S2E10: The Secret to $500 Million in Client Revenue? Actually Caring. With Stacia of Switch It Up Designs

Kira La Forgia: Welcome to People on Purpose, where each episode we explore how founders can navigate building businesses where people and profits can coexist on purpose. Okay, so welcome back to People on Purpose. So you know that we are always talking about building businesses with intention and leading people well and creating sustainable success without losing yourself in the process. And I'm so excited to introduce you guys to today's guest, Stacia. She is a founder, co founder and CEO of Switch It Up Designs, a seven figure digital marketing agency and fractional CMO to New York Times bestselling authors, TEDx speakers and leading health and wellness brands. She's also one of our clients. So when I have a client on the pod and I get to interview somebody, I think that should kind of like put in like a real stamp of approval because we've gotten to see the nitty gritty about leadership styles, how you approach your team, where you show up for them. And if you're here, that means that essentially we're super aligned in the way that we believe that businesses should be led. And so I want to make sure and highlight leaders that we can always look to for guidance, support, examples, because a lot of times we don't see anybody out there that's like us. We don't see a lot of female leaders out there that are loud about their perspectives and opinions. And also you just have a really interesting story, so we're going to get to dive into that. But I do want to just brag about you for a second, so I'll take it anytime. Stacia's team manages more than $8 million in annual ad spend and has helped generate over $500 million in revenue for clients through a strategic blend of organic marketing and paid advertising that actually converts. And I think that that is what really led into what we're going to talk a little bit about today, which is your new venture as the co founder of Authority IO, a DIY ad platform. Yes, DIY ad platform designed to make expert level advertising accessible for small business owners who aren't ready for a full agency but still want results. So obviously everything that your team has done has basically fueled the brain around how you could plug all of that in and basically be able to leverage AI for paid media. So I want to talk a little bit about how you did that and why you did that, but I want to go back a little bit first, first and talk a little bit about where you started because I think what we are when we're discussing leadership and then we're also talking about entrepreneurship and Then we're also going to talk a lot about AI. I think that it's helpful to understand the background of where our peers are coming from and how these things can kind of fuel what we're putting into our models, to our AI, to our prompts, all of that good stuff. And so I love to like, hear the like, origin stories of everybody that comes on so, so that we can kind of see where people are coming from. I know, like, I don't know. I'm just really excited to hear about it because you started your first business at 24 and you didn't actually have any formal marketing training. So that's kind of wild, especially given everything you've accomplished. So what do you think those like, early years, like, what did that look like behind the scenes? Like, tell us a little bit about that story and why you were like, yeah, I think this sounds like a good call.

Stacia: That's amazing. I've always been one to learn by experience, so that helps. But yeah, no, I, my degree's in modern dance, so I was an artist, I was a creator my entire life. Um, and I quickly found that to make a living, a good living from modern dance is quite difficult unless you want to teach people at a collegiate level. So, um, I went into hospitality, I went into bartending. I've always been a server of people, whether that be literally serving them at a table, offering them food and drinks, whether that be, um, serving our clients in a marketing agency, whether that be serving brunch, broader communities. That is incredibly important to me. So our first business at 24, I had no business starting a business. Oh my God. 0m skills. It was a, like an online Etsy essentially for a small local community. So I lived in a community at the time that had tons of local makers. So people just like me who wanted to create and who wanted to put their work out into the world. But what I quickly noticed is that their online presence was uh, non existent to be nice. And my husband at the time, uh, and still is, he was a website designer and developer and I was like, hey babe, like, wouldn't it be amazing if we could like build a website for every single one of these clients? But like they don't have money, so how cheap can you do it?

Kira La Forgia: Yeah.

Stacia: And then, um, we decided to create this platform that would essentially allow all of these small business owners to create their own mini stores on our larger conglomerate website for. I think we priced it at $99 a year, which looking back is why the business doesn't exist anymore. But Truly, I just came to, like, be of service. So I was like, I went knocking on all of these individual doors of these businesses in this local town with flyers and I got 100 people so signed up in one weekend. And we were like, oh, my God, we have a business. Oh, how do we get people to the website so that they get customers? Right. So I was up till 3:00am, um, more nights than I can count watching YouTube tutorials on SEO. So I started writing our own blog articles and did, uh, them in an SEO way. So I thought at the time, I was up the next night till 3:00am, um, when researching how to run meta ads or at the time, Facebook ads.

Kira La Forgia: Hm.

Stacia: Next, up till 3:00am, um, like, what's a good organic social media strategy? So I learned all of this by doing, by experience. Um, I think there's something so powerful about formal education, but really I think we can lead from a place of authenticity when we learn by doing so. That was my first step stab at business. We went out of business in a year because we made absolutely no money at all. But I learned all of these skills. I learned how to become a social media manager. I learned client relationships. I learned sales, how to get people on my platform. I learned SEO and copywriting. I learned, most importantly, where my life's work is today is how to run paid advertising to get people to a website for a service that does good in the world. So that's kind of where it all started. And yeah, it failed. But I truly am so grateful that we did it and I learned all of those skills and it's brought me here.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, you know, I think it's really fun to be able to see, like, how that has blossomed and developed over, like, a certain number of years and, like, how you've kind of been able to, like, tweak and adapt and adjust. And I just think it's really notable that you talk about being in service, you talk about being a creative, you talk about, like, helping makers and community. And like, really, if you, as we start talking more about authority, I feel like you're gonna see this common thread of your entire career that isn't just about the skills you have, but it's also about the values that you share. And so, like, I really think that's something honorable. And it's also why I think you're such a good leader. And, like, we've been able to see how your team interacts with you and, um, the culture that you've built. And so I think that there's something to be said about, of course, like, it sounds beautiful and perfect to be in service and to creatives and like that's a really easy way to start a culture guide. Right. But all of us have different experiences that we're bringing to the table. And so like Stacia's obviously has like a very values based center of it all. But that doesn't mean that like listeners, yours has to be like that. It can be something as simple as I want to make as much money as possible and I want to do it within my community. And those are also valuable goals. But I think the cool thing is that if you're able to really attach what you're doing in your business to the values that you believe in, then you're basically compounding, compounding all of that experience. So now you're like an expert in something that no one was ever teaching you. And I think we don't take enough like credit for that. So like moment of silence for like what you've done. Um, and also like, I hope the listeners are thinking like, yeah, a lot of the ways that I've added value to the world is the things that I've taught myself. And I think the value from that comes from when you're learning something yourself. You're already innovating because your brain is having to wrap your like thoughts around it. It's. I think it's actually a little bit easier to be innovative when you're teaching yourself versus when someone else is teaching you how it should be done. So I have some thoughts about that translating over to, over to leadership to our teams too. But I'm just making a note here to remind myself to think about that later. Anyway. Um, but yeah, you mentioned learning the hard way a lot. You mentioned that you've gone through it, not just the three. I mean staying up till 3am is probably easy compared to what we consider the hard way. But when you think back to that time and you think back to, you know, even decisions that you're making now, what are some of those lessons that you did learn the hard way that you now would say, I could have shortcut that by doing this. And I know that's a big question, but what are the ones that pop up in your head?

