Building a Home Business Through Social Media - Mike MacDonald

It's like you learn the foundation skills first of building the audience, engaging the audience, selling to that audience. And then, you know, that conversation skill set of finding their pain, finding their needs and wants, providing that solution. And it doesn't matter what you use. You know, that's what what I like to tell people. It's like do what you like. If you like doing live videos, awesome. That's gonna work when you follow this format. If you like Twitter, if you like Facebook, like learn that foundation skill set first. You can apply it to anything and be successful.

Hey Fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness Podcast and Interview Series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and executive number 63, Dr. Mike McDonald. So he is a consultant for home business entrepreneurs. So what does that mean? If you are somebody who is starting a business from your home, uh most likely online, he's the man and he is an expert in social media marketing. And that is a very, very hot topic nowadays and has been for a while and will continue to be so. So there is so much actionable information in this episode. It blows my mind. Um and just you know, to let you know, Mike, I didn't know Mike uh before I found him on social, and he was seemingly omnipresent. And I actually, me, a digital marketer, saw so much value in some of his offerings. I clicked and I added it on and I was added onto his email list. That's how good this stuff is. So um yeah, before I get into that, all I ask is one thing. Go to iTunes. Uh, if you like this podcast, please subscribe and then give us a favorable review. That's it. It's the Future of Fitness podcast on iTunes. That would be fantastic, and I greatly appreciate it. So uh yeah, let's get back to Michael McDonald because there's so much information in here for you guys, and uh you can take it right away and start working with it and building your business online. So without further ado, number 63, Mike McDonald, enjoy. Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness podcast and interview series. Today I have Mike McDonald, who uh he'll tell you more about what he does, but in essence, he is a home business coach. So, Mike, take it away. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Welcome to the show.

Awesome. Well, definitely thanks for having me. I'm excited uh to be here. But yeah, I mean, you know, kind of my background and story. I've been in the the home business industry about 12 years at this point. And when I first got started, I was working in nutrition and wellness and health. So that was always exciting to me to be in that background. And it was exciting to get to help a lot of friends lose weight, reach health goals, different things like that. And you know, I liked it a lot. I was passionate about it, but I I guess when I first joined the industry, I was working in network marketing and I was not that great with people. You know, I guess I'm a kind of introverted video game nerd by nature, so didn't really have a lot of sales skills or business knowledge or anything like that coming into it. So um, needless to say, I struggled. Uh, I got like two customers my first two years in the industry, so that was exciting to say the least. But um, you know, thankfully, flash forward uh a couple years later, I was able to lock arms with some different mentors and you know, really learn that skill set of you know, prospecting, recruiting, sales, you know, having a conversation with a human. So that was cool, you know, in that sense. But um at the same time, uh, you know, flash forward several years later, I ended up getting out of the health and fitness industry. Um, you know, kind of as the economy took a turn for the worst, I had a lot of overheads in my business, renting office space, advertising, you know, different things like that. So I ended up making a shift. But at that point, you know, I had that skill set of like prospecting and recruiting, but for the most part, I was dealing with um, we call it like cold market or people that you don't know. And so again, cool, you know, it's part of building a business. You have to talk to more people, you know, you'll get more knows, whatever the case might be in that sense. But um at that point, you know, I liked the aspect that I did in network marketing of building a team, building an organization, you know, creating that leverage where there's people working, you know, at points with or without me, which was cool, but that certainly took time. You know, you had to build leaders up, help them get that skill set. And so, you know, I I always just felt that whenever I wanted to, you know, hit a new sales level, hit a new rank in my business, you know, bring in new team members, whatever the case was, I was just always back in the field, which you know, certainly I like that, you know, having conversations with people, it's an integral part of building a business, but I didn't necessarily want to have to do that forever, or at least at the same time have more of a higher quality um potential customer, potential business partner that I could talk to, where it was more like I could create content that was working for me 24-7. And then I at least could have people kind of raising their hand and being like, you know, hey Mike, I'm interested, you know, or a little, I want to have a home business, or I'm struggling in a home business, how can you help? Uh versus just kind of throwing it out there at people and then hoping that people would, you know, get started. So that's kind of what I teach people is that that aspect of creating um you know social media base to attract their ideal clients and customers to them, you know, how to set up some of the tools and systems, some of the automation in place where you can actually have a life where you're not just constantly um having to talk to people about your business and then really have an opportunity to scale it. Where again, you know, it's great having those one-on-one conversations with people that you're local with, you know, in your guys' case, kind of in gyms, different stuff like that. But it's cool to be able to set up tools, you know, info products, courses where people can really be, you know, creating an income, creating a lifestyle, providing value in something they're passionate about, where they don't necessarily have to, you know, leave their home, or again, they can be spending time with their family, their kids, and still have their business growing uh you know on that 24-hour passive basis.

