87 | How to Build Organic Reach Without Hustling on Social Media

SPEAKER_00: If social media has been giving you anxiety lately, you are not alone, and that's actually a very popular thing. We feel good about hating on social media. But I don't think that anxiety on social media comes for the reason that you think. Yes, it's frustrating to spend hours on a post that gets ignored or is forgotten in today's.

And yes, it can feel like you're doing everything right and still not seeing results and feeling like you are speaking to a void. And I can understand where the idea of hustle comes from. And I understand why we blame that hustle. I understand why we blame the algorithm.

I'm not better than that. I definitely have been there. But my love, I have realized that hustle, quote unquote, is not the problem. The problem is that you are taking every single post too seriously because we've been fed this idea of quality over quantity.

And today we are squashing that so we can get over the hustle in social media. We are going to talk about what actually builds organic reach without burning you out. Hello, my love. Welcome to Brand Confidence for Creatives.

Are you feeling stuck in a cycle of overthinking, trying to build your brand? I'm Eugenia, but you can call me E. I'm a marketing and brand coach and I spent years stuck in the cycle of researching, hesitating, and hiding until I got clear on my voice and my message. In this podcast, I'll guide you through the strategies you need to get clear on what you want to say, build a personal brand, and create consistent magnetic marketing.

If you ever thought, I know I have something to say, I just don't know how to say it, you are in the right place. So grab your coffee and let's dive in. Real quick before we get started, summer is almost here. Especially here in Miami, we just had a 93 degree day, so in my mind, we are already in the middle of the summer.

So there's no better time to get clear on your message and your positioning than now. Because that way you can prepare for the busiest season that's literally right around the corner. So if you've been feeling disconnected about the person you're talking to, what makes you different, how to actually communicate in your content in a way that feels like you, you are going to love this. You don't have to figure it out alone and you don't have to figure it out with ChatGPT either.

That's exactly why I created Brand Research. It is a one-on-one brand coaching session where we're going to look at the actual problem you solve or who you solve it and why does it matter to them. aka What Makes Them Buy. We are going to name the thing that sets you apart from the competition so you don't feel like you're struggling in a saturated market and you really stand out in a basically a market of one, a category of one.

And we're gonna review strategic changes you can make in your content to start tracking your ideal clients, your ideal audiences without having to fake on your personality or do things that feel like bro marketing stuff. So book your 60-minute brand coaching session at Eugeniawo.com forward slash brand. That's E-U-G-E-N-I-A-W-O-O.

com forward slash brand. See you there. You know how people say that they hate social media and they want to treat it not as a performance. I've never like I understand what they mean, but I've never fully connected to that statement because I truly love performing.

I love acting, I've acted for years. I actually, when I moved to the US from Venezuela, I thought I was gonna be an actress. Like that was my thing. That was it.

So to me, performing is not a dirty word. And let me tell you a story about performance. After years of not acting, so I want to say like six years, I went back to acting school when I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina. And my class was incredible, and they had a very unique methodology where we were putting scene work, putting a new scene that we were presenting to the class every single week.

And in addition, most weeks we were giving some type of material that we had to memorize in class in 20 minutes and then record an audition. And the goal was to get us comfortable with the process of putting up scene work and learning something fast and getting into character fast and auditioning and then moving on to the next thing without never ever ever dropping quality, also getting to know ourselves, our own internal processes. We were doing a lot of scene work. We were doing a lot of work.

So I never I've never seen that doing too much is a bad thing. I actually think in the context of acting, in the context of putting yourself on a stage and using your voice to communicate a message, learning and having reps and learning your voice and learning your processes and learning your practice, that's actually a good thing. So imagine my surprise when I started seeing everywhere this whole thing of like, oh, social media is so toxic, social media is like so stressful, it's a hustle.

And I bought into that idea for years. I actually wanted nothing to do with social media for a little while. And then I started thinking of social media the way I was thinking about my acting class. We're actually doing too much, and that many repetitions are actually good in becoming a better performer.

And at the end of the day, say whatever you want, but social media it is putting up a performance. We are practicing a message and getting comfortable with it. So the reason I've realized of this feeling of hustle is not necessarily the amount of work we're doing, it is why we're doing it. And I think this idea of quality over quantity, while it came from a good place of hey, like don't focus on creating two million posts, like make sure you post less, but make sure the posts that you create are good.

But as with everything, we take things too far, and now we're at a place where we try to make every single post this word of art, and then we put it out there and no one likes it, no one listens, no one engages, and it's forgotten in two days. So we're just here, like, man, why am I wasting so much time on social media? It creates this idea of social media is a waste of time, and there's nothing further from the truth, and and and I want to explore exactly how to shift your mindset and what to practically do so that you don't feel this like burning out and this hustle approach.

But it's more like, hey, social media is a window. Social media is a free window where I can share my ideas, my thoughts, my work, like even my family life, like I can connect with people and I don't have to pay for anything. Like, that's unique in the history of humanity. So let's use that window as what it is: an opportunity, a platform, and instead of seeing it as this pressure point that's threatening to make us lose our sanity.