Stacia: That is a really big question. I think that, you know, it's really popular right now to have boundaries and to say no. Um, so looking back, I absolutely could have had better boundaries. Like I don't need to be staying up till 3am but got me the outcome I desired. Right. So I Think there's a small component of that, especially in business building and in early stages, like, we're saying yes even when you want to say no can get you to the outcome you want. So I think boundaries was. Was a thing for me that I crossed every single one and then someone ran down the street to find the next boundary and cross that one too. Right. Um, but. But it. Get where you want to go and it gives you that experience of yes, learning the hard way. Like, that sucked. I was really tired. The outcome wasn't what I expected. Let's try it again. Um, I also think I would have hired sooner. So when I found you and Paradigm Kira, like, I was so burned out from doing everything myself because I could. I could be the project manager, the salesperson, the social media manager, the copywriter, the final QA person, the relationship builder, all of the things. And I could. And I was good at it, but it doesn't mean that I should. So when I came to you, like I told you, it changed my business. Like, it changed my life. What you guys did for me is set me up with a team. Um, and I couldn't be more grateful. So, yeah, one of the. One of the things I wouldn't have learned the hard way if I could repeat it all would just be to trust and build a team faster.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah. And I love that because I think people may be listening to this and thinking like, oh, God, but that's scary. That's vulnerable. We can't control people, blah, blah, blah. That's part of the fun of it. Like, we get to embrace that process and we get to embrace all the mistakes along the way. But we do want to make sure we're setting a foundation so we're protected. So, you know, boring, boring, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, like, I think that's one thing that comes up a lot. Because truthfully, if you hadn't been able to kind of step into that leadership role and learn some of those lessons and like, work collaboratively with team members and, like, kind of pinch. Figure out where you're going to, like, pinch things a little bit versus expand things a little bit, that's really what I bet has bought you time to move into this other venture of building this ad platform that's going to serve so many people. Um, let's talk a little bit about that decision, because I think that generally speaking, we can talk about the hard lessons we've learned every, like, all the time. I'm sure you want to talk about your team, because our team is what makes the world go around. But, uh, what was the moment where you were like, I think I could, I think I could do something different here. I think I could change the game around this. I think I could. Because you're kind of creating your own competitor too. So, like, what was fueling that for you? And was it like, hey, I need to figure out what's next in paid, paid ads, or was it like, wow, AI can do some cool stuff. Like, let me tinker with this a little bit and see what happens. Like, what was that process like for you?

Stacia: It was definitely, hey, AI could do some cool stuff. So there was, um, and some service things that I'll get into later. But there was a, like, competition that I was having with myself of two companies that I wanted to create. I had had the team, we had the foundation, we have W2 employees, we have, you know, everybody running the show. Um, so I had a little bit of time and the rise of AI came. And I've had this idea for longer than AI has been around. Um, but I had these two competing companies in my mind. One was going to be, uh, we would take all of our sales copy work frameworks, create like a framework and then basically plug AI in where people could insert essentially like an onboarding doc. Um, and the AI would create you gorgeous sales pages, landing pages, ad copy. It would know exactly the character counts, everything needed, the structure based on our conversion rate optimization, best practices, etc. And then authority was the other idea. An ad based DIY platform where someone could click four buttons and run expert level ads without needing an ad manager. And I went the copy route for a little while and I spent weekends doing this and trying to get this template so completely right. And then someone with like millions of followers essentially launched that company like a week later. And I was like, that's the universe telling me something that is rerouting me to what I actually am great at. Because, like, I'm an okay copywriter, but it's certainly not my niche. Um, it just felt more relevant to the work I was currently doing. Um, but I am a media buyer. I am an ad buyer. Um, and once that option no longer existed, I kind of crowdsourced around with the idea. My husband thought it was a great idea. Some people I really respect thought it was a great idea. And I was like, okay, let's do this. Um, but the real, the real drive to start Authority in the first place was I would get on sales calls with people and they would have incredible businesses, like people helping women uh, conceive when they have fertility issues, like, genuinely just doing so. Such great work. Uh, women helping with nervous system resilience and balance after traumatic events or ptsd. And these people would come to me with miraculous businesses just in pure service to their potential prospects. And I would tell them our retainer costs at our agency, and that would floor them. They couldn't afford to get the service that they needed to grow their business. They had already hired an ADS freelancer on upwork who basically set all their money on fire. Uh, and now they were coming to someone who they trusted and they were really excited to work with, but they couldn't afford us. And that breaks my heart. So I would go to my team and be like, hey, guys, is there anything we can do? And they'd be like, stacia, not again. This is not a nonprofit. We can't do this. Um, and it broke my heart. And so that was even more reason to kind of follow this path of authority and creating this system where I could just, like, kind of extract everything that I've learned over the last decade working with paid media, in particular with service based businesses, and put it into a platform where anyone could use it. They are in control of their own success, and we're removing every barrier that they need to grow their business and to serve more people.

Kira La Forgia: I love that. And I know we've had conversations about this as well. And one thing that's always stuck with me is that you, the way that you approach paid media, which is very scary, it's a big investment for a lot of companies, but it's also, like, the way to grow. For many businesses. This is the option. There's so many, uh, different perspectives out there on this. There's so many people telling us to do different things. There's so many, like, consultants that could be like, yeah, you could do this yourself. Let me just set it up for you. But there's so much lacking and like, the. I mean, I've made mistakes myself. I've told you about them. So I wanted to just like, talk a little bit more around, I guess, like, the role that paid media plays when you're working with these industry leaders. And when we're thinking about how this is so scary for some of us that maybe haven't reached the point where we can have money to burn, so to speak. Why is it important to have someone or something behind you that sees this as a fun challenge? Because that's what I've always gotten from you. You've been like, this is so fun.

Stacia: Like, I love it.

Kira La Forgia: Turn a hundred grand into a million dollars. Like, I'm a magician. Like, and I've always been able to like, uh, I'll look back at that and think like, this is so overwhelming, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, but like, it actually is pretty fun when you start thinking about the scalability. Like when I have friends that are starting brands and I'm like, here's how it works. You know, we get the foundations established, but then you got to get right into paid media as soon as possible and you have to do it efficiently and effectively or else you're going to burn through all your capital in five minutes. You need to have somebody or something on your side that's going to help you to understand your mission, but also to like enjoy playing this game. Because essentially paid media is like interacting with algorithms on a minute to minute basis. So can you talk a little bit about what it looks like for founders when they get to the point where they're realizing that the scalability is outside of their organic reach? And like how, when they get to that point. Also, what mindset should founders be bringing into this type of, I guess, next step initiative on their marketing that may be different from what they are the fear based, like burning money thing that they're always hearing about?