Awesome. Uh I I know for a fact that our listeners are gonna love everything that you're about to drop on them from you know social media to setting up automations and and um May, let's give a little background because you know I'm when I hear you say cold or warm or even hot traffic, I understand, but I think a lot of people maybe get a little confused with the markety type terms. Can you define those a little bit for us as as we so we can kind of jump into it a little bit deeper?

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, most businesses when you start them, they'll talk about, you know, talk with your friends and family, people that you know, your close contacts. And that's kind of in in our industry, we call that our warm market or people that we we know. And you know, a lot of times though, a lot of businesses don't even tell you why to start with those people, and it's just because there's a built-in no like and trust factor there. And so, again, all things being equal, people tend to do business with those that they know, like, and trust and have a relationship with. And again, is it a guarantee that those people are gonna get started? You know, no, you know, your best friend might not be interested in personal trainer or health and fitness or whatever the case might be. But it's a lot easier to approach them about it because you know what's going on in their life. Uh, they're more likely to hear you out. And then, worst case scenario, you can always ask them for referrals. So it's maybe not a fit for them, but hey, you know, who do you who else do you know that is looking to, you know, get healthy, you know, get in shape after winter, you know, be in great shape for summer, whatever the case might be, you know, it gives you a better option and a foundation to start with. And so, you know, like for me in my story, uh like I said, I'm kind of introverted video game nerd when I started in business, so I didn't have a huge network. I talked to like the three nerd friends that I had and they weren't into business. So I was like, well, what do I do now? Right. And so that's kind of where I moved into cold market, or again, people that I didn't know, or just kind of strangers, right, that I met out and about. And so it's a great market to tap into because they don't necessarily care about all your background or whatever the case might be, but there usually is no trust, there is no credibility, they don't know who you are. So the likelihood of them maybe hearing you out or wanting to get started, or again, just you need to have a higher level skill set when you're talking to people that you don't know or this cold market, because again, if they ask you a question and you don't know how to answer it, or you know, oh, like what's the best workout for my biceps? And you're like, I don't even know a workout for biceps, they're probably not gonna hire you, right? So uh whatever the case might be, you know, you want to um build that, and so that's where I found that social media is very important because you can build that audience and then put out great value-based content, and that starts to build that relationship. Or again, it's like all things being equal. If they're on two websites and like, okay, I've never seen this person before, I've never heard from them before, but then this person I've seen all kinds of videos from, they've been providing great value, they're teaching me all kinds of stuff. I'm gonna maybe do business with this person that I know, like, and trust, or at least have developed somewhat of that through social media. So those are kind of like the the two markets to tap into. So certainly face-to-face, meeting people, it's a great way to do it. I still build my business that way too, but at the same time, there's not really as much leverage with it where again I might have to actually go out and meet people where I could rather put content on social media, you know, have a hundred conversations going at once on social media, where again I can't really talk to a hundred people at a time, you know, or talk to people while I'm sleeping, having automation in place, uh, set that kind of stuff up. So there's there's that's kind of the two sides of that. Awesome.

Yeah, that's great. And I to take that the next step further, I think, you know, at least the people we talk to on a regular basis within the fitness industry, and everybody wants to be on social media, and people generally make a good push for it. Um, but a couple things generally happen. Either they don't see the immediate return, it kind of peters out, right? And then they just like, uh, screw it, I'm just gonna keep posting pictures of me back squatting and see what happens, right? Um or they just throw so much energy at it, but then they, you know, they they just have no plan. I think that's the biggest thing is they go into social media with no real structure or plan. Do you help your clients develop that that baseline structure that that they can start building their social media uh marketing on?