First, we need to understand where hustle comes from. And I don't think that hustle comes from ambition. Maybe it does for some people, but I think for you who are listening, I don't think it comes from ambition. I think hustle comes from pressure.

Specifically, the pressure when it comes to social media, the pressure that every single post has to work, that every single post has to perform. Because since we are doing less posts, we are posting less, we are increasing the quality, then in theory, that should work with the people that are seeing it because we are spending more time with it, right? So it's better, therefore, to perform better. Every post, in theory, we have like this expectation that every post has to, in a way, justify the time you spent on it, that it has to either convert, do something.

We have many of us, and many of you have these goals proposed, like, okay, this goal, this post is meant to attract, this post is meant to nurture, this post is meant to convert. And yes, that's a very helpful framework. I think it's amazing because it helps us think, make sure that our content is very balanced. But in reality, it doesn't work that way.

It's no one is like analyzing every single post and moving down a perfectly vertical lined uh funnel anymore. And that perspective really creates a lot of pressure, and it comes from treating every single post like it's a final exam that you either you pass it or you don't. So, of course, you overthink it. If every single post has so much weight and importance, like this is the post that's meant to attract people, like it has to be attractive and it has to be like incredible, or oh no man, this is the post that's helping really nurture someone.

So I really have to land that emotional hook so it really, really connects with someone, or this is the post where I'm selling, so it has to be the best. Like it feels like it's so final, so we overthink it, we spend hours on it, and we feel drained after posting, regardless of the results, because sometimes we just get likes and it's like, oh my gosh, all this work for likes. And the reason is that it doesn't feel like just content, it really ultimately, if you think about it, it feels like a reflection of your value, of your skills, of your proficiency, but content specifically on social media, it's not meant to work like that, at least not anymore.

I especially in the age of AI, like it doesn't work like that anymore. No one grows because of one perfect post. They grow because of volume, they grow because of repetition, and they grow based on feedback. And that is where most advice that I hear gets it wrong.

Because that advice, probably someone came up with it when and a time when it worked, and then someone took their course and then they ran with it. That is my guess, at least. But they say the whole thing of like focus on quality over quantity, and while that sounds good, it is exactly what creates this pressure in the first place. So let's be very um emotionless, not emotionless, but like let's just look with curiosity as an explorer coming to a new land, right?

So the truth about organic reach on social media today is that it comes with volume. When you only post three times a week, every post is gonna carry pressure. When you post more often, no single post defines you. You don't expect one single post to make everything different about your business.

And I did a whole episode on this concept of more is more and volume, and I'm gonna link it in the show notes. But basically, it is this idea of we need to put in the reps on social media to have more chances of reaching the right people. And I know many experts love telling you that it's all about quality over quantity, and again, to some extent it is true, but knowing what I know, it would be irresponsible of me to tell you that just creating a few posts per week that are very valuable and amazing, you are going to naturally attract your dream clients.

That advice is what creates this mindset of perfectionism that leads us to hustle. This is a mindset of taking yourself too seriously on social media, and this is why. And this mindset takes you to put all of your eggs in one basket because if you only have three posts a week and you are optimizing for quality, then everything about that post needs to be of the highest quality. It has to have amazing visuals, design, the best copy, editing, the best caption.

And if one single post flops, that's like 40% of your weekly output. Of course, you're going to feel like all of your hard effort was for nothing. Instead, I want you to trust your ideas. I want you to trust that they are quality enough in and of themselves.

And what you need is reps to put them out there, to feel comfortable putting your ideas out there. And since we're talking about this idea of performance, I want you to think of yourself like a stand-up comedian. Because comedians don't just sit at home, they try to write the perfect joke and they hide and they wait till everything is perfect, and then one day, when everything is perfect, they go ahead and present it to an audience. And that is the thing that makes them, gives them their big breakthrough when they're gonna end up in Saturday Night Live.

No, they test material constantly, they write a lot every single day, and some jokes they bump, some jokes get a laugh, and some become iconic and they build amazing comedy sets or comedy routines around those jokes. But that only happened because of the reps, because they wrote so much, they presented so much that they got comfortable and they found what worked. And it didn't happen because they were waiting until they were ready, until the jokes were perfect, until they really, really polished the joke, and they were going to be quiet.

And maybe I'll just do some stand-up, maybe like three times a year, and I'll just test my best materials those times a week. You need to get used to hear yourself. That's such a big part of this idea of putting up that performance or communicating on social media, like using your platform as what it is, a platform, which takes me to what you're gonna do instead. Now we understand where hustle is coming from, we understand how organic reach is working today.

So, how do you do this? Like, how do you implement it in your content and in your social media process? The key thing to think of here is focus on the compound effect of your efforts. Don't focus on one single piece of content.

That is the lesson I want you to take away from today, because that's gonna change your whole relationship with social media and it's going to make you way, way more effective. You're going to see your account growing way faster. Of course, you have to have a clear messaging and positioning, and those are things that literally we can do in run reset in one session, and then you're good to go. Like it's not that big deal.

