 All right, how's everyone doing? All right, good. Coming to the stage next is Femi Lewis. Femi, Lewis is a New York City based writer, specializing in entrepreneurship as the founder of the content marketing firm Femi writes. She provides content, coaching, and strategy sessions to small businesses, small business owners. Her work has appeared on digital platforms such as The Balance, The Balance Small Business, Puslet, Infinera, and the media outlets such as Black Enterprise, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Fourth World Star, Telegram, and Kansas City Star. Her session talk today is build your online presence, brainstorming, exercise, and develop your content strategy. Give Femi Lewis a nice welcome. Thank you so much. Can you hear me? So happy to be here today. So we're gonna talk about these five brainstorming exercises that I impart to everyone on social media, whether I'm doing one-on-one sessions with service-based entrepreneurs, because I really feel like before we can start even developing a strategy, we've gotta have some roots, right? We have to have roots so we can have wings in our businesses. So I'm a firm believer that dope content empowers entrepreneurs, right? We have to be thinking about the content that we develop as something that has tons of value and will show who we are and our expertise. So I coach, I create, and I edit content. You can find me at FemiRights.com and also on Instagram at FemiRights and on LinkedIn, Femi Lewis. So let's get started. So if you are interested in the brainstorming exercises I'm going to share today, you can download the workbook so that you don't have to necessarily worry about the slides. I'm copying everything. Okay, okay, I'll fix it. Thank you. So since I can't fix it now, we'll fix it later. And if you wanna share your email with me after this presentation, I will get into you, okay? So here's our ice breaker. I'm a big Golden Era hip hop fan and so one of my favorite songs is Don't Believe the Hype. Have you guys heard that song? Yes, no, I'm getting blank stares. Maybe this is the right target audience. Sorry. So we're gonna play a little game. Do we believe the hype or not? So I'm gonna give you a couple of scenarios, some statements, and I want you to tell me do you believe the hype or not, okay? AI writing tools will make the content creation process obsolete. Do you believe the hype or not? Okay, good, good, I'm in a good place. Posting on social media daily will help you make sales. Believe the hype or not. It depends on what you're posting, right? Have to be really intentional with your posting. Finally, a content strategy is the same as a content plan. We believe that hype or not. Chop questions, I don't do traps. I don't do trap questions, I don't do trap music. I do Golden Era hip hop, okay? So let's get into it. What's the purpose of creating this online presence? So I believe that like business owners, especially service-based businesses, should be looking at their online presence a little bit differently, right? So you have your website, you have social media, and you have your email list, and those three things need to be working in synergy with each other, right? And that's how you build your online brand, and at the heart of it should be a content strategy that says if these people are coming on social media and I want them to make sales or I want to nurture them, what do I need to do on my email list? What do I need to do on my website, right? So that people are coming to the website so that people are following you on your email list. So you want to use this online presence to build your credibility, to generate leads, establish relationships so that you can generate the sales. And this is something that I've come up with called the SPA method, and this is how I want everybody to start to think about how they can really develop a relationship with their content in a different way. I don't want people, service-based entrepreneurs, especially, or coaches or people that are content creators, just throwing things up on social media, just going and hitting publish on their blog or their YouTube channel. I want you to really start to think about why you're doing the things that you're doing. Your content always needs to be intentional. So you have a strategy, a plan, then you're gonna produce your content, be promoting it, and then analyze your analytics. And if you follow those steps, then that's going to help you reach your audience, build greater awareness, and then make those sales. So this is what I'm also trying to say in part to people, that if you build a strategy, you're going to have clarity for you, you, the entrepreneur, and that will help you carry through with your production and your promotion and your analytics so that these people that you want to nurture, whoever your target audience is, will understand your importance. So what does it really take to come up with a content strategy? So you've got to be looking inward at yourself, as a business, as an entrepreneur, and even yourself in your personal life, right? And then you have to look outward. Remember what I said before about roots. You have to have roots so you can have wings. So if you're looking inward, you're thinking about who you are, your business mission, your vision, your goals and objectives, and your story. And then you're looking outward at your target audience, your competition, trends in your industry, and how you can take everything you have inside of you, right, to create that unique selling proposition, to meet those people on the outside. So content, plan, and production, because when I asked the question about a strategy and plan the same, people were like, some people said no, some people said yes. You said it was a trap, not a trap. But your content, plan, and production is actionable and tactical, which is different than the strategy, which is you looking inward and you figuring out what you need to do to have those actions and those tactics. So this is what