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, one thing that I found is that there's just three real keys to building a successful business, no matter what it is. You know, if it's fitness, if it's network marketing that I do, coaching businesses, whatever the case might be. And it's basically you want to build your audience, engage your audience, and then sell to your audience. And so unfortunately, what I find is people do that out of order or they skip steps or all they do is sell to their audience, right? You know, I know a lot of people in the health and wellness industry and they promote weight loss, different things like that. And so all their posts are just before and after picture, before and after picture. And it's like, cool, you know, there's a time and a place for testimonies, but at the same time, if I'm not interested at the point, you know, it's like you might get a customer here and there because somebody's on their roller coaster right and timey's just perfect, or hey, I, you know, it's just after the holidays, my girlfriend thinks I'm fat, you know, whatever the case might be, and they're like, hey, I wanna I want to lose weight, and they hit them right at that exact spot. Cool, you know, you might get a customer, you might get a new client there, but the vast majority of people that aren't at that spot, you're ending up pushing them away because they're like, well, all it is is just before and after photos, I don't really care. Look at how much weight I can bench, you know, on the man, right? You know, or whatever the case might be, where a lot of people on their social media kind of have like a so what um kind of post. Like if I look at that, it's like so what? What does that matter to me? How does that help me? I don't really care, right? And so shifting from uh look at how great I am kind of posts or look at how great my clients are doing, which is fine. Again, there's a time and place for that, but that should be like it kind of like an 80-20 rule or a 90-10 rule almost, where the majority of your content, the majority of the stuff that you're putting out there is motivational, it's value-based. You know, here's how you squat to get gains like this, or you know, here's a cool meal plan you can do, here's a quick tip. You know, again, maybe it's on Instagram, like the videos are minute-long tops, you know. So it's a very quick tip that you're throwing out there, but it's value-based. And again, that would fall into that engaging the audience content. So, again, building the audience, because again, a lot of people, you know, it's great. You you might be putting cool stuff out there. You might have, you know, be the most specialized, knowledgeable personal trainer in the world, but if you have two followers, nobody thinks that's true, right? You can say all the same stuff and have 10 followers, nobody's gonna take you seriously. But if you've got a hundred thousand followers, people are like, oh my gosh, they know exactly what they're talking about. Let me plug into this. It just adds more credibility to you. So, again, that's why building that audience is important. Plus, as you do that, you know, it it's a it's a process, right? And they're like you talked about, some people get frustrated or they're like, Oh, I'm putting some time into this, not seeing results. Well, it's not an overnight thing. That's what's a little bit frustrating in the social media world, where it's a process where I I always looked at it like it was a long-term play, where it might take a bit, you know, it might start off. I'm like, okay, I'm putting all this time, putting all this effort, but it's like you're building that foundation. So again, it's like buildings don't go up overnight, skyscrapers don't go up overnight. You know, they they might spend six months, a year, two years, whatever the case is, building that foundation, but once that's in place, then it's almost like overnight the whole thing goes up. Now they're 30 stories high. Like, where did that come from? Well, it's the same kind of thing on social media where you're planting those seeds every day, you're focused on building that audience, engaging them with content, but then that compounds. Where again, I might not necessarily be doing a live video every day, but there was a section, you know, there was a season where I did like 180, 200 days in a row where I did a video. But now that I have all that content built up, I put it into some of the automation stuff, so it's cycling through, it's continually providing value to my audience. I certainly still come on and do live videos, different stuff like that, but it's not maybe an everyday thing like it used to be. Um, because again, I was focusing on building the audience, engaging the audience, and then finally selling the audience, where I find a lot of people too kind of get caught up in if only I had more traffic to my site, if only there's more people on my page, or I'm getting a lot of people to my site when nothing's happening, you know, I get it, that's cool, but that's really the last step. Because if what you're doing on the building the audience, engaging the audience, and selling to them on the organic level, if that's not working or converting, getting a mass amount of traffic to your site isn't going to convert either. You're just throwing your money away. Where it's like advertising and scaling in that sense should really be the last step because you you want to be converting right away. And then when you know that that's working, then it's a simple process of okay, well, now let's get more eyeballs on it. Now let's grow my audience. So that's kind of my philosophy, I guess, on social media and the steps that I would walk people through in setting that up.

