Libby & Krista - Can you make sales and grow a business with small audience on SM
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[00:00:00] Libby: If you're looking to grow your business as a registered dietitian, you've come to the right place. If you're not sure what to do or what steps to take next so that you can create flexibility and freedom in your life, then you're going to learn a lot from tuning into our podcast here at Dietitian Boss.
[00:00:17] Libby: I'm Libby Rothschild, the founder of Dietitian Boss, a fellow [00:00:20] registered dietitian and business owner. And in our podcast, I share the highs and the lows, and I talk all about how to grow your business. Get it started. And I interview our clients to date. We've had over 200 interviews from clients who share their journey on our podcast.
[00:00:36] Libby: Dietitian boss.
[00:00:36] Libby: All right, Krista she's back again. She's a registered [00:00:40] dietitian and founder of Dietitian Success Center, an online learning platform designed to help dietitians and dietetic interns build confidence and expertise in both nutrition and entrepreneurship. Krista believes in challenging the status quo and leads a team of RDs dedicated to creating evidence based content and ready to use resources designed by dietitians for dietitians.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Libby: With an MBA in sustainable commerce and an H a and community nutrition. Krista has leveraged her skills to build a multi six figure dietitian focused business. She also teaches nutrition communications strategies at Toronto metropolitan university, where she mentors and inspire students as a lecture and preceptor outside of her professional achievements.
[00:01:19] Libby: Krista is [00:01:20] an avid Baker reader and triathlete. She completed her first iron man triathlon in 2021 and finished a 60 kilometer ultra marathon in 2020. Krista is so excited to have you back. To today's podcast episode, welcome to our community.
[00:01:35] Libby: So today's topic is a question that we get asked a lot and it has to [00:01:40] do with can you make sales and grow your business with a small audience on social media? So I was excited to get both of our perspectives, but what is your first take on that question?
[00:01:52] Krista: So my take on this question is yes, you can absolutely have success with a small [00:02:00] audience.
[00:02:00] Krista: I know that from firsthand experience because so just for a little bit of added context our audience at Dietitian Success Centre is dietitians. specifically, which relatively speaking, that's a pretty small group of people. That is a niche audience for sure. And on Instagram we're almost at about [00:02:20] 3000 followers, but not even like we have a pretty small audience, but Instagram continues to be one of our top five referral sources for people actually finding out about us and joining the Dietitian Success Centre membership.
[00:02:36] Krista: So yes, I know it's possible. And we [00:02:40] have to think strategically about it, but I do know it's possible, but I'd love to hear your take on that question 1st, and then we can get into sort of some of the strategies there.
[00:02:47] Libby: Yeah, absolutely. So similar to what you said, whether you have a niche audience, like dietitians or not, you don't need a big following to make sales.
[00:02:57] Libby: People with big followings have low conversion [00:03:00] rates means that they're not able to make sales. So that's not always, I know it would make more sense and it can, but there's multiple things to keep in mind here. There is not only growing your audience, but there's also your ability to sell and convert, which are two different skills.
[00:03:14] Libby: So you can have a small audience with a decent skillset to convert a small [00:03:20] amount of people, or you can have a large audience. And you can also have a low skill or high skill. It just depends on your situation, but it can go both ways. So you can see somebody, if we were to compare here with 50, 000 people that have a low conversion rate, meaning that they're not great at selling and converting, and they're not clear in their messaging or [00:03:40] somebody with a small following that's decent at converting, that can make more sales.
[00:03:44] Libby: So I think that we assume automatically that a smaller following means that we feel defeated, but that's absolutely not true. So I have clients that have been successful with small followings. We have a small following on YouTube. There's a very low search volume for dietitian and private practice on YouTube.
[00:03:58] Libby: I'm talking 40 [00:04:00] hits a month. But we're still able to rank for that for those keywords because their competition is so low on youTube.
[00:04:07] Libby: About videos regularly. That's just one example. So I hope that what you can keep in mind for those of you listening is that audience size is one component of this process when it comes to business.
