Episode #46: Taylor Francois

Welcome to the Mavens of Marketing, a weekly podcast hosted by me, Rachel Durkin. And me, Keri Barrett. We talk all things marketing, innovation, sales, and business growth strategies, and the standard tried and true marketing techniques. Come for the conversation, stay for the savvy insights.

And the borderline inappropriate jokes. hello hello everyone and welcome to this episode of the mavens of marketing i am one half of your co-hosting duo rachel jerkin you might wonder why i'm doing the intro today and it's because carrie is a hot mess but she still looks good anyway well i mean it's it's it's there's nothing on my face today it's just a nice solid filter but my my voice so i'm going to keep my speaking to minimum today. I'm going to watch and learn for the most part.

That's a lot of pressure because if I have to carry this show, it is going to go to shit real fast. But luckily we have an amazing guest. So I feel confident in her ability to hold us together. So Taylor Francois, did I say that right?

You did. Oh, look at me. All right. He's joining us and we were so excited to have you on today.

Taylor, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah, thanks for having me. So I am a multi seven figure business strategist and marketing expert. So I help people bring their products and services to the forefront, get sales and market.

And my jam is doing so without spending any money on ads. And when I was reading a lot about your bio, I saw some really interesting things because clearly you have a lot of knowledge of all these new and up and coming when they're not new anymore, but social platforms. So what is your, and you mentioned you work with product and B2B services. So do you feel like there's some platforms that are better suited for certain industries or certain sectors?

Yeah. So I think that determining the platform is really all about where your audience is. It's not about the product or the service, and it's not about your like or dislike of the platform. It's all about where are the people hanging out that you want to buy from you.

And so that's the biggest factor. Does that mean that you ignore the other platforms or do you have a presence there as well? So I tell clients that it's a good idea to think about having presence on three platforms. Okay.

And then sort of being picky and choosy about which three those are. And then from there, not focusing on the rest because it's just too much. You'll be spread too thin. So three max is good.

And you mentioned, or I collected this idea that from your bio that you have a secret sauce to selling on these platforms without paying for advertising. So is there a secret sauce and what is it? Yeah. Well, one of the, you know, one of the things is learning how to sort of collect your people.

And I think that's one of the areas that most people are receiving an F in marketing with. So they engage with people on a platform, they get a like, they get a comment, and then they want to say, let's get married, aka let's buy something. Are you going to buy it? When are you going to buy it?

And then the people say, a little too fast. I don't know if I'm ready for all that. And then they say, okay, moving on to the next person. I'll circle back with this person in a few weeks.

There was no collecting of the person, putting them in a place for them to be nurtured while you taught and educated them about why they need your products and your services and why your products and services are better than anything else in the market. And so often people skip that step. Now that housing, it can take place on an app that you have. That housing can take place in a group that you have.

That housing can take many different forms, but it's not skipping that step. That's the important factor. I always think of that housing as like a download tool or something that gets them into your email list. For me, it's all about the email list, but it sounds like housing can be a lot of different things.

Yeah. So you can get people onto your email list and we're always wanting to build that, right? Because it's the only thing we freaking own, but how do we still stay in touch with the people? How are we still staying in their face on a regular basis?

And it's not going to necessarily be the email list because, you know, they get many different emails. And so that's when I find the differentiating factor being this housing platform of sorts or place to have community. So, you know, that that's my thought, but I know people do it different ways. When you're talking about community, are you, are you speaking?

So I, I am, I create courses. um sorry we'll edit that out I have a question I must ask you is that community is it is it social media posts is it like a Facebook group is it what what do you when you're talking about collecting them and then building a community that nurtures them and teaches them are there I mean are there best practices for that or how do you know where you should do that how do you create that yeah so So for some people who want to really own their platform and community, that'll mean creating an app and creating a community on an app.

So they download your thing, then you take them to the app. And then there's all of this plethora of info that's happening there. Okay. For some people, it'll be a Facebook group and people download a thing.

They get something free. Now they come to the group and then they're nurtured and taught on a daily, weekly basis. I happen to love Facebook groups, but it's also because I know the magic sauce for growing them viral very fast. So we have six Facebook groups.

Everyone who's in any of our programs, part of the rule is you build a Facebook group and we grow them at about 20,000 every three to six months, 20,000 people every three to six months in each group. And there is a secret formula for doing that. But I find that that works fantastic. People say Facebook is dead, Facebook groups are dead and they're wrong.