I think it's I love it, first of all. Um, the strategy is sound, you know, and I think what you said in there, which is a really big gem, and it just it was a big light bulb for me, too, is like this is a process, right? It takes time. Everyone thinks social media is gonna be fast and it's gonna convert really quickly, but you're still building, you know, the just because it's digital and it's you know it's on social media, you're still dealing with humans, right? And it takes time to to kind of get their attention. So, you know, now that you've you've outlined a you know, a beautifully simple and elegant structure and strategy, right? Can you give us some tactics at each level from you know building to engaging to selling that you would, you know, that you think would benefit the fitness, the the average fitness professional or or the online fitness professional?

Yeah, so you know, building an audience, that's one thing is like defining who is my audience, right? So finding that target market. So again, think about aspects or think about where your ideal client, where your ideal target market hangs out, right? So if you're um thinking weight loss, for example, okay, cool. Well, maybe I'll go to Jenny Craig or like Jillian Michaels, or you pick out like other fitness experts in the industry that have big followings, start connecting with people that follow those people. You know, maybe that's following them back, engaging in conversations, liking their posts, commenting on their posts. Again, you're trying to build that relationship, um, start to build that audience. And so, again, it's like if somebody is in that following, you know, Weight Watchers, for example, they there's probably a good percentage of the people that follow Weight Watchers in this example that want to lose weight. I mean, I would think my logic is sound there, but um, you know, again, it's like you're connecting with those people, and then when they do connect back with you, offer them something of value. You know, maybe it's a free workout guide or it's a free video training on you know, 10 tips to boost your metabolism or a healthy eating guide, whatever the case is, you know, specialize that that's what's cool with like um a lot of personal trainers, people in the health and fitness industry, is that they're super passionate about what they do, they have a huge knowledge base, but it it doesn't matter if you're the most knowledgeable person out there, if nobody's working with you, if nobody's buying from you, nobody's hiring from you. But what's cool is you have that knowledge base already in place, so you can just speak to that target audience. That's kind of where that engaging comes in. Um, so as you're you know out there networking, connecting with people, maybe somebody follows you back and you're like, hey, thanks for following me, I appreciate it. You know, as a thank you, here's a free 10-step eating guide to boost your metabolism. And then for me, I always like to just have a conversation. So I'm like, hey, uh, you know, I'm from Minnesota, where are you from? And so, because again, a lot of people will initially, you know, fill out your capture page, you know, their name and email, they'll download your ebook, your video training, whatever the case is. But a large percent of them don't, but after you have a conversation with them, they do, right? You find out that they are a perfect fit, it leads into you know a coaching call with you, a new client. That's again where that selling process is. That's really the final step. So a lot of people again get that out of order and they think that they need to sell them first, talk about how amazing their training is. Well, you got to find their pain, you gotta find their problem, what they're struggling with, and how you can help them. Because again, it's like that that that's what I talk about. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, you know, you're leading with value, you're solving problems. Like, people aren't gonna get upset about that. Oh, they're trying to teach me how to be healthier, you know, and solve my weight loss issues. Like, oh, I hate that guy. Like, that's not how it works. So, like, oh no, this is exactly what I want. Let me check this out. So, when you're connecting with networking with your target market, building that audience, it's you know, and it's it's a numbers game, just like anything else, where some of the people are gonna like your content, right? So, cool, awesome. Some people are gonna share your content, cool. That just it spreads your message. Other people are gonna be ready to take action immediately, you know, sign up with you, buy your course, hire you as a coach, hire you as a trainer, whatever the case is. Then other people are gonna kind of be in the pot, I guess, cooking, you know, getting ready to sprout, whatever the case might be. Um, and so they those are in that roller coaster where timing might not be right, but now that they're in your funnel, they're in your system, getting your value, getting your content, when timing is right, again, it's like who do you think they're gonna reach out to? You know, some random person or you that's been providing value and helping them on a consistent basis. Obviously, it's you.