[00:04:18] Libby: And it is [00:04:20] important, but we want to build an engaged following and we want to make sure we understand basic sales skills so that we can convert the followers that we have. And so earlier, Chris and I were doing a membership talking about start with one member at a time, and your community starts with one person at a time as well.
[00:04:36] Libby: So instead of focusing on having a large following, I think it's [00:04:40] valuing who's in your current community, even if that's end of one, and then really finding out how you can provide more value and focusing on your sales skills. And that'll hopefully confidence.
[00:04:50] Krista: Yeah, and I think that's such an important mindset reframe, right?
[00:04:54] Krista: When we're in this world of social media, you know, traditionally [00:05:00] being valued based on numbers and volume, right? And you almost forget that each of those views is a person. Right? When was the last time you stood in front of an audience of 100 people and were able to get up in person and were able to get a message across?
[00:05:17] Krista: Not that often, right? If ever. And [00:05:20] social media gives us the opportunity to be able to do that. And to your point, we need to remember that each of these individual views is an individual person. if you're getting hundreds of views, you know, that's hundreds of people.
[00:05:31] Krista: That's fantastic, right? So we have to remember that it's really about those fewer, more deeper quality [00:05:40] relationships than I think that volume game. And one of the things we've really found and focused on and I think this is important to remember when it comes to social media and I'm sort of talking about Instagram specifically here In that number of followers does not translate to people seeing your content.
[00:05:57] Krista: So what I mean by that is like, I'm on my feed every [00:06:00] day, I'm getting content from people that I don't follow. But because I've paid attention to their content, it's continuing to serve up their content to me, right? That doesn't necessarily translate to me actually following them. And so, Number of followers is not the important metric that we want to be paying attention to nowadays, I believe.
[00:06:19] Krista: I think it's [00:06:20] really about sharing. So how much was your content shared? You know, we have that little like share icon when we look at our content, how much was it shared? How much was it bookmarked? I love seeing when people bookmark my content, right? It's like, that's so validating that it was actually impactful for them and they actually want to go back and look at it again.
[00:06:38] Krista: So I think it's really more [00:06:40] about looking at different metrics of success. And not necessarily the number of followers. Like, that's just not the most important thing nowadays.
[00:06:49] Libby: Yeah, and I think that's a really good point in terms of looking at other metrics. And unless if you are a influencer looking to get, right.
[00:06:58] Libby: Different episode, [00:07:00] different day. That is, The 1 situation where it does matter because you are getting paid for the impressions you have in your audience. But for those of us that are not only looking at brand deals, we're looking at selling a product service membership, a consult and our nutrition business and our private practice.
[00:07:17] Libby: I think that. What we could focus on, [00:07:20] like you mentioned with the metrics are more of process metrics. Like, what are doing? What are our habits on a day to day? Not necessarily when we get too caught up on the outcome. Like, I'm looking for 100 likes, or I'm looking for 1000 more followers. When we focus only on that for some of us, it can work.
[00:07:37] Libby: But for most of us, we tend to miss some [00:07:40] steps. So what I think is more important is the strategy. Cause we all jumped tactics of social media and getting more followers as a tactic. And I get it and it can be important. I don't want to say it's not important, but what comes first is who are we reaching out to and how are we connecting to them?
[00:07:56] Libby: And is our message clear? And what's the biggest problem that we're solving? [00:08:00] So if we're in the diabetes. like what are we doing? Are we helping people lower A1C? Are we taking all foods fit approach? How are we unique and how are we authentic on our messaging? And so the more we can focus on adding value to our community and showing up and letting people get to know who we are as a brand, that is the metric that we here at [00:08:20] dietitian boss focus on preceding any of the metrics that have to do with follower count.
[00:08:25] Libby: So I'm not saying it's not important, does matter, but I think that there are things that come before it when it comes to strategy that will help your mindset feel like you're working towards something more achievable and less abstract. It can feel really abstract to say, why don't I have a thousand more [00:08:40] followers?
