Social Media Takeover! With Avram Gonzales and Nikki Magdalena

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If you want to see the average earnings, please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. Hey, this is Lawrence Tam. I want to welcome you to the Inner Circle Calls. I have two awesome special guests. We're going to be talking about social media and how to actually leverage that for a business, how to become popular, and actually drive some traffic.

I have Avram Gonzalez and Nikki Magdalena on a really cool topic called Social Media Takeover. Avram and Nikki, can you hear me? Yeah, what's up? Yes, we can, live and clear. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

So I've been hearing about your social media takeover, and you had some really cool stuff. You had some really cool tips. You had like six do's and six don'ts, how to create influence. Well, I'm going to give you the floor. Can you go ahead and explain how you use social media?

And I believe you had a really cool story too, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean this — I want Nikki to tell a little bit of the story, but really this audio is going to be for anybody that is like a solopreneur, so somebody who is sort of like the face of their company, especially people that you're in the service industry in some way. Okay. So you might be a coach, you might train people on stuff, you could be a massage therapist or even a realtor, you know, things like that.

If you're the face of what you're doing and people connect with you, then this is definitely the audio for you. We're going to teach you some stuff that you can definitely leverage. And or maybe you're a network marketer and you're trying to go from old school to new school and bring some of the old school concepts and make them more scalable, which is one of the gifts of social media is to really be able to sort of multiply yourself. You know, even while you're sleeping, you're out there if you use it correctly. So, and you know, just a quick story, we won't go too much into our background, but you know, Abram and I actually met through Facebook, so stick around.

We might even show you how you too can meet your soulmate on Facebook. No guarantees, no guarantees, but you know, we might show you, we might show you. I mean, it was a, you know, it's just one of those, those new, those really new love stories, you know, where it's love at first click. Yeah, exactly. That's just how the world's going these days.

That's where it's going. Right. Right. And you know, we're, we're definitely a product of that. Yeah, for sure.

You know, so we, we came from a background of life coaching really and using the internet to grow that business specifically. And what we found is a few things we're going to talk about with you today. And you know, that will help you build more of a following using social media. So if you post stuff on there and all you hear is crickets, right? Or you're just wondering like, okay, I'm on social media.

I have all these, you know, sites up. What do I post? Like, how do I show people that I'm the expert? What can I do, you know, to leverage this platform and not suck up all of my time? Cause we all know that especially like Facebook can be such a time suck.

You get on there and then all of a sudden three hours go by and you're like, I didn't make any money. And now I'm on somebody's Facebook photo album. And who is this person? Like, how did I get here? Right?

Exactly. So our experience specifically and what we've had the most traction on is on Facebook. It is on organic Facebook strategies using our personal profiles, like we said, you know, we come from a background of being solopreneurs, being in the business for ourselves, being the face of the business. And, you know, we don't mess with business pages on Facebook, unless we're doing advertising and stuff, but we want to teach you — yeah, fan pages, but we want to teach you like the free strategies, you know, the stuff that we've done to earn over a quarter million dollars in the last two years or so, between some of our own coaching programs and information products, and also some of the businesses that we've been working with.

Yeah. Right. So should we just jump into it, Lawrence? Lay it down, lay it down. So we have — people love Facebook, people love it — and how to actually do it to produce results. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. Instead of just spinning your wheels and going through it. Right. Yeah.

So we'll jump in here. I mean, one of the first things that we've kind of, I want to go through is the fact that, you know, social media and Facebook specifically, when you use this stuff and if you want results from it, what you're really looking for is influence and exposure. So if you're taking notes, which you should be, write this down: the purpose of you being on social media to help build your business, it's more about influence and exposure versus traffic and conversions. Right? So on the influence side of things, it's like, if you don't have it, nobody's going to listen to you, right?

Nobody's going to listen to you. And if you're a guy like Lawrence, you know, where you've done a lot of really cool stuff on the internet before, and your business is already thriving, you've made a million dollars or more, right? Facebook can be one of those things where you continue the exposure — you got on stage this weekend and you spoke at an event and people want to connect with you one on one, boom, they can do it on Facebook, right? That's why people love connecting with like Justin Bieber on Twitter, you know, celebrities — people love that one to one interaction and it really closes the gap, and small town rules really have started to apply now in a big way. You can actually reach people on such a one to one level that wasn't able to happen before.

And another way of looking at influence, just to add to that thought, is like, do you have those people on Facebook that you just can't help but go on their wall? Maybe it's every day, every other day. It's like you just keep thinking about them. Like that's influence, you know, Lawrence, I actually think about you every day, Lawrence, you know, I do. I mean, I'm like, okay, what's going on Lawrence as well.

You know, and I might have, you know, a few days, or it's like I might kind of take a break from Lawrence for like a week, but I'm coming back to Lawrence and I'm going to look on his Facebook page and I'm going to see what's up. Cause it's like you've already created, like Abram said, you know, over a million dollars online. And I don't think that you necessarily did it through social media. If I'm not correct, it wasn't like your main strategy, but how I see you, when I look at you using social media, it expands your influence and it also maintains your exposure, you know? Cause it's like you can create this huge result and then you go back underground.

But if people keep thinking about your name and their name is like ringing in their ears, then what can that create for the future? You know, when you want, you know, to do some coaching or do some product or whatever it is you want to do, those people will be ready to buy from you. You know, and that's the kind of influence you want to have, that when you do put something out there and you do actually — cause hey, you don't want to be selling something every day, and we'll talk about that in a little while here — but you're creating that kind of influence where people will just be ready to buy from you when you say, hey, this is what I've got going on. Yeah.

Yeah. And then just a really quick piece, you know, we're going to build on this throughout the next 30 minutes or so — influence comes from two things on social media. And it can also be a combination of the two things. First thing is you're the one, you're like the subject matter expert. People come to you because, if you're the baking goddess, right?