Yeah, yeah. I it's great. I so once you get somebody, well, first of all, I I want to reflect on a point you said too, is that I think just getting people, just talking to people, we we rely so much everyone wants automation, right? They just want automation. But I think you know, uh whenever you get the opportunity to just talk to somebody and not trying to sell them on anything, that's extremely powerful too. I mean, I found you through social media, right? Yeah, there's no pre-existing relationship. I just saw this guy was putting great content out there, and then I'm like, well, he seems cool. So we got we start talking, and then you know, next thing you know, you're on a podcast, right? Um just because of who you are and the person you are, you generally come across as someone who wants to help. Um I thought that was an interesting point, too, is you know, he just talk to people.

Yeah, and that kind of tying in with that too on the automation stuff that you brought up, where automation is great, like I use it in my business, but I find where a lot of people make the mistake is they use automation as like a way to avoid talking to people. Yeah, it should really be the opposite. It should be I use automation to get in as many conversations as I possibly can, you know. So it's like um I have automation in the sense that it puts out my content that I already created on you know a 24-7 basis. So I'm not necessarily sitting um tweeting out every single 10 minutes or something like that, whatever I have it set up as. Um, you know, so that again that built up over time. I didn't have that overnight, but I continually added to that. And then so that's engaging my audience on a 24-7 basis. And then the um I maybe have like an auto message that goes out when someone follows me on Twitter, for example. And it I find it funny when people get upset about that. I'm like, do you just not understand leverage? Like, I get it. Like, I'm not trying to be a jerk and be like, hey, like just check out my auto message. But it's like I get a couple hundred followers a day. I don't have time to manually spend three hours and search through, you know, messaging people back. But everything beyond that first message is all me because that that's where that engaging comes in, where I use it to get in more conversation. conversations. So I, you know, I send out that information. Thanks a lot. Here's a free gift. You know, here's something of value. And then I try and have a conversation. So again, you know, that's few and far between that somebody might get upset about that. But at the same time, it's like, well, they're not my tribe. If they, you know, they're not, if they're already not clicking with me after me saying thanks for following me, where are you from? Like I'm done. Whatever, you know, moving on to the next person. So it's like I'm trying to do a good thing, provide value, help you out, see how I can help more. And so that that's kind of how I use automation where I do the tasks that aren't the most income producing activity. Or again, like me searching through manually finding out who followed me on Instagram and then sending a message back. Or again finding them on Twitter. Now certainly starting off when you don't have a lot coming in, you can do that manually. It's not a big deal. That's how I started off on Instagram, but then it got to the point where it's like okay I could spend like 30 cents a day to automate this and then spend instead of spending an hour sending these first messages I can spend that time doing live calls, doing presentations with people, finding the people that are my ideal clients. So that's kind of how my view on automation is is again it's not to avoid talking to people. It's to be able to spend more time talking to the right people that are actually a fit for what I have to offer.

Yeah that's awesome. Out of curiosity where do you spend most of your time as far as social? What do you do Twitter, Instagram, Facebook? Where do you find the biggest return?

Yeah, I guess for me I do a lot through Twitter and then a lot on uh Instagram as well. But that's that's one conversation I tend to have with people a lot, you know, when they're just getting started is you know, well where do I spend my time? Where do I put my effort? And I've just found it's like you learn the foundation skills first of building the audience, engaging the audience, selling to that audience. And then you know that conversation skill set of finding their pain finding their needs and wants providing that solution that doesn't matter what you use. You know that's what what I like to tell people it's like do what you like. If you like doing live videos awesome that's going to work when you follow this format. If you like doing podcasts that's going to work when you follow this format. If you like Twitter, if you like Facebook like um I'm like I said most of my time I'll spend on Twitter and Instagram because I I like that automation aspect I like that leverage of it. But again like my third step of selling my audience is I get on the phone with people. I do a presentation where I'm on the phone with someone I do a Zoom call like this I do a screen share with the computer so I maybe spend an hour with that person going through how I can help them. So again it's like you just pick one on each of those tiers. So okay I'm going to build my audience on Facebook. Cool. I'm going to engage my audience on Facebook Live and I'm going to sell my audience on the phone. So once they you know at the end of my Facebook Live I'm like hey check out my site download this free guide whatever the case might be the people that do that percentage of them are going to leave their phone number. Again if they downloaded my guide they left their phone number they're probably a good fit for what I offer so maybe I'm going to give them a call and then that could lead to that next step in the sales process. So ideally it's what you like. So you know learn that foundation skill set first and you can apply it in anything and be successful.

