Andréa Jones (00:00): If you're ready to hear how real business owners are leveraging the power of Threads to build their business, I'm excited to share today's round table episode. We're talking about hands-on strategies and the things that they're actually doing today to drive interest in their business or to at least build community around the topics that they want to cover. This is basically your behind the scenes look on how things are going on Threads, here now and today. Let's dive in.
(00:34):
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(01:27): All right, to kick things off for today's episode, I want to introduce you to our lovely panelists, and I'm going to start with Melissa. Melissa, can you introduce yourself and your business? Melissa Litchfield (01:38):
Yes, thanks for having me. Melissa Litchfield here. I own and run a digital advertising company called Litchfield Media. We specialize in helping digital entrepreneurs and small business owners and service space providers scale and grow their business with paid traffic and strategic funnels funnel. Andréa Jones (01:55):
Beautiful. And I'm excited to chat with you, Melissa, about paid stuff because paid isn't yet on Threads, but I also love how you're using it. So yeah, Melissa Litchfield (02:04): It's kind of a nice break, right? Andréa Jones (02:06): Yes, yes, yes. Thank you so much for being here. Next step, we have Lennox. Lennox, can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Lennox Saint (02:13):
Of course. And thank you so much for having me, Drea. It's great to be here. I started the online journey in 2021. I was depressed studying war, so I decided to quit that the day I graduated and then started an online tutoring business. Long story short, I spent 3000 hours and $80,000 building a course that nobody wanted, and then I started to write on Threads. And fast forward a year, I am the Threads guy and I've built a community online community for Threads creators, and as of yesterday, it's just made it into the top 500 ranking on school. So that's been my three year journey.
Andréa Jones (02:57): Perfect. Thank you Lennox. Yeah, that's how I found you as the Threads guy and then joining your Threads community and was like, hmm, let's dive deeper into this. So thank you so much for joining us today. Next up we have Jereshia. Can you introduce yourself and your business? Jereshia Hawk (03:12):
Hello? Yeah. I'm Jereshia Hawk. I am a private business coach to multi six and seven figure business owners. I've been in the entrepreneurial game for the past eight years, primarily in building group programs and teaching other people how to elevate the sophistication of their offers, really enhance their messaging to attract more premium priced clients. And I know we'll talk about this a little bit in the episode, but yeah, I've been just focused primarily on private one-on-one mentorship at the moment. And yeah, I'm just happy to be here.
Andréa Jones (03:45): Thank you, Jereshia, excited to chat with you today as well because I've been stalking you online for years, years and years, and so interested to see how you applied that to Threads as well. So thank you so much for being here. Becky, over to you. Last but certainly not least, can you introduce yourself and your business?
Becky Mollenkamp (04:03): Hi, I'm a business coach who works with founders who want to do business differently, meaning they want to check out of all of the toxic capitalist norms and operate their business in a way that really reflects their progressive people first values. Andréa Jones (04:18):
Beautiful. Thank you so much, Becky. Alright, so let's dive into my first question. I'm going to ask this question to all of you. So those of you listening, this is kind of the question for the table if you will, and I'll start with Melissa. What is your approach to Threads? Melissa Litchfield (04:36):
Yeah, okay. So I did a YouTube video on this and I thought I would share my Threads posting strategy with your listeners, but my first tip I guess for myself is really to just give more engagement, then focus on posting as much as I can. So what I've found over the past year of being on Threads is to engage more than you're actually posting on the app. So engagement can look like adding your own thoughts, sharing your expertise to someone else's thread, hyping that person up, giving encouragement, agreeing, confirmation. You can also do this with a quote or repost other people's posts. But yeah, I think sharing a client win is crucial throughout the week. It could just be once a week sharing a meme, sharing something non-business related. I think that's how a lot of people were drawn to my account. I do attract other millennials that are in business like myself, so I think it's kind of true when we say you kind of attract who you are or the type of people that can relate to you. And then I like to also ask a question, so that's kind of my posting strategy. So I kind of switch up those four different themes and then focus on giving more engagement than expecting to receive it on my own posts.