I wanna just really make very clear, that tactical things are creating a content calendar, posting on social media, sending out your newsletter, using something like Canva. Those are all tactical things, even using AI, tactical. But before you can be tactical, you have to do these things that I'm going to show you now. So we're going to be looking at these specific points today. We're going to define ourselves. We're going to explain the uniqueness of our businesses, identify our target audience, and research our direct and indirect competition. And I call that the necessary solar, right? It's like creating a really good meal. What do you need for the meal to be green? What do you need first? Like what kind of ingredients do you need fresh? I say seasoning. So seasoning, if you have that seasoning as your base or your room, then the rest will do its work, right? If you don't start with that, those good fresh things, it's gonna be a mess. So the first thing we wanna do is to find you the entrepreneur. And how do we do that? So you have to think about this. Who are you? And if you don't know, no one else will. So I want you to start to think about who you are in your businesses and who you are in your personal life and how those two kind of gel together to create like specific core values or your mission or your vision within your business. So this is the exercise. I want you to think about who are you in your personal life? What are your professional, excuse me, what are your professional accomplishments? And how do you use these parts of you to create a unique business? So my business, I create content for service-based entrepreneurs as well as like coaches, people that wanna put together digital platforms. But when I think about who I am in my personal life, I set up my calendar to end at two o'clock, right? Because at 2.30, I have to go pick up my children from school and I just tell people, look, sorry, cancel to you again till eight o'clock. That's it. That's who I am in my personal life. But what are my professional accomplishments that allow me to help people? So I taught for a number of years, I've been a writer even longer. And so when you think about the needs of people in coaching, they need to understand that they need an end result, which is what teachers do every single day. We think about the end result first and then we design a lesson. And I also think about how they need to reach their target audience, which is what I learned as a writer. So that's how I put together who I am and how I show up for my business in a unique way. So for you, you have to do the same. You have to think about what are the unique parts of yourself that you bring to your business. So now you're gonna define your business. So you need to mind your business or no one else will. So so many people think like, oh, I'm a landscaper, oh, I'm a hairdresser, or I design websites. Yeah, that's the service that you provide to people. But the bigger thing is, why do you provide this service? That's what your target audience wants to know more than anything else in the world. Why you? Why should I choose you out of 20 other people on Angie's list to come and landscape my house, right? And what's unique about you in your business and your approach to meeting client needs? So don't just think about yourself as somebody that provides a service. Think about yourself as somebody who's providing a service in a way that no other business can. So what's the problem? And do you have a solution? And to get there, you have to think about your target audience. So I work with a lot of different types of clients and people will always, when you ask this question, sometimes I get the answer. Oh, everyone is my target audience. And I consistently say no, everybody is not your target audience. You might have a product or a service that everybody you think would use, but the way that you provide that service or that product determines who your target audience is. So you have to define specifically who you want to service. So when you're defining this target audience, you wanna think about how much money you wanna charge for your services. If you're charging, I don't know, $100 for a service like mowing a lawn or something, but somebody else charges more than that. Well, then you have a different target audience than somebody that provides a different, that same service in a different way. You have to think about the problems of your target audience and how can you specifically solve those problems, right? And sometimes it's a little deeper than the surface level. Sometimes it's a deep pain point and you have to think about why they want these things more than ever. And what's the benefit of letting you provide the service? Finally, we're gonna get into direct and indirect competition. So you need to do a bit of research and a lot of people don't like to do this, but I feel like this is where things start to really shift. So when you start to research your direct and indirect competition, you're gonna start to understanding the messaging that they are sending. This is your opportunity to look at the type of content they put on social media, what they have on their website and how they're positioning themselves to offer specific services. If you see that what they're doing is in a bland way, then this is an opportunity for you to up the level and really show your uniqueness. So you wanna use this to get customer feedback, research social media and other online communities, and you can also use market research reports to identify competitors in the industry trend. So those are the three ways that you can begin to research them. So this is direct competition. So I'm a plus size woman and I'm pretty fashionable. So these are the brands that I love. They're all in competition with themselves that in the respect that they service women that wear size 14 to about 24 and they're always in the same price range and they have similar value and similar quality. So that would be considered a