When you say secrets, does that mean you not gonna give it to us Well there so many here the funny thing There so many nuances to it right So I tell you this I have someone who is in a course of mine and was in my Facebook group building course. Right. And I happened to be checking my messages as I was picking up my, you know, three kids from the carpool pickup line. And here she is on the message.

And she said, well, you know, the group grew by 300. And then I just did this. And I immediately got on the phone and I said, why did you do that? Don't do that.

And she's like, well, I didn't know. And I said, well, like, go back and listen to the module where I said, don't do that. So she immediately, she immediately undid it. And then the next morning, her group grew by another 300 people.

So my point is, there's no secret sauce that I'm going to be able to give you all right here, because there are so many little pieces that have to go together to make it work. And if there weren't, then everyone who had a Facebook group would have a really badass group, and they don't. So I guess the key is first finding the community, figuring out what's the community piece. So what do people really want?

I think a lot of people go wrong because they make it all about their program. It'll be like, it's Taylor's group, it's Carrie's group. It's like, Well, that's great. But like, what are they here for?

What's the transformation that they want? The group should be some theme around that. And then building that group fast is key, right? Because you'll see a lot of people who have groups and they build really slowly.

And there's 100 people and 200 people. And the problem with that is, if any of us are going to call ourselves the expert in something, the expert in skincare products, well, why the heck is it that only 75 other people in the world believe that you're an expert in skincare products? Why the hell would I join that group? It's like social proof.

It's truth, right? When, if I'm going to somebody who says they're an expert, I'm like, I want to see that other people have validated that. I don't want to go to the restaurant that nobody's at. I want to go to the one with the line.

Right. Yeah. Right. And that's what happens.

And so it's really interesting because when you build the group, I call it like the 30 day effect. As far as I'm concerned, you've got 30 days to build this thing by at least, at least a thousand people. If you're going to have any chance at stickability, otherwise forget about it because everyone that's coming in is going to be surveying and saying like, why is no one else here? Yeah.

Anybody else here? I'm leaving. We've got a sprint in the beginning to get some credibility. Yeah.

Well, is there some, so obviously we all heard the rules on the type of content you should to be posting. And I'm with you 100% on knowing your community and making them focused. But from a medium of content, you know, you were mentioning earlier before we started interviewing the reels as an example and talking about TikTok. So I'm going to have to imagine that video is at the top of that list of media that we should be leveraging.

It is so good. It is so, so good. Like now is the time to be on video. Video is everywhere.

You know, Facebook Reels just became a thing that was released to everybody, you know, recently. It's huge. So getting on the video train right now is something that I think people can't afford to wait on. It's where we're going.

Every single algorithm is prioritizing it over any type of stagnant content. It is what it is. So if you want to create momentum, that's what you're doing. We're even seeing on the paid ad front that the videos are doing better than any other stagnant content as well.

So is that, does that work? Let's say, let's say you have like a high, a high dollar ticket or a high dollar item. Does the same process and methods work for, let's say, you know, that versus a, I don't know, $500 course or $1,000 course. Is it similar?

It is. It is. Because the same things that need to be inside of the video content to make it work are the same across the board. And from a client perspective, we've got clients who sell $99 products all the way to multiple five figures.

In fact, we sell a six-figure coaching program all the way down to a $2,500 course. And all of those things, even the six figure, uh, had been sold with video. Now, granted the six figure was sold with video on LinkedIn, but it was still sold with a video. Yeah.

And so how do you handle it? And Carrie, maybe you can wait on this, but Taylor, how do you handle it when your client sucks at video? So, you know, what can you do if you're not experienced in video to be able to leverage all of these amazing strategies? Yeah.

So I think it's one of those things where you just jump in, just go skinny dip and just jump in. It is what it is. You know, you've got to just do it. And I always tell the story about the very first time that I ever went live.

So I was going live. I had it all planned out I have four kids who at the time were all under the age of what were they they were all under the age of five okay I do my first live and so I'm planning I'm going to do this when everyone's at nap time you know I do the makeup the hair it's all great it's like this is going to be a good video I then proceed to start recording the video and then I hear people screaming waking up you know stomping on the crib and I'm just like well I'd already told my group I was going to go live.

So I'm going to go live because people are waiting. So I locked my bedroom door. I locked my master bathroom door. And I literally stood in a bathtub, no joke, with my window behind me.

And I said, I'm going live. Here's what it is. I'm a mom. I've got four kids under the age of five.

It is what it is. My hair looked better than this, you know, about an hour ago, but here we are. And I'll tell you, even though we've gone viral across all video video platforms That video got the most views and the most reactions and comments of any video I ever done in my life And what that tells me is that people do not care about the perfection They just want you to go live They want to see the human part of you. They want to see how you're relatable and they just want you to do it.