Stacia: Yeah, absolutely. So I love paid media. Um, it is the single, it is the only solution in marketing that can scale you on demand whenever you want without fail. So if you keep playing the game and you play the game right, it is the only avenue of marketing that can guarantee your growth. You can try to hit the algorithm jackpot and go viral and gain tens of thousands or millions of followers, whatever, but the chances of that are similar to winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. Like, I would prefer to actually take it into my own hands, uh, and guarantee my growth. So yeah, paid media can be scary. But if you look at it on the flip side of you are a founder already, you have the grit, you have the tenacity, you have the subject matter matter expertise to bet on yourself to build a business, right? So bet on yourself again to grow it. So I think that it's the hurdle of the unknown for a lot of people where they're like, oh, well, like, I know how to build a psychology practice because I'm a psychologist, but I don't know how to run paid ads. Who do I trust to run paid ads? You know, your industry. So people want to buy from people who they know like and trust. You hear it all the time. So if you're genuinely marketing yourself from a place of education, from a place of authenticity, from a place of service, and you're posting that already online, what we've found inside of our agency, running millions of dollars, uh, a year in ad spend is those authentic posts that you've already created because you know yourself best, you know your audience best, Those are some of the highest performing ads that you could ever run. You don't need a fancy graphic that says, hey, like, come be my next client. And like, this is exactly what you should do and sign up here. Um, you don't need that, you don't need a professional copywriter. You need to share your authenticity. And the reason why, if you can solve your ideal customers biggest pain points and fulfill their deepest desires, you can scale that. Mhm. So focusing on organic content first and putting money behind that is where everybody should start if they're scared.

Kira La Forgia: Okay. I love that and I think it's interesting because it always it. I think one thing we need to take from this is that it is fun and there is unlimited potential. And I think I'll probably end up clipping what you said earlier about like, just generally the approach to this is that it's the one thing that you can control. You want to bring it in house, and it is the only thing that can guarantee you results or that you know that you can. And I think that that's one thing that people, especially founders, need to understand is that I think there's a lot of stuff out there that's telling us that because maybe 10, 15, I don't know how many years ago, it was a lot easier to get traction on your paid mediation. I'm sure you could speak really in depth about that. But now the reason that it is so important to have something on your side that's looking at the data is because we have to be able to be agile and on a, uh, sometimes hour by hour basis. And so that's one thing that I've heard from working with different types of agencies that offer this type of service, is that there is a certain level of passion that comes with getting the results that you're promising. And plug and play is not going to get you the results because there's no, there's no play in the game, there's no interactivity. And I think that that's maybe where authority comes in because, I mean, you can talk a little bit about how that works and we'll get there in a minute, but we need to have something that is bringing the passion to the initiative and not just the passion to what we're trying to sell, because we have enough of that passion. I have enough passion for people in culture. But I need somebody to give as much of a shit about how many people are seeing my stuff as I give a shit about the people that see it. And I think that that's where people miss the mark when they try to do this stuff by themselves and it gets to the money burn situation and it gets really scary.

Stacia: Yeah. Or hire people that don't give a shit and then you're resentful and you're saying, this doesn't work for me. Like why does no one care? Right. And that's when you get in over controlling business owner mode where like you just now need to take over. Um, so yeah, no, I totally get it.

Kira La Forgia: And with those, with those changes, you know, there's always going to be an argument against like, because we'll have service providers that are listening, we have HR pros that are listening. Like we have all these, this big wide range of listeners for this podcast. But when it comes down to like the different industries that work, I've heard a lot of stuff about, I've actually had an ads agency or like a freelancer say, oh, I don't work with service based businesses because you can't scale those ads. And okay, good, I'm glad I'm getting response girl.

Stacia: I work with 90% service based businesses. I love a lead ad. Give me a lead ad. That is like my nerd out session.

Kira La Forgia: See, I want you to address that because there's industries that are, there's going to be people listening to this that maybe have never considered that they don't have to build up an organic audience in order to get high level marketing results. So can you talk a little bit about the different types of industries, how ads can perform for each one and is there a limitation? Is there an industry that you might be like, this isn't going to perform well for you. Like it's better to just go with organic.

Stacia: I would say no. Ads work for every single business. It's the type of ad and where you run it that would change based on your business. Like a local company and let's say it's a local chiropractor. I'm not running like meta ads nationwide for a local chiropractor. I might do Google Ads or Google Maps ads or now Apple Maps has launched ads. So it's truly just what platform you choose based on your business type. But ads in general work for every Single business. It's the only way you can control your scale. Um, what was your first question?

Kira La Forgia: I mean that was like really smart Asia, but second to that. So is there ever an industry like you're saying every single one would work and the people that are, you know, listening are probably not realizing that they could touch so many more people, they could get in touch with so many more people, they can get in front of so many more people. But has there ever been a time where there was a certain type of business where you were like, this isn't like, we could scale this. Maybe it's ethics, maybe it's something like that. Like, is there any type of business that you'd be like, I don't think paid media is the right way to go. I don't think it works for the audience that you're looking for. I feel like they're diametrically opposed. Like, it might be hard to answer that, but has there ever been something like that that's come up? Because everybody listening, thinking, I'm the exception, I'm the exception, I'm the exception, I'm the one that it doesn't work for. So like, what, how extreme is that exact scenario?

Stacia: I would say restricted industries. It definitely doesn't work for cannabis. Uh, even fertility is really difficult. Any healthcare, you need a lot of loopholes. But even that, like we're working on a, um, startup funded healthcare company. We just had to do a lot of things to get all of their ads approved, a lot of certifications. Um, I would say the biggest limitation for people who are starting to run ads. I just ran into this today with a client who's shutting down her business because we scaled too much and she did not have the foundation to sustain it.

Kira La Forgia: Well, here I am.