direct competition. So you need to think about those three things. So here is what you can do in terms of an exercise, identify three to five direct competitors and then think about why you're looking at their language in one social media or sign up for their emails, right? See how they are reaching their clients. Are they just reaching out during specific times a year? Are they sending weekly emails or bi-weekly emails? Are they sending tips? What are they doing with their content to position themselves uniquely? And then think about what you need to do. So what is similar in your approach to sharing your message and what is different? And when you do that, then you'll really start to see how you can position yourself differently. In direct competition. So they might have different products or services from the same category. So these are all fast food people Domino's Wendy's Taco Bell. I live in the Bronx and if I'm driving down Gunhill Road and my kids are like, we want Wendy's but it's on the opposite side of Gunhill Road. I'm saying, look, we're right here. We are northbound. You are going to choose Domino's right there or Taco Bell. That's that. Because it's right here. It's fast food. We're gonna get what we need. Everybody's hungry. You wanna eat. Those are your choices. So the same thing as before. You're going to look at three to five indirect competitors. So think about people in your industry. They don't serve the same type of products or services. But it's similar and it can be an option. What are they offering? And why would somebody choose them over you or you over them? That's it. I will, if you give me your emails, I will fix this QR coding and send you. Any questions? Yeah, I told them we're gonna fix them, thanks. Thank you. So I'm a college teacher, so I don't have a business. So, and I struggle with the content for, I mean, I shouldn't say that. So I use my blog to share stories about my students and things we do inside and outside of the classroom. What are your thoughts on repurposing some of the blogging content for social media? Are we repeating in this case? No, so what you can do is, and I always say you can take chunks of your blog. So like a good point becomes social media posts. So for instance, if you had a post where you're like, what content do you teach in college again? So it's digital business management. So business and IT courses. Okay, so if you said five digital management tools every student should have, right? And that was the blog post. Then every sub headline in that blog post, excuse me, blog posts could become a carousel on Instagram, right? You can take specific quotes from your blog posts and make it a quote on Instagram. So think about those nuggets or those things that are really important to you and put them, that's what it is. You can do the same thing on LinkedIn too. Yeah, I do that, but sometimes I worry that I'm repeating the same content on different social media platforms and also because of the nature of the semesters, we have lots of content during the semester and then we calm down during the winter break and the summer break. Right, so are you saying that is your blog more reflective of your teaching? Okay, so then I think this is just an idea, but on LinkedIn it could really focus on that, right? Being reflective of the things that you're teaching and how it can support students in the world and business, all of that, right? That's for LinkedIn, for Instagram it could be a little bit more touchy-feely, like, oh, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm working on. But don't feel like you're repeating because you can always just tell people wanna read more about this, hit my blog. And I also find that different people are on different social media platforms anyway. Right. And Instagram can add a little bit more personal. Exactly. As opposed to LinkedIn. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Hey, thanks for doing this presentation. I have a quick question in regards to social media. So one of the things I've been noticing at least nowadays is you have all these different social media apps, you have Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, you can just list them all. Is it better to just focus on, like say, your blogger, is it better to just focus on the blog and then one social media platform and then expand upon, like say YouTube, like YouTube's a very powerful social media one because it has, I think, your followers are more stronger. So you don't need to be everywhere. Okay, yeah. You need to be with your target audience. Okay. So who are you, and that's the importance of strategy, right? And that first part about looking inward and looking outward. So if you're thinking about, you know that your target audience is tech heavy, but you need to find whatever social media platform that they would be on where they would want your content, right? If you look on YouTube and you see that there are not many people that are delivering the type of content that you would deliver, that might be an option, but it also might not be an option because it might not be where your target audience goes, right? So you really have to think about where your target audience is and what they want to see and how they want to see it. In your experience, do you think YouTube is a more, because I feel like with like, say technology history, like all these different niches or whatever, like I feel like there's always something on YouTube versus I feel like with Pinterest, for example, I think tech stuff would not be so common there, but yeah, is that like, like you think YouTube is good? So this is what I'll say. If you feel comfortable doing a YouTube channel and you want to invest in that and you feel like that's where your target audience would be, then I say go for it. I have a friend who has two YouTube channels that have done phenomenally well, but her target audience is right there. They're looking for a relationship. You know, like they're looking for a relationship