People are going to come to your page to learn more about baking. They know that you're going to have new recipes posted and they come to you for that because you're creating that content of value for people, right? We're going to talk about what good content is in a little bit. And the second thing is, you know, you can be a curator of content. So let's say you're getting into baking, but you don't have the recipes yet.

You haven't made a name for yourself yet. You're the one that's getting on and looking through baking blogs and you're taking that stuff and you're putting it on Facebook for all your friends that are into baking, right? Because then, guess what they do — they know that you're like the source for all that information.

You know, you think about a guy like — what was it? What was his name we were talking about earlier, Nikki, the guy that was like a celebrity gossip column?

Oh, Perez Hilton, right? When you're a curator of content like Perez Hilton, right? He used to go on all the gossip blogs and find out all the juicy stuff on celebrities. He would take it, he'd take pictures of celebs and he'd mark them up and make them, you know, little scribbles and put weird faces on them and stuff and make fun of them and then put it on his blog and give his point of view.

Right? So he became a curator of content. He let everybody else go out and create it, but he took it and spun it for his audience. So those are the two ways you can really get influence.

One, you can create yourself, too. You can borrow from other people until you start to become the hub for that information. Did you have something you wanted to add to that? Just really quick — it's like you can be as bizarre or as normal or however you want to be.

And that's really the whole point, is attracting people to you by being yourself. I mean, Lawrence, when I think about you, it's like I think of Disney ice cream bars. I think of your family. I think of a lot of Asian foods, Asian foods that I would have never seen in my entire life had I not gone to your page — like chicken heads and stuff — and then, you know, being an internet marketing expert, you know?

So it's like, I know when I go to your page, I'm going to get probably get like a little bit of all of that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And that's the whole point, right? I mean, it's okay to be you, and you can't please everybody.

You please everybody, you please no one. And the point of a social media experience is the experience. How do you experience something if it's so black and white? No, you have some color, and it's how you are, and you guys really do it to a tee.

I love the fact that if you don't have your own content, you can basically curate others. You can use other people's content and just put your own spin to it. Not exactly copy paste, but more, hey, there's a really cool piece out here. And a lot of news formats do the same thing. I mean, all they do is republish, put their own spin on it, and comment on it.

Same process. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So we have like three little ground rules, right?

Three little ground rules for social media. And then we're going to jump into this. I mean, I think this is a really amazing exercise. We shared this with some of our folks and they just had massive breakthroughs in terms of really realizing what they can or should be posting and really putting it in a simple framework.

Cause I know it's easy to jump on and get overwhelmed and also jump on and be like, so what the heck do I post today? Right? So one of our first ground rules for this topic in general is that, you know, when it comes to traffic and doing paid advertising and all this stuff and looking at conversions, well, that stuff is a science, right? That stuff is a science. Whereas social media is more of an art, right?

It's really getting creative and learning how to craft it yourself. It's certainly not a linear path, right? Cause I just talked to somebody today who says, I've been following you guys online for over a year now. I just want to know what you're doing. Can I join whatever you're doing?

It was like, okay, yeah, for sure. Like, you know, she's seen us grow so much in the last year and it was a really easy thing. Now, do I have the secret formula for how we did that? No, but I'm going to share with you some insights on what that really looks like. Guidelines, like a framework.

So that's the first piece, right? A second piece, you know, it kind of ties into what I just said. Social media itself, it's not a long term strategy. It's a long lasting strategy, right?

So you can have quick results, but they are also results like where people will — if you're top of mind for the next year or two years, you keep showing up in people's newsfeeds and their timelines and stuff, they're going to always be thinking about you. And it's like that woman that I talked to today, she's like, I love your Nikki story. I've been following how much you've grown. I'm in, right? So if you want people to be like "in" with whatever it is that you have to sell or offer, social media is a great place to do that and give people insight on a day to day basis on what that looks like.

Well, and you know, really quick, to Abram — you did these videos where you did something brand new every day and did this whole video blog about it. And we would go to the local art shows in the city and people would recognize him from the videos. And even now four years later, we had somebody approach us at an event and say, I did your project. I did the same thing you did for like three months and it changed my whole life. And it's like, wow, he did that four years ago.

He's not doing it anymore, that specific project. But those videos are still there. They're still hanging out on the internet and people are still watching them. Yeah.

It's very powerful. And, you know, to me, that's just another way to really create magic in your life. You know, it's a way to kind of create miracles in your life. I mean, that's the thing about exposure. You never know who's going to be watching you.

You never know who's going to be watching you. And some people get creeped out by that. Like they want to control who's watching them, but that's where actually the magic is, that you have the opportunity to reach people across the planet, you know, and the connections, the business connections that we've made by showing up as ourselves, because the majority of people aren't showing up as themselves on social media. So if you can be one of those people, you will stand out, and they're influential people in other industries. You never know.

I'm just saying, I'm not going to drop names and say the cool stuff that's happened to us right now, but you never know who's going to approach you and ask you to speak or approach you and ask you to be on a news channel. You know, like we've had some of our clients have news channels approach them because of social media. And I think that actually leverages, you know, transitions into the next and final foundational piece here. What we're talking about, when it comes to social media, is you are the director, you are the producer, and you're the leading actor in your own reality television show. So I don't think I have to really say much about reality television.

People love watching it. Why? Because people love being voyeurs and looking at other people's lives. And it's almost like an addiction, you know, social media for a lot of people can be like an addiction kind of thing. And they want to know what's going on in other people's lives.

So you get to really cultivate and share only what you want to share, right? The only time that the camera is going to share what's going on in your life is if you turn on the camera, right? If you post it, that's the only thing that they're going to see. So it's like a selective reality television show. So you can share with people what you do, what you want, and you just keep private what you don't — you just don't share it.