Stacia: Maybe you have a new client. Maybe I'll be sending a new client. And it's really sad. So she started this business, it's her second one out of a place of pure service. She wanted to help people. I'm, uh, not going to design disclose the, the industry. It's the relationship industry. And she wanted to go high ticket, right? So going high ticket $6,000 offers requires more touch than a $27 offer or a $200 offer. So in order to close high ticket, you typically have to get on a call with someone and to take sales calls. So you opt in to something like a webinar, you get leads and then if they like the webinar, they can apply to book a call. Well, 50 calls in one week for a solopreneur. Is quite difficult and then you lose love in the work. So ads are so powerful. But even if you're making 300, 500, 700, a million dollars per year and you're not doing what you love, is it worth it? So really making sure that your values align before you start running ads and you have a clear scalability plan, not just for revenue. That's what people think. If I want to scale, that's a revenue scale. But when you scale there's also a big operations scale as well. So being able to be nimble and have the pieces in place if it's a high touch business or creating something with a long life cycle, that's not one to one, it's one to many. So that's my favorite type of business. Online courses, live launches, group programs. I just worked with, with a founder who was only doing one on one sessions and she's like I want to get to 500k this year. Um, but when we mapped it out she would have to do more one on one sessions than like she has waking hours for to get to 500k in one year. So what if you turn the magic from your one on one program into a group program? You do two live launches per year, you're past 500k even if you have a 50% capacity in both of those live launches. So the one to many model ever since COVID has, has truly exploded. Um, and even so in the age of AI, like we're not getting that human contact from AI, we can get ideas, we can get education, um, but people are still craving learning from other humans. So I don't think the model's dead by any means.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, that was going to be my next question because I think there's a lot of um, just in the online entrepreneurship industry there's been so much discussion around kind of the way AI actually has kind of integrated into getting information so easily and it sort of made it a little bit harder for coaches or educators to tap into markets because also with the economy and various things like people don't have as much money as they did when they were buying tons of courses in 2021, 2022, that area. So you do think that there is a still a case for group programs and interactive learning and real coaching and those are still. You're seeing results for your clients that are selling these types of things currently big time.

Stacia: Yeah, and we're really doubling down on the human component. Um, like you can learn anything yourself, but the accountability is huge. So AI could send you a push Notification, but there's not somebody on the other end of the phone waiting for you and, and wondering where you are if you don't show up. Um, you can ghost a notification from ChatGPT, who cares? But if I ghosted you on this podcast, I would have been like, oh my God, I feel terr right. There's just a human connection. So we're really, really leaning into accountability. Um, and if you can do any sort of like in person as well, um, in person events or live events are also performing astronomically well right now. I mean, we're in like information overload. We're in tech overload. We go from our middle size screen, which is our laptop, to our mini screen, to our big screen tv. Like we're screen, screen, screen. So if there's any way to in person work, we're definitely encouraging it. Um, but in person over zoom is the next best thing.

Kira La Forgia: Nice. Okay, that's great to hear because I think that there are so many people that have so much to share and now there's so much evolution in the platforms and the ease in which to get the information out. I think Covid really pushed for a lot of that innovation to happen on the tech side. So now there's people that have all these ideas, but I have heard from several, like a lot of my contacts and even some of my listeners that it's like, yeah, of course all that worked back in 2022, but like, uh, nobody's buying that anymore. Nobody wants to be in a group program anym. And I have clients that are showing a lot of results there. That's why they're expanding their teams. But it's great to hear from the marketing side that there is still space there. And I think it's just about adapting to what the market needs. Which sounds like it's a human first approach.

Stacia: Exactly. It's a human first approach and getting to the point with your ideal avatar that you see them. Right. So, hey, I'm not, uh, I'll do your HR for your company. It's hey, purpose driven founder who is so tired because they've been doing everything themselves for the last three years. Hey, I see you. You need a team. It's time. It's time to feel supported. So that's the messaging switch. It's not like, hey, let me do your hr. It's hey, you. I know exactly who you are. I know your deepest desire, I know your biggest pain points. This is the solution. It works.

Kira La Forgia: It's so interesting how you're able to tie these like, kind of core marketing principles, like the know, like, trust factor and the ideal avatar. Those are elementary level one marketing principles that are driving a lot of your answers. So, dude, they're the best.

Stacia: Yeah.

Kira La Forgia: Like, I feel like there's a case for, like, there's so much changing around us, but the same core principles still work, and we just got to get our nose to the grindstone and be agile enough to see the force through the trees and still not forget, like, where we came from, what we learned when we were baby entrepreneurs, like, things like that.

Stacia: Kira, there will never be a magic pill. I think in marketing, people are chasing that. And when you're like, wow, everything you're speaking to is, like, really elemental, like, almost basic. Like marketing 101. Yeah. The best marketers, we don't care about fancy shit, back to basics and do the basics super well. Because there's not a magic pill unless you're like, Alex Hormozi. I saw this thing the other day where he, like, he sent a brilliant email to my inbox and it was a Canva invite. Um, and it was like, Alex Hormozi shared a Canva design with you. I'm like, that's brilliant. First of all, click. Immediately. Clicked it immediately. Um, but when you got to the Canva, it was his own skinned go high level. And he listed all of these things that you are getting from Go high level. And it was like, value is 166,000 yours today for 47. And I was almost like, give it a rest, bro. Like, that is so inauthentic and so salesy and so magic pill that, like, it's probably gonna work for him because he has millions of followers. But when we are, like, entrepreneurs and we're 7 million a year, or like seven low seven figures a year, like that, that is very transparent to see right through. Um, especially as a female business owner as well. Like, when we're a lot of times selling on trust and authenticity, um, just getting back to basics, understanding who you're speaking to and speaking in a way that sparks that human connection, even if it's digitally, is what I've seen move the needle most.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah. And I mean, you've talked about this before, but to kind of like, expand on that there. Your industry is full of all these people making all these flashy promises, like the magic pill, whatever. There's all these bro markets, marketers. I feel like if you're just even tiny bit tapped into entrepreneurship culture, like, we can identify these things from a mile away. And I just want to, like, I mean, for my own, uh, entertainment, essentially. It's just so funny to see, like, you get talking to somebody that doesn't. Hasn't tapped quite into the entrepreneurship thing yet and, like, the things that they're really drawn towards or pulled to. Like, I can look at a new entrepreneur and look at their follower list and be like, oh, honey, I know,

Stacia: you know, don't try that.

Kira La Forgia: Don't fall down that rabbit hole. I spent that 27 doll. I think there's just, like, there's a certain element of, like, discretion that comes with experienced entrepreneurs. And I think you and I both work with people that have been around the block a little bit, and so a lot of our listeners are going to relate to that, too. It's almost, like, cute when we're like, oh, wow, you really. Okay, cool. I see where you're at. We've got some stuff to learn, but let's move on.

Stacia: Because they come to us after. They come to us after they've already tried it. And it's so sad. I'm like, I wish I could have saved you from that moment. Um, sometimes learn the hard way. We talked about it earlier.

Kira La Forgia: I had a client that scanned Grant Cardone's team playbook to me in Slack, and I was like, this is wonderful. I'm so glad that there's blank pages where there was a prompt that said, what work needs done in your business? Like, okay, like, let's. Let's, uh. She's like, like, this is how I want to base my entire strategy. And I'm like, this has no information in it.