Yeah. And, you know, now even on TikToks, I'll go live without like any makeup on. And before it was like, I would never do that. But now I don't care because I know that, right?

Yeah. Because I know that what I'm giving is so good. Like who cares what I look like? You know, this is not a beauty contest.

This is the contents that good. Then how do you take, so I 100% agree with you. I teach video and I, in fact, am creating a course right now for course creators about shooting their course themselves, you know, the whole nine yards. We should talk outside of this, but how then do you take those likes and comments and shares or whatever and actually turn them into how do you sell to them or how do you bring them into that?

What is the next step in that process? So good. Now, it all comes down to making sure that all the content has a purpose from the jump. So it will come down to actually knowing what the heck it is that you're promoting 60 days from now, 30 days from now.

And so many people, you will get on their, you know, TikToks or their whatevers, and you'll see like, this is some random content. Like, what exactly do you do? What do you sell? Yeah, you're pretty, but like, what else?

Right? And you have no idea what's happening. And so what I do is I tell people, come up with your 60-day content calendar. And then from there, know when you're going to have a sale, when you're going to have a masterclass, when you're going to be, you know, opening enrollment for whatever.

And what we do is we create weekly content that educates people to understand why you need to be at the masterclass, why you need to buy the thing, why you want to get the, you know, coupon. And so then by the time the four weeks or whatever's passed and we're at that date, they get it. They're very well-educated. They buy fast.

They buy often. They share it with their friends. There's no more convincing because they get it. So then what happens is when people comment and they like, then we're able to direct them.

Oh yeah. To find out more about this, make sure you sign up for the masterclass. Oh, to find out more about this, you know, stay tuned. Here's the wait list.

We've got a coupon coming for a class. That's going to teach you all about it. And just kind of directing them there. And it's about creating breadcrumbs of conversation, right?

So Carrie, you mentioned this on another podcast we were doing where you were talking about how you'll put a poll up. And if somebody answers one question, one way, you'll DM them like some resource. Yeah. Exactly.

Question that way. Then I, yeah. But I think it's about connecting those dots beyond one, two, three, but keeping it going consistently. Is that, Is that what you're getting at, Taylor?

Oh, yeah. So much so. And for all the entrepreneurs who've been in the game for a while, those of us who've kind of achieved some of those important milestones along the way that at the beginning we thought we could never achieve are kind of in a position now where we're not kind of doing this chasing the customer thing anymore. Like we don't have to do that.

And so it makes it really effortless to be able to have those conversations where there really is no pressure. Like none on your side, none on the side of the person. And it's just a conversation, as you said, that continues, just like, you know, sitting down for a drink, just continuing the convo. I think that that's such a nice place to be because it's so authentic and people like the lead magnet and they want to indulge and they want to find out more instead of being scared to talk to you.

So this is a question that I've struggled with a lot in the life of this podcast, as I talk to different people, and I always try to kind of bring it back to this concept is in social media, especially because video is going to be so important and being authentic and going live and everything you said, I'm with you. How do you then, or can you still delineate between a personal and a company brand when you're a small business? Because as I say that I spent years trying to make the company, not about Rachel, but about other people.

So I'm not the face of it and it can run without me. So for business owners who want to transition into that world where the company's running without them, is that possible with this method? So good. Yeah, it is.

And so one of the ways that I kind of handle that is maybe, well, not maybe. So for sure, two times a week, there will be something that's me kind of centric as the coach, as the strategist, as whatever, the owner of the company. And then everything else is teaching that maybe I'll have clips of my students teaching or talking about or someone else who's in the company or something else. Because like you said, if you ever want to be in a position to, you know, sell the company or something and it can't all be revolved around you.

That's kind of how I handle it. I kind of pull myself back a bit from it. And maybe even with some of the videos that I do, it'll be like something about like my desk, my room, my whatever, and like less of my face all the time. So that's something that I'm also working on, but it's important for sure.

We spend a lot of time, you know, we have a lot of account managers who are obviously client facing, and we spend a lot of time trying to promote them and their videos and their tips. And it might even be a situation where I'm writing the content and then I'm feeding it because they're busy. They've got other things to do, but I want others to be the face of the concept that is paradigm and not me. And don't get me wrong.

Personal branding is so important for some businesses, but there's others that are trying to get away from it. So I think it's important to understand that you can have a social strategy and you can have these breadcrumbs and you can have lives, but you can diversify the face of the company and still be successful. And I think that's something that often gets missed. How do you feel about that?