[00:08:40] Libby: Why don't I have more likes, et cetera, but really going back to the drawing board is asking yourself, like, what about. My content am I doing that isn't strategic? Why is not landing? And those are the questions that I'm not seeing a lot of dietitians ask. And that's usually what I work on with my private clients and then our membership community to help them reframe [00:09:00] how to focus their energy on social media.
[00:09:01] Libby: So it's more about going to the strategy and less about the tactics.
[00:09:05] Krista: Yeah, I love that. I totally agree. And one of the things that we've experimented with a little bit this year is really paying attention to what is the messaging that [00:09:20] lands and doing more of that, but part of that is Is paying attention, right?
[00:09:24] Krista: It's taking a moment to reflect on what is my position on this thing? What opinion do I want to have on this topic? And, you know, being a little bit less like last, when we were just talking before, we were [00:09:40] talking about being you know, precious about your content, right? Or like kind of like we all feel like we our content is so important to us.
[00:09:47] Krista: It's greatest thing in the world. And I think, when it comes to something like social media, we have to be okay with putting things out there at a higher volume to see what works and what resonates with people and not spend [00:10:00] so much time on one individual thing we're spending hours and hours creating this real and then it flops versus, is there a way that we could have gotten that message out there?
[00:10:11] Krista: Easier quicker, more efficiently and been able to pay attention to what was the result of that and what actually landed what didn't land [00:10:20] and then do more of the thing that lands.
[00:10:21] Libby: Yeah, and that's what we teach and what you just said is really hard for a lot of dietitians similar. I find a lot of parallels in the way that us dietitians approach marketing with how we approach our offer.
[00:10:35] Libby: So we want to have an offer that's already done before we've gotten feedback from our clients. [00:10:40] Yeah. So true, right? Yeah. All the stages we think we want to help with infertility. Well, what are you talking about? I have a program for infertility. I have a program for pregnancy and for postpartum, right?
[00:10:51] Libby: This is a dietitian that we work with, but they haven't even like worked with one prenatal dietitian or like women struggling with fertility that wants nutritional guidance. [00:11:00] So I think we do that off also with our content. Why is this real flopping after we've spent an hour on it, but like you haven't.
[00:11:06] Libby: Like identified that what you're talking about in the real is what people are looking for. You haven't done it enough. So it takes a lot of time, a lot of repetitions for us to start to get the hang of it and start to learn more what people want. So if you're wondering, if you're listening to [00:11:20] this and you're saying, okay Libby, but I've been making reels, I've been asking people and then if that's you, you're in the right direction and it might just take a little bit more repetition.
[00:11:28] Libby: Kind of like you're putting in the hours to study for biochem. Like some of us can get it in five hours and others of us, like we have to take 238 times as long as others to just like, get the swing of it. And it's not necessarily bad. It's a new skill. [00:11:40] Like content marketing and understanding the tactics of social media and the strategy behind what we're doing and why is a skill and some of us catch on quicker than others.
[00:11:49] Libby: So I think it's important to not compare yourself necessarily to the next. I tissue might say, Oh, my gosh, this person. I know this peer, this person under this hashtag is doing so amazingly well. And that's where we want to step back and like, not compare ourselves [00:12:00] and say, like, that's inspiring. And I'm going to focus on myself because this is where my skill is right now.
[00:12:04] Libby: Yeah. I think that's hard for us to do. And that's why a lot of dietitians come to us and our membership and in our private coaching programming, and it's really about mindset.
[00:12:14] Krista: Absolutely. Rejection.
[00:12:15] Libby: Like, I'm afraid if I put this out, and those are all understandable, like, things.
[00:12:19] Libby: It [00:12:20] just takes a while to get comfortable. So there, there's a lot to unpack here, but the bottom line that I think is most important is to focus on the strategy before the tactic. So every time someone comes in and says, I really want you to help me with social media, I say, great we're not going to start with social media.
[00:12:33] Krista: Mm hmm.