Stacia: Like, and you hired me as the professional.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah. So obviously that workbook didn't do much for you at that. However many days you were walking on fire or whatever the hell people do with these things. But, like, sure, let's bring it back around to, like, how you're gonna let this generalized thing fuel your strategy. And there was illegal stuff, and that's all I'm saying, stuff in there that I don't know if it was coming from her brain that she put in or. But the advisory that if she was using this as a cornerstone for her strategy, it was so misaligned that it almost was impossible to create any materials that were making her happy. So there's, like, weird standards that are set, and that's my thing. Like, we want to be. We want to have discretion. We want to have integrity. And you're probably dealing with that on every level. So how do you stay grounded in integrity and real results when you're kind of faced with like, like you said you could scale anything, so you could decide to scale some bullshit.

Stacia: Yeah, I would never. Yeah, I fired people so quick. My fastest was three weeks. There's no amount of money. So, I mean, look, in the marketing industry, like, I came from, not in marketing, but I worked for Hilton and Marriott. A lot of my employees come from, like, large corporate. One of my newest media buyers just came from Amazon. Uh, we have people who work, worked for the Boston Red Sox, et cetera. We're fed up. They see the inner workings of these huge companies and you are forced as an employee to do your job at any cost to provide results. So performance marketing can be incredibly toxic. It's incredibly toxic. It constantly goes past your values. You're belittled by people who think that they know better or clients or, you know, large corporations that want to return. Um, and you can't say no because it's your job. So when I started the agency, it was incredibly important to me to create a safe space where we have a deep responsibility as media buyers. We can create global trends, we can build companies, we can build industries. Right. So that comes with a deep responsibility. And I don't want to be doing it and my team doesn't want to be doing it to line the pockets of part of my French, like, CEO douchebags. Hm. We want to be doing it for people who are making a difference. And that's why I've had, I mean, incredible, uh, longevity in all of my employees because they're like, hey, like, I feel valued. Like, hey, we're doing good work. Hey, I want to show up and I want to put my 110 in because the outcome our client gets, they're celebrating that with, with us, and they're treating us like a human, as part of their team. So, um, yeah, I, I'm very quick to fire clients that don't align with my core values.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, I think that's, that's also just like, such a good lesson because if we do clear out the things that could potentially hold us back or misaligned, that will create space for new. And I feel like that's just a lesson I'm constantly being taught over and over and over again. It goes back to our boundaries discussion. It goes back to, like, your fuel to build a basically competitor for your agency, Utiliz AI. One thing that when we were talking, we're, we're discussing a little bit before the call around, like, the ethics around the utilization of AI, and you were just talking about how you can create global market trends. And I was thinking about all these AI influencers that we're seeing now, and you can like look at their content and see like probably their political viewpoint of whoever's behind it and realizing these aren't real people, like, and people are being influenced by them. With hundreds of thousands of followers, they're saying messages that, that are kind of like. I think it's, I think it's like more of a high level, like top of funnel. Attract a person that would be interested in this and then start feeding them more extreme views. And it's scary as shit. Like, the ethics around it is really scary. So you've obviously embraced AI in a way that has been able to propel your business forward and help you achieve a mission through authority. So how, like, when you're thinking about some of the ways that AI is not really serving our communities and then you're also thinking about how you're basically profiting from the existence of your ability to use AI, which is, there's nothing wrong with it, but it is a fairly straightforward, like, I condone the use of AI perspective. So I'm sure there's some gray area in between that I'd love to explore as a founder of an AI driven company and how you're kind of like, you know, you have so much integrity, you have so much care, you care so much about human first. Like, how do you make sure that you can 100% stand by what you're creating, utilizing AI, while also being so aware of the ethical implications that, that it's causing in our communities and in our job patterns and in our markets and all of that.

Stacia: That is a really important conversation, um, and one I've grappled with because, you know, authority could essentially replace a lot of ads, freelancers. So just full transparency. Like the goal of the company is to ensure you have a reliable platform that you can use as a business owner, that you do not need to rely on a human. And so I grappled with that, that for a really long time. Um, but as a founder myself, there was nothing better for me as a young hungry entrepreneur with pretty much no money to be able to learn and do something myself like that was freeing. And so the age of AI, I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's, it's. We're at the precipice of a point in our lives, like the birth of the Internet, where this is going to completely change the way that we live. But I also think there's a deep responsibility similar to media buying for anybody who utilizes AI to do so responsibly. Um, that's why I will formally endorse Claude and Anthropic's mission. Um, just AI sustainability and ethics and things like that. But truly we have a deep responsibility. Um, I think it's very difficult when AI has set out to replace creative jobs, um, graphic design, video editing, things like that. I think it's really easy for people to be duped right now as well. Like those videos you're mentioning on social media. I also think that there is a gold rush of AI so there's so much innovation and I don't think we've really seen the end use case for AI. Like I would say we're in the tinkering phase of AI right now. So it's helping us like write pitch decks faster or it's helping us like create social media graphics faster right now. Or you know, in other instances it's replacing complete departments uh, at corporations. So I don't know if we know the exact use case for it yet. Um, and as entrepreneurs utilizing it, I would just really encourage everyone to utilize it for, for good with people in mind. Like if the world and it won't just becomes just like a massive AI slop and people are just sitting back letting AI do the work. Like I don't think we have humanity at that point. So how can we use it to you know, propel forward innovation in a sustainable way? Or give creative entrepreneurs the tools that they couldn't have without thousands of dollars in, in retainers per month. Like how do we give them the tools that they need to succeed and build new businesses and things like that. So uh, yeah, love, hate relationship with AI for sure. But uh, I think it's really on us to utilize it in a way that, that meets our standards, our morals, uh, and our integrity.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, and I think that's a really interesting way to approach also like leadership within the field, not only of marketing in general, but just on entrepreneurship of you know, being an AI founder, all of these things is that if we don't understand that, you know, yes, creating a bunch of content, creating a bunch of materials using AI editing software, blah blah, blah. Yeah, sure, that all sounds really great for those first few months and then people start to recognize it and the standard goes higher and the thing that drives the standard higher could be AI for a while, but eventually it's going to be the human touch that's going to be able to bring things more to the forefront. So it's really about Making our lives, making it a little bit easier for us to elevate the product that we're creating. It's not about changing everything we're doing. It's about how we can make our lives a little bit easier so that we can do more of what's important. And I hear people say, I don't use AI, I don't use ChatGPT, I'm against it, it's ruining, like, it's too much water, blah, blah, blah. And I will stand firmly in the fact that if you're an individual contributor, if you're a small business owner, you should use AI without any type of guilt, especially if it's just for like, help me make a meal plan or something. Because realistically, the people that should have the accountability around the impact of AI on society are the people that make the biggest impact, which are the corporations. So if you're going to hold yourself to a higher standard than a corporation, you are not going to make it through this AI gold rush like you just said. So I think it's okay for us to give each other a little bit of permission to understand we can't solve this, this problem on an individual basis, but we can drive a higher level of ethics and accountability and responsibility while still making sure that we can stay in the game. Because if we don't embrace it, we likely aren't going to be able to stay in the game. And, uh, my job is literally the opposite of AI. We're here for the people, people on purpose. It's literally like, AI probably looks at my podcast and is like, no, thanks.