Yeah, no, I love it. I think it true So you know I a partner in four different you know business enterprises Two of them are very different than the others And I've been able to scale and sell businesses before. And it's something that I intend to do with all of my businesses at a point, right? So implementing the strategy that you talked about, and the majority of them is really important.

And so, you know, fun fact, I've got four TikTok accounts for those different businesses. One of them is a me-centric account because people have gotten to know my personality and that's worth something and some respect, right? And so for people who want to contact me about book deals and speaking and this and those sorts of things, well, that's what that account does. So that's all about me.

Even after I sell companies, I'll still be doing that stuff. But everything else should be diversified, like you said. So I love that. Good point.

Speaking of TikTok, do you feel that if you're a B2B marketplace, TikTok is where you should be? I think that there's certainly space to be had on TikTok if you do B2B because there are not a lot of people doing B2B on TikTok and yet it's kind of an interesting place because not everyone who has a TikTok account is posting but they sure are going in the rabbit hole indulging in the videos and next thing you know that one 30 second video turns into two hours on the platform So I think it would, you know, I wouldn't miss out on TikTok if I was doing B2B.

I'd be there. And because video is such an important thing across all platforms right now, our ability to repurpose the content is easier now than ever. If you can just get the watermark taken off or you can tape it outside of the platform and upload it into the three different, you know, video platforms, why not? Let me ask you a follow-up question to that, because it's one of the things that I know people struggle with.

I agree with you. I think there's 100% there's space there for B2B. What sorts of content are you putting up on TikTok? Because when the average consumer or perhaps even business owner thinks of TikTok, they may think of, unless they're educated on it, somebody dancing in a crop top.

Like that's sort of the image that TikTok had anyway, when it really first exploded onto the scene, which was at the beginning of the pandemic. It existed before then, but that's when it was like the celebrities started getting involved and it grew. Is it the same as Reels? Is it different?

I mean, the audience skews a little bit younger. How do you approach that? It, you know, there's this thing where, yeah, overall it may skew younger, but there are over 200 million people that are over the age of 30 on the platform. So, you know, I think that that's a pretty big number.

In terms of the content, I think it's important to have two types, evergreen content that teaches about your business, always going to be good. And then trending content. If you can't get away from it, if you're on a platform that has trends and you want to get some viral action, you've got to kind of ride the wave. But turning those dances and the lip syncing and the whatever the heck else you're doing into something that pertains to your business and is a teaching moment disguised as a trendy moment is important.

it's like the whole surprise and delight factor. Like if wherever you are on social media, if you're doing like, you know, just a graphic promoting an event, you're not going to surprise nor delight people. And you probably won't get a ton of traction. Should you always keep that?

Like sort of, it needs to be educational. It needs to be entertaining and it needs to be, there was another E I forget what it was. We got two of the three you're doing fine. today.

Is that right? Do I have a general idea? So I don't know if you're thinking evergreen, but yeah, it should, it should, it should be those things. It should be those things.

And like, like I love the trending content. What's important is maybe it's not like the trending dance that you do or the trending lip sync, but like having the music that's trending is going to make your otherwise blah educational content ride the way that it could not ride by itself with just your voiceover. Yeah. Music goes a long way.

Taylor, this is amazing. Thank you so much for your time, but we're coming up on our time allocated. So we're going to ask you the question that we ask every guest, which is what is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you? What was the weirdest thing?

So a couple of weeks ago, I was taking my twins to a birthday party and I met this, you know, dad there. And then I, one morning was working out of my gym at what was it like five o'clock in the morning? Oh my God. Just like barely had my hair up, look like, I don't know, I just got out of a trash can.

And the person who was in the gym, the only other person was the dad. And I was like, oh my God. Oh, that's the worst. That was so embarrassing.

And then he was standing next to me when I dropped my kids off in the morning. And I was like, hopefully I'm unrecognizable. So yeah, one of the weirdest things. Just put a bag over your head.

I have done something similar myself where it's excruciating, but it's authentic. The only thing you were missing was a video camera. I've been like, this just happened. I love it.

Taylor, it was amazing to talk to you. I'm sorry. I apologize for my voice today, but thank you for joining us for this episode of the Mavens of Marketing. We're fantastic.

Great. Thanks for having me. And Taylor, where can our guests learn more about you? Yeah.

So you can go to our Instagram account. So at official underscore coach T and you can send a DM and we'll tell you about any free upcoming trainings that we've got going on. And always nice to connect. and to our amazing audience.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Mavens of Marketing. We'll see you back here next week. Same time and same place. And Carrie will be better medicated.