advice. They're looking for certain things. And so that's where she is. She never shows up on Instagram. Like she started Instagram. She was like, I don't have time for this. I'm not doing it. I figured. She just does YouTube and she does YouTube shorts. And that's it. And she has like a lot of followers. Five digit followers. So, you know, it's about where your target audience is and where you feel the platform you feel most comfortable on. Okay. So I mostly post on Instagram and I post things that I write for publications on LinkedIn. I'm starting to think about posting more of the coaching things on LinkedIn, but that's how I do business because there's a lot of service-based providers on Instagram and they check out what I put out, which is a lot of like, check out these content ideas. This would be good for your business. And then I show them how to do it. And I've been pretty successful in handling it like that. I just don't have the time and interest. I'm exhausted every day. So I'm not, I don't have the time for YouTube channel. So I would know I would be totally playing myself to do something like that, right? Yeah, I have that same opinion because like you'd see like people with like Instagrams and like they all have everything they all do. And it's like, I don't know how to do that because like it takes so, takes a lot of time to do just one of them. And then if you have all of them, it's just a lot of effort. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, I have a quick question. Sure. How would you find your target audience? Are there any particular tools you use or you just kind of just watch everything, watch every social media platform or trends? How do you go about doing that? So you think about, there's a few things you need to do. You need to think about your specific business. So I'm a content coach and a content creator. And I started my business mostly on Upwork and I found that it was mostly black businesses that hit me up and I didn't understand why and I was talking to a business coach and I was like, yeah, I don't really get a lot of other people every now and then I do, but it's mostly black business owners. And the coach said, because you know their voice, right? And you're on Upwork. So at the time, you know, Upwork is a little cheaper. You can kind of negotiate things. And I realized a few things as an entrepreneur. This is a stepping stone, but it's not the last step. So I'm not even using Upwork right now because I'm in a totally different pricing space right now, right? So my target audience has changed to more brick and mortar service based entrepreneurs that can afford to put out a couple of dollars. I still work with micro entrepreneurs, but it shifted because I realized I needed to charge more. So you can think about the businesses that you wanna serve if you're servicing businesses. How much money you need to make because that's really important. You can't be helping somebody else grow their business and get you tuna fish out of the can, right? I don't even like tuna fish. So I like salmon and that's like $5 a day, right? Or like $10 for 15 for a whole salmon. So you have to think about those things and you have to think about your voice, what makes you unique and what you want to provide to people. So like I don't really do product-based businesses but I worked with a woman who was coming up with a scrub and like a body smoother, not a lotion. She called it a body smoother. And she was charging $50, a jar. And she told me that everybody was her target audience and I was like, this, everybody is not your target audience. No, like I'm going to Target and I'm buying or I'm going around the corner and I'm buying a big tub of Shea Butter and I'm going to use it. If you have a Christmas sale, I might be able to buy it. I'm not your target audience. Prickly pear and vitamin E mixed together is great and it smells nice but there is no way that I could ever say I'm buying this every month. So I'm not your target audience. Your target audience is women that can spend $50 on a body smoother and $50 on a body scrub. So you have to find those people. I was like, I think you should go to like small boutiques and try to put your things there and you'll make your money. You see? Thank you. Okay. Further questions? Well, oh, we have one. Not really related but since you're so knowledgeable maybe you can help me. So I have a blog and I have people that comment and most recently somebody who has a Slack channel has been commenting and I don't know what Slack channel is. I know it sounds really weird but if you have any knowledge of that I would love some insight. So Slack is a platform that people use around specific things. So like I'm part of a business coaching program so my business coach has a Slack channel for us and within the Slack in her account there's different channels. So there's our Friday roll call, there's our random thoughts, we can put content or questions about things that we've created in there. There's a channel on client acquisition and then there are like Michelle that spoke before she has a Slack channel, a few different ones that she runs. She runs one for underrepresented in tech and she runs one for black WP members. So you join Slack channels if you're invited because you wanna learn certain information, you wanna be privy to certain content. People can use it as a marketing tool. I personally, I find myself more overwhelmed when they get too big versus ones that are very small and have like an intimate set. So like the first one I told you about there's eight women in it. I'm in another one where there's thousands of people and I'm getting like 50 notifications a day. I'm gonna exit out because I don't have time. But it can be important for promoting your blog. So if you find a Slack channel that's related to your blog, I would join it or like women in business or think about your indirect competition and how joining one with them might be helpful to you too. Well, Fermi, thank you.