Andréa Jones (05:58): Okay. So follow up question to this, I'm curious how you're seeing the impact of those posts that aren't related to your business. How is that affecting your strategy overall? Melissa Litchfield (06:11):
Yeah. Well, sometimes things go viral and I feel like you have to protect your piece, right? Because some specific posts that are not business related and have no enrichment to constantly having to respond to everybody, I feel like it is draining sometimes when a post goes viral. So I personally ended up deleting something that was non-personal, but more often than not though the non-personal posts get the most engagement for me. I feel like others could probably relate, but anything super business related where it's like a call to action to opt into something, obviously it doesn't get as much engagement as say a tutorial or something that's funny and super relatable to other entrepreneurs.
Andréa Jones (06:59): Do you feel like sharing this post that was personal, give us the topic at least? Melissa Litchfield (07:06):
Oh gosh. Well, it was about basically I have a rental property in Savannah, Georgia, and my tenants, after being in the house for about four weeks, they decided to break the lease because they broke up. So that created a lot of opinions and thoughts and I was getting called a lot of names and I felt like I was checking the engagement on the app and responding to people my entire Sunday morning. And even my husband called me out and he's like, what are you doing? And I was like, you're right. What am I doing? I was like, this serves no purpose. And I thought it was just something like funny, maybe others could relate to it or just laugh at my situation, but at the end of the day I was like, this is just not worth my piece anymore. So I deleted it. But yeah, it got over, I mean, I don't know, 30,000 views in less than 24 hours and I was just like, no, I think I'm going to kill it. So
Andréa Jones (08:04): Yeah, that makes sense. Interesting. I am finding on Threads that the more off the cuff personal style posts are working better, but then you're opening yourself up to the backlash of randoms, basically randoms. So I love that you decided to protect your piece with that one and you found your boundaries there. Thank you so much, Melissa. Okay, next Lennox, same question. What's your approach to Threads? Lennox Saint (08:31):
Okay, this is actually a great timing to ask the question because I shared my whole approach in the community a few days ago in my community and it basically came down to, I figured out that I'd spent over a thousand hours analyzing Threads posts over the last year, which is ridiculous. But basically over that time I've realized that there are three different types of posts that I just like to post daily. And in terms of that's the tactics, but the strategy, overarching strategy is it's just consistency and patience and time. And I know everyone who is on this show right now can understand that that's just how this game works. There aren't really any hacks. If you're patient and you do things consistently that will work. So bearing that strategy in mind, the tactics of the post itself, I post three times a day. One post is like a one-liner, a heavy hitting one-liner.
(09:32):
The other post is a listicle and the other post is a long form or if it's not a long form, so multiple different Threads in the one post, it will just be a more detailed singular post on Threads. And I found that the one-liners, they tend to get the most views, the lists tend to get the most likes and the long form posts tend to get the most follows and conversions. And my observations around the long form posts is that those are really the key to converting followers into leads at the first step of your funnel. So that's the content side. But then as we were just talking about, engagement is really, really important on Threads because that's how you build up these connections. And what I try to do there is I've got sort of a, I suppose a checklist, but it's just my how to engage when you don't have time to checklist.
(10:34):
And basically I go through having a look at if someone's quoted a post of mine, I'm going to prioritize that because that's a nice sign that they appreciate my content. Then a mention, I'll go through mentions and reply to those. Then I'll go through and try to reply to as many people as I can, and then I'll just go and all the comments as well, and I will, if I can't reply to everyone, I'll go and them. And I find that that balance is a nice way to try and stay on top of it because as we were just talking about, sometimes something goes viral and it can be a bit overwhelming. And then I'll also keep on top of that content with the short form posts, the one-liner, the list and the long form. And that's my whole approach.