Mike do you use any specific tool do you use like Hootsuite do you use Skedogram IFTTT? What what do you what do you utilize on a daily basis?

Yeah um so Twitter I use manage Flitter right now that's where I can help um manage like my following and engaging generating new uh audience so building that audience I use that one um followers DM is what I use for sending that initial message to people and then I use social jukebox to schedule out my tweets. And so I'm just it's kind of cool it's like a rotator so I put you know several hundred blog posts several hundred YouTube videos in there different capture pages providing value lead magnets different things like that. So they're all in there and then they all get distributed out. Instagram I use InstaZude so that helps me manage my following and my initial message that goes out but yeah it's like all the content I just I just do that myself. So Instagram isn't really scheduled when I put out content it's just kind of like when I feel like it because again I've just found like you know you create that content that's engaging but the most important thing that I found that brings in business is that actual conversation with someone so the initial message part of doing that automatically for me and then where I can go in after that first message goes out and have a conversation that's the most income producing activity for me. So the automation on putting content out maybe not as important I guess on Twitter it is but the other one not as much on that. So I use that and then one of the tools in the the systems that I help people set up with is it's called Miley System Pro. And so that's one of the tools and skill sets that I use to help people get their site set up, get their capture pages set up get their blog set up get some of the inside training on how to build an audience how to engage an audience how to sell an audience on various different platforms. That's usually what I plug people in and help them do that and set that up.

Awesome. Yeah that's a lot of very this episode has just been chock full of of actionable items which I I really like and I know our listeners really appreciate it too. Mike where if people want to get more information on you or maybe have a conversation with you or yeah just learn more. Where do you direct them?

Yeah I would probably say you know if you want to plug into a lot of my content that's going out you can follow me at Twitter over at at mikemac direct. That's probably the worst way to message me though because I get a lot of uh messages on there. So if you wanted to um shoot me a message and probably the best on Facebook and that's the same deal it's at Mike MacDirect. So again Facebook.com forward slash Mike MacDirect is going to get to my my main Facebook so that's probably the the best one but yeah it's pretty much at Mike MacDirect on everything is the the best best place to reach me on a lot of different stuff.

So right on man well I thank you so much this is really uh this is really a lot of this is people people need to hear this because social media is still I mean it's still relatively new right but taking traditional marketing and what we know is effective and then how to you know digest it and and transfer it into the modern social world is really valuable to people. So I I greatly appreciate coming on and sharing all of the knowledge and I hope people go check you out. Like I said I found you on social so whatever you're doing is working absolutely and uh yeah so thanks for coming on Mike I appreciate it. Yeah no problem happy to help hey fitness fans don't leave yet this is your host Eric Melzone and I want to personally thank you for your support and listening to the Future of Fitness podcast and interview series. If you have a few minutes I would greatly appreciate if you went to iTunes and gave us a favorable rating as well as go to our YouTube channel and subscribe there. That'd be fantastic. If you know of anybody who would be great fit for the show as a guest please hit me up at Eric at fitnessmarketingalliance.com that's Eric also I have three questions for you. Number one, are you a fitness professional who's been in the industry for over seven years? Question number two do you have an online revenue stream or multiple online revenue streams? Question number three are you ready to break loose from your local market and take advantage of all of the opportunity out there in the online world if you are I want you to go to fitnessmarketingalliance dot com forward slash mastermind. This will lead you to our level up mastermind group and all the information that you need to know. This is a group for high level thinkers within the industry who are ready to break free. So go check it out. It's fitnessmarketingalliance com forward slash mastermind let us know if you have any questions. Thank you again for listening I greatly appreciate your support we'll keep it up from our end as well