So you actually have more control than if you were to start in a reality show, because they actually cut the footage. Yeah. But you get to be the producer and decide what's going to feel good to you to put out there. What is the sort of persona, or image, that you want to create? Yeah.

Yeah. So let's help you guys create a framework for the content that you can share on Facebook and social media. And so I want Nikki to sort of take you through this exercise. I will keep it kind of brief, but if you write this down and you actually go through this exercise, it'll make it a lot easier for you to figure out what to post, how to post it, and really how to go about creating content that you can share that will be attractive to people that are looking for your services, and magnetic.

And I would say possibly irresistible. What about juicy? Juicy? Yeah. Juicy.

Yeah. So for this part, I would highly, highly, highly recommend pulling out some sort of piece of paper. I know you're probably, you may be on your computer now taking notes. You want this on paper, a little notepad, and a pen or pencil. Okay.

So pause the audio if you need to go and do that, and then hit play again. And so basically what I'm going to have you do is just close your eyes for a second and look at yourself in the future. Whenever that is, having the success that you want, having people on social media, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, just clamoring to find out what your next post is, engaging with your posts, begging to find out what you're selling, whether it's services or products. Okay. So just look at yourself in the future as that person.

Okay. And just get a sense of that and allow yourself to just kind of breathe that in and feel that in your body. Okay, cool. So now you're going to take and write down at least five adjectives.

Like if you were looking at that person, that's yourself in the future, how would you describe yourself? How would you describe the content that you're putting out there? The posts that you're putting out there? What are those core words? Is it inspiring?

Is it funny? Is it sassy? Is it super intellectual, analytical? Is it flirty? What is it?

What are those adjectives? And if you need more time, go ahead and pause the audio, take the time you need, and hit play. Okay, cool. So now that you have those adjectives, this could be a really powerful, very simple, but powerful sort of guiding light towards where you want to go. And I would ask you to just have that piece of paper, or maybe you want to put it on a post-it next to your computer, taped on your desk, whatever it takes.

And every time you're about to post something, whether it's a status update or curating somebody's content or blog or whatever that is, does what I'm posting match these adjectives? Does it match the energy of this? And if not, why would I post it? So, for example, for me, some of my core adjectives are inspiring, powerful, impactful, the energy of a millionaire. So it's a really great way to sort of go from where you are into the future in a much faster way and not get tripped up on the subconscious.

What I see a lot of people do is sort of sabotage their social life. You know, like maybe they're super inspiring or they post a few inspiring things, and then all of a sudden something happens in their life, and then they're posting about the drama in their life. So if you can keep that reminder up, you're never going to go wrong.

Abram, do you have anything to add to that? Well, I just think this exercise is really brilliant and powerful. And I think possibly it's sort of like the underdog exercise, you know, where people underestimate just how powerful this is. Cause what it's really doing — if you've done any level of personal growth, this will be a key factor in your personal development. You know, it's not about what you do as much as it is about who you be and who you're becoming.

That's important in building a successful business. So when you have these things, and you're making sure that everything that you're posting is in alignment with the optimal, the successful version of yourself — you know, five years from now — what you're doing is you're actually stepping into that now instead of waiting for five years to become that. So what if, in doing this exercise, that ideal version of you, which you already have inside of you, comes within a few months or within a year instead of making it five years, ten years, whatever it is. And the thing is, if people really got that social media, it's about communication and it's a transfer — communication is a transference of energy.

So if people got that it was a transference of energy, and they really wanted to make money doing that, they probably wouldn't be posting half of the stuff they're posting. So the reason that we're saying this is that we want to help you avoid some of those pitfalls that we see a lot of people fall into. And there's that saying about there's two ways to learn, right?

Mistakes and mentors. Exactly. Right. So we've seen the mistakes. Hey, we've made some mistakes, and we're here to help you save a lot of time and energy so that you can have the results faster.

Yeah. Yeah. And of course, hey, social media is social. So it's like, if you're not out there interacting with people, and really bringing that energy into their world too, by getting on their posts and sharing with them and creating thoughtful, provoking comments and content with them in a conversation, you're also not going to be able to get any traction either. Well, and when you break it down, it's like the energy is really what we're looking for from each other.

It's like, Lawrence, I described the content of your posts, but why does that attract me? Because I like quirky things, you know, it makes me — you're funny. There's a humor that you have. And so when I want that energy of funny and happy-go-lucky Asian guy, excited, like you get pumped up, I go to your wall and I know I'm going to get that energy, you know? And then if I want somebody that's like really deep and philosophical and I want that energy, there's somebody else I know that's going to have that, you know?

So don't underestimate the energy of who you are. Like, that's really what we're trying to — if you can get to your core of that and extend that into your social media, you will have social media takeover. Right. Right. Yeah.

I mean, if you guys ever get the chance to meet Lawrence, which would be an awesome opportunity for you, you'll know, like when you read certain posts of his, you'll know when he's excited, and then you'll hear the post in his voice, like the high pitch, really excited Asian voice, you know, like the Lawrence Tam. It's like, then that just tells you a lot about how much of a transference of energy actually occurs on social media, the same way that it can happen just one-to-one with somebody, you know? Yeah. I do it.

I love it when you get like on stage or you just get really excited. And then I can do like, when I read stuff, I can hear it in your excited voice. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

So that's really it for that breakthrough exercise. And I hope that people take it to heart and they do it and they put it next to their computer. There was somebody that we did this with at an event and there was somebody that actually had like a physical healing, like a miraculous physical — I don't want to say too much about it on this audio, cause I don't want to have people think that I'm curing diseases, but she just had this massive physical breakthrough because she was able to actually step into that energy of her future self. So when Abram says, don't underestimate how powerful this is, it's because we've seen people have massive transformations, you know, just also in the direction of their life and where they're going. Yeah. Yeah.