Andréa Jones (11:19): Yeah, I mean that sounds like a lot of time to spend on Threads. So what about the listeners who are listening who are like, okay, I don't have that much time. Which one of those would you prioritize? Which style of posts would you recommend or what have you found work for you? Lennox Saint (11:38):
If I had 30 minutes a day to dedicate to Threads, I would post a list and then I would spend the other 20 minutes going out and commenting on other people's posts and just to sort of build up some connections. And I think just those two things, a list post and going out and commenting on other people's posts in that 30 minute block a day will be pretty effective. Andréa Jones (12:08):
Yeah, I like that. Thank you Lennox. I appreciate that. I do have follow-up questions, but we're going to come to them later in my round table here. Next up we have Jereshia. What's your approach to Threads? Jereshia Hawk (12:21):
Yeah, when you asked me to come on, I was like, I don't have this hardcore strategy. I treat Threads like a playground. It's like I treat it my girlfriend's group chat. It can be unhinged at times and I don't know, but I went back and analyzed my post because I was like, okay, let me actually be able to give your listeners something tangible. And I noticed three common categories for what I typically post. I think first and foremost, my emotional experience when I'm on the platform is very playful, it's very detached, and I think that's a really important mindset or mentality of how I approach Threads. I'm not posting with any sort of expectation of any type of outcome or performance that is first and foremost. So it feels very freeing in that sense. But the posts of mine that have gone like ham is I was sharing a story about my 92-year-old grandmother in her request for me to do Instacart orders for her.
(13:21):
And I noticed that my expression of my identity is what has gone the most viral on Threads. So when I take kind of a self inventory of just what aspects of my identity align with, I'm noticing some core alignment with my most ideal clients. It's like family is really important to my clients, my grandmother is my family, so whenever I share her people, that post got maybe over close to a hundred thousand reach, which is insane for my Threads, but it's like everybody has a story about grandma. So it was a really wholesome post. And also when I share about my flowers and I've been getting into flower arrangements and just sharing my hobby and showing the visual of it, so those are identity based posts that really have a reflection of who I am at my core. The other thing is just like I mentioned, I treat Threads.
(14:13):
It's like my girlfriend's group chat and me and my girlfriends are very much like, girl, you got this. We hyping each other up, we gasping each other up, and I look at my Threads, my thread posts that are very encouraging, or that one audacious girlfriend that you have in your circle or guy friend in your circle. That's just always, it's like the hype man posts. That's very much again, who I am. So that personality gets showcased on Threads, and those posts have done really, really well as well. There's one in particular that recently got about 50,000 reach, and then I shared it on Instagram and it also performed incredibly well on Instagram as well. And then the last is similar to Melissa where I'm asking questions, but the questions I typically ask are more of how to where I'm seeking the opinion of the community.
(15:00):
So it could be something like it's a little bit more nuanced than what I could Google and I would want a human response versus me just asking ChatGPT, but really asking the opinion of my audience for things that I'm actively searching and looking for. So before I go to Google, I'll go ask my Threads and those tend to perform really well. So yeah, when you asked me to come on, I was like, let me go analyze my Threads to actually see what my approach is. It's not super mindful in the moment, but those have been the ones that have performed the best and also really cultivated this beautiful sense of community with new people that I did not know and also with my existing audience.