Stacia: No.

Kira La Forgia: So realistically, like, we have to figure out a way to have a good synthesis between both. Both, because it's not about one thing replacing the other. It only becomes that way if you become a competitor with it. But if you're embracing it and you're, uh, using it as a symbiosis, then nobody's going to lose. Everybody's going to move forward together. So I just feel like there's something really helpful and like, forward thinking about the way that you've created authority to help so many of these brands get in front of so many more people. And being able to leverage it in that way is going to exponentially increase the ability of small companies that can't afford an agency to get in front of more people, which is like the whole fucking point, like, point. Like these little companies that can't afford your services are able to go and still compete in their markets and make a path forward. So.

Stacia: Exactly. And that was so beautifully said. And I think truly, like, the biggest aspect of AI that we can all think about right now is it's allowing us to level the playing field, right? So it's creating opportunity for everyone with an Internet connection, and it's leveling the playing field for business owners. So now, like, luck doesn't matter. Um, your dad's trust fund doesn't matter. We all have the same opportunity right now to be creating the assets and creating the foundation that we need to scale our businesses and to help people. So if we think about it like that, it's a wildly exciting opportunity.

Kira La Forgia: Hm. Yeah. And they can work together. That's what we always say. Like, people and companies can create environments where both people benefit. That's what our clients believe. That's why they hire us. Same thing in this. In, like, kind of this whole AI discussion. Like, these things can work together, but we do have to be responsible, like you said. And nothing is ever gonna. I think that that's the one thing that people get really black and white about is it's like, I believe in this, or I don't believe in this. Like, m. You don't have to believe in anything. Like, it can just be curiosity and exploration for a little while. You're just one person. Like, your chat, your weird chat. GPT questions are not going to be the reason that we have no water better. Like, it's just not. So, like, if it makes. If it saves you 45 minutes and you get to go on a walk with your dogs and your overall health is better and you're bringing more good to the world, then do it. Like, trust me, like, do it. I don't know. I just think it's like, I want to encourage people to embrace things that are scary. And I think especially maybe our listeners that are so focused on, like, the people, human first element. We can't be in opposition to AI. It has to be something that we're leveraging to become better or else we'll never get anywhere. So I don't know. But all that is to say, I know you've worked with, like, a whole bunch of different industry leaders, and before I get into, like, your leadership style and things like that, what have you noticed or maybe even adapted into your own leadership style? You've mentioned you have really long retaining team members, really committed people. You have long retaining clients. Everyone celebrates together. The culture is great. I can speak to that. Um, so with all that said, what have you noticed in the founders that you work with that have made them so successful? Or have prevented them from burning out where other founders have. And how have you also adapted that into your leadership style?

Stacia: That is such a great question. I mean, first and foremost, just give a shit. Like seriously, just care. It's really transparent when founders are in it for ulterior motives, alternate reasons, when they're, when they're one way, um, to their clients and then they're another way to their employees. I mean, I've seen it so many times where you're working with this like world renowned coach and you're like just like in awe to be in their presence, right? And then they turn off the webinar or the zoom where they're like the most inspiring person in the room and they're screaming at people and It's a total 180 switch. So what I've learned in working with high profile people is like, there's always a man behind the curtain. And if you can ensure that the man behind the curtain and the person in the forefront match as closely as possible, they're never going to be 100% accurate, right? Like you're a Persona, you're a face, you're a founder led business. Um, but if you can ensure that those, those people match as closely as possible and their values inwardly are similar to their outward values, um, you can build a really great relationship. So I'm a person that cares a lot. I will give you the shirt off my back. I will, I will do anything, I will treat your business like it's my own. M and that level of care is a lot of energy to exert. So you want to be doing it for the right people. Um, you also want to make sure that you're pouring that energy into the right people on your team side. So when I hire, I hire culture fit first. And I think I really found what a culture fit means by working with you. Because you put such a big emphasis on like, hey, let's create you like a company handbook and like your culture guy. A company culture guide. I'm like, I can have a company, company culture guide. What do you mean? I still use it. I used it like last month.

Kira La Forgia: I love that.

Stacia: It's just so, it's so amazing. And so I'm a big culture hire person. Um, I want to make sure that like we're, we're connected and we're vibing on like a soul level as well. Not to be woo woo or esoteric, but like there are just certain people that you vibe with, you share values, um, you share specific drives. Uh, and there are Others that just show up to clock in, do their job and move on. And so when you're pouring into people that don't give a shit, um, that's when you get burned out. When you're working with people that your values don't align, that's when you get burned out. When you're not trusting the people or the clients that you have in place, that's when you get burned out. And we can talk about self care and all that stuff too, but really surrounding yourself with the right people has been the greatest unlock in my entire business. Mhm.

Kira La Forgia: And I love how you said that because we. I always like, I can never stop yapping about this because I got diagnosed with PTSD from burnout in 2018. And so my experience around burnout isn't like some silly little thing where I'm like, oh, you know, it's whatever. But what I've learned over time is that and what I always try to pour into and I tell my clients about, and it's how we even structure organizations from the inside out, is that that fulfillment is the antidote to burnout. So the more that you can create space where you're being fulfilled, while also the fact that we're creating a team for you, which means your job is now your team. So how can we create a role for you that's sustainable, where you can exert the energy? Like you said, giving a caring about stuff is a lot of energy. And so, uh, creating leadership models where they are fulfilled by the work that they're doing, but they're also putting at the forefront that their job is their team at a certain point. I think you're just a really great example of that because look what you've been able to create by leveraging that time into something that is fulfilling you. Especially when you started to create authority. So I wanted to just like touch on that a little bit because I think burnout just becomes such a topic, especially in, like you mentioned earlier with your client that just got way overwhelmed because the ads were so powerful. So there's a way to have the scalability, uh, the marketing side of the business run concurrently with making sure that you can create a business model that you actually want to run. And it's not just about the work you're doing for your business, but it's also the acceptance or decision that you are going to be a person that leads other people. So when you show up every day, obviously culture is a big thing. Service is a big thing. Has there been any lessons that you've learned as you built your team over the last years that maybe surprised you or have changed preconceived behaviors that you were like, I thought everybody was going to be like this. And then it ended up that I had to adapt a little bit or any of those hard letters, you know, back to the learning the hard way. Um, any lessons that you've learned as you've gone from more solo entrepreneurship things into like a full blown team.