So hey, let's talk about our six do's and don'ts of social media. You think that'd be helpful, Lawrence? Yep. Six do's or six don'ts, which one?

Well, we're going to start with the don'ts. Okay. Yeah. Right. And then we'll end with the light and fluffy stuff, you know, make people feel all warm and fuzzy when they're done.

The don'ts, it's like, this is the "don't do this" part. It's like when you're with your sensei, like in a martial arts class, and they slap your hand. Yeah. Yeah. You get slapped, you know, you get your hand slapped right now.

That way, when you go out in the world, you're going to be able to do it — you're not going to get slapped around by other people on social media. Cause they're like, dude, you're acting a fool right now. Yeah. Don't want that to happen to you.

So one of our first don'ts is: don't steal. Right. So what does that really mean? You know, don't steal — it means, like, some people go, I would never steal, but they do. It's like, here's the thing.

If you're going to go copy — here's a great example for you — if you're going to go copy a quote from somebody, right, it's a good idea when you post it up on Facebook to let everybody know who the quote came from. Right. One of the things that I think is the most hilarious is, we'll come up with like a great quote that's inspired by something going on in our life.

We'll post it up, and I'll be going through my newsfeed later, and I'm like, that person just copied and pasted everything I wrote. And then didn't give me a shout out, which is fine. Right. Which is fine.

But what would work a lot better for them is if they gave me the shout out, because it helps build rapport between me and that other person. Right. It's almost like burning a bridge before you can even start one. You know, it's like, if you've ever read "How to Win Friends and Influence People," right.

There's a book to read that can help you become a better, more effective communicator on social media and building strong relationships. It's that book, right. It's that book, you know, that revolutionized the way that I do it and the way that it has added to the sort of magnetic way that we go about things. And that's an older book. It's taking an old school concept and applying it into technology in this medium.

Lawrence, do you have anything to say about stealing? Like, is there something that you've seen specifically? Oh no, no, no. I think the average person who does it, they just don't know better. So by slapping their hand now, it's like, hey, look, you're actually, like you said, burning the bridge before you even start. Yeah.

It's probably best to go ahead and quote reference, give a shout out, share the actual link to the person. And that's the way Facebook is built anyway, to spread ideas from other people. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that phrase is so brilliant — burning the bridge before you even start.

And that's what happens, you know, that's the unfortunate part. That's what happens when you steal. Cause you never know, that person could be that millionaire mentor for you, or they want to help you with your business, or they could be a power partner or a mastermind partner. But, you know, I know what happens when I see that — it just breaks my trust.

You know, I just kind of go, hmm, you know, I'm not going to. I may not even say anything. I don't go after people, "well, you stole my quote" or something like that. I just go, hmm, that's not a person that — that doesn't say professionalism to me. That's not somebody that, you know, I'm just going to be a little more cautious around.

So it's like, do you want to hurt that bridge that could be that potential bridge to a whole other level in your business for you? Yeah. And then also, when you share somebody else's stuff, it's a great opportunity to flatter the person. Letting them know that, hey, I like your stuff.

I'm going to share it with all my peeps and people. I mean, flattery goes a long way. And I'll just say this: I know this doesn't happen often, but I have seen it happen where somebody will take somebody else's success story and copy it and use it — like maybe they're advertising on Facebook or something, and they're spreading the story as though it's their story. That's not cool.

Yeah. It makes you look bad. Makes you look really, really bad. And I think it's probably kind of illegal, isn't it? Probably.

Yeah, probably. Right on. So don't number two is: don't hide. Don't hide. Like, what do we mean by that? I mean, when people go to your Facebook profile, is it locked down like Fort Knox?

And this is one of those things that people listening to this might go, oh, come on, that's obvious — but I can't tell you how many people friend me and I go to their profile and I cannot see a real picture of them, or they've got maybe one picture I can't even click on, and they've got all these different, you know, cartoon photos, or photos of the cat, or beautiful women, or beautiful pictures of the earth. Hey, I love beautiful pictures of the earth. But if you're not willing to be seen, that's a little bit like a one-sided relationship already. You're saying, hey, I'm friending you up.

I want to be a voyeur in your world. I want to be connected to you, but not really interact with you. Right. And that may not be what you mean to do, but that's how other people perceive it.

That's how it comes off. Exactly. So, yeah. It's Facebook, it's Facebook.

Yeah. Right. So it's like, man, just get a picture of you on there. It's certainly helpful when you have a picture of you that's recent and current. And when people meet you in person, they're like, oh, Abram, what's up?

Versus, who are you? I don't recognize you based off of your picture. And again, I think there's a lot of people who are afraid — like I know women who are like, oh, I'm afraid of men or something like that. And it's like, you have more control on Facebook — when somebody is being a jerk or being creepy, you can delete them and block them; when you're walking down the street or down a dark alley, you don't know what's going to happen.

Unless you know martial arts or something, you're not going to be able to block them and delete them. So it's like, or somebody flicks you off in traffic — I know I want to just block and delete people if they're being jerks in traffic, but I can't, but on Facebook you can. And so you actually have more control over how and who interacts with you when you do that. And really quick, too, I do know one person that I met that seemed to have a legit reason.

She said, hey, I'm a teacher in the school in the middle of this country, and if they were to find out that I'm on Facebook and sharing spiritual stuff and being myself, they would probably fire me because it's a strict school or whatever. And she had these weird pictures and it wasn't really her. And I said, well, do you know that you don't have to even put your location? I guess what I'm saying is, if you have like a quote-unquote legit reason where, if they found out — there's a fine line between "okay, here's your situation" and being paranoid. And it's like, you cannot hide if you want to do business on Facebook — it's like owning a shop and refusing to put a sign up.