Andréa Jones (15:37): Yes, I love that. And I also noticed for my own Threads, those identity posts do really well, and I think there's something about collective experiences that is amplified on Threads and we can go, oh yeah, girl, me too. And so I observed that about your post as well, and I appreciate that. Thank you. Jereshia. Next up, Becky, what's your approach to Threads? Becky Mollenkamp (16:02):
Well, I'm glad Jereshia went before me to say I don't really have one because I literally have zero strategy. There is no strategy. I don't think of it as business. It's been great for my business, but I don't think of it as business. I don't. It is literally just a place I go to say whatever the hell I want to say, whatever's on my mind and it's working, but it's not because I was in any way intentional or strategic about it. I just share my real-time thoughts. They happen to be largely political because that's how I am and how I'm wired and the people that I work with care about political issues, they care about the world, they care about things that are bigger than that go beyond just business stuff. Ultimately, I'm a business coach, but I don't talk about business on Threads at all. So strategy, I have none. My approach is just pure authenticity, I suppose, would be how I would boil that down. Yeah,
Andréa Jones (16:56):
I think one of the things that I like about your Threads as well is that you're reflecting not just your thoughts, but the thought process. And so there's been a few times where you've posted things about how you've changed your thoughts around something or how you've learned something new about I don't know, the world around you. And so I love that whole reflective journey as well because I feel like you're a living example of how we should be processing things anyways. We don't have all the answers to everything. And so that's what I love about fangirling over your own Threads as well. That's what I love about
Becky Mollenkamp (17:35): Them, Becky. Well, thanks. Andréa Jones (17:37): Yes. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and when we get back, we'll dive into the rest of these questions. (17:45):
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(18:27): And we're back. So I have a question for each of you about defining success on the platform, and so I'd like to go back to Melissa and start with you. How are you defining success on the platform?
Melissa Litchfield (18:40): I think we all kind of have monetary goals, so I made a little bingo card of goals that I have, but in terms of success, for me, what really was a light bulb moment of wow, this thread thing is actually working is when someone wrote in on my discovery form that they came from Threads and I was like, okay, maybe I should add Threads as an option to see where people are coming from. Andréa Jones (19:08):
Yes, I love that it's actually building the business, not just a viral posts that need to be deleted. Thank you, Melissa. Appreciate that. All right, next up we have Lennox. How are you defining success on Threads? Lennox Saint (19:23):
I also had a follow account goal when I first started because I started my account with 17 followers, and that was really my first foray into social media. And at the time I had said, oh, well, I was cyber bullied as a kid and I had this fear of posting online. So I thought my hypothesis was that I'm going to start posting a lot as some form of exposure therapy and have this arbitrary goal of 10,000 followers, and now I call them Threads friends or friends. So that's been my sort of win in terms of quantitative stuff. But it's sort of evolved since I first started because now I've found that actually having just people in my community helps me develop a connection far deeper than I otherwise could have on Threads because I find there's only so far you can go just in the replies, but if you've got this sort of enclosed little corner of the internet where it feels kind of private, you're able to establish a much deeper connection. So now I'm looking at wins on Threads as more of a good long form post that can convert people into it's a free community, and then I can have deeper connections with them there through the calls and the q and a sessions and all of that. So I think it's funny, we both Melissa and I have both sort of said that success on Threads is kind of getting people off Threads and into more of our own world, and that's what it is for me in a nutshell.
Andréa Jones (21:00): Awesome. Thank you. Lennox. Next up we have Jereshia. How are you defining success on Threads? Jereshia Hawk (21:07):
I mean, for me it is just does it still feel fun? That is an internal checkpoint. It's not a part of a strategic overall business strategy. My short form and long form platforms are Instagram and podcast Threads is like I said, just my playground. So does it feel fun? And as long as it does, I'll keep treating it like my girlfriend's group chat. But I think one of the biggest markers of success has been probably just the depth of community. When that post went viral about my grandma and me sending her candy and chicken wings, like Instacart reached out and sent her a bouquet of flowers and sent her bags of candy she's stocked up for, she was like, I'm going to die with all this candy. I said, well, please don't eat it all. She's been going through them so fast. But to me that was a really powerful moment and I think a way that I've never treated, I've always used social media primarily for business ever since I even opened up my first Instagram account. It was for a business I had in college. And I think seeing that and experiencing that, the fun, but also that real human fulfillment is how I kind of view success on Threads is quality of relationships that get started, those precious moments that are totally unexpected, but it's because the community rallied around a post and it caused it to create a real human impact. So for me, it's just really about fun and the positive payoffs are really those new relationships that get formed in depth of those human touchpoint that tend to happen.