[00:12:34] Libby: We're going to start with like, who were you talking to and the ideal client? And do you have that documented? And [00:12:40] let's like, let's take a look at it and review it together because everything's going to correlate with the ideal client you have documented and like what that person wants and needs and social media marketing will become so much easier once you know who that person is.
[00:12:51] Libby: So I would say that if you can align some goals around the process of codifying your strategy and not the tactics, that'll help a lot with your [00:13:00] mindset.
[00:13:00] Libby: Converting is a skill, right? So you're going to have to learn how to sell and then you're going to have to learn, like, how to have conversations with people, how to be client centered, which most of us know from our counseling skills, right?
[00:13:10] Libby: Being client centered to what other people want and need. And that's pretty similar when you're translating to like learning sales acumen as well.
[00:13:17] Krista: Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point too, around [00:13:20] strategy is we're sort of talking about marketing strategy as a whole, right? And what role does social media play in your, Overarching overall marketing strategy, which can also include other things.
[00:13:32] Krista: It can include a podcast. I don't really include a podcast as social media. Personally, it can include, you know, Google SEO. It could include community [00:13:40] connections that you make. Like there's so many different aspects or layers to a marketing strategy. And I think it's also being clear on like, what role does Instagram or social media play within that?
[00:13:52] Krista: And is it. Just because you see other people prioritizing social media and posting content every single day, [00:14:00] that doesn't necessarily mean that that's aligned for you, your goals, your ideal client, your target audience, your messaging, what you want out of your business, what you want your day to day look like.
[00:14:09] Krista: Like, these are all very nuanced situations and I think that You know, that's why I love having these conversations and talking about marketing is sort of a more of a [00:14:20] holistic way because you know, I hear that a lot too. It's like this feeling of like, I have to be on social media or I have to be on, creating reels and have to be on TikTok.
[00:14:31] Krista: And I think it's just so important to think about, think about marketing a little bit more broadly than that. And
[00:14:37] Libby: it's hard. Yes. And it's hard to do [00:14:40] that when. Well, we're told we need to two more years of experience and that's really definitely enforced. And so a lot of us don't know what marketing is because it wasn't part of the curriculum.
[00:14:52] Libby: We've been totally clinicians, which we do. We need to be amazing clinicians and we need to be a decent business. And so Where we at [00:15:00] Dietitian Boss come in and really supplement with business skills that school didn't teach you, because if you want to be known, seen and heard as a dietitian, specifically one who creates income outside of a 9 to 5 job, then you have to work on your business skills with their social marketing or in person networking.
[00:15:15] Libby: Although we do mostly focus on online presence. Those are important skills to know that we [00:15:20] just most of us just weren't taught that in school. I know school's evolving a little bit, right? So I'm on board of a internship in New Jersey that focuses on business. And like, back when I got, I became a dietitian 10 years ago, they didn't have that.
[00:15:30] Krista: I teach at a university here in Canada, and I teach a dietetics program, and I teach business and entrepreneurship, and that didn't exist before either, which I think is so [00:15:40] cool, right? Like, and it's so awesome seeing this stuff start to evolve and start to become Part of the skill set that we learn as professionals, which I think is
[00:15:50] Libby: yeah, but I hope we live in a world where business skills is art and dietetics is valued.
[00:15:55] Libby: Yeah, this is importantly is clinical and that will take and it does [00:16:00] take people like us to create businesses and business models also takes the curriculum and dietetics to be more open and standardized, which I don't know if that'll happen in our lifetime. I know that there are some like you teach in our supplemental programs, but they're definitely the minority right now.
[00:16:16] Libby: Yeah.
[00:16:17] Krista: Absolutely. But I feel like I agree. We've seen a lot of [00:16:20] progress. And I think about, you know, when I graduated, nobody was running a dietitian business. Like, I didn't know a single dietitian entrepreneur at the time. And now that's really changed. And I think that that's so
[00:16:32] Libby: it is cool.
[00:16:33] Libby: And because there's this trend and momentum with dietitians in business and practice in some capacity. [00:16:40] That's where social media is important because remember that people, if we look at the stats on social media, this might be a topic for another podcast episode, but like people look online for solutions.
