how it was going to work.
- With that business partner, Tyler found that he had been relying on her connections to bring in clients.
- In the end, Tyler brought on his old business partner as a contractor, and they still got to work together!
- Tyler did two things that helped him face his fears in his business: figure out what he actually had in the business, and then assess what skills he had to offer.
- Revenue grew when Tyler focused on what he really wanted to do.
- Don’t be afraid to really look at your skills and know what you are good at. When you know what you are truly good at, you can offer that as a service to others.
- Selling to people is really just about inviting them to be part of something bigger.
- To connect with people, you have to be comfortable with your messaging, and knowing that there are going to be people who love it, and there are going to be people who hate it. You have to be ok with speaking to only one kind of person.
- Building relationships is about shared values, shared stories, and shared experiences.
- You have to be willing to develop relationships in a way that isn’t rooted in monetization.
- “The monetization of a relationship from social media is simply just a byproduct of the intentionality you put into actually building the relationship through valuable stories and experiences.” ~ Tyler J. McCall
- “The number of social media followers you have on Instagram doesn’t really mean anything at the end of the day. It really comes down to your ability to move those followers to action and and that’s why you don’t want a bunch of people following you who don’t get who you are and what you do.” ~ Tyler J. McCall
- Tyler was feeling burnt out with his own business, and constantly working. He decided it was time to make a change.
- His greatest failure – both personally and professionally – was being constantly on the phone and working. He was even working the last day that his father was alive.
- This taught Tyler that he had built a business that was not sustainable, and that something had to change.
- Tyler fired all 4 of his “done for you” service clients, and his 17 coaching clients, and started a business based on a membership site model.
- Now Tyler lives by three mottos: time is irreplaceable, saying YES to one thing is saying NO to something else, and have a sounding board for those times when you feel stuck.
- “Never say YES in the moment.” ~ Tyler J. McCall
- Tyler shares what he would tell his younger self.
Connect with Tyler J. McCall:
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Want to connect with your social media followers in a more heartfelt way? Then, it’s time to actually get to know your online community! THIS BLOG POST can help you figure out how to build deep connections that turn into sales!