Andréa Jones (22:42): That's so beautiful. I love that. And I love that Instacart actually send her stuff I Jereshia Hawk (22:47):
Know, tag them in the post, so I'm like, somehow they just saw it and they were never physically tagged, and I was bawling my eyes out on that Tuesday morning. I was like, I cannot believe this. And it was hard to explain to my grandma who sent all this stuff. I'm like, I don't know how to really fully explain this for you to get it, but it was a really beautiful moment. Andréa Jones (23:10):
This is when the internet can come together for good. I love it. I love it. Thank you Jereshia. Becky, over to you. How are you defining success on Threads? Becky Mollenkamp (23:20):
I feel so I don't even know how to answer all these questions. It just feels so not strategic. My answer is also like Jereshia, if it's fun, I've had more success on Threads than I ever have had on, and I mean success by the traditional term of follow accounts and stuff than I've ever had on any social media platform. I didn't expect it. Clearly I didn't have a strategy, I still don't. So I went into it just like, this will be fun. For some reason, people followed, and now I guess for me, the things that feel good that make me feel like it's still fun and that it feels successful is when I have people say, thank you for saying that thing. I saw that thing you said, it made me feel less alone. Or you're saying the thing that I was afraid to say.
(24:01):
Those kinds of things, because again, I'm talking about pretty divisive things. And so when I have people, because believe me, I get lots and lots of the people who don't say that kind of thing. My replies are filled with lots of people calling me names and being incredibly unkind, and I deal with all of it. So hearing somebody say thank you, that means a lot to me, or your voice means something to me that makes it all feel worthwhile. There's the other benefits of getting subscribers out of my newsletter. That is the thing I look at, but I don't actually track. It's not a metric I'm really tracking, but I do know that that's happening. I've also had sales because I sell feminist t-shirts and I can directly attribute thousands of dollars of income to Threads, but honestly, none of that is stuff I'm really tracking directly. Again, I'm not that strategic. So for me it's more the feeling space stuff is how I measure success.
Andréa Jones (24:54): I love that. I love that. And I love, especially with the election coming up, I've been loving the creative outlet with the T-shirts. I am here for it. I love it. Okay, so now I have specific questions for each of you. I'm going to go back over to Melissa. One of the things that I've noticed that I just want to be nosy about is that you're taking your reels and you're repurposing them over to Threads. Tell me about that strategy and how impactful it's been so far for you.
Melissa Litchfield (25:25):
I personally love sharing my reels over to Threads. I don't do it all the time, but I love to share specifically the dancing ones, right? Because it shows my personality, it showcases how I interact in real time with music and relating that to business. So I feel like people get a kick out of it. Now, is this my biggest strategy in terms of reach and impressions on Threads? It's not. It's more so I find it more so nurturing type of content, a type of get to know me type of content versus educational. Although sometimes I do tie that into the dancing reels.
Andréa Jones (26:07): Yeah, that's always what I think when I see your reels, I'm like, oh, how fun. I wish I could dance. I love seeing it, and it's like the layers to your personality, which I like to see. Thank you so much, Melissa. Lennox over to you. One of the things I noticed with your Threads is that you use the topic tagging option quite a bit, which is thread's version of a hashtag. What impact do you think that has had on your reach? Lennox Saint (26:36):
I think of the tags as more of a long-term game like SEO, but just for Threads. So the way I think about it is I to try and dominate a sort of keyword so that when more and more people join the platform, because they seem to be joining by the millions every month now that say if someone is interested in the keyword Threads growth, which is the one that I'm trying to sort of dominate, then they might go and search for some term that relates to that in the search bar and hopefully my name just pops up across all of them and then they sort of associate my name with that area of Threads and they can see all those tags. So in terms of the impact on reach, look, I don't think there's a positive or a negative in the short term. I haven't noticed one except it might just be a nice little way to make a few keywords stand out because they go blue. But more long-term, I think about it as though I'm kind of trying to boost my ranking in the search results in the search bar on Threads.