So the compounding effect is this idea that every move you make is going to build up on the next. Every piece of content is gonna build up your communication skill. Every time you repeat your message from any angle makes you more creative, makes you more resourceful. The performance from every post is just feedback.

That's it. It is information about what resonates so that you can go and make more of that. So this means that you are no longer mentally inside of a hamster wheel of social media and performance and creating so much quote unquote value and being frustrated and even resentful from all the things you have to do. Like, oh, I have to post this, I have to pose this trend, I have to pose that, I have to pose my kids for reach, I have to pose my routine to connect, I have to have the perfect production quality to get reach.

When you think of compounding this idea of volume, you stop asking, oh, did this post perform? Did the 40% of my time was worth it this week? And instead, you start asking, what did this teach me about my audience? What was the result of this?

So these are three things specifically that you are going to do so you can start focusing on the compound of your efforts. Number one, shift your time frame, and this is huge. Stop thinking daily, stop thinking in weeks. Like, oh, I'm gonna post three times a week.

Start thinking in monthly volume because at the end of the day, platforms give you monthly reports for a reason. I like to think how many times a month am I going to post? Of course, if you've been posting four times a week and then next week you only post one, and then next week you only post once, that's going to be a little bit of a red flag for the platform, of course. But in reality, if you have your mind in saying, okay, I'm gonna post 20 times this month, that opens up your mind to what types of things can you do that are easy lift, like literally speaking to the camera as if you're FaceTiming a friend, that could be a post.

Like you can go get ready, do your makeup if you want, and then speak to the camera for 30 minutes with short clips, and that's a bunch of posts that you can do. And that takes me to point number two, which is repeat your ideas on purpose. Identify your core beliefs or your core POVs and repeat the same thing from different angles. Maybe you can say one thing from a point of a metaphor.

Maybe you can say the same thing by picking up on something that's happening on culture and you can build on. Maybe you can give your idea in a way that feels very like tutorial or educational. Maybe you can teach the same idea by just explaining the concept of the idea, or maybe you can tell your audience about a time in your life that made you realize that this idea was true, or you can tell about something that's happening with a client that's helping you reaffirm this idea.

You can write these ideas and have five different angles. If you have three, four things you want to say, core things, and then you find five angles for each, you already have your 20 posts for the month. And I use the word 20 because I know that if I tell you posting 20 times in one month, that's gonna sound like, wow, that that is a lot. And it doesn't have to.

It doesn't have to because we are not optimizing for quote unquote quality. We are optimizing for repetition because I want you to get so good, so incredibly amazing at sharing your core belief, at sharing your your offer in so many ways that you can talk about it with anyone, anywhere, in any circumstance, being prompt by anything. Which takes me to the last step to really develop this compounding muscle, and that is reduce production time. So don't overwork each piece, and I make this mistake because I do enjoy creating content, so I can spend two hours creating one post.

But if you reduce your time, it's going to be so much more effective, and you're going to be much more pleased or less disappointed if a post flops. Like I posted, I did a post during the Olympics, and that post was like an idea I had in the shower. I came out and I recorded the green screen of me listening to Alisa Lou say something and me just like smiling to it, and the post went crazy, crazy, crazy viral. All that to say, that's something that took me five, ten minutes, and the post went crazy.

Compared to a post that I did with all the different types of creatives, and I found incredible memes that related to each creative, and the post tanked like zero comments, zero shares. I was so sad because as I was making the post, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so good. This is such an incredible post. No one liked it.

So yes, I can know my audience, I can know my content, but ultimately I need to go out and test it and let it give me feedback. If you want to spend time in one post because you really love it, because that post is really special, please go ahead and do it. But don't feel like you have to spend two hours per post every single week. Remember, if you want to build organic reach without hustling on social media, you need to understand what the hustle comes from, which is from your idea of perfectionism, of trying to make everything super valuable and high quality, not from the idea of having to post many times.

Then think of yourself as a comedian and test your material often and early and adapt. And that's going to help you compound your efforts and see real growth in your account and real organic reach. You do this by shifting your time frame, by repeating your ideas, and by reducing production time. This is something we work on inside brand Racet, which is very helpful if you want to identify what are the angles that I want to focus on, what are my strong beliefs that I really want to leverage when it comes to my content.

That's the space to do it. We get clear in your message and your positioning, and by nature, you are going to see what your beliefs are and how you can improve them and how you can simplify your content creation process. You can fall in love with social media. Social media, it is such a wonderful place for connection.

Remember, we said this is a window, this is your platform. Use it. Have fun. Be creative.

Don't take it too seriously. I see you at Brand Reset. The links in the show notes. I want to help you get clear on your ideas.

Do that this week. Start simplifying your process and you're gonna start seeing also faster results. I'm excited for you. I believe in you.

Until next time, un beso. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you loved it, don't keep it to yourself. Send it to a friend who's also trying to grow their brand without losing themselves in the process.

And if you want to make my day, drop a quick review on Apple Podcasts. Seriously, it means the world to me. And I know that this show is helping you show up with confidence and clarity. See you back here soon for the next episode.

Un beso.