[00:16:50] Libby: Totally what to eat when they're feeling nauseous during pregnancy, how to manage their bloat with they're going to be looking for solutions from [00:17:00] practitioners. And so, if we're able to pop up and have this online presence for folks, then we can be a solution for them. And we can help represent our career and dietetics and the role of a.
[00:17:08] Libby: Licensed dietitian I think it's important that we're out there representing online. So I just want to say that it is important to think about cultivating an online presence in some capacity. Even if we start [00:17:20] with something that like whatever that looks like, we start by being a guest on a podcast.
[00:17:23] Libby: We start by blogging, whatever it is we do to get started. I do think that we need to be present and active and our voices to be heard so that the people can get help from licensed professionals.
[00:17:34] Krista: Yeah. Totally.
[00:17:35] Libby: If you're wondering how do you get started or, you know, you feeling defeated with a small audience and converting, just [00:17:40] remember at the end of the day, you're doing this to help people and to represent that we are registered dietitians, that you are a registered dietitian representing yourself.
[00:17:50] Libby: And your credentials and helping people achieve various health outcomes. So if you think of that as being more important than the amount of follower count that you have, even the [00:18:00] conversions you're able to make, hopefully that'll motivate you. I know, you know, that motivated me when I was first. So I think it's something to think about what motivates you to continue, what motivates you to think about this topic.
[00:18:11] Krista: And I think another important point to close on is just this idea that just because your feed might be filled with a lot of dietitians, [00:18:20] because you have a lot of dietitian friends and colleagues and whatever, that's not the norm. Right. And so, you know, a new person who sees your content for the first time, you might be the only dietitian or the only person talking about nutrition that they have coming into their feed.
[00:18:37] Krista: Right. And so I think that's a really [00:18:40] important. Point two is that there are so many people out there that need help from a dietitian. There's more than enough room for all of us to excel on social media and to talk about what we want to talk about and to access unique audiences. And so I think that's just an [00:19:00] important reframe too, around like, each individual person is an individual person.
[00:19:05] Krista: Each view is an individual person. And look, to your point, we're out there trying to help people. And yeah, just remember that you might be the only person that that person is listening to. So you can have impact, you can have true impact. It's so
[00:19:18] Libby: helpful. We often forget [00:19:20] that. Yeah, totally. We forget and it makes sense that we don't think of that because technology and the algorithm totally, but that's a really great perspective is like, just because you're seeing a lot of the same doesn't mean that the person you're reaching out to will hopefully that'll help help you as well when you might be having mindset issues.
[00:19:37] Krista: Yeah. So [00:19:40] normal part of running a business. Yeah, absolutely. Totally. Where can the audience find out more about you?
[00:19:46] Libby: Well, you can check us out at dietitianboss. com. You can also find us on our podcast, Dietitian Boss YouTube, Dietitian Boss and Instagram Dietitian Boss.
[00:19:55] Krista: Awesome. And we are at Dietitian Success Center on Instagram, the Dietitian [00:20:00] Success Podcast, dietitiansuccesscenter. com, Dietitian Success Center on YouTube. Awesome. Awesome. Great to chat with you. Yeah, you too, Libby. So great. So awesome. Thanks for your time.
[00:20:10] Libby: Looking for support to grow your dietitian business or even get started, I invite you to join the library, our monthly affordable membership that shows you exactly [00:20:20] what to do every step of the way so that you can create the business of your dreams. Not sure if it's the right time, the membership gives you an option to.
[00:20:28] Libby: Go at your own pace. We have modules, a roadmap to show you exactly what to do and monthly live calls, as well as new content that we release every single month based on requests [00:20:40] inside of the library. We have four stages of business. So whether you come in getting started or you want to enter the membership and grow or scale your business, we have the appropriate resources for you.
[00:20:49] Libby: And our team, including myself available to answer your questions, head on over to dietitianboss. com and check out the library today. We'd love to see you there.