Yeah. Or refusing to give people the address. You're like, well, the right people will just walk by, the right people will just come in, but you're hiding your address. Now the thing about Facebook, you don't have to put your address. You don't have to put real personal information that would allow anybody to harm you.

You're the director, you're the producer, you choose, right? Exactly. Yeah. And then the final point for this, before we move on to the next one, is sometimes when you're trying to keep the bad people out, you accidentally keep the good people out. Yeah.

Exactly. Right. So you're missing out on opportunities for people to find you, which is another one of the brilliant things that comes with social media. So many people have found us organically, through other people sharing our posts and stuff. It would be a shame if people couldn't just see into our world and be like, you know what?

I want to be their friend. I want to connect with them. Exactly. So don't number three — I mean, we could probably do a whole entire audio on this one.

I think we'll just hit on it without — it's like, we really could bring some beat downs for this — but don't number three is: don't spam. Lots of slapping for spamming. It's like, well, what is spam? I would say one rule of thumb that you can use on social media is: you're a spammer if you're creating links that go to your products and services more than 20% of the time that you're on Facebook, right?

If all you do is pitch, pitch, pitch — here's my link, here's my website — people are going to tune you out, right? I would even be willing to say that you might even adjust it to more like 10% of your posts or less, that should be about your business and what you can do for people.

And if you're not creating any other quality content — like you're one of those people that's just like, oh, I post a YouTube link and then a week later I post something about my business and then I don't post anything — even if you're not doing it often, if you're not somebody that's engaging and creating quality content, that's spam too. And basically for me, spamming is anytime you're posting content repeatedly without an actual awareness of your audience, your target audience, who you're speaking to. That's spam. That's spam, right?

Yeah. Like if you walked into a group of people that only want to talk about PCs and you came in talking about MacBook Pros and stuff, it's the wrong audience, right? It's spam. Right? If you came in looking for people to speed up their PC, and you had like a service that did that, and you walked into a group of PC owners, it's going to be more relevant — it'll be seen more as a contribution to what they're looking for.

If you go to a party and you don't even say hi, nice to meet you, here's my card — if somebody did that to you at a party, you would be like, you and your friends would be like, that dude is tacky, right? That girl is full of herself, she doesn't care about nobody but herself and her business, you know what I mean?

Yeah, and then there's of course all the network marketers and stuff who are posting up pictures of their commissions and their checks, and it's cool, sometimes you need to share some of that social proof, but doing it too much can be harmful for your brand and the way that people really see you. We'll talk about in some of the do's section how you can turn some of those, you know, sort of tacky commission shots into something that could be funny for people, that could also be seen as valuable.

I want to share something — yeah, I want to share some of the pieces later that I learned from Mark Hoverson in terms of that piece, right. So yeah, don't spam, don't spam — we could talk about that for a long time, but number four is a really good one. Do you want to talk about this, number four? Oh no, there's — I'm having such a hard day, I felt suicidal earlier today, but then I got on Facebook and I have hope, I have hope things will change. Do not complain.

Yeah, complaining comes in a lot of different forms, and you don't want to be the person that people look at and think, man, she's always crying on Facebook. Like you start a pity party, you attract all these low vibration people that are just — they're not going to vibe with you, and what you really want to bring — and this is a spectrum, like I gave you the extreme of complaining, but there's subtle ways of doing it that really can hurt your ability to have social media takeover — because it's like, you might find that misery loves company, and you'll find people to commiserate, but the inspiring stuff, those people are going to be like, what's going on, I thought this was the emo page, you know what I mean? And it's like, do you want to be the emo person, you know?

Yeah, and here's an example that maybe was a little bit more subtle — I know what you're going to say already. It's like that friend, I have this friend who would constantly be posting about how horrible Monsanto is and the genetic engineering, and we need to go organic now. It's an interesting thing to look at because I get it, she's a champion for a cause, but there's a difference between standing for something and being against something. So if you are somebody that has a lot of judgment and resistance to something that's going on in the world, and you speak to that more than the solution, and you're not solution oriented, you will be complaining. You are a complainer, I'm sorry, but you are a complainer.

It kind of reminds me of, isn't Mother Theresa's whole thing about standing for something instead of against — wasn't that her deal? Well, Martin Luther King — you know what I mean, it's like standing for civil rights. He didn't go, I don't like white people, now I'm going to speak against white people, you know what I'm saying? But imagine if he did that instead of speaking for the solution and what needs to happen.

Yeah, so it's like, if you're going to take on a cause, or you're passionate about — hey, I personally am passionate about organic foods, I speak to my ability to select organic foods and support local businesses. Once in a while, once every three months, I might say some weird stuff's going on, Monsanto, and guess what, there's this petition going on, I'm going to sign it because I want to see this happen — but I don't focus on how horrible that company is. And there's some people that, even it's like this friend, even when you would provide a solution, she would almost still find, "yeah, but there's still so much bad stuff going on and our food is pretty much screwed" — negative all the time.

Yeah, do you have anything around that, Lawrence? Yeah, I mean, the type of person who always harps on the negative attracts negative people — that's kind of the wrong magnetism you're looking for on Facebook, right? I guess magnetism can work for you or against you. Yeah, because you are creating a magnetism, but is it the magnetism that's really going to work for you and create more prosperity in your life?

Right, yeah, let's add to the poo pile — sounds like a good idea. Here's a good example that leads into don't number five, right. We also know some people that — we come from being life coaches, and so we find it hilarious when you're friends with somebody who is a self-proclaimed life coach or catalyst or, you know, name the flavor of the week, whatever your title is — life coaches are always changing.