Stacia: Yeah, um, because I. A lot. No, because. Because I am such a giving person. Uh, very early on, informing my team, like the I keep going back to the I'll give my shirt off my back phrase because I would, um. Like, I literally. There was one time in my business where I didn't pay myself for four months and I was sustaining payroll. And like, we all go through that. Um, but, like, that sent me. I was having panic attacks. Like, that amount of responsibility, like, was. Was crazy. But I would do it because I believed in the mission and I believed in the people and I, I loved the people I surrounded myself with. So, um, after that happened, I, similarly to you, was diagnosed, um, with an autoimmune disease from the stress that I put myself through. Like, I have visible, like, skin marks on my body still from that phase of my life because I absorbed all of that stress and I let everybody else not see it. So I was the strong one. I showed up every day to work signing people's paychecks, ensuring that they had food, uh, on their tables for themselves and their families, not letting them see that, like, shit, things are really bad right now. Um, and I didn't let them see any it. And they, they were none the wiser. They had no clue. Um, but after I got sick, I kind of had to talk about it. And they were like, hey, Stacia, you support us. Let us support you. Like, you can take down the armor. Like, being a leader doesn't mean you could never, not show vulnerability. In fact, I think it's more important and more inspiring as a leader to show vulnerability because we're all human, right? We're not going to be 100% all of the time. We go through ebbs and flows. I, I say, you know, I eat shit sandwiches for breakfast some days. You know, um, and being able to show that vulnerability with my team was, was a lesson that I've learned more recently. And nothing bad happened from it. Um, so just being more authentic and, uh, that also attributes to hiring people that you can, you can trust and that you really respect.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah. And I think, like, Especially because your culture is so rooted in, like, mutual respect and valuing each other. Like, it, of course, would be a place where you can also find a soft place to land because that's what you've created. So that's a great way to remind founders to encourage you to bring more vulnerability and humanity into your culture and not just a bunch of lip service about, like, your value statement or whatever. Like, make it real, make it easy for you to lead, because it's a real reflection of how you want to be led yourself. And then all of a sudden, you start to realize that some of our biggest teachers are the people that we're paying in the first place. And that's how it should be. So I love that. It was so beautiful. Um, okay, now everyone needs to sign up for authority. So can we talk? We've already talked about the four clicks and together this campaign, but let's talk about what the experience of, of somebody is that is going to go and click the show notes and get into authority and be like, yes, I'm so excited for what this can do for my visibility. What does it feel like? What does it look like? What should they plan for? Like, how much time we talk in? Like, give us the experience.

Stacia: Oh, my God. So you can run the same ads that I would run for you inside of my agency for $2,500 a month minimum in, I don't know, I set up an ad in less than 60 seconds, and you swap it out however often you want. We have people that have been running the exact same lead ads for three months. So 60 seconds to run three lead ads and get hundreds, if not thousands of people into your CRM, into your funnels, is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. So, um, we built the platform around three core ad optimizations to grow your following on Instagram. I mean, unfortunately, higher follower counts do influence buyer behavior. So anybody who's looking for more visibility, more followers, more super top of funnel people into your ecosystem, brand awareness. It's great for influencers who need a certain amount of followers before they can get contracts. Um, follower growth is an ad style that I run with every, every single one of my clients. So that is one of the most popular ad styles on authority. Second is DM ads. Let's say you are a relatively new business or you're not a tech savvy business and you don't have a website or a landing page that doesn't need to stop you from getting clients. So you can send people straight to your DMS for Service requests for, you know, a manychat opt in if they want a PDF from you. So DM ads are actually a dark horse of ad styles. Lately not a lot of people utilize them so there's not a ton of competition and they're performing really well. We've had clients selling $10,000 high ticket masterminds out of their DMs and never sending people to a landing page or a website. So DM ads are great. And then last but not least, the most powerful ad style that every service based business should be running is a lead ad. So essentially a lead ad is you giving a piece of information in exchange for first party data, typically a name and an email address. There is nothing in marketing more powerful than collecting first party data because at the end of the day we're relying on third party platforms and third party pixels that could go away at any moment. So psa, collect as many email addresses as you possibly can. Get people into your funnels, stock up your CRM. You can do that right from Authority. So the actual interface uses organic posts that you've already created. Created. You know your customer best. So if you've ever boosted a post, authority is as easy as that, but way more powerful because we're actually using Meta Business Manager, advanced targeting AI optimizations. Um, so if, if you ever boosted a post and you're like, ads don't work for me, they weren't meant to, they were meant to have a quick cash grab and to give you some vanity metrics. But where you're going to get real results, people buying from you, people giving you their email addresses is through Ads Manager. But it's too complicated. So what we've done is created authority as a four click ad platform that makes running real Ads Manager ads as easy as a boost, but as effective as an ads agency. So literally you click your organic post, you select your audience that I've spent so many weekends creating, you set your budget it and you click run my ad. Uh, and the platform does everything for you in the background, gives you a beautiful analytics dashboard, uh, and routes you, roots you on along the way.

Kira La Forgia: I have access to a demo and I just have to say Stacia, like the way that you have described this has never. I mean obviously you're a professional marketer, but you can tell that there's so much understanding of your ideal customer avatar behind it. Because of course in my mind I'm like, yeah, this is a really, really cool tool. I can't wait to use it and try it out and like, see what I can leverage. But really talking to you about it and hearing the possibilities and uh, like really how you've explained it, it actually makes me really excited to start getting myself in front of different types of people. So I'm excited to share with my audience how I leverage it and I'll show everybody online like what I'm doing and basically just making sure that we can get this in front of more people. And I know that you know, you own an ads agency and it's doing really well and so you have a killer team and that is all very, very functional. But I think this is a great kind of starting point. Would it be fair to say that at a certain point you will kind of grow out of authority and then that's when they should maybe be contacting you for a little bit more high touch, like high, I don't know, like a little bit more high touch support. What would that point be?

Stacia: I would say if you're around 750 to a million dollars in revenue per year, you do need a professional ads team. Um, especially if you, if you have more than one offer. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes in the ad platform. Um, and authority does a great job with those three ad styles. Uh, and it's a optimizations and things like that. But it's not the personal touch that you're going to get from an ads team where you can bounce marketing ideas off of or like, hey, if your funnel's not working, can you take a look at my landing page? It's not doing that. So I would say when, yeah, you're 7:50 to a million, you should probably have a professional ads team. And uh, I'd be more than happy to discuss working with people as well. Um, but really, authority, like the, the same ads that we run on authority, like we run for our clients who are doing 10 million a year. So these ad styles are for any business size. We have somebody on there who's literally just trying to become like a DIY influencer. And she was running follower growth ads on Authority got sponsored by Wayfair because they saw one of her ads in the wild. So like it's a. Ads are life changing. And don't be afraid. You can start small for as low as $5 a day. Literally, like I can. I can't even buy a cup of coffee for that price anymore.

Kira La Forgia: M. With inflation, God forbid you want like any type of milk.

Stacia: Oat milk, Forget about it. $10, you're done.

Kira La Forgia: I can't believe I'm like at the age where I'm complaining about my like, cost of my daily coffee, it's really embarrassing.