Andréa Jones (27:42):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Threads uses that because I actually like that they only allow one because of Instagram's hashtags strategy. I feel like we end up stuffing in a bunch of hashtags, and I've definitely fallen into that camp and with Threads being only forced to choose one topic to kind of hyperlink and connect your post to, I actually think this is brilliant and I hope other social platforms follow suit. I also like that you mentioned that that word stands out because it's blue. Never made that connection before for me personally, and now I'm like, oh yeah, you're right. That does stand out. So interesting, interesting approach. Thank you, Lennox. Next question goes over to Jereshia. One of the things you mentioned earlier is that your thread strategy is the girlfriend's group chat, and I noticed that you're very transparent about things going on in your life, your sabbatical and things like that. How do you draw your boundaries when it comes to being transparent on Threads?
Jereshia Hawk (28:39):
Yeah, this is the big question that has been riding with me. I think just in general on social media because people see me as very transparent, but I see a distinction between transparency and privacy, and I think that what's been, especially in this season, I took seven months off from my business and had zero obligations outside of learn how to make pancakes, figure out how to make floral arrangements, rediscover myself and kind of just take care of myself. So as I've been coming back online, this was a very top of mind thought process. But when I think about privacy and as a distinction between transparency, I think about what breaches my sense of self-trust. If there's things that I'm still actively going through healing processing, if there's any ounce of weight to it or if it's like I don't have something to share the end of the sentence, I went through this and these are my reflections, or this is what I would keep in mind in the future.
(29:41):
If I'm not at a point yet where I have those realizations, those stay in my journal and in my private life, those don't ever end up on social media. And when it comes to transparency, I think about, okay, I really believe in spiritual obedience and I believe in the power of sharing a testimony and how you showing your light can help somebody else tap it and find their own. So I'm always checking in, and that's an often thing. I mean, sometimes I have vulnerability hangovers, not because I've breached my own sense of self-trust, but because I was radically obedient to sharing my voice in a way that might have felt like I might have been like, I don't know, maybe concerned about how others might perceive it, but I know that I was like, you're cheering this from a very wholehearted, wholesome place and I feel like spiritually called to say it.
(30:34):
So I feel like there's that dynamic that I check in when some people see, I shared recently on Threads. I descaled my business, went through a divorce, took my sabbatical, and I debated a lot about whether or not I would ever mention my divorce publicly online. But I was like, Jereshia, you've been documenting your journey this entire time. It's been over a year since it's happened. I don't know. I feel it in my body that, okay, it's time to say something. And I know for me, particularly my online platform is part of, at least in this season of my life, and for the last eight years, more than that, probably the last 12 years of my life, I know it's a platform that is where my purpose is meant to be displayed and for me to be an answered prayer to somebody else. So my obedience answers somebody else's prayer, and I believe in that reciprocity.
(31:26):
So when I think about transparency, I think about, okay, as long as it doesn't breach my sense of self-trust and it doesn't violate my humanness of still processing something or whatever, and then I second guess check that against, okay, what is true for my ideal clients and for my existing clients and for my audience, what are the things that they're maybe possibly struggling with that there's cohesion between the two of us and I can again, create that bridge of connection. So that really is what influences it for me. If I know that me sharing this will build trust with my community, if I know me sharing this will strengthen connection with my community and will also show a layer of my humanity, bring some realness and some warmth to this very digital screen-based transaction, that's usually my gut check.
Andréa Jones (32:16): Yeah, that's beautiful. And I love the emphasis on the reflections piece. This is something that I'm constantly thinking about as well, is when do we share things online, especially those of us who are very public about the things that are happening in our lives, and then how do we make sure to protect our own piece? And it sounds like you really have the boundaries in there between transparency and privacy. I appreciate that. I had Jereshia Hawk (32:42):
One other thing. The thing that I tell my private clients is that every layer of your identity does not need to be monetized. And when we are personal brands, I think part of and your business is dictated based off of your intellectual property, your perspective, you being a public figure is part of your job description as a business owner. But I think that sometimes where, and I used to get meddled at this and I work with my clients on this too, is just like every layer of your identity does not need to be monetized. So identify which aspects of your identity you feel comfortable, confident, and to share publicly and which aspects don't you, because every version of you does not need to show up on a public permanent platform, and I feel like that might just be another lens or another way to kind of think through that too.