Yeah, when I was broken, struggling, it's like I'd be like, well, maybe if I just change my title — now I'm a transformational artist, now I'm a matrix destroyer, now I'm a — it's like whatever it is, you're basically helping people transform their lives. Yeah, so we have a lot of friends like that, right, and there's this one friend that we have, and it's hilarious — she went through this like brutal divorce, whole deal. But we watched her go through the divorce, or the separation, and then there was the whole getting back together, so she made an announcement on Facebook for both of those things, and then there was the official divorce, "does anybody know a lawyer," and on and on, all on Facebook, airing the dirty laundry out.

Right, like dirty laundry does not need to be on Facebook, but the funny part is then she's offering relationship coaching. Oh no. And I'm like, this is ridiculous — who, in their right mind, would ever sign up for your relationship coaching when you've been airing out all the dirty laundry about how dramatic your life is, right? So that's just another example of how this stuff can work against you, and how people are looking at you — maybe you don't even realize it — and you're complaining, and that's how people are like, man, I don't want to touch him or her with a 10 foot pole, right, I don't even want to be near it.

Right, which leads to number five, which is: don't make it all about you, right. It's like, nobody likes a narcissist, nobody wants to know — it's like unless you're a celebrity, nobody really cares about you, sorry, and if it's all about me, you're really not going to gain any sort of traction. It's fun to share stories and inspirational things that have been going on in your life, but nobody really cares how awesome you are unless it somehow applies to them — be real. And it's like, even when I share a photo of our puppy, it's with an energy of including people in my world — it's like, hey, you can all be part of this, this little dog's cuteness — it's not like, here, it's all about me and my dog, you know what I mean? It has a different vibe to it.

Yep, so that's number five, right, don't make it all about you. Number six, and the last of our don'ts, is: don't be a jerk. Okay, right, you know, it's like today on Facebook — yeah, or meanie — like don't be that person. I had somebody on Facebook today that was borderline attacking me and calling me names on a thread that I posted up about somewhat of a controversial topic, and the guy was really trying to suck me into his world of name calling and berating and judging other people, right. It's like, well, if I would have come out and gone back at him, how would that make me look?

Yeah, not good at all. So it's like, don't confront, don't engage the haters, don't confront them — if you have a way, and Abram does this pretty eloquently, and we both do it pretty eloquently, there's actually a way that you can, if you want to watch us on Facebook, there are ways that we sort of deal with haters that kind of makes them look a little silly, but it's not confrontational — it's an art, and you have to be really skilled at communicating. But don't ever be retaliatory, if that's your thing — don't be even a word retaliating towards people, because what it does is, maybe you showed that person, but other people see that, and they read that, and then they go, oh, I'm intimidated about interacting with them, right?

Exactly, people like, man, if they're a jerk to that person, I'm scared to post my thoughts and feelings because they might attack me. Yeah, so I think that's pretty self-explanatory — don't be a jerk, otherwise you'll be known as the jerk, and that's also not good for business — who wants to do business with a jerk, right? Yeah, nobody at all, nobody at all.

So let's jump into stuff that we really love talking about — the do's. What should you do on social media, what can you do that really fits in with that exercise that Nikki shared with you earlier, and what can you do to gain that magnetism? Here's some stuff that you can do, right, number one — and I know that we do this really beautifully — is we be ourselves. All right, we be ourselves and we share stuff, we share stuff that has been entertaining in our life, inspiring in our life.

Like, one of the things that comes to mind is, we're out in Miami recently, getting ready to head back home here to Colorado, and so what did Nikki do — she went and grabbed a cup of ice cream really quick before we left, right, and so she took a snapshot of herself with some ice cream walking down this amazing street in Miami, in South Beach, and just shared, hey, had a great time, and I'm going to share some stuff — hit the beach, got a little sundress, going to have some amazing gelato and head back to the airport, thank you for this beautiful life, universe. I'm actually reading the post off of my Facebook page, or her Facebook page here, but she's sharing a photo, sharing a part of what she is that has nothing to do with business.

Yep, right, another thing — it's lifestyle stuff. Another funny thing — we had a friend join us for Christmas, and we took a bunch of what we thought were awkward, family-photo-looking, like serious portraits, and so we posted that up on Facebook too — you know, guys check out our hilarious awkward family photo, and we asked people to interact, we said, how do you think this comes close to the cheesy serious portraits, right? So we're not afraid to be funny, be ourselves, share stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with business, but more of, like, gives people an idea of who we are on a day-to-day basis so people can connect with you.

Right, I think it's really important, and they feel welcome to connect with you. Yep, which sort of leads into do number two — another one of the do's — is be vulnerable. Very powerful, I think this is one of the most powerful ways to be. You want to know anything about influence? Influence comes from being vulnerable — it's like you feel closer to somebody when you know that they've gone through something similar, right, and this is relating, exactly.

I think sometimes people mistake vulnerability for the don't of complaining, or sharing their drama. You don't want to share what is going on until you've already been through it — I'm saying this as a 99% rule of thumb, and some people can get away with still sharing, like, hey, I'm going through alcohol recovery right now, and they can do it really well — but for the most part, I would recommend you do not share "I'm really struggling with money right now" — you share about your money struggles after you've been through it and you've had the breakthrough. You share the breakthrough along with it, right, so it's not a pity party anymore, and people actually get something out of it.

Yeah, it's kind of like watching a movie and there's no good ending — you're like, oh, that sucks. But if you're watching a movie and it's like, oh, that sucks for the main character, but this is how you got out — wow, I can take the same path — they can relate to it, it's a happy story at the end. Exactly, and so I think it's really important to be able to share that with your friends and family, because people are hiding painful stories, or they've got that locked up, and maybe they haven't had their breakthrough yet.