Stacia: Yeah.

Kira La Forgia: It feels so tangible and it just feels so exciting. And I think that that's one thing I've always really admired about you and why I wanted you to be the guest for this season of our podcast, is that it's fun. Business can be fun, it can be exciting and it can be like, oh my gosh, look how much money we're making. But also like, look at this impact that we can make and like how excited you are to talk about the people that are using the platform. And like, that actually makes me like want to go and can find those people and like be able to support them and like, you know, kind of get into like the ground level because that's what we're all trying to do in the first place, like make a little bit of a difference here and there. So I think it's really cool that you're able to do that.

Stacia: We all just want a shot, you know, we all just want a shot.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah.

Stacia: If this can level the playing field and give you that shot, so be it. This is. That's awesome.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, I think it helps too because there's so many businesses that are going to have to adapt and so this will give us like really solid insight on like our pretty of concept and if it's still usable in this market. So I feel like this is a great way to get a lot of high level data really quickly and it sounds like it's presented in a way that's super easy to understand too.

Stacia: It's really pretty, I'm not gonna lie.

Kira La Forgia: Um, so the last thing that I want to leave you with is that you talk a lot about. I think it was like full funnel omni channel marketing content concepts. So I know that we have mostly talked about one form of marketing today, so like the paid media and things like that, but even you just tapped into it a little bit, talking about that transition. When people do use authority to the point to scale their business that level where they need a little bit more high touch support, I'm, um, imagining that's when we really want to make sure that everything in our business is working as effectively as our ads. So when you say full funnel omnichannel, we are still talking about like some of those basic functions. Building our email list and having the know like trust factor and having a solid ideal client avatar. What else are we thinking about when we're growing towards this type of uniform approach or what Are people missing when they get to that point where you're like, well, I bet every single business is missing this part of this or this channel or this platform or something like that.

Stacia: So the easiest way to look at this is just to meet your customer exactly where they, they are. Um, people get afraid of sending too much information, like, oh no, I sent like three emails this week. Or like, oh no, I, I posted, you know, twice today on Instagram. M shouldn't do that. Just meet your customer wherever they are because we are all busy. So I'm not opening every single email that comes into my inbox. I'm not seeing every single social media post that's on my chronological feed, uh, or in my algorithm. I'm not reading every single text unfortunately that comes through my phone. Sorry friends, um, I'm not seeing everything. So just meet your customer where they are. Email, organic social media, SMS marketing, if possible, paid advertising. So it's in their face. I mean, Google Ads, if you're using Gmail, there's an ad style that can give you a sponsored ad as like the top placement in Gmail. So when you're thinking about omnichannel marketing, we're really just creating a universe in someone's mind where you exist. So it's pretty simple when you boil it down to just meeting your customer wherever they are.

Kira La Forgia: And I think that the metric that comes up here is, I've heard that it previously, we had to see something eight times or something before we would take action. We don't even realize that we've seen it eight times. It's like the eighth time we click it. But now hasn't that number have I heard correctly that that number has just skyrocketed? Like people need to see something 23 times or something like that? I don't remember.

Stacia: It's at least triple. Um, and that's just because of the information overload culture, quick instant gratification culture that we're in. I mean TikTok is training us to swipe to swipe for like three seconds. So anything that you put in the first three seconds of your video better be good for people to stop and scroll. But we've been conditioned to be an instant gratification swipe culture. I mean even Tinder like those things. Thank God I've never had to use a dating app. I met my husband 15 years ago and good old fashioned restaurant.

Kira La Forgia: But hey, listen, I just got divorced after 15 years and I went on the dating apps and we could talk about this offline. But I don't have a boyfriend now, so everything's gonna be fine. You met a new one when I was obviously in the same situation. Like I was married. Well, you guys are like so cute it hurts. But um, I feel like there was. That kind of thing is exactly what came kept coming into play on the apps because I'd see the same people over and over again and then eventually I'd be like, like, well, yeah, I mean, I guess they're fine.

Stacia: Yeah, you know, wear me down.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, like I guess enough. So yeah. Now this time I noticed this thing. So fine, fine, fine. You know, But I think that's how it's designed. Like we aren't really supposed to opt in with a big Hell yes at the first time we ever see anything. So our goal as a business is really to. For marketing our businesses to be as many places as we can that our people are showing up to. And a lot of that's online. And I think there's probably some in person opportunities, but I can't imagine they're as impactful as online ones. I don't know.

Stacia: No, I mean a billboard or like an ad in your local diner newspaper. But truly like the reason why repetition works is it be. It's because it creates safety. Mhm. So from a psychological standpoint, like I see the same thing every day in my home and my home feels safe. So if I see the same thing that I like, I don't have disdain towards. Right. It can't be like an overwhelming ad where I'm like, get this out. Because like, yeah, uh, I can't see another freaking Tide commercial in my life. I. I now boycott the company Tide because they show up every single time I watch Netflix. Can't stand it. But repetition creates psychological safety. So remember that the next time you think you're annoying, you're not. Your. Your customer likely has not opened the email that you sent yesterday. Um, there's. There's what? Our standard open rates now like anywhere from 25 to 40%. So the majority of your audience has not opened your email. So act accordingly and know that repetition creates psychological safety.

Kira La Forgia: Dang, I thought that was going to be like a really quick like. Yeah, no, you gotta. People gotta see it 24 times. You better get out there. But like now we have this like great new topic talking about psychological safety and marketing. Um, well, st. I just can't like explain how grateful I am that you came on. Like I said, we're only doing one, maybe two interviews. Interviews for this season of people on purpose. And I think that it's really important that we're highlighting founders that are doing cool new things, but are also rooted in the values that I think a lot of our listeners have. So I'm just thankful that you took the time and I know that we're going to share all of your information in our show notes. But if somebody were to just, like, want to reach out and like, chit chat, or they were interested in your agency or even they were just curious more of your perspectives on marketing, how would they best reach you and then where it's actually going to get to you? Because I know we all have our preferred, preferred methods, so I love it.

Stacia: Instagram or email is great for me. So Authority I.O. is, uh, our business. Instagram. You can reach me there. I'm in the DMS. Uh, or just shoot me an email. Stacia, switchitupdesigns.com.

Kira La Forgia: perfect.

Stacia: I'm around. Come to me, omnichannel. Maybe a DM and an email.

Kira La Forgia: Yeah, honestly, like, I like that. If. If I see you a few times, you're safe now. I will respond.

Stacia: Exactly.

Kira La Forgia: That was so great to have you. Thank you so much.

Stacia: Thank you so much, Kira. You're brilliant. Uh, and I couldn't be more grateful to be here and spending time with you and your audience. Thank you. Yay.

Kira La Forgia: And we'll see you guys all back here next week. And don't forget to leave me a review so that people know I exist. Okay, bye.