Andréa Jones (33:31): Yep. Love that. Thank you so much, Jereshia. Becky, over to you. One of the things I've noticed about your Threads, which I feel like as a fan, I've always mentioned I'm a Becky fan girl, you've had quite a number of posts take off, and when I look in the comments, I'm like, these comments would put, I would be crawling in bed crying. People are, they've been mean. How are you dealing with the intimidating openness of being available to the public at large?
Becky Mollenkamp (34:04):
Well, it's funny you should ask that because I'm literally in the muck of it at the moment that we're recording this, and I just had to put a little post up saying, all right, that's it, guys. You go ahead and just keep bickering amongst yourselves in my replies, I'm going to take some time away. See you later, because it is a lot. And so I think when you are somebody who's willing to speak on tough topics, you have to know that you're going to be dealing with that. And so I don't think it's for everyone for sure, and that's okay. I think we all have to find our lane in the things that we feel like that we're comfortable with, that we're passionate about. But for me, because that is how I show up, I know it, and I have a pretty thick skin, so I can deal with a lot.
(34:50):
But even that said, eventually it adds up and even the person with the thickest skin at some point after being called enough names or dealing with enough stuff, it wears you down. And so I take breaks, and I also am very public. There are times when I will say, you're being mean. That's not very kind. Have you thought about the fact that I'm a real human on the other side of the screen? Because I think sometimes people forget that. So I will be really transparent about how people make me feel. Sometimes people like to use that to their advantage, and I just think, oh, that's sad for them. And fine. Also, I take breaks. I talk with community. I have really wonderful people in my circle that I can turn to and say, this hurts, or these people are being unkind. Or to also do that gut check, did I go in the muck here?
(35:37):
Did I do something wrong? Done that. As you mentioned, I have stepped in it over the last year and I've had to issue some public apologies. I'm always there for growth and learning, so I'm there to do that when I do. So I think having people that you can talk to, one, just vent, but also do some of that gut check. And then also taking breaks, recognizing in yourself the signs of it's time to take a break, which I have gotten pretty good at being able to tell when am I at a place that I need to say, okay, I'm stepping away for a while. Those are the things that help me.
Andréa Jones (36:12): I have a follow-up question to this. How do you know when you're ready to come back from a break? Becky Mollenkamp (36:18):
I don't know. Usually, I mean, let's be honest. The truth is I can tell you all these, I can talk a really good game, but I stay longer than I should. I don't take as many breaks as I need to. I just had a conversation with a good friend today about that. She's like, do you think maybe it's time to take a little break? And I'm like, yes, you're right. I should. And so I don't do enough and I go back too soon often, but I do try to look for when is my nervous system feeling more regulated again? So right now I can feel my nervous system is getting dysregulated by what's happening in this very moment with me on Threads. And so that is the time when I'm like, okay, I'm feeling heightened anxiety. I'm feeling myself getting angry at people where normally I would rather be the, I'm not showing up how I want to show up.
(37:03):
And so when I can feel that and in myself, that's when I know I need to take a break. Do I always know? But I try because when I don't, usually the things that I start doing are not the choices I would make if I was in a regulated state. And so then when is it time to go back when I can find myself being more regulated again, when I've gotten the anxiety calmed down, when I'm not feeling that heightened emotion when I can feel like, okay, I can manage if somebody comes at me showing up the way I want to show up. Sometimes I misjudge that, but that's what I try to look for.