So when you are vulnerable and you share that sort of before and after, you can have people emailing you being like, wow, I was about to take my life and your post had me change my mind — you can truly change people's lives through just one post that's really vulnerable, it's amazing.

Yeah, I mean, we've gotten messages like that, and it just kind of blows me away. Yeah, so I love that — the bad movie that doesn't — have you ever, yeah, I've seen movies like that where you watch the movie and there's no good ending, and you are left feeling pretty depressed, right. It's, I'm sorry to say, like a French movie — they walk around the city talking to each other, and there's always a menage a trois, you know, not always, but often, right, and then the movie ends and you're like, I don't know what happened, they just walked around and talked about their bad relationship the whole time — nobody got married, there was no breakthrough.

Yeah, so hilarious — I know this because my mom loves French movies and used to watch them all the time, and she goes, I just wish there was a really good one, just one good ending, I wish there was more Amelies — that movie is awesome. So cool, so that's do number two — be vulnerable with people, let them into your world, share with them what the victories are that have happened in your life, and you will inspire other people.

Do number three is fun, it's be creative, right, and this is what I talked about earlier when I said we're going to share — for all the spammers out there flashing commission checks and stuff — here's how you can turn that into something that's more creative, right. So we've done stuff, you can actually use things like PickMonkey.com, right, PicMonkey's awesome, it's free, you can use Keynote or PowerPoint, whether you're a PC or Mac, to make really simple images that can convey a lot in just the image.

So, like, Nikki and I, we've had these days where we've earned like thousands of dollars while we're in the shower, right — you know, we're having a shower together, and you earn a bunch of money, right, and of course, hey, look, our results are not typical — just because you shower and post pics on social media doesn't mean that you're going to earn thousands of dollars either. And, you know, before your mind's in the gutter — well, it probably has already been there for the last 30 seconds — we're not saying we get down and dirty in the shower, we're not saying we don't, but a lot of times we just like to shower together, it's like this normal thing, oh, let's take a shower, and we talk about business in the shower — it's really funny, talk about business, get down to business, hey, it's all business, so back to business.

You know, we did this thing, Nikki did this mock-up, and what she did is we took a couple pictures from the shoulders up, in the shower, out of the shower, and created thought bubbles describing, hey, did you know, when we were sleeping, we made all this money — and then there's like a thing on there, it's just like five seconds later, and it's us, happy, in the shower, and it has our link on it, and it has some proof of the income that we earned. So we created a story out of just a funny photo — we took a picture of ourselves with a super surprised look on our face and drew some quotation on it using Keynote, like, hey, we just earned XYZ dollars today, and there's a quote from Nikki that goes, "oh my gosh, that's delightfully shocking," and I'm like, "whoa, seriously" — just funny stuff, you know.

Here's a good metaphor for people — it's like, if you're going to post, whether it's, hey, I've got a $99 massage special, or you're in network marketing or you have some service business, think about it like when you post about your business, it's like a commercial. Like what commercial? When you watch TV, or maybe you watch a preview, or you're just thinking about TV, and you see a commercial, and it's like, get the $999 special, only $19.99, $9.99 — or you hear a radio commercial and it's just being spouted at you, it feels spammy, it doesn't really — you just want to turn it off, you're like, ah, this is so annoying.

So if you're that person that's just like, here's my back office, here's what's going on, I'm making all this money, or check out my special — it doesn't — you might get some results, hey, I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't get any, because I know those spammers, some of them get some results — or you can create a commercial that's creative, and then people will not be able to stop thinking about it. That's why people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials — exactly, people watch the Super Bowl for that.

So what if you apply that principle to social media, to what you're doing on Facebook or whatever, and be very picture oriented — people are visual — so create those pictures. It doesn't take much, you don't have to hire a professional graphic designer — we actually haven't done that, and we've still done over a quarter million dollars — that's right, just doing our own little creative graphics.

Yeah, and the quick tip I promised earlier that came from and was inspired by Mark Hoverson — he put this on Facebook about a month ago — he said, hey, everybody is putting commission snapshots and stuff on Facebook, instead of doing that, you also want to add in some sort of lesson or free training or something that you can offer people. Like, hey, here was my result, I generated a bunch of leads, or I made a bunch of sales, or I helped this person have a massive personal breakthrough — what you might say is, and here's some of the steps that were involved in doing that, or, hey, here's my free webinar coming up, I'll teach you how I generated the result. So instead of being an advertisement, it becomes a value driven post — you're giving back to people instead of just putting stuff in their face. So I think that's one of the things that's helped us tremendously, is turning everything into a learning lesson.

Number four — I think we could do a whole audio about this — but do number four is: speak vision, right. And what do we mean by that? We mean talk about the amazing stuff that you see as possible in the future, in regards to your niche. One of the visions that we have is we'd like to free more people from the money matrix, and help people come back to their families and not have to be limited by the choice of living a nine-to-five, right? So we talk about that stuff all the time — we're weird and wacky, so we also talk about why we think meditation should be a part of everybody's ritual, every single day, why we think — like Gandhi said — that poverty is one of the worst forms of violence, and why we believe that we can create a world that no longer has poverty. We talk about that stuff on social media, we post videos about it, and people are definitely attracted to that vision, and they want to be a part of the ride.

Anything you have to say about that, Nikki? Is that pretty good? That's pretty good, that's good, because a lot of times people don't dream, or don't have a vision for themselves, so you provide the vehicle for them, and they can attach to it, and now you have something in common. Yeah, that's a great point — absolutely, that's why people rally around causes, right, because the cause always has something attached to it in the future, so people love that.

Do number five, right, do number five is: be you-centric, not me-centric. Be you-centric. So like I recommended the book earlier, "How to Win Friends and Influence People," read that — I think you can even get it for free online now because it's been around for like a hundred years, something like that. You always want to make your post focused on other people — how can you be a light for somebody else? I mean, I posted something really simple the other day, I wrote "you deserve to be wealthy," smiley face, and I posted it on Facebook, and it got like over a hundred people liking my status, people sharing it like crazy, and that's a very simple and easy example of how you might take — because somebody might be thinking, well, how do I change from me to you?

It's like, Abram, that could have been one of those things where you actually had that affirmation, or just thought about yourself that day, "I deserve to be wealthy," or you made that decision and that choice — so imagine if he wrote the post "I deserve to be wealthy," people would be like, well, that's great, good for you dude, thumbs up, I guess, you know what I mean — but he changed the "I" into "you." Now that's a very simple example, and sometimes you've got to get a little more creative with that, but that's just one great example of that. Absolutely, go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, we could talk about it for days, but it's like, you can also take your own personal transformations or breakthroughs, and you can take that and turn it around and create a lesson from it, and tell people, like, hey, I went through this, here's what I learned, here's three things that you can do to change this. So whether you're in the business of internet marketing, teaching somebody how to do something through social media, or you're in the business — you're like a relationship coach — you can say, hey, I had this — like, you get vulnerable like we talked about earlier — and so that's the part where it's like, I talk about me, and then here's how it applies to you, right, it may apply to you.

If you can always find a way to relate what you want to say back to the person who's reading it, your stuff is going to get way more traction, people will feel like you really do care about them, because you do, right. And people will want to be a part of your universe because they know that you're paying attention to them, right.

And then the final one, the final do — and I think this is just so important, it's really the point of social media, I think — is do number six: social media, do number six is, share your lifestyle. So this is similar to being yourself on social media, but it's more specific to, you know, the industry that we're in these days — it's like, in the network marketing industry, people want to know — they don't care as much about how much money you made or whatever, they don't care, but they want to know what are you doing with it. Are you helping build water wells? Like, Lawrence, that's something that you've been doing — you know, you can share how that's a big part of your life.

You know, you can share, like, what we did — we were excited the first time that we flew first class, so we shared a picture of us smiling in first class, saying, hey, we're heading out on our first class flight, heading to a weekend of incredible transformation with all of our friends, woohoo. And even though we didn't say it — going back to that, it's about being you-centric — it's like, even when we post something like that, it's like — this is what I mean, the energy and the intention makes a difference — because you can be like, here's my car, booyah, ha ha, I got this, and people will feel that no matter what you say. But even when we post, like, wow, we're really excited to fly first class for the first time, we have that sort of energy and intention and thought in mind that's like, hey, we're going to show this picture so that other people can feel like they're part of the journey, and so maybe people will start thinking, well, maybe I can have that too — that's the point of sharing your lifestyle.

Yeah, I feel like you had something to say, Lawrence. Yeah, opening the doors of possibility — I guess when people are stuck in their nine-to-fives, or maybe they've been told their whole lives that they won't ever become anything or anyone, and then they have a relationship with you on Facebook, well, I'm a lot like Avram, and you're showing things, and, like you said, one of the do's or don'ts you had before was not showing it when you're at your down peak, but, hey, I used to not be able to afford XYZ but now I've passed that, and here's some of the things that you can actually teach — giving them nuggets, and then you inspire and train and teach at the same time.

Exactly. Yeah, I mean, one of the best examples of how we did that is when we bought our first luxury vehicle, right, and Nikki's dream car had been this hybrid SUV Lexus, and instead of just saying booyah, here's my car, right, she made a whole video about the seven easy steps she did to get her dream car — so it talked about her own manifestation process and dealing with the haters along the way, and yada — and it really inspired people to think big, and I took people on a journey with me in the car — Abram's like, I'm driving and I'm filming me while I'm driving, talking about this, I edited it, I had music — you don't want to do that for every video, but that was one of the videos that was really worth it, and it continues to pay in dividends. And people were just so inspired by it, versus feeling like, wow, thanks for showing me your luxury car, I don't feel like I can have that too.

Yeah, it was super — people actually feel more alienated from you than people feeling envy, you know — envy can be a good thing, but a lot of people, you know, it's like, do you want people to feel closer to you, or do you want them to be pushed away? It's like, if you're doing business on Facebook, you want them to feel closer to you, and that's just one of the ways that you can do that. So we share our lifestyle in creative ways, as creative as possible — it's like showing what can be possible when you earn a greater income, showing people, like, hey, we used to be here and now we're here.

Like we just shared with people recently how our living situation has changed dramatically, and that's just sharing from the heart, and sharing a lifestyle without saying, hey, booyah, we made a thousand dollars today — it's like you can share with people what may be more applicable to them and where they're at.

Yeah, so that really sums it up, man, as far as our six do's and don'ts of social media, and how to have a social media takeover — that was killer. Social media takeover, creating influence and exposure, an exercise of how you describe yourself — actually it was really cool, describing yourself as who you would like to be, and want to be, and striving to be that person on a daily basis. Six do's and don'ts of social media, and basically your roadmap to how you did a quarter of a million dollars, not through ads, but through just Facebook, just generic Facebook, free marketing, all organic, free stuff.

That is killer, that is cool. I want to thank you guys for this Inner Circle audio training, and, as always, if you can go ahead and listen to the ones in the past, listen to the ones in the future of the Inner Circle. And I want to thank Avram and Nikki for coming on and sharing their actual method of using social media, specifically Facebook, but a lot of this stuff can be used for Pinterest, Instagram, and all types of social media. So they gave the actual roadmap of how most people go about it, and just — well, let's not spam, let's build a relationship, let's inspire, let's give people a vision. So thank you guys, I appreciate you, and we'll see you on the next Inner Circle call.

Yeah, all right, thanks so much, Lawrence, appreciate you, bye.