Andréa Jones (37:33): Yeah, beautiful. I love that response. And I do think just the self-awareness piece is very helpful in moments like these, as we wrap up our episode today, I want to ask one last question of everyone, which is, what is next for you and your business? Share a little bit with our audience about what they can learn about you. Melissa, we will start with you. What's next for you and your business? Melissa Litchfield (37:55):
Okay, this is a good question, right, because I've had to think about this for this year, and I hate to set lofty goals just for basically my own ego. So what you can expect from me for the rest of this year is probably more speaking opportunities and those coming to light. So you will see me attend some conferences, speak at some conferences for the rest of the year. And for I guess the future really, I would love to grow my ad membership. So that's in the works right now, relaunching the ad membership, which is ad traffic school, and then focusing on the agency as well. So just kind of revamping up the scale and growth of the agency as well as the ad memberships. So those are kind of the two offers that I'm really dialing in for the next couple years.
Andréa Jones (38:56): Awesome. Thank you, Melissa. I will put the links to everyone in the show notes at onlinedrea.com slash 3 1 9. Lennox, over to you. What's next for you and your business? Lennox Saint (39:09):
I've been very, one of my key principles online and in my own community as well. It's just transparency and I love that distinction between transparency and privacy that we were talking about earlier. And for me, part of that transparency is just letting everyone know that one of my goals is to be in the top 100 ranking on the school community platform. So that's definitely what we're working towards as something that we're going to move on to over the next few months. And then I'll plan, well, I am currently building out a high ticket version of the free community now, and that will be called Saints Circle. So watch this space.
Andréa Jones (39:53): Awesome. Thank you. Lennox. Jereshia, over to you. What's next for you and your business? Jereshia Hawk (39:59):
Yeah, this is the first time ever in business where I'm only focused between now and the end of the year. So big thing for me this year is really just focusing on supporting Private one-on-one, mentorship and business coaching clients. So helping individuals who really need help, maybe rethinking their business model, restructuring their offers, improving and refining their messaging, restructuring their internal operations and their team. So just private one-on-one coaching is the priority of focus. This year I'm hosting an event in October, really intimate mastermind for multi six and seven figure business owners. So I'm really looking forward to that and then come after that event. So come November is when I'll do some strategic planning for next year, which I think will still be a mix of private one-on-one and group coaching and just I've shifted my podcast to focus on seasons versus ongoing forever weekly episodes and even Becky talking about taking breaks. I've been learning a lot about how to not self abandon and overextend myself. So wrapping up a season of the podcast right now and then we'll launch another season of the podcast in the fall. So that's what's on my plate right now and still reading some good fiction books. So if anybody has any good recommendations, send them my way, please.
Andréa Jones (41:18): That sounds like a Threads post right there. Jereshia Hawk (41:20): I know I should go put that on Threads. Andréa Jones (41:23): I love it. Thanks Jereshia. Becky, what's next for you and your business? Becky Mollenkamp (41:29):
Well, Jereshia, if you like rom-com romance. I have been dabbling in that area, which is new for me. I have always been very, yeah, I do like lots of nonfiction books, business and politics. So this has been new, but it's been fun. So I'll send you some recs on Threads. So what's next for me? Well, I have my podcast, feminist Founders. The next season's getting ready to come out very soon, which I'm very excited about. Season three will be coming out. I switched to Seasons two Jereshia after learning that lesson the hard way. And in support of that, or before that, the newsletter, I have a newsletter on Substack by the same name Feminist Founders. I am going to be launching an audio series event, so it's a private audio series. It'll go on a private podcast feed for paid subscribers. Andrea is one of the people that participated in that. There's like 30 amazing speakers talking about all sorts of facets of business and decolonization and those sorts of things. So I'm very excited about that. That's coming up very soon too.
Andréa Jones (42:25):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Becky, and thank you dear listener for tuning in to another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. The links to all of our amazing guests, including their Threads accounts, will be in the show notes onlinedrea.com/ 3 1 9. Next week I'm going to be back with a hot topic from a user submitted question all about the link in bio. Is it on its way out? You got to tune in next week to hear all about that. In the meantime, make sure you like and subscribe to our show. Your ratings help keep us in the top 100 of the marketing podcast. And that's all due to your support. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon. Bye for now.